Becoming a Stronger Runner, Part 2

This is the second in a series of posts sharing my experience working with Therapydia Denver, as we fix my running form. If you want to know how this started, I suggest you check out this post.

After a few weeks of shuffling on the treadmill at the gym, monster walking through our kitchen, and reminding myself to relax (my feet) while I run, I was back at Therapydia for another session with Casey.

Coming straight from a long day at work, I spent a few minutes on the treadmill to get my legs moving and warm up a bit. Since the point of these sessions is to improve my running form, it's important to see if I've made any progress from visit to visit, so that was first on the agenda.

Casey took some videos as I ran on the treadmill from the same angles as the first time so we could see if anything improved. Running forms don't typically change overnight, so I fully expect that this process to take a while, but I do hope to see a bit of improvement with each session.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the new video (below right) next to the original, showed some improvement! I'm leaning forward more and while both feet are hitting the ground at a better angle, my left foot is looking better than the right.

You can see by the green lines below that my left leg was stretching out farther during the first session than this time. The more out stretched the leg, the more likely the heel is going to take the brunt of the landing. Improvement!

My hips are still dropping, which is the sign of weak glutes, but that's going to take a lot of time (and monster walks) to see a real difference, so he wasn't surprised to see this and encouraged me not to get discouraged.

This is definitely a process that requires dedication and patience. Even with all the great help, direction and exercises that I'm getting from Casey at Therapydia, I'm the only one who can actually do the work. If I don't do it, nothing will change.

I've learned I need to do my exercises at the gym or just after I get home each morning because I'm usually so mentally exhausted after work that the last thing I want to do is my exercises. Even spending 5 minutes rolling out before bed it tough enough.

After the treadmill test, I was given a few more exercises to work on. This week: core.

The first exercise he gave me works the deep core muscles, the transverse abdominus. It's not like a plank where you can tell without much trouble if you're doing it correctly or not. This one is pretty subtle so it took a few tries to get it right, and then I had to do it a few more times to try and ingrain how it felt in my memory so I could do it at home on my own.

The other exercise for the week was the standard bridge - with two feet on the floor and also lifting one foot off - with an exercise band just above my knees to provide resistance. There's a reason why some exercises are so common, because they work. The bridge is one of them - great for strengthening abs, low back and glutes.

Like monster walks, I've done bridges for years, but it's a good reminder that I need to do them regularly. In fact, Casey instructed me to do these exercises - along with the ones from the first session - three days a week, advising against doing them just before a long or hard run.

Beyond the exercises and keeping my feet relaxed while I run, he also gave me a cadence goal - 170 steps per minute. With a quicker cadence I'll keep my strides shorter and in turn, should land more mid-foot. The trouble I'm still having with this though is running a faster cadence without running faster, because my legs and lungs can't keep up with it for long.

For this, Casey recommended breaking down each mile. Start by running the faster cadence for a quarter mile, then back to my regular cadence for the rest; over time skewing more of the mile towards 170 steps for minute. This is what I've spent the least amount of time on, but I'll get there.

More work is ahead. I have another session this week so stayed tuned for more about how this is going. I'm curious, if you've successfully increased your cadence, what's the secret?

This post is sponsored by Therapydia. All opinions are my own.

Getting Started on the Right Foot

You may know that the last few months of 2017 were not great running months for me. In fact, I wasn’t running at all. First, another shin/calf “injury” popped up that made running uncomfortable, then a random and very painful back injury took me out completely. While frequent visits to my chiropractor and acupuncturist, and rest, got me back to running, I knew that for sustained health, I needed to fix the underlying problem: my running form.

Recently, I’ve been lucky enough to partner with Therapydia Denver to do just that. Never heard of them? Therapydia is a national network of physical therapy clinics, but they actually do a lot more than just physical therapy.

Over the next few months I’ll be posting about my experience working with Therapydia Denver to fix my running form and (hopefully) stave off more injuries. Since the goal is to keeping running as long as I can.

We'll start with my first session, the Run Assessment:

I met with Casey McNitt, the clinic director, for my run assessment. It's an hour long session that starts off like most first sessions with a PT or other medical practitioner - I shared my medical history, experience with running, goals, and the issues I'd recently been dealing with. If you know me, you know that'll take a while. Thankfully, he wasn't deterred. 

His goal is to help me be the best runner I can be, by identifying issues with my running form and determining a plan to get me on the right path. 

After talking through my history, we went to the treadmill. I warmed up for a few minutes walking at a brisk pace before I was instructed to bump up the pace a bit to a comfortable run. While running, he took videos of my form, from the back and side, then focused on my feet.

We then looked at the videos together and he walked me through what he saw. And what we saw, wasn't pretty.

From the Back

• The video showed - and you can see in the screenshots below - that I need to strengthen my glutes. Rather than staying even, my hips drop with each foot fall. As Casey explained, the right hip drop shows weakness in my left side gluteus medius. To compensate, I lean left with my upper body. While it takes the load off my weak glute, it can create other problems with my hips, low back, neck and more. 
• My arms swing front to back in a straight line, rather than crossing over my body. Did you know they were supposed to? I guess I didn't. By crossing in front, your core has to do more work, taking the pressure off your lower body a little. 

From the Side

• I run straight up, almost leaning backward. I think this is a holdover from my years in dance and marching band. Good for marching band, not good for running. Alternatively, by leaning forward, I can naturally propel myself forward and it'll help address how my feet land, because...
• I am a heel striker. A quiet one, but a heel striker nonetheless. The way my heel hits, all the force is going straight up the chain, which is also likely playing a big role in my injuries. 

After looking at these videos and breaking it all down, Casey put me to work. Back on the treadmill, he had me shuffle with a fast walk to get the feeling of my full foot hitting the ground. Then, leaning forward (so far that it felt like I was going to go head over heels), pick up the pace.

Immediately, we saw a little improvement. See how I'm leaning a bit forward in the image below and a bit more of my left foot is hitting the treadmill? It's not a huge difference, but it was a good start. (And isn't it so cool to be able to see the improvements in video?!)

Before wrapping up, we headed out to the gym where he showed me a few exercises to strengthen my glutes (hint: keep up those monster walks) and a drill to help me get the feeling of leaning forward and striking the floor with a flatter foot.

Since this first session, I've been incorporating the exercises into my workouts a few times a week and using the tips and drills. One thing Casey mentioned while watching a video of another runner with a similar issue, is that she kept her feet relaxed. That idea really stuck with me and has become a sort of mantra for me.

I'm excited to see how my running improves over the next sessions with Therapydia. If you found this post interesting, I hope you'll come back to hear how it goes!

This post is sponsored by Therapydia. All opinions are my own.

A New Sunday Morning

Hey there. It's been awhile. I've been missing my little spot on the interwebs but since my last post, life has been going by in a flash and I just haven't found time to find my way here until now. Instead my focus and energy has been elsewhere:

• Planning a big fundraising event for MSU's alumni club in Colorado
• Landing an exciting new job, starting said job, and taking on the gigantic learning curve that comes with it and will continue on for some time
• Planning BirdCamp Colorado with three amazing women, and hosting 50 more women at Snow Mountain Ranch up near Granby for an incredible weekend of running and sisterhood  

All of this has presented unique challenges that have left me a bit exhausted, but it has also been incredibly rewarding and exciting. Unfortunately though, there has been little time for anything else.

As life is starting to settle down a bit (maybe? hopefully?), I'm looking forward to a long weekend with my parents later this month to celebrate a big Birthday (not mine) in Nashville and getting back to some other things I love to do. 

However, there's one other thing I've been dealing with the last few months that has been nagging at me, and as much as I want to put it in the past, it's going to take a bit more time and patience. On this first day of October, a beautiful fall day perfect for running, I'm not running because of a leg injury. It's that kind of injury that hurts but doesn't force you to stop like a stress fracture does (thank goodness). I've been able to push through it in order to continue running, at very low mileage, but this past week my chiropractor put me in my place and I'm shutting it down for a bit. 

It's difficult when your typical Saturday and Sunday mornings start with fresh air, and a good heart-pumping run, then all of a sudden you're faced with figuring out what your mornings are now going to look like. I'm a real creature of habit but I can only handle so many days a week at the gym. 

I'm thankful that this morning, when I had to miss a Oiselle Volée Colorado meet up, a friend (and teammate) was there to meet me for coffee after her run and distract me with a cute toddler. So instead of running through the park this morning, I took a walk. Not quite the same, but for now, that's what I have to do. 

Take a deep breath. Slow it down. Focus on the moment and be happy that at least I can still get outside on a beautiful fall day. And think about all the running that's ahead once I can finally kick this thing.

Now it's time to figure out why I get these injuries, what I need to do to recover from this, and what needs to change so this doesn't happen again next year. 

Are you also struggling with an injury? Let me know and I'll send some love your way.

If you have recommendations for Nashville - like cool neighborhoods to explore - please share!

Time To Rebuild

During my PT appointment on Tuesday I got the go ahead to start adding miles - music to my ears! While I think I've been pretty level-headed during this injury, likely due to the fact that unlike others I neither had to wear a boot or use crutches, I've had my low times and it this has lasted longer than I expected. 

This all started back in May which means I've missed the majority of summer running and that I'm having to rebuild after a big setback. Before my injury, I was feeling better about my running than I had for a long time; having built a great deal of confidence, endurance, and speed. Things were going really well before derailed by the injury. I know, it's a common story among us runners, right?

The weekend before that last PT appointment I had two pretty rough runs. My legs didn't feel awful but my lungs did. Apparently being an active injured runner - doing long hikes and run/walks - didn't help as much as I hoped it would.

As much as I want to be elated to run again and have each run be better than the last, the truth is, that's not how recovery works for a lot of us and I've done this enough times you'd think I'd be used to it. 

The good thing is that I'm not in pain with every step and I can run. But I have to keep in mind that it's going to require patience, thoughtfulness, the ability to say no sometimes (and isn't that the hardest word for most of us to say to anything!) and a lot of stretching and rolling.

photo credit: Lindsay Jones

Patience with myself and my body.

Thoughtfulness in planning my workouts and goals.

The ability to say no to the impatient runner in me who wants to add more miles and speed too soon, and sign-up for too many races too soon.

And stretching and rolling so my legs won't be balls of twisted and tight muscles that weigh me down and keep me from getting back to my old self - and going past that!

Thankfully this weekend I've had the opportunity to run with some fellow Oiselle Volée birds. You may have heard the team recently expanded and we now have over 50 in Colorado alone! A bit last minute we planned a run + brunch for Saturday morning and had 7 birds for the run plus two more for brunch at True Food Kitchen. 

While I was definitely slower on the run and had to cut the loop of Wash Park short (listening to my body and staying true to where I am right now), I had a great time. Meeting new women who love to run also, was inspiring. That experience, plus my run on Sunday with another bird, got me out of my comfort zone by just the right amount. Rather than being discouraged by them, they are part of the rebuilding process. 

And thankfully when I come home from a run (good or not so good) or when I'm being lazy and not making time for the foam roller, I have Woody to keep me in check. 

We can only do so much of the rebuilding on our own, we need our support system to help us get where we're going.

Have you had to rebuild after an injury? What helped you on your road back?

Running Injury: Inflamation of the Popliteus Muscle

It really is true that every day we learn something new. One thing I've learned recently is that we have this little muscle in the back of our knee called the popliteus. Even though it's small, hidden, and usually just hangs out and does its thing, when it gets upset, it screams.

I wrote a bit about my injury in my first post on our vacation in Vancouver, but at that point I didn't know what was causing all the pain. Turns out my popliteus muscle is inflamed.

This is a common case of an overuse injury which I can pinpoint exactly to the week I ran way to many miles in an effort to make sure I was ready for the Colfax Marathon Relay after being out sick for 15 days. And running another race a week later. The trouble is my legs were feeling good that first week back so I thought I was in the clear until I started feeling a little nagging behind my knee after the race.

Along with overuse, this muscle can become inflamed or strained from running on a road or trail camber (a sloped surface) can have a big impact on how our muscles work. Worn down shoes (guilty) and over pronation (also guilty) could have also played a factor.

What Is The Popliteus Muscle?
From my Doc and through a bit of research, I found the popliteus muscle is a small, triangular shaped muscle that originates at the inside of the femur near the knee and connects into the outside of the tibia just above the calf muscle. The purpose of this muscle is to allow the tibia to rotate internally in relation to the femur and "unlock" the knee. In other words, it's pretty crucial to movement and standing requires very little of this muscle.

What It Feels Like When It's Mad
In my case, this has meant that I'm unable to completely straighten my right leg, and when I do involuntarily - for example when walking quickly, if I just step strangely, or unconsciously stretch out my legs while sleeping - it sends pain down my calf muscle and up to my glute. Sometimes its been a stabbing pain that takes my breath away, while at other times its been a dull nagging pain. To make it things even more exciting, I've favored my right side so much that it's caused issues on the left side and my hips are now even more asymmetrical than usual! 

Laying it all out there, the pain has been so intense at times that I've been nervous to walk down a busy sidewalk because afraid that a runaway kid or an excited dog would require me to move quickly and the muscle will kick back at me, hard. It's really not fun to be nervous about a walk to the coffee shop - or to avoid it altogether. Fun times.

While this is what I've experienced, I'm just one person and I'm sure that an inflamed popliteus results in a wide range of aches and pains. That said, hopefully I can help someone out by describing what I'm going through who might also have this unusual injury.

Before I saw the Doc at the CU Sports Med Clinic in Denver - who specializes in runners and said this is pretty uncommon - I first went to Google and tried to self-diagnose, which we all know is not the best way to go about things. The popliteus muscle didn't show up in any of my searches and led me to think the worst (I think I have a blood clot and I'm going to die!). ITBS, runner's knee, shin splints, plantar fasciitis, achilles tendinitis, and stress fractures seem to get most of the attention when it comes to running injuries. 

Treatment
I'm massaging with ice - dixie cup style, using a topical anti-inflammatory - it's easier on the stomach, not running, and trying to get a few sessions with a physical therapist. From what I understand, the PT will massage the hard-to-reach muscle and assist with specific stretches which will help relax all the muscles on my right side. Hopefully all of this will work together to make my popliteus muscle happy again so I can get back to running. From what I understand it should only be another couple weeks and I'm definitely feeling much better already. 

I highly suggest that if you feel anything like what I've described above, ice immediately and often, and get in to see a doctor as soon as possible. You don't want to miss a race like I'm going to on the 4th.

Have you had a popliteus flare-up or some other strange running-related injury? * Will you be running a Fourth of July race?