I went running for the first time this morning in several days. According to RunKeeper, my last run was August 10!! There was a big reason for this, and trust me - it wasn't laziness.
I hurt my stupid legs almost two weeks ago. As you may know, I've been
training for Color Me Rad, which is coming to Raleigh in October. I
still had a long road to go down if I wanted to run at all in the race.
Man, was I in some pain! I don't remember how it started, or specifically when, all I remember is feeling this hollow pain in the side of my left knee; this long pain like taffy being stretched. I
remember breathing sharply because the pain in my legs was so bad
trying to walk Bonnie down the stairs that I almost couldn't breathe at
all. The night before, I was fine. I woke up the next morning, and thought everything was situation-normal until I started walking down the stairs. After I had lived with ice packs on both knees for almost a week and worried Justin and Mother half to death, I looked to the Internet for answers.
Upon starting my research, I thought I had Runner's Knee. This made sense. Maybe I had been running more/farther or pushing myself too hard and now it was catching up with me. But after a little more time scouring the 'net, I found out I matched every symptom for Iliotibial Band Syndrome, or IBS. I found out that Runner's Knee usually affects the knee cap. People who have Runner's Knee can barely breathe on their knee cap without it hurting. I had no pain whatsoever there. IBS on the other hand, affects the side of the knee, where the ligament is. And that, my friends, is where this immense pain was radiating from. As far as I can tell (since I never went to a doctor), I pulled the ligament in my leg that runs down my thigh and is attached to my tibia (front leg bone). After I knew all of this, I was then able to find out what caused the pain in the first place. My shoes!
Yes, apparently, after a long time, your running shoes are not meant for running anymore. I was not aware of this. I was under the impression that the more broke-in your shoes were, the better. It's almost the complete opposite, as I've discovered. I was still wearing these little white Sketchers that we bought my freshman year of high school to try out for the dance team! Yeah, those shoes were 11 years old. And they were slowly but surely killing my ligaments. I just couldn't believe that shoes could cause that kind of pain in my legs. And having to walk up and down stairs (one of the biggies for what not to do while healing) was necessary everyday of my life. I was coming out even at 0. I wasn't getting any better and I wasn't doing anything to make it any worse. Justin had pretty much forbade me from doing anything exercise-related out of fear of me making it worse. I was icing my legs in between rubbing Aspercreme on them. For nearly two weeks, I was pretty miserable.
Then, on the weekend of the 18th, Justin and I went home to visit our families. My mom was super insistent on buying me a new pair of running shoes. After seeing the price tag (my new kicks were a whopping $113! I've never spent that much on shoes in my life!), I told her it was just too much money, but we did walk out of the store with them. The day we bought them, I wore them out of the store. I wore them that entire day until I went to bed. And when I woke up the next morning, there was no pain. None. It was like it had never happened. I couldn't believe it! After a diet of Aleve and tears for two weeks, the pain just disappeared! It was a miracle.
So, here they are: Asics women's running shoes, model #GT-2170, in Storm / Electric Violet / Lightning, size 8.5. You can go here if you'd like to read about all the cool features of these shoes.
I went running this morning and got to feel the sweet, sore burning of my lungs for the first time in a little over two weeks. It was fabulous. So, if you're feeling any of the symptoms of IBS, go buy some new shoes!! They will change your life (as any shoe-loving woman will tell you).
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