If you're injured, you really need to have a goal. If you were to call me for a private consultation or a house call, I would not accept "I want to get over my foot pain" as a goal. But interestingly, when injured runners call me, that's often what they say. Think about this. When you sign up for a race, it's really easy to get motivated. It's easy to decide on your training plan and just get to work. But when you are injured, you think the process has to stop. Today on the Doc On The Run Podcas...
Feb 06, 2023•4 min•Ep. 675
Today's episode comes from a recent question from a runner who I advised to begin running on this thing called an AlterG treadmill. First of all, I do not own an AlterG treadmill. I do not own the company. I don't own stock in the company. I do not get paid a referral fee or anything else if you use one. I'm not pitching the AlterG treadmill because I get paid for it. But the AlterG treadmill is a tool that I not only use frequently with athletes who are returning to running, but it is a tool th...
Feb 03, 2023•4 min•Ep. 674
You and your brain are supposed to be on the same team. You work hard with long runs, tempo runs and speed work to get your brain used to the idea of letting you run fast. But sometimes your mind can work against you. This is especially true when you first return to running after a foot injury. Your brain remembers your pre-injury ability. If not restrained, your brain instinctively wants to get you back to running at that same pace. If you just started running post-injury, a little more detail ...
Feb 01, 2023•4 min•Ep. 673
There are only a few occasions when you might want to get an MRI on both feet. Truthfully, getting an insurance company to agree to pay for an MRI on both feet is not easy to do. A few years ago I helped a runner who was training for marathons when he got injured. He was super fit. But on a long, super steep run in Yosemite he did some damage to tendons in both of his feet. He really needed an MRI on both feet. So, I wrote an order for his MRI's. But, when the MRI facility tried to get prioritiz...
Jan 30, 2023•4 min•Ep. 672
When you're trying to get back to running, you have to think about all of the variables that can increase the stress and strain to your injured tissues. Your "threshold for recovery" or your "threshold for re-injury," are really the same. When I lecture at medical conferences, I always tell doctors there are 3 variables you have to play with. And you do have to play with the variables if you want to get an athlete back to running as quickly as possible. What are three variables you can modify wh...
Jan 27, 2023•7 min•Ep. 671
Yesterday it started to snow. So I decided to go out on a trail run on the trail in this picture. I only saw one deer and two people. As I ran around a corner under a cliff two climbers approached wearing jackets, with fleece hats under their helmets and all their climbing gear. I stopped, looked at them and I asked, "Isn't it too cold for climbing?" One of the climbers smiled and said, "Isn't it too cold for a trail run?" We all started to laugh. The reality is that it is never too cold to go f...
Jan 25, 2023•3 min•Ep. 670
One of my Elite Access patients sent me a message. He was having pain from an inflamed Tailor's bunion bursa at the base of the pinky toe. He got a bigger shoe with a wider toe box that decreased the pressure. But when he was running, his foot was sliding around in the shoe, and it was still causing a problem. He asked me if there was any solution. And yes, there is... Today, on the Doc On The Run Podcast, we're talking about how you can lace your running shoes differently when you have bursitis...
Jan 23, 2023•5 min•Ep. 669
When you get injured, a lot of things go wrong. 1. Because you have pain, you suspect you have to stop training. 2. When you see a doctor, they confirm your fear and tell you that you really need to rest. You translate that into really strict rest, doing nothing basically. You stop exercising. You stop training. All kinds of bad stuff starts to happen. It is a lot more than just losing aerobic fitness. Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast, we're talking about how it is that the longer you wait, t...
Jan 20, 2023•4 min•Ep. 668
Today we're talking about metatarsal fracture, nonunion surgery versus no surgery. I know some people will think that I probably should have gone straight from #665 to 667 because frankly, there are some negative connotations surrounding those three letters, 666...the number of the beast. But I decided to do this episode anyway. And, I decided to dedicate this one to a buddy who is a beast. He's tough, he's active, and he happens to have a metatarsal nonunion that hasn't stopped him from doing a...
Jan 18, 2023•6 min•Ep. 667
A calcaneal stress fracture is a terrible injury. What is a calcaneal stress fracture? "Calcaneus" is the medical term for heel bone. When you get a stress fracture in the heel bone, doctors call it a calcaneal stress fracture. When you run with a calcaneal stress fracture there is a risk the bone can actually shatter and break apart. That obviously would be bad. But there are three really interesting facts about the heel bone that you should think about. Is a fracture walking boot the best thin...
Jan 16, 2023•5 min•Ep. 666
Today I went out for a run, but truthfully I wasn't really excited about it. It was cold, it was pouring rain, and I had a lot of stuff to do. I could have easily justified not putting on my running shoes, not going out and slogging through a bunch of mud puddles. I also hate to admit that part of the truth is, I had new running shoes. I just didn't want to get them all nasty and dirty running in the rain, because they were brand new. But I did run. I enjoyed that cold wet run more than I though...
Jan 13, 2023•4 min•Ep. 665
I just got a great question from a runner who had been using a thing called a dancer's pad. A dancer's pad is sometimes used to help an injury to these little bones under the big toe joint called the "sesamoid bones." If one of the sesamoids is painful and irritated and you're trying to take the pressure off of it, an easy way to do that is to place a dancer's pad in your shoe. How can a dancer's pad lead to a plantar plate sprain? Well, that's what we're talking about today on the Doc On The Ru...
Jan 11, 2023•5 min•Ep. 664
If you're a runner and you are listening to this, you probably have some kind of injury that's doing one of two things. Either it's keeping you completely off of your feet and you're not running at all, or you are basically running in a halfway fashion. You are not really doing your full workouts. Your workouts are not really gratifying. And you don't really feel like you're making progress. You have to remember here, the enemy is time. Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast, we're talking about ho...
Jan 09, 2023•4 min•Ep. 663
In this episode of the Doc On The Run Podcast we have a real treat for you. Kate is someone I met through the Grand Canyon R2R2R Run Group and she has an amazing story! If you are not familiar with what running the Grand Canyon entails, you start at one side, run from the rim of the Grand Canyon Down treacherous trails all the way to the bottom, then run across the bottom of the canyon and back up out of the canyon on the other side. Then you turn around and run back. Kate has agreed to come on ...
Jan 06, 2023•41 min•Ep. 662
I just got a call from an ultra-marathoner I have seen a number of times over the years. He is not a wimp. He's a tough guy. He's very smart. He knows his body really well, and he got what we suspected was a partial tear in the plantar fascia. He didn't get better. He took weeks off. He couldn't run. He couldn't even hike! it was killing him, so I ordered an MRI. I diligently prepared the order for his MRI. I sent it to the facility. I wrote up all the various details which basically proved that...
Jan 04, 2023•5 min•Ep. 656
Imagine this scenario. You are out on a long run. You have been training hard for your race. But near the end of your run, your foot starts to ache a little bit. The next day when you wake up, it hurts. So maybe you take a day off, you don't run that day, and you skip a workout. The day after that, you go for a run and predictably it gets worse. You call your local podiatrist. You make an appointment and when you're in the doctor's office, the doctor hands you a pre-written sheet (that is not de...
Jan 02, 2023•6 min•Ep. 660
Achilles tendinosis is one of the worst injuries you can get as an injured runner. It is chronic, it's hard to get rid of, and the tendon feels noticeably different. The tendon gets thicker and it becomes constantly painful. Every time you run on it, you may worry that it might rupture or rip apart. There are lots of different ways to treat Achilles tendinosis. Two of those options are PRP or platelet-rich plasma injection or a procedure called "dry needling." Yesterday in a live Runner's Aid St...
Dec 30, 2022•7 min•Ep. 659
If the top of your foot hurts because you have extensor tenosynovitis, it can cause a lot of pain. But the condition is not complicated. The extensor tendons run down across the top of your foot. The extensor tendons continue all the way out to the toes. The function of the tendons is to pull your toes up when you swing through in the swing phase of gait, so you don't trip over your toes when you run. If you start running and your shoelaces actually push on the tendons with just a tiny bit too m...
Dec 28, 2022•5 min•Ep. 658
All of us want to get better when we have a running injury. We just want to run. But when you go to the doctor, things can start getting confusing. The doctor may tell you what you need to do, but it doesn't always jive with what you really want to do. I thought it might be helpful for you to understand a little bit about the difference between true wants and needs when you go to the doctor. This may help you get your doctor to focus on what you really do need so you can get back to running soon...
Dec 26, 2022•5 min•Ep. 657
Dec 23, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 661
Any time you get a running injury you are facing a tremendous task. You might think that your job is to get help and heal the injuries quickly as possible. But that would only be partially correct. Your real job as an injured runner is to seek the full solution. Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast, we're talking about how injured runners need the full solution.
Dec 21, 2022•4 min•Ep. 655
If you are a runner who thinks you have a tendon tear, ligament tear or other overtraining injury, you may want an MRI. In fact, you may be convinced an MRI will give you a crystal clear picture of what may be wrong inside your foot or ankle. But, I believe many many runners and doctors rely way to heavily on MRI for running injuries. Today we are going to talk about a study published in Foot and Ankle International in 1998. The research study was led by Dr. Matthew Rocket (a well-respected foot...
Dec 19, 2022•7 min•Ep. 654
I got a call recently from a runner with a torn plantar fascia. It was a unique situation, but truthfully really not that rare. Any time you have an injury and you want to run, you have to make some really important key decisions, based on only a few important factors. This case will be instructive in helping you figure out how you can make that decision, and decide if (and when) it might be safe for you to run. If you just had an injury, but you have a really important event you want to run, yo...
Dec 16, 2022•8 min•Ep. 653
Most runners understandably feel like a victim of an over-training injury. They say something like, "Well, I was feeling strong, I was feeling ready for my race, I was really feeling great, and then this happened to me. I got a stress fracture, I got Achilles tendonitis, I got peroneal tendonitis, got plantar fasciitis, something happened to me and now I feel like I've lost all my fitness and I can't run my race." Well, most of the time we just reflexively think that things happen to us, but som...
Dec 14, 2022•5 min•Ep. 652
Today's episode actually comes from a comment and a question sent in by one of the viewers of the Doc On The Run YouTube channel. This was Jean, wrote in and she said, "Hello, Dr. Segler. I had a fifth metatarsal fracture repair surgery five weeks ago. I was started to walk without crutches and a knee walker or a scooter as of yesterday, but my foot feels achy, though. Well, as a runner, when can I possibly resume running after my metatarsal surgery?" This is what everybody wants to know. I didn...
Dec 12, 2022•8 min•Ep. 651
I was just talking to a runner over webcam who had been researching metatarsal stress fractures, but heard something about a "malunion" and knew that a fracture malunion was a really bad thing. He had been diagnosed with a stress reaction in one of his metatarsals. If you continue to stress a metatarsal stress reaction enough, it can progress to a full-on metatarsal fracture. So, he wanted to know, "If I run on my stress reaction, is it going to turn into a malunion?" How can a bone stress react...
Dec 09, 2022•5 min•Ep. 650
Many years ago when I was first in practice, I met someone who was a doctor, and who was a runner herself. She liked to treat runners and she happened to make a lot of money. A whole lot of money! I was very impressed with her, so I actually flew across the country to spend one day in her office following her around to see exactly what she does to make so much money working with runners. There was one particular visit with one runner, which really struck me. Right before we walked into the treat...
Dec 07, 2022•4 min•Ep. 649
Today's episode comes from one of the YouTube viewers Doc On The Run YouTube channel who had watched one of the videos on fractures. He asked a great question. This is from Saif. What he said was, "Thank you for such a short and effective, informative video. My question was, does displaced fracture heal naturally without medical treatment? And the thought process was that how did our ancestors and primitives heal without medical care or deal with these displaced fractures?" How does a displaced ...
Dec 05, 2022•5 min•Ep. 648
Today's episode actually comes from a question sent in by Melissa. She signed up for the Plantar Plate Masterclass and she asked a very specific question. She asked: Should I run with a pad for a plantar plate sprain? Great question! And that's what we're talking about today on the Doc On The Run Podcast.
Dec 02, 2022•4 min•Ep. 647
What if you could be out on a run, sun on your face, running two weeks ahead of schedule, faster than what you thought, or what some doctor told you? That would be amazing, right? Let me tell you that neither me, nor anyone, can promise you that a bone stimulator, snake oil, or fairy dust is going to make that happen. However, it is true that bone stimulators have been shown to actually speed up fracture healing significantly, particularly problematic fractures. The question I get all the time f...
Nov 30, 2022•5 min•Ep. 646
