First, thanks to the Docs for what they're doing here! This is great!
on to the problem: lately I have been having pain/soreness at the base of the big toe on my right foot after walking barefoot. Running doesn't seem to cause any discomfort, but after walking around for a few minutes the base of my big toe gets really sore and then it spreads across my forefoot as the rest of my foot compensates (or at least this is my interpretation of what happens). the end result is most of my forefoot winds up sore, with a particuarly sore spot at the big toe.
some details:
- the pain feels like it is on the top of my foot
- taking advil seems to relieve the pain/soreness in the rest of the forefoot, but walking around still causes pain at the big toe and eventually makes the entire forefoot sore.
- I did stub my toe pretty bad July 31st on a tree root. I have lowered my running mileage but haven't gone to "complete" rest (I've still been running a couple times a week, usually around 3 miles per session). The forefoot has been slightly sore since a weekend I wore my VFFs around a lot (they don't fit properly and squeeze my toes/forefoot badly), but it seems to be worse since the stubbing.
- the area does not hurt to the touch and there is no apparent swelling.
- the pain at the big toe and across the forefoot is gone or reduced when walking in my trail gloves at work. I have gone an entire day with no pain, but once I take my shoes off when i get home the toe starts hurting again.
- if I squeeze my foot by putting pressure on the sides of the foot right behind the ball I get some pain all the way across the forefoot (this isn't the case with my left foot)
- there is no pain in the area while running.
- soreness at the base of toes 2-4 tends to flare up when lifting my toes (dorsiflexing I think its called?)
- the whole ball of my foot feels like it needs to be stretched and gets stiff when rested (sitting for morethan 5 minutes or while sleeping), which leads to a few minutes of soreness when i get up.
- I've been barefoot for almsot a year now and haven't worn anything more built up than my trail glvoes since february
It's frustrating because I can go out and run and have no discomfort whatsoever, but then after a half hour of walking around the house my foot gets super sore. My marathon training cycle starts up in December, so I am hoping to catch/fix this before the cycle starts. I hope that's enough info to get a picture of my next step. Thank you so much for your time!
EDIT: I tried to resize the photos to a more manageable size but no dice.
on to the problem: lately I have been having pain/soreness at the base of the big toe on my right foot after walking barefoot. Running doesn't seem to cause any discomfort, but after walking around for a few minutes the base of my big toe gets really sore and then it spreads across my forefoot as the rest of my foot compensates (or at least this is my interpretation of what happens). the end result is most of my forefoot winds up sore, with a particuarly sore spot at the big toe.
some details:
- the pain feels like it is on the top of my foot
- taking advil seems to relieve the pain/soreness in the rest of the forefoot, but walking around still causes pain at the big toe and eventually makes the entire forefoot sore.
- I did stub my toe pretty bad July 31st on a tree root. I have lowered my running mileage but haven't gone to "complete" rest (I've still been running a couple times a week, usually around 3 miles per session). The forefoot has been slightly sore since a weekend I wore my VFFs around a lot (they don't fit properly and squeeze my toes/forefoot badly), but it seems to be worse since the stubbing.
- the area does not hurt to the touch and there is no apparent swelling.
- the pain at the big toe and across the forefoot is gone or reduced when walking in my trail gloves at work. I have gone an entire day with no pain, but once I take my shoes off when i get home the toe starts hurting again.
- if I squeeze my foot by putting pressure on the sides of the foot right behind the ball I get some pain all the way across the forefoot (this isn't the case with my left foot)
- there is no pain in the area while running.
- soreness at the base of toes 2-4 tends to flare up when lifting my toes (dorsiflexing I think its called?)
- the whole ball of my foot feels like it needs to be stretched and gets stiff when rested (sitting for morethan 5 minutes or while sleeping), which leads to a few minutes of soreness when i get up.
- I've been barefoot for almsot a year now and haven't worn anything more built up than my trail glvoes since february
It's frustrating because I can go out and run and have no discomfort whatsoever, but then after a half hour of walking around the house my foot gets super sore. My marathon training cycle starts up in December, so I am hoping to catch/fix this before the cycle starts. I hope that's enough info to get a picture of my next step. Thank you so much for your time!
EDIT: I tried to resize the photos to a more manageable size but no dice.
I tend to lift my toes a lot when I walk and I actually seem to push off a bit with the right foot, so that sounds like half my problem right there. I think you're right on about the running stride vs. walking stride too. I consciously try to relax my feet when I run and these days I don't lift my toes as much as I used to, so that could be why it hurts less to run than it does to walk (never thought I would say that!).
