So on day 2 I had a non related foot doctor appointment for x-rays. A week ago I wen to the walk-in clinic to get my feet checked. I was feeling a lot of pain on the ball of my foot and at SGF suggestion I had me feet checked. The pain had started after switching to size 10 shoes a week earlier so we were pretty sure it was related to the shoes ...
Warning ... tangent subject:
I switched to size 10 from 8 at the suggestion of Max, at The Balanced Athletes in Renton, WA. Max told me my size 8 were too tight, impeding the natural roll of my feet which created pressure on my ITB. True, the size 10 did relieve my ITB but I started feeling this splitting pain instead at the ball of my foot. It was suggested to me it could plantar fasciitis by a fellow runner so a very worrisome situation for me. Dr Conyers though it could be a stress fracture but the absence of continuous pain suggested otherwise ... Dr Conyers though that by switching to size 10 my toes had a tendency to want to "grab" while I ran and that the cyclic pressure i applied to the contracted muscles was creating the pain ... So more confusion ... Fix one thing (ITB) create a new problem. Dr Conyers told me though that I need to find the shoe that compromises on both items, so I may feel a little ITB pain, and some pressure on my foot, but the overall fit is healty. Great advive, glad i went (I though) then ... Dr Conveys says ... go back to the old shoe, and I would recommend you see a podratrist for orthodics and by the way I see an onset of Metatarsalgia here you should get you feet X-ray'd ...
Ok Fast forward back to the appointment now:
... that's why I was there in the first place. In the mist of our discussion Dr Lund told me she sees that I have contracture of the Achilles tendons, that is my tendons are shorter, tight and do not provide a full range of extension of my foot. That cause additional stress in both the plantar area of the foot and my calves ... So that gives me a little insight. I know that I have tight muscles. With education and physical therapy I have learned to manage my knee pain (I haven't felt knee pain since the fall 2011), my ITB pain has been greatly reduce (where it's 1 or 2 ... it's there but it doesn't bother me). In my discussion with Dr Lund I may have identified the root cause of my problems (where the extra stress is starting from, that is limitation of my form by the sorter tendons). It would make sense ... Stress has to manifest somehow, first the knees ... then quads / ITB / Hip. But with stretching and training these muscles and tendons provide a path for stress flow now so stress manifested in the weaker end of my leg ... my right calf that I teared two years ago. Right?
Well it's a good possibility. So along with rightly sized shoes (I am currently test running 8.5 Aesics trail shoes to test the toe box/ankle support theory), possibly orthodontics insols ... targeted stretching in the lower leg might go a long way reducing the possibility of a new occurrence of a muscle tear.
I checked with Dr Lund and she agreed swimming was a good low impact cross training cardio to maintain my athletic level (remember I have a marathon in 2 weeks). I could also get on the stationary bike to maintain fitness in my leg muscles, depending if I feel any pain in the calf doing so. Though with the marathon only two weeks away the reality of things I will likely loose very little fitness if any so I should focus on good recovery instead (that's the pet talk ... of course applying this will be more difficult ... )
So I went for a half hour freestyle in the pool. In the evening I continued the application on and off of ice for two hours.
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