More with the running? Yes, more. I’m on a bloody mission; a crusade even. The Thesaurus tells me it could also be called a movement, a struggle, an undertaking, or my favorite a battle. A battle I’m going to win. I want to run like 80 million miles a day so I can eat cheese burgers and tacos and milk shakes for every meal and not care; I believe in the blerch. I’m sure It’d be nice to be in better shape too, bla, bla, words, give me a dam cheese burger with no impact to my mass. When last we left me I was crying less, almost not at all, but the pain was not going away. Something had to change, so I kicked in full research mode, and consulted with people smarter and more experienced.

The result of the research and consulting is me changing and doing a bunch of different things, some have less impact but running is my battle and it will not win:

Apparently I run and walk like a moron -see video below- I’m now on a mission to relearn how to do something I learned before age 1.
The shoes I was running with were runners I wore for work the last 6 months and converted to running shoes. Plus I’m lazy as can be with shoes and slip them on vs properly fastening them. Purchased brand new shoes dedicated to running, and starting tightening and securing them properly. Crazy idea right?
The things in my shins hurting needed time heal before I ran again. I took a full week off of running and long walks to rest.
Along with time I added in some maintenance things I’m working into regular habits; massage and rubbing the muscles and connective tissue in pain. Followed by or with ice and stretching. More innovative ideas, right?

Result of doing things and being smarter

Today, Thursday 1/28, who knows when I’ll post because I seem to be accumulating a back log of posts. Sure have been into writing lately. Any how, my plan was to walk working on my gait. I’m not one to hold back much so my walk turned into a jog and walk. It turned into a jog and walk with no pain at all. Would have jog walked the 2 mile loop had my narrative clip not fallen off somewhere around the 2 in the run map. To recover the narrative, I had to turn around and search. The jogging was by no means fast, but It was pain free. Some of the first pain free running I’ve ever experienced.

The Big Fix

The big fix for me is going to be the hardest for me. New shoes, massage, and ice are simple bits to change. Changing a subroutine I’ve been writing all of my years, is going to be difficult to say the least. To fix this I need to change how I walk and run. The basics of what I do wrong both walking and running is over extending my font left, looking down, and trying to throw my body forward with my toes. Check the video below you can see everything I’m doing wrong.

Over extending

Running science, smarter then me running coach, the youtubes, and an orthopedically educated personal all seem to agree, you want to land with your foot under your center of mass and to land on the middle of your foot. I don’t land center mass, or land on the middle of my foot. I throw my leg in front of body and end up landing on my heel. When I’m walking or running I lean slightly forward at my waist and look down. To correct the over extension, I’ve been walking looking straight ahead vs down. I’m also pushing my head backwards, what feels like a huge amount, to force and feel the change of head up. I’ve also been working to remove the forward lean and stand up straighter during movment. When I ran today I employed the same walking changes in my run.

Over extending my stride landing with my leg in front of my body. Heel striking. WRONG

The Toe Throw

When I first watched myself do this in slow motion I was shocked, thinking, WOW- The way I run is purely horrible. Right after my foot leaves center of mass and moves behind my body I try to throw my body mass forward with my toes. As soon as my toes leave the ground my leg starts to move forward again. Not sure how I developed my gait but, dam, I’ve not been doing myself favours. I’ve had shin pain since my teens. Now in the 30’s I finally took the time to understand why. Wish I’d started this process sooner.

What should happen is your foot should continue backwards adding more forward motion using the entire leg. The foot should gently leave the ground in a more circular motion. During a run the foot should continue upwards along that arc until its near or above the knee. My corrective motion here has been to try to kick my butt with my heel as I run. Right now the exaggerated motion feels awkward but it registers in my head so I’m aware of it enough to control it and make sure it happens. Running is a different beast when you have to think about every motion of leg, foot, head, body ETC, but I don’t care because no pain.