You may think that I am just trying to be funny, but in all reality, I really feel this is what I did the day I decided to take my orthotic inserts out of my shoes. Here is a little back story on it though…
I’ve been having some massive knee pain. Once using Dr. Google to diagnose it, I figured it was tight IT bands and upping my mileage too fast. Or so I thought. There is back story to all this upping my mileage too fast, but I won’t go in to that here… After stretching, rolling and on and on, the pain was still there. I was stumped.
I went out for a longer run one day and had to stop mid-way, basically in tears. Not only from the pain but from the crashing dreams in my head to run my first 1/2 marathon.
But, what does one do that doesn’t know what to do? I went for another run. LOL! I was running with two girlfriends who are running this race too. During the run,they are talking about running shoes. I thought ot myself, THAT’S IT! It’s my shoes. Then I thought a little more. It’s actually could be my orthotics! Guessing as good as I could guess, I left it at that. Then I headed out, with orthotics in for a 4-5 miler a few days later. At three miles I was crying due to the pain. I stopped on the sidewalk, took out the orthotics and started my run again. In my head, I knew that was the answer. The following day I went to the gym and ran 45 minutes with no pain. YAY!
Another thing I wanted to mention, throughout my training I have also been doing a WillPower & Grace class at my gym. I’ve been doing this for MONTHS. love love love it!! I hesitated to start because I felt it was a wimpy, no sweat, “say you are working out and doing nothing” class. I could NOT be more wrong! After my first two days of this class (no joke people!), I woke up and the pain in my feet when I walked was gone. Like…GONE! I couldn’t explain it, but knew it was real. The instructor told stories about all these people overcoming physical challenges by taking this class and I thought, good for them. I am now ONE of those people! No orthotics, my muscles feel so strong, my back muscles feel different…it’s an unbelievable feeling and unbelievable class. I should write more about that some time…
While I’m still not sure I’ll be able to do this 1/2 marathon given my new “form” adjustment, I am going to try darn it!
