Current mood:

optimistic

Zen-Tri Army is taking over
OK Zen-Tri Army. You have gotten into my head. Officially.

I've been running for 14 of the 23 years of my life, and for the last 12 I have been walking a thin line between injury and health, not always staying on the right side of that line. I've tried orthotics, I've modified the orthotics, I've gotten new shoes, I've cross trained to reduce stress, and I've built up at a paltry 10% a week with every 4th week as a recovery week. Nothing has enabled me to get above 25 miles of running a week without experiencing shin pain.

Now, I know I am very biomechanically incorrect. Well-intentioned doctors tried to fix my pigeon-toed self when I was just an infant and ended up twisting my femurs (or so one podiatrist has said). But it's possible that changing my foot-strike might help. I have a (too-) long stride, and now I am going to try and reteach myself to land mid-foot. Not something that I think I can do with shoes (even when walking I hit my heels on the ground way too hard). So on to trying to learn to run barefoot, at least until I have re-learned how to run and can return to shoes.

I did a total of half a mile of barefoot running today (starting very slowly!) and started a new stretching routine to work out the recently developed hip and back pain (I think I need a new bike fitting as well).

Wish me luck.