Running Injury
I need advice from some experienced members. This weekend I have aggravated a foot condition that I have self-diagnosed as Sesamoiditis. It is causing a lot of pain under my right big toe when pushing off running. Main problem is that I am only about six weeks out from IMLT. Any thought on whether this is just a pain management problem or will I do more damage if I continue to train on it? Thanks
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There are some real PT members who can offer a lot more guidance - in general, if you have inflammation and an upcoming race, then you have to prioritize wellness over fitness - in other words, you can't engage in any training activity that exacerbates the condition. You then need to find training activities that maintain fitness as well as possible while still allowing the problem to resolve.
Does it bother you when cycling? If not, then prioritize cycling and swimming, and accept that your run performance at the race will be somewhat compromised by the injury.
Short answer - if you have sesamoiditis - that's tendonitis - you will make it worse if you continue to train on it, and eventually it will hurt enough that you have to say "uncle", and at that point you've dug yourself into a recovery hole. Much better to accept reality now.
Sorry... I hope it feels better...
Fortunately it has not bothered me when cycling, so as of now I can focus on that and swimming. Hopefully some running fitness will translate over from the other two, but certainly understand your point of wellness over fitness. I was afraid that would be the consensus, and having had IT band issues, before, I have learned from pushing pain too far.
Patience, patience, patience....
Last year I had a nagging foot injury that kept me from running much for several weeks, so I hit the bike hard during that time. In retrospect, it was a good move for my bike power - but at the time I was concerned about run volume leading up to IMLP. Then, I participated in a relay event where I had to bail on the longest run (7 miles) but was able to do two shorter runs - and even on those I loaded up on advil to try and keep from making things worse. When I returned from that relay, I popped two advil, slept the sleep of the dead for 11 hours and woke up with my foot injury miraculously fixed. I still don't understand it.
Then, this year I had another nagging injury that was a secondary result from a minor spill I took at the IMLP camp. For the first 16 miles @ lake placid, I felt every step. Then, suddenly, it went away. It's not quite gone, but I don't quite understand how running a marathon on it has made it feel better than before I ran a marathon on it.
So I guess my question out of all that is - when you run on it, does it make it worse? Because I've found that if activity doesn't make it worse, sometimes you can get away with continued activity (at least to some extent - sometimes it doesn't get worse until some threshold is reached). However, I'm not a doctor, nor am I in a medical profession or pretend to be anything of the sort - I'm just relaying my N=1 experience, so take it for what it's worth.
Stop pushing off your toes and adjust to mid foot landing, pick your foot up not pushing off with your toes. To run that way you will need to lean forward more from the ankles and fall into your step then pick your foot up and repeat.
This is a run change and will take a lot of time to learn but if you think about it and include it in your training giving your toes a chance to rehab, during your IM you will be accustom to mid-foot striking and when you get tired you will of course revert back to pushing off your toe. By then half your run will be over and it will be all about getting it done.
Hope this helps some.
This could also be caused by running as others have said.