Sooo... Running Hurts.

I am not an athlete. Never have been, probably never will be. I've heard people speak of loving that feeling of the burn that comes with pushing your body to it's limits. I hate that feeling. Always have.

That being said, I am aware of the benefits of exercise, and would like to live a healthy life. My cardio has never been great, and I know I have messed up legs and no muscle anywhere.

I signed up for a 10k race (Oct 7) and began training in the first week of July, and I'm pretty excited! But so far it's not going very well. Admittedly, I've been rather proud of myself for getting out the door and running at all. But, summer activities, laziness, and beer have gotten in the way of proper training. Not to mention slow improvement, hot weather, and now, injury.

My post-run face.

I knew it would be hard. I figured I would want to quit every time I went out. I didn't think I would have the mental capacity to push myself. I thought I would get lazy and feel uninspired and it would be too hard and I would give up. Surprisingly, my motivation has been good! I've actually been enjoying the challenge of making progress. And I don't get to feel proud of myself very often (sad but true) so the little boost I get when I complete a run has been surprisingly addictive. I did not think, for some reason, that it would be injury that would slow me down. I honestly thought that I would be running and improving at such a glacial pace that there would be no possibility of injury.

And yet, here we are.

Last night, sweet & patient @msatfford took me out for a run with the intention of trying some interval training to try and get my speed up just a tiny bit. The moment we started jogging down the street, my ankles were in quite a bit of pain, and my left knee was in mild pain (feels more like swelling than pain). I had experienced this ankle pain a couple times at the start of runs and found that it subsided after about a block. Not last night. It stuck around and was really messing with my form and my stride. Not that my form & stride are in any way good, but they work for me for now. My strides became tiny and sloppy as I was trying to escape the pain with each step. My shoulders scrunched up around my ears, and my breathing was all over the place.

It sucked.

We took lots of walk breaks and managed to crank out about 20ish minutes of exercise? But overall I would chalk it up to a failure.

I find that at rest my ankles feel fine. Walking normally they feel fine. Walking briskly they start to hurt a bit. The moment I run, they're in a lot of pain.

I've been googling all morning and the results are kinda what I was suspecting.

I can't be entirely sure what the "injury" or "condition" might be without seeing a physician, but I can gather a few things that are bringing it on:

-Overuse/ pushing it too much too fast
-Lack of core strength
-Bad Shoes
-Lack of strength in hips & glutes
-Lack of strength in ankles & feet

Source

What should I do?

I'm not going to give up, that's for sure! I'm on a roll and this is such a rare bout of motivation, I'm not ready to let it go!

I am, however going to skip my Wednesday run with my workmates this week and instead go in to my local running specialty store and get fitted for shoes. I'll also chat with them and see if they have any wisdom to offer in regards to my pain and training.

My yoga practice is going to be important, I think, in regaining flexibility and strength. I would also like to attend some Barre/Yoga hybrid classes to attempt to bring some strength to my hip flexors and glutes, and my core.

I think that I was a fool to think that I could just step out the door and start barreling towards running a 10k without upping my fitness level in all areas of my body. The trick now will be to add this extra training while maintaining my run training and not overdoing it.

Let's do this.