Friday, November 11, 2011

Feet. Toes. A question.

I consider myself fairly body aware, in terms of how I'm feeling during a workout. I can usually tell my heart rate within a few bpm, and I'll know a run time to less than a minute either way. But every now and then, something sneaks up on me.

When I bought the most recent pair of shoes I noticed that the middle pad of my left foot seemed a bit tender. I just assumed it was getting used to new padding in the shoe, or that the padding was a fraction thicker than in the old shoe. My shoes are quiet loosely laced. Since then I've noticed my left toes do not like being curled down towards the sole of my foot. I nearly shrieked one night at yoga when we were doing the roll the toes under the foot thing because I hadn't expected it to hurt that much.

It doesn't bother me to bike or run. I can put all my weight on that foot, even raising my heel and standing on the balls of my feet, though if I go high enough the left starts to complain about it. I can poke quite hard at various places on the middle pad of my foot, and I would describe the sensation as uncomfortable or tender, but not as shooting pain.

Before my run today I spent a bit of time warming up my ankle and foot, exploring what ached, and the limits of motion. I found it hurts more on the top of my foot, right here.



Sorry if I've set off anyone with a foot fetish there. That toe and the next smaller one are very sensitive right there. There's a few sensitive spots further up the foot as well. Has anyone ever had this sort of thing? Any suggestions as to what it might be? I figured as long as I could run and bike, and there wasn't any actual pain, it couldn't be anything too serious. I thought maybe I'd strained something. But it's been a while without improvement, so I think the time has come to start doing something about it.

As I said, before my run I warmed up my ankles and feet much more than usual, and stretched a bit. I started easy and fell into the groove fairly quickly. It was nice out for running, maybe 4 or 5 C (40 F) and I ran my C shaped route out to Anderson and Wood something. It's 5.5 K. Running easy, mid zone 3 or so, but not working too hard, it was 34 minutes out, and 36 minutes back, running a bit easier as I got sloppier. Lots of thinking about form during the last part of the run. I'd get into the groove for a little bit, and fall out again. Much of the time my feet and legs felt light and happy.

All that was after a busy morning. My brother and I had arranged a FaceTime chat since he just got a new iPad. That part worked just fine. Our friend Vicky showed up during the call to drive out to the Millarville Art Market with Linda. My phone rang during the chat, and I ignored it, but it turned out to be the furnace guy. We asked them to come over to check out some fan vibration. He was phoning to see if he could come earlier, and he ended up arriving at the same time as Vicky. So I ended up cutting my call with my brother short. We'll have to try that again.

Turns out the brand new furnace has a fan that is out of balance and they have to replace it. The first time it fired up with the guy there he was shaking his head, saying it was noisier than it should be, and I was telling him this was quiet. So that has to get done when the part comes in next week.

Since I'd already had to set up FaceTime I spent part of the afternoon going in and updating software, and playing with settings to better reflect what I'm doing with my iStuff. I'm trying to fix a problem with Mail logging out on my main computer whenever I check my mail on the iPad or iPhone.

Dinner was a simple affair, pasta and wine. Yes. We are settled in for the evening, waiting for it to start snowing. Tomorrow we don't have to go anywhere.

10 comments:

  1. That is the same spot where my stress fracture was...

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  2. No idea on the foot issue. Hope it heals soon. So not ready for snow here, but I know it could hit any time.

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  3. Could also be the beginnings of arthritis.....

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  4. J. Which is why I asked. But you had an event that did it, and so far, I haven't come up with an actual event.

    No snow yet. I'm a bit surprised. No doubt it is trying to catch us unawares or something.

    BR, that's an unhappy thought. I sure hope not.

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  5. Eek! The toes would be an usual starting point, wouldn't it?

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  6. I knocked one of the plates off center on the ball of my foot once, and it felt like I was walking on a piece of gravel before I got it straightened out. I have also had top of toe, top of foot hurts when I push too far with my foot exercises. I have actually paid for 30 minutes with a massage therapist to straighten out my feet, and I have had very few problems since then.

    Question for you: When you run, do you find yourself kicking off from the ball of your foot, or putting strain on your toes? Maybe your shoes are changing your foot position and it is causing some strain.

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  7. I try not to push off the ball of my foot, but rather lift up the whole foot at once, and use hip flexors and core to drive my legs forward. I know the shoes make a difference. The last pair of shoes tended to make me run on my heels, which I hated.

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  8. Yeah, I am not an expert, just someone who has had a ton of foot problems in my life due to extremely high arches (we are talking plantar fasciitis when I was 8).

    There is such a crazy mishmash of tendons and things in the foot right there, my first thought is that one of the tendons is strained, tight, or a little out of place. Have you tried giving yourself a foot massage? Like in the arch/ball/heel and then the top... It could be nothing more than my last foot problems which was actually a small abrasion in one of the muscles in my feet (massaged it out, no more arch pain).

    If that isn't working, then get some help, don't put it off!

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  9. No idea on the foot... most of my foot pain is related to wearing high heels. I am sure that isn't your problem.

    Your prayers for snow has been answered... I am not nearly as excited.

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  10. I am positive my foot pain is not from high heels. Snow? Where? (checks out office window) none here. Yet.

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