Peter, Hope you are feeling better. I have a lot to share on this after a yearlong journey with it which ended well, but here are a few things that I hope you'll find helpful. I came full circle to realize that in my case the metatarsalgia was either solely or primarily caused by running shoes without enough forefoot room, partly because your feet change and tend to elongate/spread a bit with time (the shoes that worked for me a year ago no longer worked). That was my first question to the podiatrist, and I brought my running shoes and took out my insoles to stand on them and note that I thought they might be too narrow, and my concern was totally ignored. Only unnecessary solutions that cost $ – orthotics, metatarsal pad, custom orthotics, were thrown at me. Typical problem in Western US medicine. First, as has already been pointed out, a lot of foot problems can originate or be related to tight calf muscles. In addition to stretching your calves, I'd highly recommend rolling them with either body weight over a foam roller (the harder the foam the better for you, though it may feel challenging at first) or with a roller stick such as this travel-size one: http://amzn.to/1N9dyVb A friend who was staying with us while qualifying for the US Olympic Team in a nearby race showed it to us and swore by it, and my wife and I find it extremely helpful. It also helps you feel when you have a knot in your muscles and then lets you roll it out. Most of us sit too much leading to tight calves, hamstrings and hip muscles, so start with the calves. Second, a recent New York Times article I was going to post separately in the Technique Forum pointed out that lower leg muscles atrophy faster than upper leg and other muscles, leading to runners and hikers having a stiffer more injury-prone gait as they age. These exercises were recommended, and these are the exercises I did religiously in physiotherapy: http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00667 Third, Roger Caffin is right about this – shoes, shoes, shoes. Make sure your forefoot has enough room. I personally find that these qualities really help: -Roomy enough toe box and forefoot -Flat insole without an artificially high arch, which may not even hit your arch in the right place -Low drop (4mm) – 4mm works great for trail running shoes for hiking as well as road shoes, though I've never tried zero drop yet. I can immediately feel when I'm in shoes with a higher drop and I much prefer the lower drop. -Good padding – no, I don't think you need monster Hoka padding and I think the extra height may be biomechanically problematic, but make sure you have some good padding in the sole and insole. Something that molds to your foot over time and shields you a bit from the trail. -Rock plate in the forefoot – protects your metatarsals from bruising on the trail from rocks and roots. Remember that fat pads on the bottom of the feet atrophy with age. Padding helps. -I personally find a shoe that has a sole that's a bit torsionally rigid feels much better and more protective than a shoe that is floppy. With shoes that are too soft and with no rock plate, I feel foot fatigue that I would otherwise never feel. -Fourth, be very careful about accepting anything to put inside your shoes that will place more point pressure on parts of your foot, like a metatarsal pad. I was prescribed a metatarsal pad, which was also several sizes too large for me, incidentally during a trip to one of the BPL Point Reyes GGG's, and it wrecked my foot. Tore it right out as soon as I got back. I'm very suspicious of orthotics, and personally I found they weren't useful and changed biomechanics in a bad way, and chucked them as soon as I focused on shoes. -Fifth, be careful to deal with any problems quickly and keep pain and inflammation under control. My cousin who is a physician likes to say, when the body is in pain it's hard for you to heal. Also pain can get "burned in" to the central nervous system so that you continue to feel pain even though the original source of the pain might not be there or be as bad as it was. Further if your foot pain keeps you awake on a regular basis, lower quality sleep can increase pain. I put almost 2400 hiking and trail running miles on a pair of Saucony Xodus 3.0 before finally destroying any remaining padding by using them to move heavy furniture and boxes. And by that time I'd worn down the lugs quite a bit, though the tread lasted a shockingly long time (and I'm 170-175lbs). Note that many of these miles were on forest soil/leaves/gravel and some rock, not mostly rock. Most durable and comfortable trail runner I ever tried. I used to wear New Balance, Montrail, Salomon and Vasque shoes. You are getting fantastic durability, grip, padding and forefoot room for the weight. Some trail shoes with generous forefoot I checked out from Pearl Izumi and Nike would have never lasted this long in terms of structural integrity, tread and padding. Also the Xodus is more durable and better padded/protected than the Saucony Peregrine. Currently using the Saucony Xodus 6.0. My only gripe is that they gave into fashion and made the shape of the front of the shoe a little pointier than the 3.0, but I have the same amount of room for my forefoot. Just size up – I find with about an 11 1/4 foot size I need the 12.5. My wife has to size up similarly. Neither one of us has a wide foot. I have no relationship to Saucony. I've heard that their shoes especially trail shoes don't get as much press as some other shoes because the parent company has other shoe brands and doesn't spend much on their Saucony advertising. Hope this helps.
.
Blazes of excitement!
Heading back to the bridge…
Blazes of excitement!
Got to the end of a 45-minute detour and I realized it bypassed one of my favorite stretches. What should I do?
Heading back to the bridge…
Love that scene. Bridge has been out two years, I guess.
Ominous lichen.
The usual splendor.
Breakfast of Runners-Up!
Color is delayed this year in Michigan.
Final view of the valley.
Devil: You need gas — get a cup of coffee at the station! Angel: Make yourself a pour-over for the road!
