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Aching Feet! Grr!
AndyL78
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Hello,
I am making an assumption that this is normal, but I have recently increased my mileage from around 10/15 miles a week to 20ish. I have staggered the increase and am doing all of the right things (warm up, cool dow, strecthing, icing, hot and cold treatment at times), but I am finding that most of my foot aches (both of them in fact) after 5 or so miles and also when relaxing (after effect I guess).
It does not help that I am a reasonably flat footed (used to use orthotics but now have more supportive trainers).
I have to stress that they are aches and not what I would class as actual injuries as I can contniue to run. Is it fairly normal to feel the aches because of the increase? And does anyone have any suggestions how to manage it.
Might be worth adding that I am currently training for the Hadrians wall run in June.
Thanks
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Comments
In my opinion, it sounds like you do have some sort of issue to deal with, rather than it being "normal" (whatever normal is!!). I just mentioned the 'plantar fascia' in another thread, and if you're not familiar with issues with inflamation of this tissue (under the foot and heel), then perhaps you can read up on it. Failing that, you might consider seeing a physio / orthotics specialist. It sounds very possible that your trainers are not giving you the right support.
Hope that steers you in the right direction. I can't think of any other advice that I personally can give you.
Thanks for the quick response. I am fairly sure it is not plantar having discussed this with some friends who have suffered from it. Interestingly enough a fell running friend of mine said that as he increased his mileage he regularly had aching feet.
One suggestion was to try various orthotics and keep up the stretching also as tighness in the calf and achilles can be to blame.
From reading forumns and chatting with some runners it sounds like I am not alone in the feet discomfort department which is re-assuring.
If anyone else has found they have had similar issues it would be good to here from you too? The more fat to chew the better.
I've started getting aches on the ball of my feet, particularly on the outside of the left. Nothing that has hindered me but I'm keeping at eye on it, Another thread suggests gel insoles for metatarsal tendonitus which is what I suspect may be the issue with myself so going to give them a go,
Thanks Vicky. I have played with insoles on and off for years due to flat-ish feet. Interestingly I have been reading up recently about the pros and cons to these and there is a real mix of views, especially around whether they actually weaken the feet and promote bad technique. The articles say that we need to start strenghtening our feet more.
That is something that I have certainly started doing and I am also looking at getting out to do one session a week barefoot as that is suppose to help (both technique and strengthing). Worth noting that I am neither for or against the barefoot culture but I have a view of anything is worht a try.
Let me know how you get on with the insoles, it will be interesting to know how they work out for you.
Flatfoot: I have, or had rather flat feet. I went minimalist (Vivobarefoot Neos) about two years back. I now have an arch - I have definitely developed muscle on my feet which didn't used to be there. I'm using minimalist shoes now for all my runs (up to 50 mile ultra, so far). So yes, do some barefoot running (start with SHORT distances). Check out the range of foot exercises suggested for newbie barefooters as well.