First Visit To The Running Coach

For several months I have been running and living with several nagging discomforts.  While training for the Maui Oceanfront Marathon in the January, I developed bursitis in my left hip, tendonitis in my right foot and in both knees.  Also somewhere along the way I developed a sports hernia in my right groin.  Earlier this year, I went to physical therapy twice for the foot pain but pretty much ignored the other pains.  After the Fargo half marathon I had had enough and decided to go see the Dr.  My regular Dr has been out for months due to a bicycle accident, so I went to see Dr Tod Sweeney, who specializes in Sports Medicine.  He diagnosed everything I listed above and told me to go see a physical therapist.  Thanks to a recommendation from a friend, I found a P/T (Douglas Wisoff) that is also a popular running coach.  This blog post is intended to detail my visit to the Running Coach.

20 May 2014
Douglas tested my muscles for flexibility and range of motion and also videoed me running.  The running video showed how poorly I run.  The biggest problems are
  1. My stride is way too long.  I am fully extending my leg and heel striking really bad.  This is not a total surprise since my shoes only last about 200 miles before the outer part of the heel is completely worn down.  Douglas thinks this could definitely be contributing to all my discomfort as well as slowing down my pace.
  2. I lean my chest back when I run.  To be honest I think I am trying to stand up straight and have good posture.  It seems in my effort to do this, I am running stiff and working against myself.
  3. My right arm just kinda tenses up and doesn't swing.  Holy cow, I was amazed to hear this. I have no idea why it does this.  While running for Douglas, I tried to correct this and it was really tough.  My left arm swings fine but the right not so much.
  4. My head looks down.  
To fix all this, I am tasked with trying to run more like a rag doll.  Relaxed and floppy.  My stride should be short with my knees remaining bent.  My feet should remain parallel to the road and try not to heel strike.  I need to lean forward, keep my head up, make sure I swing my right arm and relax more.  He talked about the "wheel of the hip" and how most of the movement of the legs is up and back.  Almost like pedaling a bicycle.  Douglas showed me video and explained that the fastest runners have very short strides. The key to much of this is the word "relax".  I am horrible at relaxing in general. Douglas says this is something he can help me with.  It will be interesting to see if he can.  I'm hoping this new info (if I can do it) will help me run a faster Bolder Boulder and Casper Half Marathon and have a quicker recovery.



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