Note: I never update this thing.
Strained Peroneus Longus Tendon, Outside Bottom of the foot, near the ankle
STATUS: Conquered
The day after the Hagg Lake 50K run in 2011, I went for a quick run. During this run, I felt some pains from the day before, but decided to keep trotting along. Eventually, I started feeling sharp pains on the outside bottom of my left foot (behind the 5th metatarsal), and I had to walk/limp most of the way home.
Icing was the magic cure for this. After consistent icing and massaging, I was able to ramp up my mileage again as it healed.
This was a self-diagnosis, after hours of researching foot anatomy, blogs, and forums debating such pain.
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IT Band Friction/Syndrom/Pain
STATUS: Conquered in the Right Leg, Persistent in my Left Leg
In 2010, I attained this problem when I increased my weekly mileage by too much (30 miles per week to doing 80 miles in one week). My knee locked up, and it became extremely painful to run. In essence, I developed this pain through overtraining too quickly, and possibly wearing the wrong type of shoe.
Symptoms: My knee locked up on me after a few crazy weeks of running too much, too soon. After resting for a few days, I would try to run...but I kept feeling a sharp pain on the outside of my right knee. This pain never really went away, and running became impossible to run pain free. There was no inflamation, only stiffness and pain on the outside of the knee area. After most runs, my knee would feel uncomfortable and make a cracking sound with every other step while walking around. Stretching it helped temporarily during running, but a 100% cure seemed unnatainable.
Research: After researching tons of forums in the internet and investing in "IT Band Friction Fix" Videos, I've learned a lot of stretches and exercises to help loosen the IT band and strengthen the muscles around it. I sometimes felt ridiculous doing the exercises, because I know there are lots of ultramarathoners who simply just run all the time. They don't do hundreds of leg lifts a day or foam roll their IT band without mercy every night...so why did I have to? For a brief period I visited with a chiropractor who 'scraped' my IT band with some little metal thing, as a way to break up the scar tissue along the leg (called graston). It temporarily helped, but weeks later I would have to come in and have it done again..
After talking with people who have actually recovered from having IT band issues, their solution was to change the way they were running. One friend in particular transitioned to barefoot running, and it worked for her (aside from the resulting stress fractures from going barefoot too quickly). I never found anything on the internet that indicated a low-profile or minimalist shoe would be the answer to my problem...but it was worth a shot! I was willing to try anything at that point, and finally I had some hope.
My Solution: I bought a pair of Asics Hyper Speed 4 from my local Foot Traffic store. It's a racing flat that has very little cushion, and extremely low-profile. They felt like slippers, and running in them was like running on a cloud (compared to the Asics Landreth that I had been running in for the past year). My midfoot strike came easy, and it was a HUGE change to my form. I was in marathon shape at the time, but I could only run 3 miles in these shoes because my calves would begin to burn like hell. Eventually, my legs transitioned to the new form/shoe, and my IT band stopped bothering me.
Since then, I've been running in 4mm drop shoes on both road and trail. My shoes of choice are the Saucony Kinvara (road) and the Saucony Peregrine (trail). My IT band does get tight from time to time (now in my left leg) through high mileage weeks, but foam rolling and stretching helps keep it manageable. To my surprise, my IT bands were never an issue in my 100 mile run.
