I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not a bruise…it’s Plantar Fasciitis. It confused me because it presented around my toes and not in the back of the arch/heel area. I started rolling it a few days ago and my fascia is super tight. Yesterday, I broke out my old Brooks Launch with Biofit insoles and ran 30 minutes on the treadmill with no pain. It was tight, but no pain. I rolled it afterward and it feels pretty good.
I’m back to walking around the house in Birkenstocks and rolling my foot with the fascia ball at my computer. I’ve run 3 times in 3 days with no pain. Today I ran 6 miles with no pain. Again, some tightness, but no pain. I’m back to my old set up for now (i.e., Brooks Launch with arch supports), as it’s the only set-up that does not aggravate the PF spot. Once I get this thing to chill out, I’ll start introducing minimalist stuff again. This set back definitely has me taking a more buy prednisone online for humans conservative approach to the whole minimalist transition. It was going so good, but this keeps it in perspective, I suppose. 38 years in shoes. Not gonna happen overnight.
This is a great reminder to anyone out there that is or wants to transition to less shoe. Make it a a nice conservative, slow transition f you want to continue to run a descent volume. I think two factors were my downfall:
1) Ben Arous Too much volume too quick. If I was willing to take 3 months to really back off my volume, I think I would have been fine, but I was back up to my normal volume in 6 weeks, all in light shoe with no arch support when my feet were used to the Brooks Launch with insoles.
2) I’d quit doing the little stuff. The stuff I was doing at the beginning of the transition—like rolling my arches and fascia and working on foot strengthening by picking up the ball and dropping with my toes—I’d neglected the past few weeks.
My usual OVER zealous approach. Too much too quick in the VFFs, too much volume. I’m just happy to be able to train again…the gym and the elliptical was driving me NUTS. Giddyup!