Back when Rick was training for his BQ marathon in '05, he'd make sure to ice his feet after most runs, but especially after long runs. This shot shows him taking advantage of a warm March day to ice his feet in the snow. I never knew how he could keep his feet in ice that long. I always bail; I find it intensely painful.My recent foot pain and the upcoming higher mileage of marathon training has made me try icing once again. Last night I toughed it out. I stretched out the time my foot was in the ice bucket and then put it back in as soon as I could tolerate it again. I did that for almost a half an hour.
I almost opted to run on the Gorham x-country course today rather than on the more technical, hillier trails behind USM; I knew it would be easier on my foot, but I couldn't make myself abandon the run I'd find more fun.
I was surprised to find very little discomfort at the start. One loop down, still feeling okay. I noticed that my little dead mouse on the trail Tuesday was still there. It was starting to stink. I'm amazed that such a little thing could put out that much smell. I thought about taking it off the trail, but now it was one of my things I look for each lap. I finally remembered to jump onto the middle part of the rickety bridge that, each lap before, I'd been scared by the sound of breaking wood because I always landed on the rotten edge of the bridge. It took me a few more laps to finally break off the twig that kept trying to get me in the eye. It wasn't till my 4th lap of this run that my foot started to be sore again and then just moderately so.
So I got in another 7 miles on pretty difficult terrain. My foot was tender, but not super sore. Still, I bought frozen peas again for the ride home. I'm a convert. There's lots of ice in my future.
During the summer I discovered that I liked to ice my feet before going to bed even though they weren't sore; I fell asleep better.
ReplyDeleteHi Jean ,,,chaming picture of hubby!! For a minute I thought where in the world did she get the snow from, until I started to read !
ReplyDeleteI think by now if it was possible to run on water you could have made it half way around the world!!! : }
Hope those feet hold up!!
Hi Val - so one thing to know with tendon pain is that, contrary to what most people think, these tendon overuse injuries are NOT INFLAMMATORY so ice isn't necessary to reduce inflammation because none exists! However ice will reduce pain since it slows nerve excitement. That said, some treatments that reduce pain are not the best to increase the rate of recovery. A good example is a fever. Tylenol or Ibuprofen are great are lowering fever but the fever itself is a defense mechanism to clear the pathogen. A good question is, does ice promote, inhibit, or have no effect on tendonosis repair? Don't know the answer to that. However, eccentric strengthening exercises have been show to significantly increase the rate of repair and return to sport. Eccentric strenghthening would be when you contract the muscle while it is lengthening. You might want to tie a theraband around your foot and then the other end to the leg of a table or desk and then do sets of 10 of this: 1) rotate foot inward then 2) slowly let the theraban rotate your foot outward (It's the slow rotation that is the eccentric contraction of your tibialis posterior). Your foot should pivot like a windshield wiper. This of course assume it's a posterior tibialis tendonosis!
ReplyDeleteJeff, thanks for the info. Since the ice seemed to be so beneficial, I'm now wondering if it is the tendon. I'll try the eccentric exercise any way cause it can't hurt.
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