I took a hiatus for 6 weeks from running after my 5K barefoot race due to TOFP and worries of a possible stress fracture in my left foot (5th metatarsal area).
On Sunday, I met up with fellow BRS member, barefootjohn, for a BF run in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. We were hoping for a few other members, but as luck would have it there was just the two of us.
Leading up to my 5k race in May, I had been struggling with TOFP and a worrisome bruise-like feeling in the 5th metatarsal area of my left foot. I was concerned that I had pushed it too hard and had a stress fracture as a result. So, after the 5K I was determined to rest my foot. NO RUNNING. This was difficult to do. I had really gotten a groove with barefoot running and wanted to do more. However, I knew I needed to heal completely before going back to running.
As the N. California BRS group run date approached, I was concerned because although my TOFP had completely disappeared, there was still a lingering stiffness and light bruised feeling along the outside of my left foot. I did some reading on the BRS site and found some discussion of pain along the peroneal tendon. This seemed to fit my pains more than the idea of a stress fracture.
Sunday arrived and I drove out to SF. Barefootjohn and I met up at Spreckles Lake in Golden Gate Park. It's a manmade lake about half a mile around. It's quite an interesting place with a large group of people doing Tai Chi and turtles basking on a giant stone turtle in the lake. There is a paved path around the lake that varies from nice and smooth to painfully eroded. John and I took two laps around completely barefoot. On the third lap, John decided to run with his Terra Planas
. After the run, we chatted a bit about running and future plans for races and whatnot. The outcome of my first run after 6 weeks was GREAT! Of course the extremely rough pavement gave my feet a good raw feeling as well as a very tiny, quarter inch blister at the center of the ball of my left foot. As for the side of my left foot??? EXCELLENT! No stiffness and the bruised feeling seems to have mostly disappeared.
I'M BACK!!! GOOD AS NEW!!!
