Feet

My hamstring has been pretty good this summer. I say it is 90%, but it is not completely healed. I talked to my doctor about it and he suggested some more intense hamstring strengthening exercises so I made a couple of PT appointments to ensure I was doing them right.

During that second PT meeting, I mentioned to her that my feet hurt when I run more than 5 miles. Anything up to 5 miles I am fine. I have only run more than that a few times but it is noticeable. She said that she is not a foot specialist but recommended I go back to the PT that I saw for my running analysis back in January. She would be able to tell me if my running gait has changed or if there was more I should be doing.

So I had that appointment this morning with Robin. She won her age group at the Chisago half iron a few weeks ago btw so she probably knows what I am going through. It worked out good that I had a long run yesterday as I was able to describe exactly what I was feeling. She said it was quite common and diagnosed it as metatarsalgia. 

She watched me run on the treadmill and liked what I was doing with my shorter stride, staying on the front of my foot and slight lean forward. So my running form was much better than when I saw her in January and her only comment was to keep focusing on shorter strides. We experimented with a pad under my foot just behind the balls of my feet to add more cushion. I am going to try that. But she said that Hoka shoes is really her best suggestion.

So I will probably do some shoe shopping here. I will try out the pads on my short run Saturday and my easy run next week, but they feel kinda weird I am hesitant to change anything prior to the race. I certainly wont be running in new shoes on race day, and would be saving that for after the race. I can certainly do the race distance without a problem without any pads. It is not debilitating, just annoying.