[pct-l] tendonitis (was Getting Back on Trail,

[Tom Holz]

Ive been loosly following this discussion from the trail, but wanted  
to add that my hike this year was entirely made possible by changing  
my old hiking gait (heel strike, wide stride, shin splints, foot pain)  
to a short relaxed "barefoot" type stride.  I now believe gait and  
form are as or more important that packweight, shoes, or insoles in  
reducing hiking injuries

 From Agua Dulce,
Bigfoot

On Jun 2, 2010, at 7:31 AM, Dan Ransom <danransom at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm happy to explain my situation...  Though there will probably be
> people who offer differing opinions.  For a week or more I was calling
> this "shin splints" for lack of a better understanding.  It is not
> traditional shin splints, however.  It is (was?) severe tendonitis in
> the muscle that lifts your toes off the ground, 2 inches above the
> ankle, right on the outside of the shin bone.
>
> My problem was probably three-fold.
>
> 1 - I have poor walking form.  I take very long heel-strike strides
> and walk relatively fast.   The heel strike motion, instead of a more
> neutral strike, forces the foot to flex with every step, and muscles
> get strained.  In my shorter walks the last week, I've spent
> considerable time relearning a shorter stride with less impact.  So
> far pain free.
>
> 2- Footwear was not supportive enough, no torsional rigidity.  The
> rolling motion induced by sidehilling on snow probably contributed to
> the muscle fatigue.  These have been changed from new balance trail
> runners to Salomon XT wings.  Arch support has also been recommended
> to me, as well as different lacing patterns that allow the foot to
> swell and expand within the shoe.
>
> 3 - The snow on Fuller Ridge I believe caused lots of little
> micro-slips, and again, I wasn't deliberate enough with foot
> placement.  Just figured I'd walk through it.  Walk through it I did,
> but when I got to I-10, it felt like I shot my right leg at point
> blank with a shotgun, and it was pretty obvious there was significant
> damage.
>
> Pack weight certainly can compound any of the issues here, and at the
> time I was carrying about 13 pounds base, plus 14-ish pounds in food
> and water.  Not a really heavy load, but for my return I will be
> coming back lighter, ridding myself of some of the 3 pound camera kit
> I was carrying.
>
> I've never had an injury in this location before, and I've done a fair
> share of backpacking previous.  But never such big days so
> consistently.  I suppose the lesson for me is to go slow, take it
> easy, and listen to your body, and focus on walking stress free...  I
> was too confident I could walk through it, and it blew up.  Hopefully
> a very humbling 3 weeks, a ton of ice massage and a course of
> cortisone will resolve the issue for me.
>
> Thanks to some help from this list, I think I'll be back out this  
> weekend...
>
> - Dan
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