Top of Foot Pain

[Litening]

I've been getting top of foot pain for quite some time now. If I let it go for like 3 days, it gets better, but everytime i'm in my VFFs even just walking around town, golfing or running, i seem to get TOFP the next day. Isn't this supposed to get better? It's been almost 6 months with off and on mostly elliptical and some running with the komodo and trail glove.

The pain only comes on my left foot as well. i know my left foot is a smidge shorter than my right. How do i get rid of this pain? is this damaging? I never wear my old sport shoes anymore, only minimalists now.

[jmijares]

Over the long term, TOFP might turn into a metatarsal stress fracture.  Is it just in the VFFs?  Is there any chance that your TOFP is being caused by the strap on your Komodos?

[acc]

Don't take it lightly. Ice it and don't land so hard. Wear shoes with a bit more padding if you need to.

Make sure you have enough calcium + Magnesium/Vitamin D (needed to absorb calcium), or it's an impending metatarsal fracture.

Alcohol/caffeine use up calcium by the way.

Disclaimer:I'm not a doctor.

[Peter]

I'm kind of in the same boat.

Last January, during a run, I landed on a marble-sized rock right on the ball of the 2nd metatarsal on my right foot.  The pain was excruciating, and I ended up having to limp home.  At first, I was worried that it was broken.  After just two weeks off from running, however, the pain had subsided enough to where I could start again.  A month or so after that, the pain at the sight of the trauma was nearly gone, but I started getting TOFP. 

Since then, I've been dealing off and on with TOFP.  I guess you'd call it chronic at this point.  It's has never been bad enough to where I couldn't run, but it just HASN'T-GONE-AWAY! 

During August and September I cut my running back to 3 miles twice a week.  By the end of September it felt better than it had felt all year, so I decided to kick mileage back up and do the 4 mile Denver Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving.  I ended up completing the TT, with with decent time, but my TOFP came back with a vengeance during my training.

Sooooo ... Before I go to the doctor and he tells me to rest it, I'm gonna rest it.  I've decided to not even wear my FFs again - or run - until at least January.  I'm gonna heal this shit up right.  I'd like to be able to enjoy my feet again. 

(BTW, regular shoes make a great "walking cast" when you are use to FFs.  I've been wearing big-ass Adidas skate shoes [which are spacious in the toe box, yet VERY bulky and stiff] for the past week, and my foot feels noticeably better than it usually does after a week of not running.  Weaker, perhaps ... but better.)       

[Stefanie]

Just take it easy and stay off of it/baby it as much as you can until the pain goes away completely.  Wear super cushy running or nonminimalist shoes or even a walking boot if you can get your hands on one.


----------------My recent TOFP experience------------------------------
I had been upping my mileage from 4, to 6, to 8 rather quickly-  I even ran one 10 mile run- over the period of a month or so.  (I didn't just start running either, just going farther/longer).  During these runs I had experienced some nagging in my right foot.. not pain but just a twinge of "something wrong."  It would appear during the end of my runs and then go away when I stopped.  

During one of my 6 mile runs two weeks ago I got super crazy/excited and started jumping around and doing twirls in the air and definitely landed on my foot wrong and pissed it off.  I wound up with what I self-diagnosed as an inflamed tendon (TOFP) and after a few days of it not easing off I put myself in a walking boot.  I work at an orthopaedic office so borrowing one wasn't difficult.
It got to a point where my foot was visibly swollen (over the 1st/2nd metatarsals)  for a day and a half or so.  I even took x-rays of it just incase it was a stress fracture. You don't normally see them on x-rays initially but in a few weeks a new x-ray can reveal the fracture (via evidence of healing).  


It definitely did the trick, after about 4-5 days of wearing the boot at work and anytime I was going to walk a lot the pain slowly eased away.  I also popped ibuprofen like it was my JOB (for the swelling). (800mg 2x a day).  The pain has now completely subsided after almost two weeks (I have a very bad sense of time, I am trying so forgive me)



I've sinced eased back into running (I was going insane trying to get my cardio in on a bike!) but I am doing so in my Nike Frees and indoors on a treadmill with NO incline.  I did run in my pace gloves yesterday with no pain, and this morning in the frees pain free as well (both treadmill 10ks).  

I am still taking it easy as far as VFF runs go and prepared to back WAY off running completely again (although I REALLY hope I won't have to) if I feel any pain but I am also going to be running almost soley in the frees for a while.  I will probably try and run about a mile in the bikilas Saturday and then finish up the run in frees to see how I feel. I am thinking my barefoot form could use some work, too.  Still trying to figure out why only the right foot was affected.


All in all I think I learned my lesson.  
I have also upped my calcium/D intake since the injury (so I agree with ACC's post)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't think you are doing any permanent damage, but you just need to give it time to completely heal (disclaimer: my boyfriend is a doctor! haha) .  I know it sucks to transition backward, believe me I hated the "walking on top of pillows" effect, but with as much pain as I was in the walking boot and some cushy shoes were a welcomed break.


-end ramble-  Thanks for reading =) & I hope everyone heals in a timely manner!

[Litening]

Oh man.. that sounds so much worse than it actually feels. I never feel anything while I'm running. While I'm on the road it feels awesome. Just the very next day and a couple of days after.

 I get it in my VFFs and Trail Gloves when I try to run a lot. It's not even a nagging pain, but a pain that comes once in a while. Once I start walking again, the pain lessens.

I really hate my regular shoes now. I like the free feeling of my toes, but I guess i'll look into the boots and get the vitamins. Does it actually get better, as in do my muscles get stronger in time and I don't experience this pain anymore?

[Litening]

So If I were to lay off of the VFFs and the Trail Gloves while the TOFP recovers, what should I be running in?

What about Nike Frees? Are they a good alternative? Can anyone tell me about the heel size and the toebox space? 

[jmijares]

I ran in a cheap pair of Turntec running shoes that I got for $20 while I was recovering from TOFP.  The cheap and flimsy padding in the Turntecs made it easier to feel the ground and to adjust my stride and footstrike  Once the pain was gone, I did a seven month transition to minimalist shoes and was finally able to run in VFFs and RumAmocs full time.

[Litening]

i'll have to take a look at them

[Stefanie]

Yeah I definitely agree with getting a cheap pair of shoes to ease back in.  I only have frees because I got them before I discovered VFFS =)

[jmijares]

Here's a link to a post where I put my transition program.

http://birthdayshoes.com/forum/vff-or-barefoot-running/new-to-running-help!/msg40436/#msg40436

There's a few other transition programs there as well.

BTW, I got my Turntecs at Big5 Sporting Goods.

[Litening]

So I went to a shoe store in San Francisco (Fleet Street Shoes) and after an hour, I ended up buying an Brookes PureFlow. The Nike Free's were going to be too similar to the VFFs' and in order to protect my foot and promote a midfoot strike, he recommended the PureFlows. Becuase of the heel construction, I am unable to land on my heel, so I will be forced to run with a midfoot strike, which I do anyway.

I'll let you know how it goes.

[acc]

You could probably get by with heel cushions + metatarsal pads (or insoles for Vivobarefoot/Merrell Barefoot if not using VFFs) ...it's certainly cheaper. I would avoid the blue-colored thick kind of gel for the heel though, since it doesn't really compress as well as EVA foam and you shouldn't be heel-striking anyway. In my personal experience it seems they add instability (they make you wobbly like on jello) while standing, unlike EVA which stays compressed.

Ball of foot/metatarsal: http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/hpc/3780101/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_hpc_1_5_last
Heel cushion: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Health-Personal-Care-Heel-Cushions-Cups/zgbs/hpc/3780111/ref=zg_bs_nav_hpc_5_3780101

[Litening]

You could probably get by with heel cushions + metatarsal pads (or insoles for Vivobarefoot/Merrell Barefoot if not using VFFs) ...it's certainly cheaper. I would avoid the blue-colored thick kind of gel for the heel though, since it doesn't really compress as well as EVA foam and you shouldn't be heel-striking anyway. In my personal experience it seems they add instability (they make you wobbly like on jello) while standing, unlike EVA which stays compressed.

Ball of foot/metatarsal: http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/hpc/3780101/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_hpc_1_5_last
Heel cushion: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Health-Personal-Care-Heel-Cushions-Cups/zgbs/hpc/3780111/ref=zg_bs_nav_hpc_5_3780101

i didn't even know they made ball of foot pads. If use them, wouldn't they affect the flatness of the foot on the ground? Won't it raise the ball of the foot position for every step I take, and cause discomfort to my heel and ruin my form?

[acc]

That is why I was thinking ball of foot and heel, to make it effectively zero drop for you. Having a negative drop might not be bad, it's the basis for the Earth shoes. (http://www.kalsoearthshoes.com/t-negativeheel.aspx)

There's a risk of pulling your achilles tendon /knee locking on impact if the difference is large though. (see http://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/32905 , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomotor_effects_of_shoes#Negative_heels, http://www.staffs.ac.uk/isb-fw/Abstracts/MAO_THE_COMPARISON.pdf, or http://forum.slowtwitch.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=3259663)