Oh, where to start? Shoes give me pain! Ahhh, there we go.
I come from a family of successful cross country runners, who I have watched get injured over the years: stress fractures, back pain, a torn meniscus, and my own personal torn ankle ligaments. I left for college last fall and was so excited to trail run in the Blue Ridge Mountains. But as a heel striker in clunky, heavy heeled road running shoes, I rolled my ankles frequently. Over winter break, my family told me that maybe I just wasn’t “born to run” (even though both of them had read McDougall’s book!) I refused and worked on changing my heel strike to a forefoot, still in my clunky running shoes. I did 5 min. run, 2 min. walk for 45 minutes. And for the whole next week I was on the floor writhing in calf pain. Talk about TMTS and being ill-informed on proper form. So I gave up on changing my strike.
First day back to school from winter break and I started the semester off right with a trail run, promptly followed by a roll of the ankle so bad that I actually face planted on some gravel and tore up my hands and legs. My ankle was so swollen I could no longer see my ankle bone, which is saying a lot because I’m a pretty boney person. I went to a doctor (not a pod or a PT) and he told me to stop running all together and just stick to swimming and biking. So I did, but I also started running/walking on the treadmill and gradually built up my running time to about 45 minutes over 6 weeks, pain free but still heel striking.
Once I returned home, I went to another doctor who sent me to a PT, where I learned to art of balance and learned that I have hypermobility in many of my joints. So I strengthened and stretched and balanced and did so many single legged heel raises that I was glaring at my PT-ist.
And then I decided to actually read Born to Run for myself and became a changed woman! I read it in two days, and before I even finished it, I went on my first barefoot run. I ran on the inside of my community track, which is a turf field. I walked a quarter mile, ran a quarter, until I ran and walked one mile each. And I did this all after running a mile on the track (with shoes) working on my forefoot strike. Before I even got home, I could already feel that my calves were sore. That night I did my first exploration on the web for barefoot running and was shocked at all the information! I was totally stoked and realized that I may finally be able to run and enjoy it. The next day I was sooo sore, but did some form exercises like jump rope and knee raises and some running in place. My next barefoot venture was 3 days after my first run, and I went back to the track and repeated my run/walk routine, but just for one mile combined. I then ran one mile completely barefoot on the inside of the track. I got some blisters and worked on lifting my feet, not pushing. Later that day I did some intensive online research on BF form and transitioning to barefoot running and I came up with a plan from Jason’s site. (barefootuniversity.com)
But some background on my barefoot history. I’ve always been a bit of a flower child and loved going around barefoot at school (much to the distaste of my teachers) and a ton of barefoot hiking. Plus I’m a lifeguard so I’m barefoot all day at work. I am indeed proud of my tough soles. I figured I could just as well skip all the walking a few yards barefoot to adjust to the feeling of earth beneath my feet.
For my second week of barefoot running, I decided to scale back after learning about all the acronyms of BFR like TMTS and TOFP. I ran 1 mile barefoot on the track. Two days later I ran 1 and a quarter miles on the track BF. I developed more blisters, and unfortunately, some pain in my 4th met on my right foot. This also requires some back story (so sorry if this long post is boring). Back in the 10th grade I fractured my 4th met during a soccer game, kicking an offender in the shin in a face to face ball scramble (very exciting). I got a medical shoe (not a boot) with a rigid sole. And then around 6 weeks later was declared healed, with a bump of bone mass on my foot that ached whenever it rained. Skip ahead a year and a half, on an afternoon following a morning 6k (yes, it was not a 5k, but a 6k) I fractured my 4th met again while doing the Electric Slide at a Senior Citizen prom, in flip flops. Shoulda been barefoot! Feeling the exact pain from before, I skipped the doctor’s visit, dug the good ol’ recovery shoe out of the attic, and limped around for a month until I decided that it was healed.
Fast forward two and half more years and you have me here now: starting to run barefoot and totally excited. But this a couple mornings ago, I found myself discouraged by some pain in the exact spot where I fractured my foot twice before. Now, I’m hoping this is because of all the rain we’ve been getting here. It doesn’t hurt to touch and press and move around. But it hurts when I walk and when I run in place. I did some googling and looked at a ton of BRS forums on stress fractures. Could this be the origin of a stress fracture? How can I keep injuring this same metatarsal when it is supposed to be getting stronger each time I break it? I’m at a loss and I am looking to y’all for some advice. (And I’d like to avoid the doctors as much as possible, since they have generally told me to stop running all together in the first place.) Meanwhile I’ve stopped running and once again I am only swimming and biking.
So that’s my story, long and full of fluff that I’m sure y’all found extremely interesting. (Just trying to give a complete picture here
) I’ve been reading the forums and have found myself totally wrapped up in the discussion and would like to join in! I’m so thrilled to find a helpful and supportive running community!
I come from a family of successful cross country runners, who I have watched get injured over the years: stress fractures, back pain, a torn meniscus, and my own personal torn ankle ligaments. I left for college last fall and was so excited to trail run in the Blue Ridge Mountains. But as a heel striker in clunky, heavy heeled road running shoes, I rolled my ankles frequently. Over winter break, my family told me that maybe I just wasn’t “born to run” (even though both of them had read McDougall’s book!) I refused and worked on changing my heel strike to a forefoot, still in my clunky running shoes. I did 5 min. run, 2 min. walk for 45 minutes. And for the whole next week I was on the floor writhing in calf pain. Talk about TMTS and being ill-informed on proper form. So I gave up on changing my strike.
First day back to school from winter break and I started the semester off right with a trail run, promptly followed by a roll of the ankle so bad that I actually face planted on some gravel and tore up my hands and legs. My ankle was so swollen I could no longer see my ankle bone, which is saying a lot because I’m a pretty boney person. I went to a doctor (not a pod or a PT) and he told me to stop running all together and just stick to swimming and biking. So I did, but I also started running/walking on the treadmill and gradually built up my running time to about 45 minutes over 6 weeks, pain free but still heel striking.
Once I returned home, I went to another doctor who sent me to a PT, where I learned to art of balance and learned that I have hypermobility in many of my joints. So I strengthened and stretched and balanced and did so many single legged heel raises that I was glaring at my PT-ist.
And then I decided to actually read Born to Run for myself and became a changed woman! I read it in two days, and before I even finished it, I went on my first barefoot run. I ran on the inside of my community track, which is a turf field. I walked a quarter mile, ran a quarter, until I ran and walked one mile each. And I did this all after running a mile on the track (with shoes) working on my forefoot strike. Before I even got home, I could already feel that my calves were sore. That night I did my first exploration on the web for barefoot running and was shocked at all the information! I was totally stoked and realized that I may finally be able to run and enjoy it. The next day I was sooo sore, but did some form exercises like jump rope and knee raises and some running in place. My next barefoot venture was 3 days after my first run, and I went back to the track and repeated my run/walk routine, but just for one mile combined. I then ran one mile completely barefoot on the inside of the track. I got some blisters and worked on lifting my feet, not pushing. Later that day I did some intensive online research on BF form and transitioning to barefoot running and I came up with a plan from Jason’s site. (barefootuniversity.com)
But some background on my barefoot history. I’ve always been a bit of a flower child and loved going around barefoot at school (much to the distaste of my teachers) and a ton of barefoot hiking. Plus I’m a lifeguard so I’m barefoot all day at work. I am indeed proud of my tough soles. I figured I could just as well skip all the walking a few yards barefoot to adjust to the feeling of earth beneath my feet.
For my second week of barefoot running, I decided to scale back after learning about all the acronyms of BFR like TMTS and TOFP. I ran 1 mile barefoot on the track. Two days later I ran 1 and a quarter miles on the track BF. I developed more blisters, and unfortunately, some pain in my 4th met on my right foot. This also requires some back story (so sorry if this long post is boring). Back in the 10th grade I fractured my 4th met during a soccer game, kicking an offender in the shin in a face to face ball scramble (very exciting). I got a medical shoe (not a boot) with a rigid sole. And then around 6 weeks later was declared healed, with a bump of bone mass on my foot that ached whenever it rained. Skip ahead a year and a half, on an afternoon following a morning 6k (yes, it was not a 5k, but a 6k) I fractured my 4th met again while doing the Electric Slide at a Senior Citizen prom, in flip flops. Shoulda been barefoot! Feeling the exact pain from before, I skipped the doctor’s visit, dug the good ol’ recovery shoe out of the attic, and limped around for a month until I decided that it was healed.
Fast forward two and half more years and you have me here now: starting to run barefoot and totally excited. But this a couple mornings ago, I found myself discouraged by some pain in the exact spot where I fractured my foot twice before. Now, I’m hoping this is because of all the rain we’ve been getting here. It doesn’t hurt to touch and press and move around. But it hurts when I walk and when I run in place. I did some googling and looked at a ton of BRS forums on stress fractures. Could this be the origin of a stress fracture? How can I keep injuring this same metatarsal when it is supposed to be getting stronger each time I break it? I’m at a loss and I am looking to y’all for some advice. (And I’d like to avoid the doctors as much as possible, since they have generally told me to stop running all together in the first place.) Meanwhile I’ve stopped running and once again I am only swimming and biking.
So that’s my story, long and full of fluff that I’m sure y’all found extremely interesting. (Just trying to give a complete picture here
