Chasing the Runner’s High Part II: Get into the weeds
Time to take off those rose coloured glasses.
Running is hard on the body. And once that Honeymoon Phase passes, how do you keep going?
If our calendars could make noise, we would only hear crickets. And yet time keeps moving forward even though your social life has stalled. We are in the throws of summer, and I thought it was time for a running update. How has my newly minted running partner been faring?
….it’s been ok?
To put it bluntly, running can hurt. In my partner’s case, his muscles got sore, joints started barking at him, and he learned the hard way that he is not suited to run in peak July humidity. Given that there isn’t much I could do about the weather, I focused my attention on his musculoskeletal ailments. He started complaining of pain on the outside of his knee. Then foot pain. Then hip pain. This was a snowballing problem, and became a barrier to running.
Good thing his partner is a physiotherapist.
Here is a glossed over, brief summary of what I found and what we did about it.
HIPS
Both of his hips were quite tight, but one side was worse than the other. After some routine interrogation, it came to light that he tends to sit curled up on his office chair with that leg tucked under him. Sometimes the most innocuous thing can cause the largest headache. We discussed that he should be cognizant of changing positions while working, worked on some hip mobility drills, and did some acupuncture with electrical stimulation to kick things off.
KNEES
Great movement but some motor control issues that needed to be addressed with some exercises to load quads and hip stabilizers. We also discussed temporarily increasing his cadence to limit the forces being experienced by the knee joint.
FEET
Last summer, he hurt his toe rock climbing. Nothing severe but enough that he felt some pain at the time. We found that he had significant stiffness and pain when he extended through his big toe. This can cause some serious problems - extension of the big toe is instrumental in gait kinematics by allowing for toe-off. Without that, it is likely that he was compensating by turning his foot out to leverage through his other foot joints. We did some hands-on manual therapy for the toe and I gave him some drills to facilitate that movement.
The result?
He has been doing a lot better and is continuing to run as the temperatures allow. Did it happen immediately? No. Consistency is the single most important element when it comes to implementing change over time. This goes for most of the habits and skills we acquire throughout our lives. Being consistent with his rehab allowed him to break through the barriers that were preventing him from running, which in turn allowed him to continue to practice running so that it can establish itself as routine. Had the physical limitations not been addressed, it entirely possible and reasonable that he would have stopped running all together.
Don’t let the aches and pains stop you. Team up with a health professional that will work with you to get you back out there again.
Honesty Time: Though he was diligent with his exercises during the acute phase, he has since fallen off the bandwagon. He still runs but whenever he complains about a something not feeling quite right, I just say “Have you done your exercises?” and he will sheepishly slink off.
Photo courtesy of BMKH Photography
