UKC

I did a 20 mile road race yesterday, in preparation for a couple of spring marathons. I was pleased with my run hitting my target of 2:15, but suffered with very sore soles of my feet in the second half, which think slowed me a bit towards the end.

I have now run 20 miles plus on eight occasions in this training cycle, six times on road, but never experienced this level of soreness. The two questions I have are why? And what can I do about it.

In reply to The New NickB:

Racing is always going to be more strenuous on your body than training.
Have you ever run 20 miles in 2:15 in training? Probably not? When you're really banging out the miles quickly the stress on your feet is much worse..

I just wait until my feet have recovered after a hard race and then get back into it with an easy session or two!

Nice time!

In reply to The New NickB: What do you mean by sore? Sore from shock,impact or sore like they're getting hot and close to blistering?

Did you wear racing shoes for this? Was it wet or cold. If you wore really light shoes this might be an indicator that for the marathon something with a bit more bounce would be ok - I much preferred the old Nike Air Streak racer over others for this reason - I could give away 20g if it meant I wasn't biomechanically destroyed.

Second thing is that wet and cold will encourage blistering, but also reduce the cushioning in EVA quite a bit. Another plus for air.

In reply to The New NickB: Which 20 by the way? How'd you feel at the end? Did you taper for it.

In reply to The New NickB:

Yeah, if it was wet your feet will be much worse. Did a half yesterday and it was pretty wet, 3 or 4 blisters as a result..

In reply to wbo: Trimpell in Lancaster, nice and flat like the marathons I will be doing. 2:26 is the fastest I have done in training. Wore Adidas Boost, slightly more cushioning than the Adios / Ace I wear quite a lot. No taper, generally felt pretty good, legs fine, energy levels ok, but feet hurt like they were badly bruised.

In reply to The New NickB:

I don't really suffer from blisters and despite a little light rain, my feet didn't really get wet.

In reply to The New NickB: Sore in the arch, sore under the toes, front of foot? Long races can be hard on eva shoes - I've had shoes in ye olde days that lasted one 20 miler and been pretty stuffed afterwards

In reply to wbo:

Pads rather than toes or arches.

In reply to The New NickB:

Did you have your shoes laced any differently, or might the forefoot have been tighter in any way than in your other runs? It sounds a bit like a condition I've had a few times, although physios and podiatrists don't seem to be able to decide exactly what the problem is in my case.

I suffered hugely sore feet in a half marathon three years ago, and the general thinking was that the forefoot was too cramped so I was developing metatarsalgia - a nerve running between two of the metatarsals was being squeezed together, and was very sore. It felt like it was burning, and didn't go away when I took my shoes off. I subsequently got orthotics, which seemed to sort that problem but caused further problems with my calf, so I'm now running without the orthotics. I haven't had as much pain since, but I did do a half marathon yesterday, which was the first time I'd run much distance on road for quite some time, and there was some pain at about the 8 mile mark, which hung about till the end of the race. It's still a bit tender.

A related condition is Morton's neuroma. This is what my physio think I've got - it's a kind of lump on a metatarsal nerve, which gets inflamed when under pressure.

Most of my running now is off-road, so I don't think I'm quite so prone to the same problems any more.