Sores on my foot after longer runs

[barefootmetalman]

Ok, sorry if this question may have already been answered before, but I tried searching the forums and was not able to find anything else regarding my problem.

Anyway, whenever I go on longer runs, I tend to get a "wear spot" around my fifth metatarsal. Lately I have also been getting an abrasion on my first met...both of these seem to really only occur on my right foot. They generally heal pretty quick...well, they heal enough that it doesn't hurt to do another long run...until after the run and my feet, but I can tell the wear spot is always still "thinner" than the skin on the rest of my pad. My last run was a 12 miler on Sunday and it was pretty chilly out. I think my phone said it was 19F and 16MPH wind, so not sure what the wind chill was, but it was cold! Anyway, when I got done with my run, I looked at my feet and they didn't look too bad, there was a little bit of blood which usually doesn't happen (but has happened before by the 5th met during my 1/2 marathon training). When I cleaned them up, I could tell that I was basically missing a piece of skin by the 5th met. The 1st met only looked scraped up, but it hurt pretty good and it did bleed a little bit too (which has NEVER happened before). Anyway, I'm sure it probably has something to do with my form, but I have no clue what I might be doing wrong.

One other tidbit...from what I remember, it never really started happening until I started running in the kinda colder weather. The first time I noticed the wear spot on my 5th was during a 13.5 miler and I remember it was in Oct. and in the 30s that morning. Not sure if it is related to the cold weather or maybe I somehow changed my form around the same time. If it is related to the weather, why doesn't it happen to my left foot? Oh, and I think it is usually worse whenever I run by myself since I am usually going "faster" than when I run with my partner. My last run on Sunday was about a 9:16/mile pace (http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/jXJ5XzHUy_U). Also, happens both on paved roads (varying roughness) and on generally smoother sidewalks (which my last run was mostly on sidewalks...about 1/2 mile each direction on pavement).

Anyway, below are some pics of my feet:

Right foot...showing wear spot and abrasion. Shiny/cracked areas may look that way since I did put some liquid bandage & Superglue over the sores which helped the pain since it covered "exposed nerves", but I did try to remove it before I took the pics.

Right foot showing the skin gone from the wear spot.

Left foot for comparison. As you can see, there is a "bruise" or something there, but it doesn't bother and the skin is not worn there. Also slight abrasion on 1st met, but not bad and doesn't really bother me any.

BTW, there is also a callous/blister around the 2nd met...could that be a Morton's Toe thing? I think it looks like my 2nd met is longer than my first.

 

[barefootmetalman]

 Oh yeah...also, as you can

Oh yeah...also, as you can see on the pic of my right foot above, there is wear on my toes too. Esp. the middle toe. I definitely try to concentrate on "lifting" my feet and not pushing off. I have not videoed myself, but I do not feel like I am pushing off any.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

It does look like your right

It does look like your right foot and left foot have the same wear patterns, that is areas of the 1st and 5th metatarsals. If you are not pushing off, could you be grinding in? Also, have you experienced any of these marks when running in weather above freezing? Perhaps you do push off or grind in when you cannot feel the ground as well as you should be able to, since it's below freezing.

 

[Humboldt-explorer]

It looks like you are

It looks like you are favoring your right foot. Do you go to a gym ? Have you ever tested each leg independently ? To see if one feels stronger then the other. I guessing your left leg is weaker, and your not on purpose using your right leg more. Possibly putting more pressure on it as you land. Also contact with the ground should be fairly limited. Feet landing, and springing back up quickly. How is your cadence ? good ?. I assume you have eased your way up to this distance, and you don't have any TMTS injury correct ? Do you ever use pumice stone, and moistureizer in evening to maintain skin health on bottom of feet ? Outside of these long runs a more regular basis......

 

[GeorgesRun]

Road camber might account for

Road camber might account for some of the differences between feet in wear pattern, especially if your sidewalks are also sloped. From your discription, I was thinking you might have been doing what I used to do, which was overstriding (my feet landed too far forward, instead of under my center of gravity & I was pushing off instead of lifting my feet quickly), but your pictures don't look like the cheese-grater effect that I had. Hope some others can be more helpful!

g.

 

[barefootmetalman]

TJ, not 100% sure on the

TJ, not 100% sure on the weather issue. The main time I notice it is when it is colder outside, so that may be an issue. The first time was on 4 Oct. and it was in the mid 30's, but my first early morning "cold" run. I don't usually get much wear on a shorter (4 or so mile) run. And, normally the wear is such that after my long run on Sun. I am able to do a short run on Tues. and then an indoor track run on Thurs. and be 100% ready for my Sunday run. I think I over-did it around New Years Eve/Day though since I did my indoor BF run on 30 Dec, a bf 5K beer run in 20+F weather on 31 Dec., a 5K in VFFs on Jan 1. and then my 10 mile long run on Sunday Jan 2. After that, I never fully "recovered" before my long run on Sun. 9 Jan. which as I mentioned was pretty cold that day. I am pretty sure I'm not grinding in. Is there anything you can recommend I try if it is a cold weather related issue? I'd like to get this figured out before it warms up since that won't be for a while.

Humboldt, I am pretty sure I do have a muscle imbalance since when I was younger, I had knee surgery on my left knee. My leg shriveled up pretty bad and when I did start lifting weights again, I didn't do a lot to even out the strength. I do know my left leg is still slightly "smaller" than my right and even in my upperbody, I am stronger on right than left. I do try to maintain a 180+ cadence. I actually had a pedometer running on my phone during that last long run, but it errorred after about 4 miles and I never did restart it, so after the first 4 miles, I couldn't tell you what my cadence was, but if it was lower than 180, i'm sure not by much. I do use some lotion on my feet (http://www.miracleofaloe.com/Miracle-Foot-Repair-8oz/productinfo/140/) after I had some severe cracking at the crease of my big toe by 1st met, but I do not use pumice stone. How does pumice stone help and how should I use it? I have worked my way up to the mileage. I ran a 1/2 marathon in Oct. and most of my runs since then were 4-6 mile range, but gradually increased back up to the 12 miles. I did a 10 the weekend before, 9 before that and 8 before that with 4-6 mile runs during the weeks.

GeorgesRun, I don't think my sidewalks are cambered any. I noticed the street camber when I ran in the streets, but I'm avoiding the streets in the extreme cold since I want to run faster to stay warm and thus keep my feet warm and also to get my runs done faster. I'm pretty sure I don't overstride. My steps are fairly short and I try to keep my feet under my body and maintain a decent knee bend. One of the things I noticed when I run on rougher sidewalk and when my skin is already slightly worn is after my mid-foot strike, my feet kinda roll off the heel (slight touch) to the ball, I can feel the "grind" on those areas. I do not think I am actually pushing off, but rolling more toward the ball of my foot before I lift. Should I be doing that? I was thinking about things some the other day and I thought, maybe if i had more knee bend, I could avoid rolling up on the ball of my foot more? Does that sound right? should I try that?

Thank You for your input. Any additional ideas are greatly welcome.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Just make sure your feet are

Just make sure your feet are mega toasty before you go out for a run. If you're in the car, point your car's heater to the floor. Other than that, I would bring some socks on dry days, just in case you feel it during the run.

 

[barefootmetalman]

 Ok, that sounds good. I

Ok, that sounds good. I usually run from home and like to just get out the door and run, but I will try to warm my feet up first and see if that helps. I usually carry my VFFs with me too, but even on my last run where I was actually "missing" a piece of skin at the end, I couldn't tell that my feet were getting worn. My feet felt completely fine...until they started to warm up after I got home. On that last run, when I was going into the wind my feet and esp. my toes started to get cold, but since I was just wearing some knit gloves, my fingers were colder, so I used my VFFs...but on my hands. After I slipped my hands into the VFFs, my fingers felt alot better since the VFFs blocked the wind.

 

[Danjo]

I'm hoping you ran through

I'm hoping you ran through some grass as opposed to having some crazy foot disease that discolors your skin.

I think your problem may be caused by a mix of things. If you couldn't feel the pain on your feet until they warmed up, then they probably weren't warm enough during your run. Try jogging around your house a bit before you go out (sounds crazy I know, but hey, we're barefoot runners, we do crazy stuff.) And if you aren't already wearing pants, start, it'll help to get the warmth down to your feet.

My other thought is that it sounds like you might be thinking about your feet too much. For as far as you're running I wouldn't think that would be a problem anymore, but maybe you're just slightly over-thinking things. Just let your feet do what they do, and make adjustments to the rest of your body as needed. If you start trying to make your feet move in any particular way, it will most likely just mess up what they are naturally designed to do.

 

[Humboldt-explorer]

barefootmetalman wrote:TJ,

TJ, not 100% sure on the weather issue. The main time I notice it is when it is colder outside, so that may be an issue. The first time was on 4 Oct. and it was in the mid 30's, but my first early morning "cold" run. I don't usually get much wear on a shorter (4 or so mile) run. And, normally the wear is such that after my long run on Sun. I am able to do a short run on Tues. and then an indoor track run on Thurs. and be 100% ready for my Sunday run. I think I over-did it around New Years Eve/Day though since I did my indoor BF run on 30 Dec, a bf 5K beer run in 20+F weather on 31 Dec., a 5K in VFFs on Jan 1. and then my 10 mile long run on Sunday Jan 2. After that, I never fully "recovered" before my long run on Sun. 9 Jan. which as I mentioned was pretty cold that day. I am pretty sure I'm not grinding in. Is there anything you can recommend I try if it is a cold weather related issue? I'd like to get this figured out before it warms up since that won't be for a while.

Humboldt, I am pretty sure I do have a muscle imbalance since when I was younger, I had knee surgery on my left knee. My leg shriveled up pretty bad and when I did start lifting weights again, I didn't do a lot to even out the strength. I do know my left leg is still slightly "smaller" than my right and even in my upperbody, I am stronger on right than left. I do try to maintain a 180+ cadence. I actually had a pedometer running on my phone during that last long run, but it errorred after about 4 miles and I never did restart it, so after the first 4 miles, I couldn't tell you what my cadence was, but if it was lower than 180, i'm sure not by much. I do use some lotion on my feet (http://www.miracleofaloe.com/Miracle-Foot-Repair-8oz/productinfo/140/) after I had some severe cracking at the crease of my big toe by 1st met, but I do not use pumice stone. How does pumice stone help and how should I use it? I have worked my way up to the mileage. I ran a 1/2 marathon in Oct. and most of my runs since then were 4-6 mile range, but gradually increased back up to the 12 miles. I did a 10 the weekend before, 9 before that and 8 before that with 4-6 mile runs during the weeks.

GeorgesRun, I don't think my sidewalks are cambered any. I noticed the street camber when I ran in the streets, but I'm avoiding the streets in the extreme cold since I want to run faster to stay warm and thus keep my feet warm and also to get my runs done faster. I'm pretty sure I don't overstride. My steps are fairly short and I try to keep my feet under my body and maintain a decent knee bend. One of the things I noticed when I run on rougher sidewalk and when my skin is already slightly worn is after my mid-foot strike, my feet kinda roll off the heel (slight touch) to the ball, I can feel the "grind" on those areas. I do not think I am actually pushing off, but rolling more toward the ball of my foot before I lift. Should I be doing that? I was thinking about things some the other day and I thought, maybe if i had more knee bend, I could avoid rolling up on the ball of my foot more? Does that sound right? should I try that?

Thank You for your input. Any additional ideas are greatly welcome.

I think that leg imbalance is probably effecting you more then you realize.

The combination of the lotion, and pumice stone is a good habit to get into. The biggest reason I feel is you get in the habit of inspecting your soles to see how they look. Your sole can tell you a lot about how your treating your feet. It is important to take care of your skin as well.

When feet crack, peel, get rough, etc. The pumice stone will help to smooth out the skin. Kind of like using sand paper on wood. You really want your skin to be smooth even as a BF runner. I'm always so surprised how nice the skin looks on the bottom of my feet. They may look worn after a run, but that is where your skin maintenace comes into play. use lotion at night, and let your feet sit. This will let lotion soak into pores on skin. Pumice before lotion to smooth things out.

I think you may have some form issues. Need to address your leg muscle imbalances. Be more persistent with skin care on the bottom of your feet. This is just my opinion though based on your pics, and info you provided. To be fair the bottoms of our feet can tell us a lot. We just need to know how to interpret the information......