Freethinker ~ Freerunner

I decided to rest today.  I ran 29 miles last week, with two of my three days on my family vacation out of town at Monkey Island on Grand Lake.  The hills and change of scenery were nice, but I noticed a nagging injury flair back up that I thought was mostly gone.  I think I have metatarsalgia in my left foot.  It is quite an annoying injury.  I actually don't usually ever feel it while running.  But it has a nasty habit of flaring up in the hours after a run has concluded.  I find it uncomfortable to walk, especially on hard surfaces without shoes or house shoes.   

I just spent the last hour reading through the last 2 and half months of my blog to see when I first noticed this injury.  I found that I first wrote about it on November 2nd. 

To review the injury, metatarsalgia is common in repetitive use motions such as running.  It causes pain in the ball of the foot just behind the middle toes or toes next to the big toe.  It is caused from the metatarsal heads, which are the ends of the bones that connect to the toe bones, pounding the ground repetitively.  I have discovered by researching the Mayo Clinic website that some common causes are shoes that have a narrow toe box or not enough shock absorption.  Ways to alleviate the pain and heal the injury are ice and rest.   Sometimes runners will use extra padding in their shoes or use metatarsal gel straps which pad the ball of the foot while walking.  I'm not sure the gel straps are intended to be worn while running, but I have read that putting padding in the shoes under the ball of the foot helps to alleviate the stress on the metatarsal heads while running. 

I'm not sure that I'm at the point of visiting my bone doctor quite yet.  I plan on icing and resting this week, and wearing comfortable shoes around the house.  If I still feel the effects of this injury after my usual Sunday run one week from today on December 26th, I will probably schedule an appointment to visit my doctor.  

If anyone has any personal experience with this injury I would love to know about it.  How did you beat it?  How much down time before returning to running? etc.