4 ms·

Stiffness of the human foot and evolution of the transverse arch

34 points by miobrien 9y ago

ice109 9y ago
odd thing to be posted here... but I'll take this opportunity to pull ask for advice: I run 30-40 miles/week, in 7.5 increments, and at the upper end of that range my feet hurt almost unbearably by the end of the run and immediately after. it's interfering with me extending my range (shooting for 50/week). what can I do? I have decent shoes and I get new ones when the tread wears down. also my form is pretty good I think (exclusively toe striking).
- todd8 9y ago
  I never got my normal mileage up to 50/week, so consider this advice from someone that never ran as well as you do. Some readers may not be runners so I will explain how I trained. I'm not that fast and didn't run in college. I was definitely a casual runner. I kept the mileage under control and that helped me avoid injuries. It sounds like you train harder than I ever did, but I did qualify for and ran Boston. My training was the common seven month training regimen to prepare for a marathon: 3 weekday runs, say MWF, and one long weekend run each Sunday. By the second month I would add speed work at a track something like six 400m runs fast. The three weekday runs were around 3 miles each in the first month and might get up to 5 miles by the time I was ready for the marathon. The long run is basically increased in distance by one mile per week. After I hit 13 miles I would cut back to a long run ever other week, but increase the distance by 2 miles each run. In 26 weeks you was able to do a marathon distance in a long training run at an easy pace. I would work on my speed at the track and the short runs. I would not do any more really long runs once I was 3 weeks from the marathon. After the marathon I would take a few months off and then start again around 7 months in advance of the annual local marathon. By the fifth year I was fast enough to qualify for Boston. So my training was almost all under 40/wk and more like 30/wk early in the season. Having lots of days off let my feet recover. I found that always having two different brands of training shoes helped me avoid the overuse injuries that many of my training cohort seemed to experience. I would alternate shoes each day. This way my feet would at least get some break from the particular way the shoe flexed, etc. I would switch brands every so often--they all felt a bit different. My body isn't ideal for running, so I really had to focus on form: very light footfalls, shorter more rapid strides and no overreaching to keep the wear and tear modest.
  - ice109 9y ago
    two pairs of shoes is a good idea. thanks.

34 points by miobrien 9y ago

odd thing to be posted here... but I'll take this opportunity to pull ask for advice: I run 30-40 miles/week, in 7.5 increments, and at the upper end of that range my feet hurt almost unbearably by the end of the run and immediately after. it's interfering with me extending my range (shooting for 50/week). what can I do? I have decent shoes and I get new ones when the tread wears down. also my form is pretty good I think (exclusively toe striking).

todd8 9y ago
I never got my normal mileage up to 50/week, so consider this advice from someone that never ran as well as you do. Some readers may not be runners so I will explain how I trained. I'm not that fast and didn't run in college. I was definitely a casual runner. I kept the mileage under control and that helped me avoid injuries. It sounds like you train harder than I ever did, but I did qualify for and ran Boston. My training was the common seven month training regimen to prepare for a marathon: 3 weekday runs, say MWF, and one long weekend run each Sunday. By the second month I would add speed work at a track something like six 400m runs fast. The three weekday runs were around 3 miles each in the first month and might get up to 5 miles by the time I was ready for the marathon. The long run is basically increased in distance by one mile per week. After I hit 13 miles I would cut back to a long run ever other week, but increase the distance by 2 miles each run. In 26 weeks you was able to do a marathon distance in a long training run at an easy pace. I would work on my speed at the track and the short runs. I would not do any more really long runs once I was 3 weeks from the marathon. After the marathon I would take a few months off and then start again around 7 months in advance of the annual local marathon. By the fifth year I was fast enough to qualify for Boston. So my training was almost all under 40/wk and more like 30/wk early in the season. Having lots of days off let my feet recover. I found that always having two different brands of training shoes helped me avoid the overuse injuries that many of my training cohort seemed to experience. I would alternate shoes each day. This way my feet would at least get some break from the particular way the shoe flexed, etc. I would switch brands every so often--they all felt a bit different. My body isn't ideal for running, so I really had to focus on form: very light footfalls, shorter more rapid strides and no overreaching to keep the wear and tear modest.
- ice109 9y ago
  two pairs of shoes is a good idea. thanks.