My poor foot

On Tuesday I went to see a podiatrist. Not the one I mentioned earlier because he was booked for the next week. So I kind of just picked one out of the phone book. His name was Dr. Martin. He reassured my suspicions of Plantar Fasciitis.....great, just great. I showed him my Newtons and he is not a fan. He thinks its biomechanically incorrect to run only on your forefoot. He said it is natural to heel-toe, thats how our bodies are designed......I'm not an expert on any of this, but I think this can be argued either way. If you ask forefoot runners they'll give you a million reasons why it IS biomechanically correct AND more efficient. It makes sense to me, thats why I started running with the Newtons. Even though I don't agree with his thoughts on forefoot running, I'm going to do whatever he wants me to do, because I just NEED TO RUN!!

Anyway I also told him about my hip flexor pain that was chronic before I start wearing Newtons. He said we kind of just need to start from scratch because there are so many variables. So he started by taping my foot so that the tape acts like an orthotic giving my arch support and taking pressure off the muscles under my foot....
He said that if it helps the pain when I run then I might need to get orthotics. I currently have a pair but they aren't molded to my foot very well. You can see how high my arch is...

The tape is only going to last till tomorrow probably. After that I'm supposed to take ibuprofen and run, trying different combinations like Asics shoes, heel toe running, orthotics, no orthotics, Newton shoes, forefoot running, etc. Anyway I'm to keep a diary of what I do and how it feels. I'm not sure how well this is all going to work but I'm going to try. I really don't care what my running technique is. I only changed to begin with because I was always injured. With the Newtons all my injuries went away, but now I have this. And this SUCKS!

I'm frustrated with all this but I tried to run today (he told me to, because he wanted me to run before the tape comes off) and it was more successful than yesterday or Saturday night. I made it up and back on my street before it hurt too badly. That run was wearing Asics Nimbus, heel-toe running and with the tape, just for the record. That makes me feel a bit better, but time will tell how all this works.