Yesterday morning, when I got out of bed, I could feel a sharp pain in the arch of my foot.  Prior to going to bed, I had no indication of any pain, but here I was, a few hours later, hobbling to the bathroom.

As I had breakfast, I could still feel the pain in the arch of my foot.  It was the opposite foot to the one where I have had Achilles issues, and so I immediately started to convince myself, that this was caused by my body compensating for that injury.

As the day wore on, the pain got considerably more intense, and I started to wonder if it would mean another period of no run workouts.  I got really down on myself, and quite frustrated.

During the day, I iced the area with a cold pack and also took some Ibuprofen.  In the evening, I massaged the affected area and went to bed, not knowing how it would feel this morning.  I woke up during the night, and was still aware of pain in my foot.  I was quite concerned.

When my alarm went off this morning, and the first thing I did was wiggle my foot. It felt quite good.  I got out of bed, put pressure on it and again it felt quite good.  There was a very slight feeling of tenderness where there had been intense pain the previous day, but on the whole, it was not bad at all.

At lunchtime, it was time for my run workout.  I was feeling good, and so I did my forty minute run.  I had zero pain in my foot.  As I write this blog, I still have zero pain in my foot.

So, at the end of the day, I had what I call a “phantom injury”.  Something hurt, but I wasn’t injured.  I get these pains occasionally, especially when I am tapering for a race.  It’s the strangest feeling.

In hindsight, I think I just slightly strained something in my foot. It was probably caused by pushing too hard off the wall in the pool, a couple of days ago. 

The good news is that all is now well.  My one foot is fine, and the Achilles issue in the other, is also pretty much gone.