If You Don’t Enjoy Running, You’ll HATE This Post. You’ve Been Warned.

I have always loved the idea of long-distance running but was never able to actually DO it.  I tried but it just never happened for me.  I could run like the wind in a short race but long distances stumped me every time I tried.

But in October of 2009, I decided to give it one last try.  And really TRY the right way.  Not the normal, impatient, if-I-can’t-be-the-very-best-then-I’m-gonna-quit kind of try.

And then I found Podrunner and the combination of the two things….my desire and the podcast….made me actually able to get close to what I really wanted.

To run long distances.

I got up to 20 minutes straight of running, which sounds really wimpy to a TRUE long-distance runner, but was HUGE for me.

But the increasing shin splints stopped me.

I tried everything I could think of, spending hours researching online at night when the kids were asleep on how to treat the pain and prevent them.  I went to therapy, bought 2 pairs of new running shoes, and gritted my teeth while running through the pain.

And none of it helped.

Then I found myself pregnant and my body told me to stop the running insanity so I walked a few miles a day until we moved here to Alaska and I subsequently became a beached whale.

The pregnancy, as these things tend to do, ended in the cutest baby born in all of 2010 and, 2 weeks later, I found myself longing for the feeling that I get when I run.

So I started again, this time on a treadmill because running in the winter in Alaska is slightly different from running in the winter in Arizona.

Who knew?

But the shin splints came back.

And I may have cried a little because…..um…..I LOVE running.

Then I stumbled upon something online that I hadn’t seen before.

Chirunning.

I know.  It sounds like voodoo or something, doesn’t it?  Well, it does have some psycho-babble in it, but I just skipped that stuff and concentrated on the premise of it.

To change the WAY I run.

To land on my entire foot instead of my heel.

To keep my landing underneath my center of gravity.

To use the large muscles in my upper legs to do the work, relaxing my lower legs and basically just lifting my heels with each step instead of pushing off with my toes.

The idea is to change the way you run……to re-learn how you USED to run when you were a child.

I learned that when I landed on my heel, with my leg flung out front, I was essentially “putting on the brakes” with my legs, causing huge shock to my shins.  Pushing off with my toes was overworking my lower legs and causing my pain and problems.

I have been working on this new form for about a month now and I can tenatively say that it is working.

My shin pain is down about 70% and even though it has been hard to learn the new way of running, I believe that I will now be able to realize my dream of running long distances.

It’s always a good thing to find an exercise that you love.

One that makes you actually want to do it.

One that makes you feel good and gives you confidence and good health.

One that you can carry with you wherever you go and do even when you get old and gray.

When I’m 80 years old, and my last child has left home, I don’t want to sit in a rocking chair all day and knit.

Just part of the day.

The other part….the part when the sun comes up and the grass is damp and you can smell the clean air……THAT part…..

That piece of new day, THAT’S when I wanna RUN!

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