Hi Kelly,

I had a similar pain last summer about a month after I started running BF. The
pain was most noticeable when I dorsiflexed my foot. I had an MRI done and the
diagnosis came back as a 'stress reaction' in a couple of the metatarsals as
well as the calcaneal bone. From what I understand, that's a term that sports
physicians use to describe an inflammation of the bone tissue. This makes the
tissue weaker and more susceptible to a fracture. My short term remedy was to
switch to wearing shoes for all my running since I was in the middle of a
marathon training program and I didn't want to back off significantly and wait
for my feet to heal completely. In the mean time, I was doing feet and ankle
strengthening exercises similar to the yoga toes exercises that Ken Bob
referred to recently. Also, I did quite a bit of barefoot hiking over rugged
trails. I highly recommend that. It's the best thing you can do to strengthen
the various muscles/tendons/ligaments in your feet as well as all the auxiliary
stabilizing structures in the ankles and further up. It also improves your
reflexes and awareness, not to mention that it's a lot of fun! Other hikers
will think that you're superhuman for doing this even though it's quite
pleasurable.

In my experience, it takes about 2-3 months of consistent practice for your
feet to adapt to the point where you can run BF at about the same mileage and
intensity as you're used to with shoes without experiencing any niggling aches.
Patience and consistency are the key.

-Paul

--- Kelly Cox <wisc_galoot@...> wrote:

> I'm wondering if any other BF'ers have input on what might be causing
> this. I have a pain on the top of my right foot (and a bit on my left)
> around the area of the 4th metatarsal, about in the middle of my foot.
> I didn't run a lot over the summer, but I did wear flip-flops a lot,
> and I suspect that is the cause.
>
> It isn't a stress fracture--I'm able to run 5 miles BF, and it doesn't
> hurt at all when I run. It does hurt the next day, and I'm wearing my
> Waldies now to see if that helps. Otherwise, I'm icing and taking
> naproxen to see if that helps.
>
> Barefoot Kelly in Madison
>
>