Quote Originally Posted by tprevost
you are making progress and I SO commend you for your tenacity, you have really done a great job sticking this out and working on your running...

that said... I have been following your progress and cheering you on but somewhere I completely missed the initial reason that you are going through all of this can you re-tell your story???? pweeeze

You're doing great, stick with it, you'll do it!!!

Tracy
Thanks for all the kind words, I really do appreciate all the supportive and encouraging words everyone has given me over the past 3 months of my running saga!


Where to start?

Back in September 2005, I decided to run a 1/2 marathon, to get over my, "I can't run very far", self-talk... fear...????

So, I upped my miles really quick... and I was running with a heal to toe strike... AND I didn't have shoes that supported my stride- I pronated in on my ankles.

After about a month of training, I had this horrible pain in my lower legs, along the back side. It's hard to explain. But when I would run, it was this burning pain.... and it stopped before my calves.

When the pain first started, I went and bought new shoes. The pain stopped... for a week. Then it was back.

At the end of October 2005, I finally gave up on training for the 1/2 marathon. I just couldn't run with the pain anymore. It was too much.

I pretty much stopped running until February 2006. I figured all of that time off, would fix the problem.

February 2006, I start running with my Tri 101 group. The second time I run with them, I twist my ankle. Another set back! UGH. But, I kept running.

The pain in my lower legs returned. Again, BURNING pain....every step running was PAINFUL... and when I stopped... it hurt so bad.

I basically suffered through the burning pain and twisted ankle pain until the tri we were training for. I did that tri on 4-8-06. I ran a 13 minute mile and every step was painful. It took all I had to keep moving. And yes, I got passed by everyone on the run. I only passed 1 person.

I then realized that if I didn't do something drastic, I was going to have to stop running... and not running in tri's was not acceptable for me.

Now, I knew that everything in my lower legs was fine... because I had x-rays when I twisted my ankle. The Dr. said everything was fine. I knew it was my form, and I tried to redo my form, but wasn't sure what to do/not do.

So, I saw this ad in the back of a local fitness magazine- this guy promised he could help runners, run without pain. I knew I had to call and set up an appointment.

I figured I would go once, he would point out what I needed to fix, and I would be done with it. WRONG!

He looked at what my issues were and had me stop running until we could fix all my weak areas with running drills.

AND... you pretty much know the rest.

Now, 12 weeks later, I am finally running again and we have a goal for me to run a 5K in a tri on 9-17-06. My second, and probably last tri of the season.

I gave up my entire season, and a Tri 202 program I joined, to fix this problem, that's how serious and important it was.

Hopefully, with my new running form, my problems have been fixed.