[bsdb3]

Hi - I'm new to this website, and am looking for some advise having bored just about everyone around me

I've been lucky to run for the best part of 20 years without any injuries (missed maybe 4 days at worst) but now I'm hitting my late 20's I've got my 1st one. The trouble I have is that one physio is saying I have tendernitis and another thinks I have a hairline crack on the bone. Obviously I'd like to know which it is, so I can treat it in the right way.

The background is about a month and half a go I had a little bit of soreness, which was initially only a small pain walking up/downstairs - running was absolutely fine. Then at training say I was doing strides just the first 3 or 4 steps would be a bit sore but then fine. Then I started limping a bit, bad pain when I got out of bed, so stopped training and rested pretty much completely for 2 weeks. I thought it had got better so did an hour run on the Saturday, rested Sunday and did a track session Mon and 1/2 of a track session on Wed, which turned out to be very silly because have been out for 2 more weeks and can only now just about run 10-20 mins.

The pain is in a very specific place, the physios/doctor can flex the foot completely but they put there finger into one spot, half an inch above my right ankle (on the inside) pretty much exactly in the middle above the nobbly ankle bit and it hurts badly.

Be interested to know if anyone else has had similar symptoms. I've been to the GP and trying to get a referral, but think I might just have to rest up which is really frustrating

 

[age]

Did you ever discover what your injury was?

 

[Rob]

I'd like to know what happened to you too. your injuries sound very similar to what I had earlier in the year. The symptoms are strikingly similar in that I felt really bad pain walking up and down the stairs at home. When I was out running after about 10 mins the pain would not go away completely but I could push through it until I couldn't feel it, but it would of course come back as soon as I stopped running and was at home up and down the stairs etc and limping about. This injury just appeared nine days before a half marathon so I really worried that it was going to ruin everything. I seem to remember specifically that it was a very fast 5 mile run, almost like a sprint, and way faster than I would normally run, that caused it. I was 10 weeks into a 5 days a week half marathon programme and feeling quite fit and charged-up as the race approached so I bravely decided to have a real flat-out run which I hadn't done before. Big mistake! I asked for some advice here and somebody suggested I take it easy on my last week of training, just doing 3 miles a couple of times to keep everything working. I still remember hobbling around Morrison's on the Friday before the race. I knew that the pain would subside once I started running so I decided to go for the race and just thought to hell with it and completed it, running through the pain and then rested for about 10 days afterwards. Following my 10 days rest I went back out running again and after 2 or 3 runs I could feel the pains, the exact same ones, coming back again.
I decided after another 10 days of rest, which was incredibly frustrating, to go, mainly from reading other posts here, to a running shop where I was told that the £25 off-the-shelf shoes I'd been running in were totally wrong for me - they were 'neutral' and I needed 'motion control' as I discovered that I over-pronate quite severely (i.e. my ankles naturally roll inwards). That evening I put my new shoes on and went for a 4 mile run and the difference was noticable immediately and I was actually recovering and running at the same time because of the shoes. The pain gradually disappeared and I carried on with no problems, running another couple of races within a couple of months.
From your post I guess you probably know a bit about proper shoes and I take it you have specialist running shoes? That said, I had been running for 7 years with no regard for shoes with no problems until this happened. Perhaps me getting a bit older and wear and tear running took its toll. I'm not a medical person and can't put a name to your injuries but they sound uncannily similar to mine. It was just to say that if it is the same thing it should hopefully go away with the right treatment. Good luck

 

[bsdb3]

Did you ever discover what your injury was?

...not 100% but starting to think it was the tendons on the inside of my shin rather than a stess fracture. In the end I did get an x-ray on the NHS but didn't really show anything (although I understand it only identifies stress fractures 50% of the time).

I rested it, iced it, applied heat and got ultrasound done during Dec and seems to have done the trick.

I've been running the past 2 weeks off road and on the treadmill regularly. I did 1h 15 off road at the weekend, and did my first track session (of sorts) last week.

Having never been injured before, and having been out for 2 months I can completely empathise with people who get injuries. Such a nightmare not being able to run.

I've missed the indoor track season now, but still time to get ready for the outdoors, and maybe some x-country and road relays.

cheers,

Dave

 

[Granty]

Good news, glad to hear its cleared up. Did you end up taking the whole of December off or longer.?

 

[bsdb3]

must admit I've always been a bit cynical of running shoes /shops but am now having to reevaluate that. I had been doing a lot of training on the track in spikes / racing flats, but will probably limit that now and have bought different training shoes for track/road and off-road.

I think I've learnt quite a bit from being injured. Def know what to watch out for now, will be making a lot more use of ice packs, and will be more cautious about training hard on consecutive days, the shoes I wear and the surfaces I run on. The worse thing is when you're training well - you're getting loads of advice about sessions and what to do, but when your injured you've got no idea what's going to make it better or what you should / shouldn't be doing.

One of the physio's said that now I've hit my late 20s I'm getting old and my body wont just take whatever I throw at it - guess she's right!

Glad to hear your injury cleared up quickly. Good advice about taking the last few weeks before a marathon easy. I did a few a couple of years back and my coach reduced my training so much in the last 3 weeks, it was so hard not to be out running hard, but good advice I think we did 1 x 1k, 1 x 2k, 1 x 1k at marathon pace the week before - good chance to get used to running at race pace.

I'd like to know what happened to you too. your injuries sound very similar to what I had earlier in the year. The symptoms are strikingly similar in that I felt really bad pain walking up and down the stairs at home. When I was out running after about 10 mins the pain would not go away completely but I could push through it until I couldn't feel it, but it would of course come back as soon as I stopped running and was at home up and down the stairs etc and limping about. This injury just appeared nine days before a half marathon so I really worried that it was going to ruin everything. I seem to remember specifically that it was a very fast 5 mile run, almost like a sprint, and way faster than I would normally run, that caused it. I was 10 weeks into a 5 days a week half marathon programme and feeling quite fit and charged-up as the race approached so I bravely decided to have a real flat-out run which I hadn't done before. Big mistake! I asked for some advice here and somebody suggested I take it easy on my last week of training, just doing 3 miles a couple of times to keep everything working. I still remember hobbling around Morrison's on the Friday before the race. I knew that the pain would subside once I started running so I decided to go for the race and just thought to hell with it and completed it, running through the pain and then rested for about 10 days afterwards. Following my 10 days rest I went back out running again and after 2 or 3 runs I could feel the pains, the exact same ones, coming back again.
I decided after another 10 days of rest, which was incredibly frustrating, to go, mainly from reading other posts here, to a running shop where I was told that the £25 off-the-shelf shoes I'd been running in were totally wrong for me - they were 'neutral' and I needed 'motion control' as I discovered that I over-pronate quite severely (i.e. my ankles naturally roll inwards). That evening I put my new shoes on and went for a 4 mile run and the difference was noticable immediately and I was actually recovering and running at the same time because of the shoes. The pain gradually disappeared and I carried on with no problems, running another couple of races within a couple of months.
From your post I guess you probably know a bit about proper shoes and I take it you have specialist running shoes? That said, I had been running for 7 years with no regard for shoes with no problems until this happened. Perhaps me getting a bit older and wear and tear running took its toll. I'm not a medical person and can't put a name to your injuries but they sound uncannily similar to mine. It was just to say that if it is the same thing it should hopefully go away with the right treatment. Good luck

 

[Rob]

Glad to hear you're through the worst of it now. I think you're right about re-evaluating the worth of running shops. Most people, me included, only considered visiting them as a last resort! I ran for 5 years in the same cheap Hi-Tech shoes that cost me £8.99 in the sales at JJB Sport and I thought they were great! I actually ran for the first year in an old pair of Lacoste pumps! You know the ones with the flat soles and no cushioning?? But I ran anything up to 10 or 11 miles at weekends in my old Hi Techs and never got injuries. I do remember feeling sore sometimes after the longest runs, but I guess being younger you recover faster and your body is stronger. I've learnt a lot from injury too. Too much, too soon and all that. I think I've leant more from this forum though