Post Tibial Tendonitis??

[Joseph]

I am having a bit of ankle discomfort and wondering what you guys think.

About 8 weeks ago I bought VFFs to incorporate into my workouts. I was having shinsplints and knee pain and thought running more minimal would help. Well, it did. After about two weeks of running 2 or so miles in VFFs about 3 times a week, I felt so good that I figured I would just switch over to the VFFs full time. That, of course, was BEFORE I found this wonderful forum with all the great information. So my first week in VFFs I ran a 4 miler and felt pretty good. Day off, and then I ran a 6 miler at my fastest pace ever... Well the next day my ankle felt really, really sore... It faded quite a bit by my next run two days later of 4 miles, but hurt after that one as well. I figured I was doing something wrong, so decided to rest it, and that is about when I found this website and realized that my mistake was probably TMTS in the VFFs. At the time, I thought running in VFFs was comparable to BFR and I had just read Born to Run and thought my feet would be telling me if I was overdoing it... I now know that there is a BIG difference between the two...

So a couple weeks ago I started BFR. Yay! But I am still a little troubled by my ankle. It is sore to the touch right above the ball of the inner ankle (left leg). There is also some discomfort below the ball of the inside of my ankle, but not superficial pain, and not all the way down to the arch. It's hard to describe it as "painful", but definitely a bit uncomfortable. I noticed today that my ankle was slightly swollen as well. Does that sound like Post Tib Tendonitis? Can I still run with that? I am only up to 2 mile runs BF 3 - 4 times a week at a pretty slow pace. No other issues. My second run I had a very minor blister on the ball of my foot, but other than that it has been great. The ankle has not bothered me otherwise...

Today I iced it and took Ibuprofen. I was thinking about taking a full week off... sound about right?

Thanks a bunch!

 

[txtenderfoot]

 My non-expert advice would

My non-expert advice would be to ramp up anti-inflammatories in your diet. Olive oil, pineapple, turmeric, green and black teas, and sardines, if you can handle them. If you can get your hands on a copy of the June 2010 issue (#66) of Trail Runner magazine, there was a good article on this on page 38. Hopefully, some of the experts on "manipulative therapies" that frequent this site will weigh in. I wish you a speedy recovery and pain-free running soon!

 

[paraganek]

Sounds similar to what I had

Sounds similar to what I had a couple months ago (thanks to BFR it is gone now). Has your ankle ever been "clicking" when walking or running ?

 

[Joseph]

 Thanks for the responses...

Thanks for the responses... There is no clicking or other weirdness with the ankle, just some discomfort. I noticed today that it wasn't really bothering me while moving, but more when I was standing in one spot. I am a baker right now and there is a lot of running around and a lot of standing in one spot. Again, not really anything I would define as "pain", just discomfort, like it was tweaked a bit.

It may be still slightly swollen, but not much. Could just be the discomfort of unworked tendons actually getting worked...growing pains. I think just to be safe, I'll rest it for a few more days and then check it out. I did not know they were anti-inflammatory type foods, but I consume almost all of those items regularly...

Any other input is appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[Humboldt-explorer]

Well I'd say you concluded

Well I'd say you concluded the root of the problem on your own. My recommendation would be to rest from running for now. Give it a 10 day rest from running, and being easy on it. Then reevaluate if you need more rest time to heal. Otherwise you can keep running, and it will not heal or get worse. If it is swollen use ice for now, and some ibuprofin. This is your body talking to you. Let it be a learning lesson, rest, and heal. If you have some conventional shoes still it may help to go back to wearing them for a few days. This will take some stress off of the foot with the added cushion underneath. The ankle needs rest, but likely your feet could probably use it as well. Since you did TMTS.......

After it heals start over from the beginning. Just my two cents. Being new to this, and wearing conventional shoes your whole life. The ankle/feet need plently of time to slowly adapt. As you now know.....Good luck with however you decide to handle this one. A minor set back if you handle it correctly.

 

[Barefoot Mary]

When I did too much too soon

When I did too much too soon I iced in the morning, iced at night, and kept off for 10 days (long enough to stop limping when I went faster than a very delicate walk)

Hope you feel better soon!!!

 

[Joseph]

 Thanks for the advice. I

Thanks for the advice. I wish I had found this forum a couple weeks before I heard about the VFFs and went for it...

I'm going to go ahead and rest it for at least the 10 days, and then take it slower. I am just itching to GO!! But I need to listen to what is going on and not overdo it. It is very minor right now, best not to try and push it and have it turn into something bigger.

I do still have my running shoes and will try wearing those for a few days - at work anyway.

Thanks again.

 

[Humboldt-explorer]

I certainly can relate to

I certainly can relate to wanting to get at it. The time will pass quickly trust me. Take care of your body for now. You will be rewarded at a later time if you do things properly next time. I would encourage you to read the link below from top to bottom. It's a pretty good plan to get you started safely. Mine as well use the down time to research things some more. I've visted the VFF forums in the past. That VFF crew is very prone to injury I noticed. People just don't realize how weak our feet are from years of a shod lifestyle. This journey is a slow process.....your not alone and folks are here to support each others concerns/questions. It's all about the journey not the destination. Roll with it.

http://www.barefootrunners.org/build2/story/barefoot-running-101-how-get-started-thrive-jason-robillard

 

[Joseph]

Hey Humboldt... Thanks for

Hey Humboldt... Thanks for the kind words and sound advice. So I wore my old running shoes (they have about 200 miles on them) at work yesterday and did not have any issues at all. No discomfort of any kind for a 10 hour shift, so good call I think. I was glad that the shoes worked, but it got me thinking about my dependance on such things as shoes... I actually got a bit pissed off that my feet are so accustomed to being in shoes with all the support and such that I have to build up their strength before doing something as natural as jogging barefoot. I have not worn those running shoes in about 6 weeks and let me tell you, I could definitely feel all the cushioning and support that they provide, more so than ever before. They actually felt really good and got me comparing shoe companies to drug dealers... It's crazy to think about.

Anyway, no discomfort yesterday and the swelling is pretty much gone. I'm off for the next three days and just plan on relaxing. I'm going to wait until Tuesday, which is usually the beginning of my running week, and try to go for a short, easy jog. I read the link you suggested and I think I actually started the true BF running slowly enough, it's just that I had this lingering discomfort from that VFF run... Hopefully this will be the end of it!!



Thanks again to all that responded. This forum is awesome - I'm glad to be a part of it!!

 

[Barefoot Mary]

Good to hear you're feeling

Good to hear you're feeling better already!

Dude, I work in a bakery too!!!!! But I do catering. Still...running around at work all day sounds about right. :lol:

While my feet were growing & sore I hated wearing my trainers, it was like I'd lost a battle or something. But it also felt gooooood not to feel my feet, which was strange, and sad. Because I like feeling things with my feet.

 

[ajb422]

 This sounds pretty much

This sounds pretty much identical to what I dealt with for quite some time. I'm going to be super lazy and copy and paste something I wrote on a different thread. The only thing I'll add is that since I wrote that I did two bf treadmill runs and one shod run (cold and I don't own cold weather minimal shoes) and it actually was nearly better. I still felt something but it didn't hurt just felt not quite right.

One thing I found that made it worse was if I spent any amount of time walking in regular shoes it increased the pain alot. Oddly enough I could run in my nike frees, but walking in them was brutal. I wore nothing but huaraches, zems and some super thin ballet type flats for quite some time and went around barefoot as much as possible. I've now been able to walk in my old old (like 6 years) new balances that are pretty much completely worn out and probably I could handle walking in my frees again too although I haven't tried lately.

I found that doing ankle stretching exercises helped. I tried to write the alphabet with my toes at least three times a day and this reduced some of the pain. I also thought that standing up on your toes holding for a few seconds and lowering down helped.

Honestly I haven't found rest to be helpful at all. I had taken a few days off here and there to try and let it have extra time and not only did my right ankle not get better but I developed it in my left after an extra long break period.

Then I got a stress reaction that put me mostly out of running. Between the run that I hurt myself on and a trial run there was 6 days of nothing but crosstraining a couple days of all rest. My foot felt pretty ok on the run but both my ankles felt the exact same as they did before the rest. Because this caused my stress reaction to be sore again I took another 6 days off and tried another run and the same thing, foot ok but sore the next day, ankles as if I hadn't given them any rest at all. Its been another week since I ran but because I'm in michigan and am not used to the cold anymore I haven't had a chance to run and see if I'm healed from either of them. In a few days I'll try a dreadmill run and see about the ankle as well as the foot.

Most of the suggestions I found about these types of issues were if there is actual pain don't run. If there is just alittle discomfort go ahead and run but stop as soon as it progresses to pain. So that is pretty much the philosophy I've followed. I'm chalking this one up to a random growing pain not an injury and just dealing with it until it goes away (well once I start running again).

 

[kentox]

This is very familiar as I

This is very familiar as I write this with my ankle on a cushion elevated on ice. I'm only missing compression and I'd have a great RICE recipe I stand all day as I work in retail so I ice in the morning try and rest it if possible but not likely during the day and then ice for the rest of the night before bed. I do ankle exercises and write the alphabet with my big toe 3-4 times a day or second day. I also use a foam roller to stretch out the calf muscles to relive any tension that could also put pressure on the ankle.

I'm hoping to give it 10 days to 2 weeks for the swelling to go back to a normal ankle. I didn't rest it properbly in December and was ictching to get back to running and only gave it a week and there was a reduction in swelling but not fully recovered. Not much pain and felt fine and carried on extending my long runs even at a slow pace. All was going well until this Tuesday I went for a long run after standing all day at work and I knew i had overdid it while I was running but it was too late as I need to get home by my own two feet. Next day, swollen and sore. What a idiot I felt. Not even a full month and I was right back to injury time again.

Just wanted to share my story so you don't repeat it. I know you want to go out and keep running as I do but I really don't want to revisit this injury again. So rest for the maximum amount of time you need and then start back slowly barefoot and use the VFF's to walk in but run barefoot. I use Terra Plana's Aqua Leather shoes for work and have taken out the innersole so my feet can have a workout while I'm at work. My feet might take longer to recover because I'm not resting during the day but I'm really hoping that they heal stronger.

If your worried that you will lose all of your cardio/weight loss gains maybe add some cross training,bike riding,rowing machine,walking,water running,weight training for the next couple of weeks and keep up the routine so you don't get depressed and loose all of your hard work. Also maybe read up on running form from CHI to POSE so that might help prevent possible future injuries.

I really hope you recover fast and be out there running with the sun on your back and your and your bare feet feeling fancy free



TL;DR Rest for as long as you need. Cross train so you don't loose your fitness. Read up about form to prevent further injuries.

 

[Smelph]

I had a similar thing in

I had a similar thing in early december when I went from running 5ks barefoot to running 5 miles bare or in my VFFs. my ankles got super sore to the point where I couldn't really run. definitely a case of TMTS as my ankles weren't ready for that kind of abuse.

what I did in order to keep running was first I took a few days off to rest and then ran in normal shoes (for some cushining/supprt while my ankles recovered) for a couple weeks, and then I eased BF and VFF back in over the last couple weeks (started with just a mile or two and built from there every other day) and everything has been fine. I'm back up to 40 minute (about 3.5 miles) BFR and the ankles feel stronger than ever.

 

[Joseph]

 Man I am itchin' to GO!! My

Man I am itchin' to GO!! My ankle feels great. My wife thinks it is still slightly swollen, but I cannot tell...(she may just be trying to help me not go too soon...she knows me well.) But I will wait until Tuesday like I originally planned. Sigh... Still icing it a couple times a day and will probably continue icing for a month or so... Hopefully this will be the end of it.

Thanks again everyone!!