Preventing Foot Pain: 4 Common Runner’s Injuries and How to Avoid Them

You wake up each morning and lace up your sneakers to go for a run to kick off the day. Or, maybe you run on weekends only. No matter your running schedule, the activity is important to your overall wellness and fitness routine.

Unfortunately, at least half of regular runners get hurt each year, and these injuries can affect many different parts of the body.

Because we’re foot and ankle specialists here at Advanced Ankle & Foot, Dr. John Schoppe and the team will focus on those running and sports injuries that involve these areas. Below, we review four common injuries that drive patients to seek our help and how you can protect your feet and ankles down the road.

1. Plantar fasciitis

One of the most common running injuries is plantar fasciitis, which strikes two million Americans each year. Your feet contain a series of arches supported by a tough band of tissue stretching from the base of your toes to your heels.

Called your plantar fascia, if you overstress this connective tissue along the soles of your feet, you can wind up with pain and inflammation in your foot and heel.

2. Stress fractures

Each of your feet contains 26 bones, so there’s ample opportunity for hard tissue injuries among runners who are, literally, pounding the pavement.

While we label the problem stress fracture, sometimes the issue stems from a deep bone bruise. Whether there's a break or bruise in the bone, stress fractures mostly occur in the metatarsal bones in your foot, though they can also develop in your:

Heel bone
Fibula — the outer bone of your ankle
Talus — a bone in your ankle
Navicular — a bone on the top of your foot
Sesamoids — tiny bones around your big toe tendon

Most stress fractures develop over time and the pain also progresses as long as the problem goes untreated.

3. Achilles tendonitis

Your Achilles tendon is your body’s largest tendon and connects your heel to your calf muscles. Runners are especially prone to insertional Achilles tendonitis, which describes pain and inflammation in the lower part of the tendon.

Achilles tendonitis is an overuse injury that can lead to further complications, such as bone spurs on your heels, and it also places you at more risk for tendon rupture.

4. Ankle sprains

Runners are no strangers to ankle sprains, which send two million Americans to the emergency room each year, to say nothing of the millions more with minor sprains.

If you’re running on uneven surfaces or simply misstep, you can overstress the ligaments in your ankles and an ankle sprain is a common result.

Preventing foot and ankle pain when you run

There are many ways in which you can prevent running injuries like the ones we describe above, including:

Seeking our help for any foot or ankle pain right away
Modifying or stopping your running at the first signs of trouble
Ensuring your calf muscles aren’t too tight
Making any running changes gradually
Taking frequent breaks from running and cross-training
Strengthening the muscles that support your feet and ankles
Running with the right footwear

It’s important that you listen to your body and that you don’t ignore pain — there’s no glory in gritting your teeth here. In fact, you have everything to lose by ignoring foot and ankle pain — when you do, you could turn a short-term problem into one that might sideline you for a year or, worse, permanently.

If you’d like a more personalized prevention plan so that you can continue to enjoy running, it’s a good idea to come in and sit down with us. To get that ball rolling, simply contact our office in Columbus, Georgia, to schedule an appointment.