[austin.boese57]

Hi all,

So I was here about 13 months ago or so for an achilles heel trauma/bruise issue. Pete and others insight was very helpful so I thought I’d reach out again for my most recent blunder. With my achilles (all better now) I wasn’t proactive about rest and therapy, and therefore wasted several weeks of potential recovery time. Hoping to avoid the same mistakes this time around.

So since last November I’ve had a pretty consistent and successful experience with my training. I covered about 1,100 miles in 2020, and have SLOWLY built up to 30-40 mile weeks now. I’ve been doing a lot of running in the snow recently (slower pace with a more supportive water resistant shoe) and only running about 2 times a week in my typical barefoot style footwear (Merrel Trail gloves), and this has been on paved and dirt roads, not the typical single track I’d normally be on. Anyways last week I had a short get away and was able to do 3 runs on wet, muddy, rocky single track totaling about 29 miles in my trail gloves. Upon returning home and going for a run, I noticed a pain/soreness on the side/top of my mid foot, straight back from my pinky toe. When sitting in a chair and doing calf raises, when putting pressure against the tendon I can feel some vibrating/roughness. From my internet research it seems like this could be a peroneal tendon issue.

So I took 6 days rest, with gradual improvement, then tried a 4 mile run, no pain, maybe a little soreness but probably something I wouldn’t notice if I weren’t thinking about it. So anyways I still have some soreness, and some very slight pain if I apply hard direct pressure, or if I flex my foot hard. I can also still feel a little of that “roughness” on my tendon but it’s improved.

So my question is, is it ok to keep running on it, or should I give it maybe another week of rest and hope it will be feeling 100% again? Also, are there any exercises I should be doing now to help strengthen it, or does it just need some more time to heal first? If it’s necessary, I’d rather take some more time up front, as I don’t want this to become my second achilles heel (haha) and set me back months instead of a few weeks.

Thank you, and I appreciate any input you may have!

Austin

Topic

[Pete Dickinson MS,PT]

Pete Dickinson MS,PT on January 16, 2021 at 7:51 pm #49346

You can start some light strength right away, maybe a short week away from running then reintroduce with walk/jog progressions. The concept here is to return to activity ASAP that doesn’t irritate the condition, then gradually reintroduce the more dynamic activity at a reduced level/load/volume. Find a painfree starting point, then very slowly progress. The training error that I see here is your training surfaces are all over the place, I would try to get more consistent/good surfaces to start on.
Cheers,
Pete