Stretch

Since the Kansas Half Marathon on October 16, I knew something wasn’t right. My body felt off. Every single run I ran felt weird. Looking at the pictures of the Kansas City Half, only confirmed my suspicions. My left leg looked absolutely crazy in every single picture; my form was completely off.

But why? The only pain I had was in my left leg, on the interior side, right where the shin and calf meet. I’ve had that pain before and just pushed through it and it went away, it never actually affected my running. I eased back on the mileage and changed up my routes, opting for flatter routes versus my hilly neighborhood. My pace was slower and I couldn’t make myself go faster, no matter how many rest days I took. Inexplicably, all this resting and slowing seemed to make it worse. How in the world could running less make me hurt more?? I attempt to run an easy 10k around a beautiful lake and had to walk the last 2 miles because my entire left leg just felt “off”. I had no idea what was wrong. I opted out of running a 15k I had signed up for. I was scared and bummed out. I made an appointment with a chiropractor/physical therapist I had heard about who specialized in runner’s issues.

I saw him yesterday and holy wow was it exactly what I needed. He did very little chiropractic work on me, focusing instead on loosening specific muscles. According to him, my entire lower back was unbelievably tight. So much so that he was shocked that it didn’t bother me. But this lower back tightness was off-setting my hips, in turn causing my illio-tibial band to twist and finally affect my inner calf muscle (the soleus, I think). It was unreal. He knew exactly what parts of my legs were hurting and pushed and pulled and I felt instantly better. Apparently, both legs were tight, but I was feeling it in the left far more than right.

I am grateful I’m not injured. I’m grateful I listened to my body and pulled back and rested rather than pushing through and permanently injuring myself. The Dr. gave me the go ahead to run right away and that I definitely did! I drove to one of my favorite flat trails and just ran by feel. My legs felt so fresh and light. At the turn around, I picked up the pace, gradually increasing the speed, and ended at a 6:45 min/mile pace. 2.25 in 26 min. It was heaven!!

Part of the Dr.’s orders are a series of stretches. I found this almost humorous as I had been listening to the Galloway advice that tightening is your body’s way of keeping its form efficient. It makes sense to me but my body has completely told me otherwise. Not to mention that I felt absolutely amazing stretching out for a good 15 minutes after the run last night. I ordered a foam roller and a miracle ball and I am so looking forward to rolling out all these tight muscles! Here's to finding what works for me!