Foot pain - outside edge.

[skicoach]

That's why I wanted to be

That's why I wanted to be properly barefoot. It might seem to be more risky for the injured area but it seems to be the only way to get accurate and clear feedback. The day after running I rested and the foot didn't seem to have been adversely affected but one day further on and the foot actually feels greatly improved. That has surprised even me!

I'm starting a new business as a "Barefoot Running Therapist"!

 

[skicoach]

It's almost a month since my

It's almost a month since my last post here. The tendinitis is still there but much reduced. It always takes a long time for any tendinitis to go away so that's not a surprise. In the last month though I've been able to clarify the cause of the injury better. There were two causes - neither really due to equipment in either cycling or running - but due to inappropriate technique in both.

There is a lot of talk about "midfoot" landing in running - that is advocated in ChiRunning and often scientific reports claim that elite runners mailny land midfoot. In ChiRunning the target landing site is just in front of the heel. Well, the only way that you can get anything to make first contact with the ground somewhere between the heel and the forefoot is to roll the foot outwards onto the outside edge (supinate) and land on the outside edge of the foot. This way you certainly do land midfoot - but right over the top of the 5th Metatarsal joint - at the insertion of the peroneus brevis tendon! In my particular case I wasn't trying to land midfoot, I was trying to land on the ball of the foot, but on the outside part of the ball of the foot, following the advice of Gordon Pirie's book Running Fast and Injury Free. Pirie advocates having the feet land one in front of the other instead of hip width apart. This also encourages landing on a supinated foot. In my case I wasn't able to stop myself from landing midfoot and so continued to strain the peroneus brevis tendon. Further analysis made it clear that the real reason for the error in my case was that that my foot was still landing slightly too far ahead of the body (old cushioned heels habit). By making sure that the foot landed directly below the body and lengthening the stride behind the body instead (with pelvis involved) I was able to completely avoid landing midfoot and accurately land on the outside portion of the ball of the foot. Yesterday, I returned to running painlessly and was able to cover 8km in 40mins without once hurting the foot. Only a week ago I was still in significant pain from the effects of cycling on this injury.

The cycling contribution to the injury is not due to shoes nor is it cured through inserts. The problem comes from the fact that the feet are glued to the pedals through cleats, but in steep climbing or hard accelerating - when out of the saddle - the bike is tilted to each side. The pedal is obvioulsy also tilted. This forces the foot pressure from edge to edge in various ways. Elite cyclists invariably - when out of the saddle - start the down stroke with the bike tilted over to the side that they will push down on - placing them on the inside edge of the foot. The bike is pulled over with the arms during the stroke, adding power, and the stroke ends with the bike tilted away from that leg and the foot on its outside edge. That works and protects the foot. My mistake was to do the opposite by lining my body up over the pedal to begin the stroke (bike tilted away from the leg) and to execute the main part of the stroke over the outside edge of the foot. Over thousands of kilometres this eventually generated the tendinitis. The running error only aggravated the problem.

Basically the cure for the problem has been to increase awareness and develop better technique in both running and cycling. In the process of doing so I can now confirm that "midfoot" landing in running is categorically WRONG.

Had I rested up and sought a standard medical solution for the problem - I'm sure that I'd never have managed to move ahead like this.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

I'm glad that you were able

I'm glad that you were able to find out what works for you.

I believe a midfoot landing (as opposed to running on the toes/ball of foot or heel striking) is best for "most" people. Surely, it's not a one size fits all. We are each unique individuals with unique biomechanics; therefore, we are not all going to run the same way.

8K without pain for you is awesome. I know you must have been excited. Let us know how you progress.

 

[skicoach]

The pain is going away

The pain is going away rapidly now so I'm keeping my toes crossed that nothing silly happens and that it will go away completely.

It will probably be another couple of years before I can be definitive of the question of midfoot/forefoot - but everything does seem to point towards forefoot as being the correct base.

Sure we all have unique anatomy - just like every snowflake is different - but we all share the same basic anatomy, the same general form and are subject to the same laws of physics. Throughout my career as a ski coach I've heard the same reasoning put forwards - that we are all different and that "nothing" can be said to be wrong. It's a philosophy that I couldn't disagree more with -and for very specific reasons. To avoid going into a deep discussion here on skiiing - which is "off-topic" - I'll keep most of the detail out of it. The main key towards identifying a fundamental fault is "injury". If something leads to injury then it's wise to assume that it's generally wrong - especially if the connection is confirmed. From day one in ski school I see people being taught to "balance" and move in a corresponding pattern - but it is categorically the wrong physics (a stunning error from profesionals worldwide) - the key is disequilibrium (Newton's 2nd law). This incorrect instruction leads to lack of control, stress, injury, frustration etc - and is practically always carried though to all future levels - keeping genuinely higher levels out of the reach of the casual skier - and even most pros. Additionally, even the pros can't sunsequently analyse the situation from then on because their own basic comprehension is severly clouded - they have developed a completey out of touch perspective which cannot be built upon - hence for them - "nothing is wrong in sking - it's all personal choice!" Wrong!

Gordon Pirie claimed to have run 347600km over 40 years until his untimely death from cancer - but without injury. This - aside from his astonishing list of world records - is enough to make me respect his views very strongly. Pirie is clear that landing should be on the forefoot - whether running uphill or downhill.

All the in depth studies currently available over the internet indicate the same as Pirie - with the pronation of the forefoot being the first stage in the absorbtion of impact shock. This also makes a heck of a lot of sense when you think about it. The energy goes into tilting the forefoot, then into the muscles and tendons as the foot lowers towards the heel - springing back upwards - if kept at a cadence of 90+ strides per minute. The elasticity of the tendons cannot hold energy for more than a fraction of a second and with a cadence slower than 90 the energy is lost. 90 is also the ideal general cadence for cycling.

Dryer - in ChiRunning - gives no information whatsoever to justify "midfoot" landing. He runs in normal raised heel running shoes. All it's done for me so far is to aggravate tendinitis and to accomodate a poor stride with lack of awareness.

I"m more than open to persuasion - when it has tangible and specific content. Let's have it! Perhaps you could start a technical section on the forum. I don't expect there will be much participation though - there only seems to be one person keeping this site alive - that's TJ!

 

[Barefoot TJ]

I'm actually not the only one

I'm actually not the only one keeping this site alive. We have lots of folks that do different tasks as needed. We have five doctors for our Ask the Docs forum, an admin vp, an activities vp, moderators, admins, a Stomp coordinator, contest coordinator, a graphics artist, a web developer (new--yeah!), 80 plus chapter presidents, and all the many folks who post here to keep the content lively and active.

If something leads to injury then it's wise to assume that it's generally wrong - especially if the connection is confirmed. This is why I say that each person doesn't fit the same mold. If what someone is doing leads them to injury, then apparently that way doesn't work for them. I do not believe that we all work the same way. I think the majority of us might but not all of us. We'll just have to disagree about this.

Glad you're getting well and finding out what works for you. Sometimes life is full of experiements. That's one of the things I love about barefoot running. I still find myself experimenting to try something different while I am out running barefoot.