Online Running Log

So I have this pain in my right foot.  It is on the pad/ball of my foot right below my index toe (I'm pretty sure it isn't called the index toe, but you get the idea).  It almost feels like I pulled a muscle.  What the hell is it and how do I make it better (besides beer and hgh)?

BrewPat wrote:

So I have this pain in my right foot.  It is on the pad/ball of my foot right below my index toe (I'm pretty sure it isn't called the index toe, but you get the idea).  It almost feels like I pulled a muscle.  What the hell is it and how do I make it better (besides beer and hgh)?

I've had a bruise on the same spot on my left foot since January. Mine feels like an ache or a deep muscle bruise. The trainers from my school diagnosed it, (they seem fairly competent, I don't expect its a stress fracture) and basically gave me the option to ice it after runs and see if it gets better after a while, and/or put a pad in my shoe which supports the spot. (I'd wear the pad 100% of the time, with all shoes and not just while running) I chose to do nothing with it (not even ice it - I'm lazy), and the pain comes and goes. Towards the end of the track season it was mostly absent, although when I started summer training there it was again. Its been mostly gone now being 6 months since the initial bruising. 



The realization I've came to for myself is to screw it and just run on it. It has never got any worse for me than it was initially, so I'm not too worried.



Some questions the trainers asked me: Does it hurt all the time, or just while running? (mine hurt off and on all the time) Does it get worse when you do run on it, with the pounding of putting pressure on the spot? (mine did to a certain extent, when I took time off it wasn't noticeable) What might have caused it? (I think mine came from an indoor track where my spike plate, loaded with spikes, dug into the ball of my foot on a turn) When you dig into the spot with your thumbs, does it hurt? (mine did, I jumped sufficiently when the trainer did this to me)



And if all else fails, whiskey before runs and beer after. Because you know what they say at college: beer before liquor and you've never been sicker, liquor for beer and you're in the clear. Not that one my age would know... But please, stay in the clear. 

It could be a neuroma or something else.  Either way, if it's metatarsal pain, you can get a small metatarsal pad and stick it in your shoes (put it in both so it's even)  make sure it's behind the metatarsal, it kind of takes pressure off the bones and stuff.  Someone smarter than me told me to do this and it worked to remove similar pain.  Once it was gone I took out the pad and everything was dandy.

BrewPat wrote:

So I have this pain in my right foot.  It is on the pad/ball of my foot right below my index toe (I'm pretty sure it isn't called the index toe, but you get the idea).  It almost feels like I pulled a muscle.  What the hell is it and how do I make it better (besides beer and hgh)?

In the unlikely event that you are legitimately asking for advice and there isn't some hidden meaning to your post that I cannot grasp, I did the following for similar pain in the ball of my right foot a couple of years ago:



I froze a 32 ounce bottle of Gatorade in the refrigerator at work then took off my shoe and iced it through my sock on and off all day while I was sitting at my desk.  The bottle is a nice size because you can roll it around with your foot on floor under your desk and nobody notices, and you can target the area on your foot easily.



If you don't spend a lot of time at a desk at work, try doing it at home at night.



My medical opinion is that you have tendonitis in your toe.

RoyalWithCheese wrote:

Congratulation! You're pregnant!

Matt Jordan  (get off my lawn!)

Amputate.

You haven't tried feeding it ice yet?

BrewPat wrote:

So I have this pain in my right foot.  It is on the pad/ball of my foot right below my index toe (I'm pretty sure it isn't called the index toe, but you get the idea).  It almost feels like I pulled a muscle.  What the hell is it and how do I make it better (besides beer and hgh)?

Metatarsalgia

Do what I did when I had the same problem.

Give up, start eating junk, and then when your feet are healthy enough to run again, you won't be healthy enough in general, and you'll have to start at day 1 of your running career! It's fun. (I hate my life. I'm at the heaviest I've ever weighed. Luckily, that's only 165.)

You're just old.