July Runfessions
It’s the last Friday of the month (noooooo! Can’t we have a “July extension?”) so I’m meeting Marcia at her RUNFESSIONAL. But have I been running enough to collect any runfessions? Let’s find out… This week got off to a rocky start, when I ran on Monday AND MY CALF PAIN RETURNED. I have to runfess that I had a mini- temper tantrum and rage-fired my physical therapist (to be clear… the rage was all in my mind- I did not rage AT the PT! But I did cancel my future appointments.) Then I calmed down, re-framed the situation, and tried to be grateful for what I have. Two days later, I had a PAIN-FREE RUN, and I’ll runfess that it’s much easier to have things go your way, rather than putting forth all the mental energy to “think positive” and “look on the bright side.” Screw all that! Just give me a good run and let me get on with my life. I would also runfess that I did so many things at once that I can’t pinpoint what it was that made my calf feel better. It could have been the dry needling kicking in after a delay, or it could have been the Bob and Brad video I watched on strain/counter strain technique, or it could be the PNF stretching, or the KT tape, or it could have been this… I’ll runfess that when I see videos of myself running, I notice all sorts of bad habits. The Chi Running cues of relaxing my lower legs, shortening my stride, and lifting my heels up behind me really seemed to help my calf. And as if that’s not enough… I finally got my FloatRun Harness in the mail! I haven’t had a chance to use it yet, but I’ll try it out on my run tomorrow. If nothing else, it will keep my arms from flailing all over the place. I’m excited! Between the Chi running and my new harness, soon I’ll be looking like an Olympic runner. OH YEAH… the Olympics start tonight!!! I runfess that my sleep schedule will suffer greatly for the next two weeks, but it will be worth it. Have you read Chi Running? Do you ever analyze your running form? ARE YOU EXCITED FOR THE OLYMPICS?