AM - went to Sports & Spinal to get my running assessment. WOW was I impressed! Best $100 bucks ever spent in my life. The guy really, really knows this stuff. It turns out, his specialty is shin splints! Lucky me, right? No joke! He asked lots of questions, then looked at my feet and made me do some different exercises and he kept saying things that made me think he could get inside my head and knew exactly what was going on in my legs. My favorite part was when he moved my leg and said "WOW! that's crazy - as a kid you hated it when they made you sit down with your legs crossed in front, didn't you? You wanted to sit with your knees together and your lower legs spread apart next to your butt, right?" YESSS!!! I guess my knees have something that i don't remember what it's called, but I thought it was double-jointed. That was so funny though. All my life I thought something was wrong with me cause I couldn't get comfortable crossing my legs in front (Indian-style). Now I know, he told me it's the way my body was built and there's nothing I can do about it. On the other hand, there's a Yoga pose that not many people can do and I can because of that! ha!
He told me my main problem is the way my hip moves. He says with some exercises he can help me fix it. I've known I have a hip problem for a long time. When I was in college, I took an acting class. One of the exercises we did to warm up, we had to imitate another person walking. The girl that imitated me went on and walked in front of me moving her butt around like crazy! I said "I don't walk like that!" She said "Yes you do!" - horrible!!! Ever since I do my best not to move my butt too much when I walk, but I can't help it.
He also made me stand on my toes on a step on one leg with my knee bent and go up and down as many times as I could - and my leg was all shaky, and he said that's because there's a certain calf muscle that I needed to strengthen.
The third thing of notice that he said was that I've been wearing the wrong shoes. The "experts" at the running store only know so much, and he told me why everyone would think I overpronate so much and why they recommend I wear motion control or stability shoes, because that's what it looks like if you only look at my feet. But he looked at my hips and realized it's not really that I overpronate, but that I do something with my kick because of my hip rotation. Anyway, he said I shouldn't wear the Superfeet insoles, and that I may want to try running on neutral shoes, but that for now the stability without the Superfeet should be OK. This makes sense - up until after my first marathon, I hadn't had any shin issues... and I was wearing cheap discounted shoes, not realizing whether they were stability, neutral or whatever. I was just going with my gut. Then I started getting my gait analized and having those guys look at my stride, and that's when I started wearing stability shoes, which weren't right. I'm not blaming the running store guys, it's just not as simple with me as with most people, or so it seems.
The therapist also said I am the perfect example of girls that get shin splints, that I have all the traits that he's been studying for years, and asked if I'd be willing to go to a lecture in Georgetown next week, so he can use me as an example to show the audience what he means. Of course! Anything for the advance of sport science!
He also said his theory is that shin splints have different "seriousness" levels, from 1 to 4, 1 being mostly a soft tissue problem, 4 being mostly a bone problem. If someone had a level 1 or 2 problem, he'd suggest they could keep training, adding some stretching exercises. Levels 3 and 4 were more serious. He examined my legs very carefully and said he'd classify me as a level 3 - mainly a bone issue. He suggested for now I could run/walk twice a week for 20-30 minutes.
Because he's not covered on my insurance, I have to figure out how many times I can see him for treatment, and he was willing to work on me so it wouldn't be a big burden on my checkbook... He said he could give me stretching/strengthening exercises for the calves, but that the hip issue required that I go into the office... that's going to be fun...
Anyhow - it was nice to see someone that seems to know what they're talking about and offers a solution. He thinks that I can get back into a full-swing marathon training program by February. That seems very reasonable: I can train well in the spring and do a summer or fall marathon. Until then, I'll be logging in very few miles per week, doing lots of spinning, biking, and swimming. I'm OK with that, knowing that it's what it takes to correct this problem for good.
I'll probably run/walk this evening for about 30 minutes...
Last but not least - I'm giving a big presentation Thursday... 30 minutes 60 slides, 50 people. !!!!!!!! Any advice for someone who is TERRIFIED of public speaking?
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PM: ran/walked 3 miles to a Latin American food store in Clarendon and walked back to the office. Shin hurt. Got home and did some core work and some strengthening exercises. Note to self: do not attempt the pistol again for a while, or any other workout suggested by Montelepsy. :) | 