Doc On The Run Podcast

Overtraining Injury BS

Whether you’re training for your first 5K, a half-marathon, Ironman triathlon or 100 mile ultramarathon, you have to put in lots of miles. To keep logging miles, increasing your speed and building your strength…you have to avoid injury.

The real game with building strength and fitness in long distance running is to systematically stress your tissues so those muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments all have to rebuild themselves and become stronger.

So whether you are self-coached, you purchased an online training program, or you have hired a professional coach to help you, the task is to help you choose workouts that will deliver the maximum amount of tissue damage that your body is capable of rebuilding before your next key workout.

But if you do more tissue damage than your body is capable of rebuilding, and then you do another hard workout, you get an over-training injury. In this podcast we’re talking about overtraining myths, and other B.S. that you need to know to avoid an overtraining injury.
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Lessons on plantar fasciitis for runners

This week I was invited to lecture on Runners Heel: Pearls for Podiatric Physicians at the International Foot & Ankle Foundation Meeting at the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Washington.

The attendees to this conference included podiatrists, foot and ankle surgeons and sports medicine specialists. The lecture was on runner’s heel pain and I was discussing the differences between plantar fasciitis, infracalcaneal bursitis, neuritis and stress fractures of the heel bone.

The goal was to try to explain to doctors the ways that they could tell the difference between all these conditions in runners how they can help their patients continue running even if they have a partial rupture of the plantar fascia or plantar fasciitis.

 As a runner, you will find the main lessons of this talk helpful...

IronCowboy... 50 Ironmans in 50 states in 50 days

Today on the Doc On the Run Podcast we have a truly inspirational guest: the Iron Cowboy, James Lawrence who is famous for settling two world records: both the number of Half Iron Distance triathlons done in one year and then in 2012 he also set a new world record for the number of full Iron Distance triathlons done in one year. But then, he did 50 Ironman distance triathlons in 50 days, and in all 50 states!​​​​​​​

Top 5 Worst Exercises for a Plantar Plate Tear

The very first step in healing a plantar plate sprain is to make sure that you don't make the condition worse. Because it's a tiny little ligament and it's easy to make it worse!

In many cases you can continue to run and still heal a sprain of the plantar plate. But this depends on many different factors. However, there are some exercises which I believe are much more stressful than running when it comes to the stresses applied to the plantar plate. If you do these exercises you can rest assured that a tear in the plantar plate is going to continue to get worse.

So without further ado here are the top five worst exercises for a plantar plate tear.

Fat pad atrophy in runners

One of the less common ways you can get pain in the ball of the foot is if the cushioning within the foot becomes diminished. If that happens it can feel like you’re walking on rocks or standing right on the bones on the ball of the foot.

If you think about it, when you stand up, your skeletal system, primarily the bones and everything that hold the bones together is what supports you. Obviously, you have a lot of bones in your foot. The bones are resting on top of the skin. So if you think about all that weight pressing down on the skin, what is it that prevents the skin from hurting?

Well, it’s your fat pad. It’s the natural cushioning or padding between the bones and the skin at the ball of the foot.

Today on the Doc On the Run podcast we’re talking about fat pad atrophy in runners.

5 signs your doctor may not be on your team

Is your doctor on your team?

If you’ve been training for a marathon or any other event and you suffer a running injury the first thing that happens is that you become concerned that your foot is going to hurt and slow you down during your training. But then as things get worse you actually realize it may not just hurt when you’re running. You may have to change your training schedule or even stop running to get it to heal.

If you’ve ever suffered this sort of contemptuous delivery of healthcare, you may have become concerned your doctor really doesn’t have your best interests at heart. Maybe she just doesn’t understand you or fully appreciate how important running is to you.

There are many reasons why doctors will tell runners to stop running. And although sometimes it is necessary to briefly pause your training when you get injured, you have to be on guard for those times when it seems like your doctor really isn’t on your team.

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast we’re talking about 5 signs your doctor may not be on your team.

Top 5 Ankle Sprain Myths for Runners

Ankle sprains are one of the most common injuries that brings an athlete to the emergency room. Of course, as we talked about before, the emergency room may be the very worst place to go when you actually have an ankle sprain.

Since many runners are starting to learn that they don’t need to sit around all day in the emergency room it’s important to understand what is a myth and what is reality when it comes to a sprained ankle.

If you understand a few simple things about ankle sprains you can make the best decisions about how to care for your ankle so you can get back to running as soon as possible.

Difference between metatarsal stress fractures, Morton’s neuroma, plantar plate sprains and osteochondritis

In previous episodes we talked about the different causes of pain in the ball of the foot in runners. We talked about the differences between Morton’s neuroma, plantar plate sprains, and osteochondritis.

But a great question occurred to one of our listeners. Why didn’t you include metatarsal stress fractures in this series of discussions? After all, the metatarsal stress fracture can also cause pain in the ball of the foot in runners.

So today we’re going to talk about how you can tell the difference between metatarsal stress fractures, Morton’s neuroma, plantar plate sprains and osteochondritis.

Osteochondritis In Runners

If you are a runner and you have pain in the ball of the foot there are really only a few conditions that could be causing the trouble. This episode is the third of a three part series that explains what you need to think about if you’re a runner seeking treatment for these problems. Previously we talked about pain in the ball of the foot caused by plantar plate sprains and neuromas. Today, we're going to talk a little bit about another condition which is in a similar location in the ball of the foot and can also cause pain in runners.

In this episode we’re talking about pain in the ball of the foot in runners caused by a condition called "osteochondritis."

Plantar Plate Sprain in Runners

If you are a runner and you have pain in the ball of the foot there are really only a few conditions that could be causing the trouble. This episode will be the second of a three part series that explains all of the things you need to think about if you’re a runner seeking treatment for any of these problems. Last week talked about neuroma treatment in runners. Today I’m going to explain a little bit about another condition which is in almost the exact same location as a neuroma.

The plantar plate is a small ligament on the bottom of the joints located in the ball of the foot. It is really just a thickening of the joint capsules. Because the plantar plate is located between the heads of the metatarsal bones and the ground, you’re basically standing on the plantar plate whenever you walk or run. If the ligament comes sprained it can be very painful. Often times, runners and even some doctors confuse a plantar plate sprain with a Morton’s neuroma.