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feet going numb

guest — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:40:51 GMT

First of all, thakns for your very detailed and informative answer JamesJohnsonLMT, it has really given me some things to thinks about.

I'm more worried about the transition from "casual" running to 30-40 miles a week.

Ok, my bad, I should have provided more details, I realise now the way I wrote it makes it look like a little different than it is. I am now 34 and I consider that I have been running "a lot more" lately, but the transition was relatively smooth.

MY BACKGROUD:

I played handball from secondary school to university (I would typically train three days a week for two hours and then play a match on the weeked). During these years I also began running (casually) on my own and doing some races from time to time. I enjoyed running but at that time I never concerned myself with mileage, pace or training for races (I would always finish middle of the pack). Of course I had my ups and downs, but managed to stay reasonably fit.

About 10 years ago I moved to another city, quit handball and took up running. I would run 2-3 times a week for totals of around 10 miles a week. I would also play all kinds of sports with friends (once or twice a week). Once I got quite a nasty ankle injury that took me a full year to recover completely from (specifically I was told by the specialist doctor I got to see that I had broken my soleus). During that year I took up swimming and slowly quit playing any sport that made me feel my ankle could get hurt. I did not, however, quit running ( but stopped for half a year due to PT advice). I also run for a while wearing an orthesis but eventually got confident enough to leave it home and have not had any ankle problems since then. During these years I also kept on racing three or four times a year just for fun. In this period some years I would end up running closer to 15 miles a week and some others I would be closer to 10 (in those times I would swim more). Generally I would do some kind of sport three to five days a week.

CURRENT DAYS

Finally, about two years ago "the running bug" bit me again and I started gradually increasing my weekly mileage. At first it was not a conscious decision but after a while I was consistenly running three or four days a week for 15-20 miles. After about half a year I decided to train for a half marathon and started looking for training plans, bought myself a GPS watch, new shoes, new clothes... I kept increasing my mileage slowly (never more than 10% each week). Up to 25-30 miles a week. After about another year (half a year ago), I increased a bit more to my current 5-6 days and 30-40 miles. I have also completed many races this year (three HM, five 10k, two 5K). I also try to swim one or two days a week (but have been less able to keep that up lately). I do at least one full rest day a week, no running, no swimming, nothing at all.

OVERTRAINING

So, I do not "feel" like the distance I am running now is too hard, I got used to it and feel quite comfortable. I have to say that I run most of it at a slow pace. I do about three speedwork/hills sessions every two weeks. The rest of session I run them between 30-120 seconds slower than my HM pace at what is a very comfortable pace for me (from 60 seconds slower than HM pace I can have a conversation while jogging). The reason for this is that during this year I did have my issues with overtraining, got myself some quadriceps problems due to bad stretching and too many hills. I ended up learning to take it a little easier, running slower and taking additional rest days whenever I feel a little too tired.

PRONATION

I went to a podiatrist a year ago to get my gait analised (I will see her again in a couple of weeks for a follow up and tell her about this). She told me I ovepronate a lot and gave me corrective insoles. She is also a runner and has quite a lot of experience with running shoes. Her advice was to use neutral shoes with my "personalised" insoles. I run comfortably in my asics gel pulse 3 for a year and lately changed to gel kayano 18. This numb feet problem has only become aparent since I am running with the new shoes but on one race I tried going back to the old ones and the problem persisted. I will try to explore this further by doing some more speedwork with my old shoes.

Another thing that might be important is that this whole problem seems to appear mostly in my right foot (although I have had occasional problems in the right one too). The fact that the foot that presents the problem more often is noticeably bigger than the other one (about half a size) also led me to think that the whole thing might be due to the foot swelling and causing circulatory problems.

HABITS

I work an "office" job, so I do spent most of my times sitting,

"CONCLUSIONS"

(feel like I am writing a paper, with all these sections :-) )

I will try to determine whether or not I have poor circulation by doing the "pinching" test you suggested.

Will also experiment with the shoes I already have some more to try to determine if the problem is shoe-related.

Will speak to my podiatrist in a couple of weeks and see what she has to say.

Meanwhile, I will cut my mileage a little (I have already done this involuntarily this week as I have the flu) and probably substitute some of my easy runs by easy swim sessions. If I manage to get rid of the problem, then I will slowly build up the mileage again.

Thanks for your help!

feet going numb

guest — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:37:29 GMT

Hi all,

Lately I have been experiencing a "new" problem and I wonder if someone can give me some advice.

I am an "experienced" runner (used to be a casual runner but lately have been running 30-40 miles/week for the last year and a half). My problem is that my feet, in some very speciffic situations, tend to fell numb and finally "fall asleep" (pins and needles sensation).

This used to happen to me when I began running because of shoes being tied too tight leading to poor blood circulation, but in this case my shoes are very loosely tied. Additionally, this sensation only happens when I am running at my top speed for a while:

So the sensation does appear: 1) In races 2) in long speedwork series (at least four miles)

But it does not appear 1) while training at "cruise" speed, even for long runs (of 13 miles) 2) for short speedwork series (of 1-2 miles), even if I am running as fast as I can.

If I stop and walk or just reduce my speed drastically, the sensation disapears in a few minutes, but it is very uncomfortable and I cannot run through it (yes, I have tried and no, it was probably not a smart thing to do).

Possible causes, well, I do have new shoes (asics gel kayano 18) but I experienced the same thing with my old pair (asics gel pulse 3). I also changed my running tights (but do not believe they are causing me circulation problems). I am not aware of having changed anything else. Is there anything apart from poor blod circulation that could cause this?

Thanks for your help.

My Quest For "Running My Birth Year" in a 5K

guest — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:44:41 GMT

As usual, congratulations on your improvements! (63 seconds are a lot of seconds in a 5k!)

I would advice going easy on injuries, rest and if you absolutely "have to" run do it slowly. Once this is done, you can probably benefit from increasing your weekly mileage (again, build up slowly) and do some speed work in order to increase your pace awareness and get more comfortable with the distance.

I would suggest considering taking up swimming. It is often overlooked as a cross training exercise for runners but it will help you improve your lung capacity and will give you a much less agressive exercise to do for those days when your legs could use some rest from running.

I have not had much experience with strength training, but I did some core training and thought it had a noticeable effect.

Shoe question...

guest — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:37:37 GMT

I tried quite a lot of shoes before I reached a (surprising) solution. I ended up visiting a podiatrist. I was lucky because she is also a runner and new quite a lot about running shoes. The solution she proposed to me was to wear insoles specially designed for my feet (I am a heavy overpronator) and use only neutral shoes. Her other good advice was to wear whatever feels comfortable and not to worry too much about cushioning. Since then, most of my shoe problems have disapeared.

Re: 2 Hour Half Marathon

guest — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:28:32 GMT

As usual Lenzlaw has given you very good advice.

I would just add a few things that worked for me:

- Distance. I have consistently run much more than I used to and it is helping me improve my paces and feel more comfortable in them. Important tip, do not increase your mileage too fast or you will get injuried. Build slowly!

- Learn to run slow too. Lately I have been running with my girfriend. One day she got tired of seeing me go running on my own and decided to come along. As a result, I have run many miles at a slightly slower pace that I would have. To my surprise I have found out that this has helped my preparation a great deal. On the one hand, it made it easier for me to reach higher mileages, on the other, learning to adapt to different paces has given me much more awareness of the state my body is in at every moment. By the way, my girlfriend also wanted to go sub 2h in half marathon and ran a 1:50:30 personal best two weeks ago, so go for it!

- Core training: these exercices do not look too important at the begining, but you end up noticing them, in my case, I have improved my running position and imporved some muscular problems.

- Last but not least, hills. For me they are a great way to make your legs stronger and give make improve your lung capacity. It is important to be very careful with this as it is pretty easy to overtrain. At this moment I am treating my hills session the same way as hard speed interval session, so I do one or the other every two or three days. In any case, be very carefull with this as it is easy to overtrain. At the begining I would not do more than one of these sessions every one or two weeks.

One long run a week for 1/2 marathon training

guest — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 11:52:04 GMT

I believe you have some pretty strong time limitations there, is there any way to get around them? For example, could you run twice in the weekend? The thing is that running only in the weekends give you plenty of time to recover, so maybe you could squeeze a short, fast run on saturdays (running fast for 30-40 minutes) and then keep your usual long run in sundays you would have quite a lot more room for training "experiments". You would also benefit from being able to run (or cross train) during the week. Given your tight schedule I would consider very short runs (about half an hour) near your house or, should this be infeasible, at least some core training exercises.

Finally if none of this is really an option, and aswering your question, I would probably increase the distance of the long run progressively (most probably you do not need to reach 13.1) and once you have reached one that is enough for you to be confident to be able to run the 13.1 on race day, start working the pace by introducing pace intervals in midrun.

Hope this helps.

What Is Your Dream Goal Time?

guest — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 18:01:37 GMT

My dream goals:

1) Probably easiest one, 5K in under 20 min. So far 20:12 so I am almost there. I believe if I started training seriously for this it should not be too difficult to get.

2) 10k in under 40 min. So far best time is 44:30 but i have not run any "flat" 10 k in quite some time.

3) HM in less than 1:30. Current PB is 1:35:27 so there is still a while to go. Although maybe not so much as for the 10k goal.

Next steps: first, beat 1:35 in the HM, then run a nice, flat, 10k and hopefully get somewhere around 42 minutes. Then maybe go for the 5k or keep on at the HM time.

Something no one has mentioned so far is... what will you do once you reach your dream goal time?

Legs can't keep up!! Advice needed PLEASE :D

guest — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 09:36:05 GMT

As people have already said, just try not to do too much too soon, slowly increase yout mileage and speed and do not be affraid to walk if you have to. Also remember to plan for enough rest days so you do not get overtired. Finally, another type of cross-training that is often not considered is swimming, it will help you increase your pulmonary capacity while at the same time helping you relax your leg muscles.

Running too much?

guest — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:17:23 GMT

As usual, Lenzlaw has already given you very good advice. I would just like to put a stress on something that was difficult for me. Not only is it important to watch mileage but also your level of effort. I use running (too) for stress control, so most days what I want to do is get out there and run as fast as I can. Not only is an invitation to all kinds of injuries, but I have found out that it is also a pretty bad training strartegy even if you do not get injured. So my advice would be: learn to run at different paces and, most specially, learn to run slow. As you become a better running, taking care of your body and paying attention to your training becomes more important.

three Half Marathons in one month, any advice?

guest — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:11:01 GMT

lenzlaw wrote:

I'd be inclined to treat the 2nd one as a training run. You have experience racing the other two 4 weeks apart so you shouldn't do anything different training-wise (or diet-wise) except adding the 2nd race as a training run. The problem, of course, is going with your running buddies, which may turn it into a competitive event no matter how hard you try not to. Good luck!

Len

Yes, I was also thinking as treating the one in the middle as a training run. It is held in a city where I used to live and I welcome the oportunity to see it from street level without having to worry about cars trying to run me over. My running buddies will indeed be a problem, however, they are a competitive bunch of individuals (not that I am like them at all) and I find it increasingly difficult not to show them I have been training much harder than them...

I don't know, maybe I should go for the painful but safe solution and equip my girlfriend with some sort of taser-like implement to be used in case I go over the designated pace per mile...

Thanks for your advice!