Paul Petch

Those aches and pains & how I’m fixing them

Broken?

It’s hard not to get frustrated with all the aches and pains that have seemingly come from nowhere since I started to run. Some of which are totally familiar, but some not so. When I say familiar, I’m talking about general fatigue of the muscles after you have pushed them – along side the deep aching that follows. Being a keen mountain biker for a few years, I’m very familiar with such aches…..so I thought.

As I discussed in my first post, I had tendinitis of the outside edge of my left foot just weeks into my training for the SBS half marathon that was thankfully fixed up by a new pair of runners and orthotics. But soon after my first half marathon at the SBS and the week that followed- something just felt wrong. The bone that you can feel on the outside edge of your knees was really painful to touch and my left knee felt so so sore when running. It was the kind of soreness that felt deep inside the knee…and it was like someone had replaced my bone with broken glass. Heading back to the physio I discovered that I had issues with my ITB’s. I seem to have a fairly high pain threshold, but I’d never experienced anything as painful as this before as the physio massaged the outside of my legs….oh my god it hurt! In a nut shell, the causes are pronation and the over use of these unconditioned muscles/ tissues. Bingo! I had to except that most of these issues were self inflicted. but how could I fix them up?

Firstly, I was told (and shown) that massaging the outside area/ edge of my thighs to knees on a tube of foam would help and also a good sports massage.  I’d also have to see another Podiatrist, as the first one was clearly not understanding my “active” needs. We also discussed that some kind of technique coaching may be a good idea too…so armed with the physios advice off I went. This was going to be expensive……

Massage

I’ve been seeing a nutritionist at the MINT clinic here in Christchurch for over a year and they also offer a sports massage and it was time to work out these niggles. I booked in to see Dorothy, who within a one hour session worked out exactly what was going on with my body and set out to fix things up with deep tissue and trigger point massage.  It was quite amazing and the initial 30minute session quickly turned into an hour :)

Yes,I had tight ITB’s, but the right side was more hamstrings and once Dorothy had worked on both legs, things were noticeably better. Both issues ultimately make the knees hurt. I had got to the stage where laying on my side was hurting- and that was all gone come the next day. Like I said… amazing! I’ve also had an ongoing issues with my upper back and the next session or two worked a fair bit of that out too. Then there are are Gluteal muscles…..which were found to always be in a “fired” state (tight) and cause my legs and feet to naturally lay outwards which then likes to cause hip rotation and further aggravates the ITB’s and of course the knees.

Dorothy is a legend, and after some intensive sessions over the past 3 weeks she has really worked out some problems and helped me understand more about my body than any other health professional has in 3+ years. Trigger point massage it seems is my new friend. We work on my Gluteal muscles in the next few weeks so that should be interesting.

Podiatrist

My first attempt to fix up my feet kind of worked. The custom orthotics got me through the SBS half marathon but were causing me some serious knee issues afterward. I was no expert, but they just seemed to be sitting to high in my arches and pushing my feet outwards and with poor muscle development…were asking for trouble. I had gone from one extreme to another and my poor feet and knees were just not happy at all.

I booked into see Nick at Feet n Motion and he suggested that I did pronate, and watching a short video of me running in the car park confirmed that fact. His approach was a little bit here and there to get my muscles etc. used to them and with some revisions/ modding of the current inserts off I went. With a follow up a few days later by phone, things were feeling a bit better….not perfect…but better. Nick is a realistic man it seems and his attitude that things will take a while to get better is fair enough….and I trust him on this one. Frustrating….yes…but what can you do?

Coach

So what about the coach? To be honest I’ve always been a little nervous when it comes to the words “coach” and “training”. Why? Well I’ve always been concerned that when you take things seriously and the next level…the fun is gone. But after the fantastic experience at MINT with Dorothy and an urge to fix these niggles I contacted Karen Muller here in Christchurch for some coaching. The fact is that what I’m looking to achieve at the Kepler is not just a run in the park- or even a marathon- so I need to get serious about it. So a  few weeks later we met at Hagley Park for the first time and talked about my goals.

The initial meeting was all about technique and working me out. Straight off we looked at my cadence which was looking fine with about 94 steps / minute (Karen works on 90) and that my running posture was also quite good (thanks to Nick for highlighting my poor posture just days before!). We then chatted about my running style and why I was running mostly on the front of my feet and gave alternatives. We then focused on my arm swinging/ body language that was more like a chicken trying to fly than a runner. All in all- it was a great experience and I’m grateful to have found such an experienced coach to help me out. I’ll talk more about these elements and Karen’s advice in future posts- but needless to say, my overall speed has increased since we met and the aches and pains that I had are now much much better. Amazing what some technique revisions can do!

Currently, Karen is working out a training plan for me to tackle the Kepler Challenge and we will also be meeting up for some off road technical training here in the Port Hills. It sounds simple doesn’t it? I mean just go run off road…….but after making assumptions that my technique was fine before meeting Karen, I’m keen to learn more :) She even offers one on one tail runs…..which I’m sure that I’ll be taking part in.

What now?

All in all the foot doctor (Nick), sports masseur (Dorothy) and coach (Karen) have really helped ease the niggles I was experiencing. In just a few weeks it has really made a difference to my ability to run further for longer with nearly no pain afterward. My gut feeling is that the orthotics still need a bit of work- but as Nick mentioned, it’s not going to be a quick fix.

I’ve also worked out through the help of the masseur, that the majority of the left knee “pain” is due to new muscle groups being worked and tightening near the location and further up into the ITB’s and Gluteal muscles. When I first start to run I get the pain…and then after I’ve warmed up proper…it subsides as these muscles stretch out and get into the groove. This is great news as it indicates that with some conditioning, things should improve rather than getting worse or the potential for painful and expensive surgery to fix the problems. The more I use these muscles, combined with better technique and bio mechanics…the better it seems to get so Dorothy & Co. may well be onto something here!

As for the coaching- I’ve only had a single session with Karen, but already a change in technique has helped ease the suffering during and after a run…so what else can I say. I’m now just waiting to take things upto the next level and I’m chomping at the bit to do it right. With Karen having run several Kepler’s I’m pretty safe in her hands.

Wow..what a long post! I promise that future ramblings won’t be nowhere near as epic.  Obviously, I had a few things on my mind didn’t I? Phew :)

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Related posts:

1. Training, goals & ITB syndrome
2. Taking back control of my running
3. Coaching – running technique
4. Running is rather humbling….
5. First week of Kepler training DONE :)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at 11:20 am and is filed under Thoughts & Training and tagged with coach, karen muller, kepler challenge, physio, podiatrist. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.