Not even a week into this project, and I’ve been repeating what I’ve always been doing. Trying to up the miles, my knee hurts after 4-5 miles, I put up with it, ice it, repeat. If I was attempting this project on my own, it wouldn’t be long before that voice in my head would take over, “What are you doing this for, you’re just hurting yourself, stop it.” Then I would take a break, ranging anywhere from 1-2 years, and I’d be right back where I started from. Feeling lazy and wanting to get in shape and unable to run a mile without being completely exhausted. So when I got the email from my coach, Ian Sharman, I was devastated. He thought it best that I see a physical therapist to take a look at my knee pain. I thought I knew where this was going. Any sane doctor would tell me to stop, which matched the voice in my head, and I would just give up on running once and for all. After a day of feeling like I already let down Scott Jones of Becoming Ultra, knowing now that he should have picked someone else, I stopped whining and decided to make an appointment with a physical therapist. I asked around in the running groups I was in and found a PT that worked almost exclusively on runners. I went to see Ron Gallagher with Maximum Velocity PT and he was very optimistic. The pain I described wasn’t some strange unknown flaw in my anatomy that was gonna break with too many miles. I, like most people, had taught myself to walk with the least effort possible and hence didn’t have the muscles necessary to withstand the miles I was asking it to do. Instead, my knee was taking on a lot of the impact that should have been taken care of with my muscles. However, by improving those muscles and changing my gait to allow more shock absorption, I should be able to get to a point where I have no pain. Get that, NO PAIN!! Let me think outside the box here for a moment. What if…. pain wasn’t supposed to just be a part of running?
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AuthorI'm a runner, just like you, discovering if I can do the impossible. Archives
December 2015
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