Back to Basics

A couple days after the 7 mile run at the end of my last post, I went out for a short bike/run. When I got to the running portion, the toe pain returned and I had to walk back to my bike. Instead of upping my milage as I had hoped, I went back to biking on the weekend, cranking out a 52 miler on Saturday. After the bike ride, I furiously researched on the internet about anything that might help with my issue. I discovered that my problem is likely a condition called sesamoiditis and not turf toe. Sesamoiditis basically inflammation of the big toe joint capsule, which creates a gradual onset soreness and pain a day or two after activity, like other kinds of tendonitis. What's more, it is most common in dancers and joggers that are increasing mileage for events like marathons. That sounded darn familiar... Later I found that the problem occurs more frequently in people with higher arches, and those with higher heeled shoes.

I came to realize when it came to running technique, shoe type, and foot type, I was pretty clueless. I had always though my feet were flat. Wrong. Using the "wet foot on cardboard test" I discovered that my arch was normal, possibly even on the high side considering I have a wide foot. When I selected my running shoes, I didn't spend too much time deliberating about cushioning, heel size, and arch support--I figured any shoe would be decent if it felt comfortable. After all, how far wrong can you go with a $140 pair of super high tech shoes? Apparently pretty far. Eventually I stumbled upon some websites about barefoot running. It was very intriguing reading. While changing shoes seems to be able to clear up problems for a lot people, barefoot and minimalist shoe runners claim that padded, shock absorbing and sensation deadening shoes are likely the cause of many chronic injuries in runners, because they promote poor form and deprive the feet of being able to feel the ground and adjust the body properly to lessen shock. Big running shoes with thick soles encourage a heel striking stride, where the heel hits first and then the feet roll up and push off the toes. When you run barefoot, you automatically become a midfoot or forefoot striker. In evaluating my stride, I realized even in shoes I was already running with mid foot strike, which might have been problematic considering my large heeled shoes are pretty much designed for heel striking. With all this new information in mind I decided to start walking around barefoot for a few days just to see how it felt. At this point, I'm willing to try anything to get in some miles without hurting my toe.

It felt pretty good. Aside from my feet being unaccustomed to rough surfaces and the occasional pebble, walking around outside in barefeet is fairly comfortable after a day or two. Even after a couple days I noticed a my feet toughen up. I also noticed that you do truly become a forefoot striker almost by default when you walk bare feet. You simply can't heel strike on pavement without runing your foot, and your body adjusts to it quickly. After several days I decided to try to go for a barefoot run. I had ran 5 mintes or so at a time already, but nothing much farther than that. I ended up running around Lake Harriet, which is about 2.75 miles. I wasn't intending to go all the way around initially, I was just going to go as far as I could before it started feeling uncomfortable. The problem is, once I start something, I tend to keep going. By the time I was half way around, with my feet feeling fine, I figured I might as well finish. Everything went great until about the last 5 minutes, when left foot started feeling pretty tender. With so little left, I finished and assessed the damage. I had developed 3 fairly large blisters around the ball of my foot and some smaller ones the big toe. I laughed a little bit; I can always count on myself to do too much too soon.

Thankfully the blisters didn't affect me for too long. By the next day I could walk okay with shoes and by the second day I had pretty much forgotten about them, and went for a quick 16 mile bike ride. I plan to continue researching different shoe styles and running techniques that might help me, but I know one thing for sure: I'm retiring my Suacony Hurricane X's. I plan to use my old Omni 6's from last year for now until I can find an alternative that works. I'm considering ordering some Vibram Five Fingers KSO shoes. I don't expect I'd be ready to use a totally flat shoe like these come marathon time, but if I can get some miles in without pain, I should be able to tough it out in my Omni's during the race. You can check em' out here (a review by some guy from St. Paul):

http://www.keith-in-training.com/2008/03/vibram-fivefingers-ksos-part-i.html

A 3 Hour Tour

Since I decided to stay off my toe for a couple weeks, I've been biking quite a lot to keep my legs and heart from dropping too far out of shape. I'd mostly been doing 30 minute to 1.5 hour rides of 13 to 30ish miles, but last weekend I decided to go for a 50 mile ride, since I should be running about 3 hours if I was training normally for the marathon. Here's what I learned about the differences between biking and running for 3 hours:

1. Biking makes my legs tired faster, but they are less tired at the end.
2. Biking does raise your heart rate significantly, but not quite as much as running
3. Running is WAY hotter than biking. There's so much more wind when I bike that I hardly sweat at all. When I run I'm soaked after a couple miles.
4. Half of running really far is about your body holding together: joints, feet, etc. This isn't much of a problem with biking.
5. I hate getting passed on my bike even more than when I'm running.

The 50 miles took me right around 3 hours to complete, and I was feeling good because nobody passed me during the ride. There were heavy rains off and on during the ride, so that's probably why there weren't a lot of other bikers around. Once I got soaked, I figured there was no point in stopping, so I just kept going until I finished. I've found biking to be more enjoyable then running in many ways (I like the speed, and not getting passed as often) but finishing a long bike ride doesn't come with the same feeling of accomplishment as a long run. I think this difference originates from the fact that reducing speed slightly on a bike results in a far less strenuous workout, whereas running slowly doesn't necessarily help that much. I could bike 50 miles at 10 mph without even feeling like I was working. If I ran 3 miles at an 11 minute pace, I would still break a sweat.

My toe has been feeling a bit better lately, so I went on my first run in a few weeks a couple days ago. A 7 miler at a slowish pace. It went alright... I couldn't believe how fast I got sweaty and hot compared to biking. (It was 85 degrees and 60 some percent humidity.) If the toe feels ok I will keep doing some moderate runs, and perhaps bike after the runs to increase the duration of my workouts without pounding out too many miles on my feet.