I had been experiencing some pretty intense pain in my left foot. This pain happened before and after runs, but not as much during runs. I could tell the pain was there during runs but it did not keep me from running. I was afraid that I had a stress fracture and pondered going to the doctor for an x-ray. I was discouraged that I might have to pause my training at least while running for the foreseeable future.
I first noticed this pain after I began some of the low heart rate zone-2 running during this pre-season training for this upcoming year of training and racing. I was trying to run with a new gate by solidly landing on the middle of the foot and not hitting the heel of the foot. I was determined to get a more precise running position with a slight lean and a smooth gate. After the initial run like this is when I noticed the pain starting.
The pain started in the front ball of the left foot and then began to encompass the whole foot. My toes began to ache as well. The pain was worse when I would wake up in the morning and even had to limp down the stairs in my house. Until I was able to warm up either before the run, swim, or bike, it was painful.
I knew that my foot was slightly swollen so I thought that the pain might just be from the swelling and not actually from a stress fracture. I had experienced Plantar Fasciitis before which is a pain in the middle of the foot back toward the heel. I knew that this current pain was not that. I also knew that it wasn’t just a pain that would go away easily as it was lingering. Lastly, I was determined not to let the pain sideline me for too long.
I began to take some ibuprofen to help with the inflammation and that seemed to help. As long as I had that ibuprofen in me, my foot did not ache or hurt. I also noticed that my shoe laces which are the elastic kind might have been too tight running over the middle of the top of my foot. I loosened the laces. I also did not notice any discoloring of the foot and determined that it was not a fracture. Maybe this is naive, but I wanted to press on.
After about two months of pain, we arrived at Christmas. I decided that for the two weeks we would be traveling for Christmas I would not run and try and let the foot heal. I did experience some relief, but not much. I actually thought it might have been a waste of time to not run even though the break was nice. I actually did not exercise at all during those two weeks. During the time we were in Texas, my wife experienced some back pain and my mom gave her a pain relief gel to rub in called “Blue Emu.” Yes the stuff that “Won’t make you stink.” I decided to use a little of it on my foot to see if I got any relief. It actually felt a little bit better, but the pain was still pretty strong.
When we returned from Christmas, I wanted to get back to my training, but my foot was still in pain. I decided to do some research on any foot specific rubs. I found a product called “Topricin.” I went to the local CVS and found the product. I brought it home and began a to apply the paste immediately. I noticed a little bit of relief, but not a lot. I was upset that I had not started getting any relief. I put the paste on in the morning and at night. After 3-5 days I really started to notice a difference in my pain level. After a couple of weeks, my pain is virtually gone. I am able to do any of the disciplines of running, biking, or swimming with no pain. I wake up in the morning and have full function of my foot without having to warm up first. This product certainly helped my foot pain in an incredible way. I have paused using it for now as I am doing well, but will keep it handy if I am ever experiencing any more foot pain.
I highly recommend Topricin to you for any of your foot pain.
Product Review: Topricin
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