I Run Like the Pigeon Doesn't Fly

Many of you know that I've been dabbling in the dark side of triathlons once again. You may recall that I did a couple of triathlons last summer. The races went well enough. But I realized that in order to get faster, I need the most work on the run.

Earlier this Spring, I bought my first pair of running shoes in three years. I hit the bricks, adding miles and frequency of runs sensibly over the past two months. Over that time, I rediscovered my joy for running. Strike that. It went like this: I discovered that I hated it. Then I re-experienced a runner's high and the joy of running followed. That's more realistic.

Two weeks ago I had my first running setback, slightly injuring my left calf muscle during a long run. It wasn't a sudden thing: no snapping, popping or sudden stabby feelings. It was more of a dull ache in the mid-upper, exterior part of my calf. It wasn't much, but just enough to hobble my stride and cause increasing discomfort as I pressed on. I laid off it a few days before trying it out on an easy run. I managed ten minutes before the ache returned. I shut it down.

Since then, I've stretched and foam-rollered the calf muscle regularly. Fortunately, it doesn't trouble me on the bike or during swimming. It manifests itself when I run, and only as I'm springing off my left leg.

I know I could run on this leg right now. It wouldn't be pretty, but I could gut it out. Here are a few times that I'd consider running on this sore calf muscle:
1) I'd run the last two miles of a race in this condition
2) I'd run to catch thief stealing my bike
3) Id run from this bear

Bear chase or not, I just don't want to be nicked up. Being healthy is good.

Since I'm a firm believer in physical therapy, I paid a visit to local PT/cyclists Amy Collison (Premier Physical Therapy) this past Wednesday. While laying prone on the PT table, Amy quickly identified the area with this *lovely* muscle scraping tool called a "Gua Sha Massage Board". It's also known as a Buffalo Horn. I call it the yowchy-thingy.

After 10 seconds of the yowchy-thingy, I've decided to add it to the list of things I'd run from:

4) Amy Collison wielding a Gua Sha/Buffalo Horn/yowchy-thingy muscle scraper.

After the lovely experience with the Buffalo Horn, Amy videoed my gait as I ran on a treadmill. She said a lot of technical stuff about muscles and tendons that I never knew I had. But from what I gathered, I run slightly pigeon toed, which is causing stress and pain up-leg in my calf. To fix this, Amy has given me a set of strengthening exercises. 

At least I'm consistent. Last summer, I was told I ride knock-knee'd. And now, I apparently run pigeon-toed as well. Soon, it will be that I dolphin kick knock-knee'd and pigeon toed.

Anyway, I hope this gets resolved soon. I'm enjoying running again and would like to do so pain free. Running pain free is important.You never know when you may need to outrun a bear a PT with a Buffalo Horn.

Thanks for reading. Here's to another Friday.