Pain in the foot and leg

[Deleted User]

Hi, after 5 different injuries in a year it's time for a different one. My right foot has been troublesome from birth, the arches have collapsed and I now wear orthotics (custom made). After a cross country race on Sunday I have been feeling pain in my right foot. When running it radiates to ankle and top of foot and then it hurts under calf on the outside and then goes up to affect hamstring and right groin. After about 5 miles it's agony. It doesn't like hard road sections, running uphill brings relief as well as well as running on surfaces where my right foot is lower then the left. I think the pain starts at the sole and affects the rest. After a while it feels like running with a broken leg. I thought it may be plantar fascitiis but then it affects the whole leg, any ideas? I am gutted, I do core strength, self massaging every morning, pilates, upper body strength, proper resting and getting so many injuries it's unbelievable. If anyone had anyt advice I would be grateful till I see physio on Thursday. 

Paul Gunn 64

Hi acdcgirl,

If you have a plantar fascitiis injury this will cause further pain in the rest of your leg as my physio advised me that it all connects together.

I damaged my heel whilst on holiday in July and kept running on it for 3 months and as I was trying to run differently, to alleviate the pain in my foot, I ended up causing strains on the other parts of my leg and was getting issues with my hamstring, glutes, lower back and hip flexor.

I eventually stopped running and doing cross training, seen my doctor and got my foot x-rayed to determine no break and then onto the physio and his diagnose was a PF injury.  Advised with some exercises to carry out and I purchased a pair of insoles from Greaves Sports [yoursole.com] as they have a 90 day money back guarantee and I wear them all the time and I also have a good pair of ‘Fit Flops’ that help as there is good support in them.

Since stopping doing anything and resting up the pain has gone from my back, glutes, hamstring and hip.  However, I still have a slight niggle in my heel but hope to be out running in the New Year, as that’s my target date even though I am gagging to get out running sooner.

So the sooner you get diagnosed the better and hopefully you’ll be able to go thru a good rehab regime and be back running soon.

There is some good advise on the RW website and I've followed that along with the advise from my physio.  If you are sitting about keep a golf ball with you and gently roll your foot over it, I'm constantly doing that at work.  An empty 500ml coke bottle filled with water and shoved in the freezer for a good massage at the end of the day.

Not sure if any of that will help but worth a try and won't do you any harm, I hope

[Deleted User]

Hi Paul, thanks for that. I now do think as well it's plantar fascitiis, , coach thinks that as wellwill go to physio on Thursday. The thing is I already wear custom made orthotics so that should not really happen. It's a bugger as I'm training for ultra in April. No way am I letting this race go. Anyway, thanks for advice.