Well it has been a few months now since my leg started to bother me. It started one day while swimming. It then progressed into a problem while running. This put me behind in all the training I had wanted to do to get ready for a full season of Duathlons and Runs. Now I did manage to compete in most of the events that I had hoped to, but with a lack of training I was probably not at my best. I am happy to say that all of my training from before the knee/leg issues must have been good as my results were still pretty darn good.
Anyway, I eventually found a good doctor (Dr Jason Gray) who specializes in sports medicine (he is a Chiropractor) and specifically ART (Active Release Technique). We assessed that my issue was a very tight group of muscles in my hamstrings and calf on my left leg. This in turn led to my ankle turning funny and causing knee pain.
Now not being a patient guy I began to wonder if this was going to work after a few treatments. My knee would still pain after a run, and be very tight at other times. But I kept the treatments up as well as the stretching and strength exercises. Now about a month and a half after I started seeing Dr Gray, I can say that i am running pain free. Things aren’t 100% in my left leg, but they are much better and without the tightness and pain I was having.
Today I managed a 7K run in some nasty humidity with an average pace of 5min per K (I started out a bit faster but faded near the end). I am happy with that as it is fairly close to where I left off when I was last training. This is now a good place to get some base mileage back into my legs and then work on getting some speed (and endurance) back.
It certainly is nice to know a little more about the mechanics of running now, and with my new stretching regime, I anticipate years more of pain free running (well sore muscles after a good hard run are okay).
No comments:
Post a Comment