"The Boot" and the "Correct Toes Experiment"

The Boot

When I was in high school, I once suffered a metatarsal stress fracture at the end of a cross country season that I didn't recognize until beginning winter "conditioning" practices in January for track.  To address this, I ended up wearing a "boot" for around six weeks before I could resume running and training for the spring track season.  This spring, I find myself back in that familiar time of year and state.


Although it wasn't strictly required, the doctor agreed with me that I would probably get the best and fastest results in healing my metatarsal head injury (metatarsalgia, neuroma, bruise, stress fracture, or whatever it is) by going to a boot to immobilize my foot and make it impossible to put stress on my forefoot for a while.  I started wearing it on January 24th so I'm getting close to the two week mark with this clunky "shoe".


Rest and  Relaxation


In the meantime, I still feel driven to accomplish something that will benefit my running this year.  It's time to rest.  I haven't taken any sort of complete break from training (cross training included) in a few years so it might be good at this point to just do nothing for six weeks.  We'll see.  I'm taking this rest seriously, in that I really am doing absolutely nothing.  No weights, no cardiovascular exercise, and I've been driving everywhere.  I probably have driven more miles in the last two weeks then I have driven in the entire past year.


This was pretty difficult at first, as I just felt on edge pretty much all the time for about a week.  I've finally started settling into my new sedentary lifestyle.


Fixing My Feet


I'm far from a barefoot running fanatic, but I do think modern shoes are to blame for some of the injuries that runners suffer from.  Notably, the size and shape of some shoes (women's especially) cram the toes together in a way that forms a foot overtime that probably doesn't exactly resemble a foot with a little room to move and spread.  I've been trying to be a little more careful about selecting shoes with a little more forefoot room for a while, as the toll this crowding takes has become a little more obvious to me with longer miles.


Since at least my right foot will be an open boot for the next six weeks, I've decided this is a good time work on spreading my toes out to a little more natural position.  The day I got the boot I spotted a well placed and timed ad from the Indiana Running Company for "Correct Toes", the apparent invention of a podiatrist.

With Correct Toes

Without

I'm not sure if this device will help my foot more equally distribute forces on it or not but I think it's worth trying.  I've been wearing the correct toes as much as possible and constantly on my right foot in the boot.  I'll post a follow up photo after some time passes to see if my foot's "natural" position has changed in any significant way.