Today I went to my runner assessment. I don't want to completely give away the ending but I came out of it better than I was before. It was definitely worth the price. Let's just start from square one.
I woke up today and I didn't swim, bike, or run. This isn't all that big of a deal because I'm not in any official training plan (that will come the last week of January). Instead of sleeping an extra hour I sat in bed and heard my youngest daughter babble in her room. While I may have wanted to go back to sleep it was a nice moment to soak in. A lot of days I'm going full speed from when I wake up till 8 when the girls go to bed.
Getting ready today I had an extra spring in my step. Added to my routine was finding shorts and a shirt to change into for the appointment. I grabbed a shirt. Grabbed a bag from my pile of race bags and I headed to work. The assessment was all I could think about. I was nerding out. The minutes crawled by thinking about finally being able to use my new running shoes. My hopes were very high. 4 o'clock hit. Time to rock!
When I arrived I changed out of my work clothes and into my running attire. This morning while I was getting ready I made a mistake. I grabbed a shirt which turned out to be a Turkey Trot shirt and the bag I had with me was a Turkey Trot bag. Maybe I'm just being a turd but wearing a race shirt and it's matching bag to a running assessment felt weird. I felt like I was bragging. OH! It's like wearing a band shirt to their concert. There ya go. That's a good one. The turd feeling wore off faster than it took you to read my paragraph about my shirt/bag fiasco because I was about to be healed.
The physical therapist had me run across the room and back a few times and he noticed what was wrong right away. Before he says it I mention that I thought it was pronating. EHHH! Wrong. Turns out I'm a freak of nature (overreaction). When standing still my feet are not parallel. My left foot angles outward. Instead of pronating my left heel is hitting my right shoe and I can live with that. Mark shifted his focus to my shoes. He wasn't a fan of the Newtons and I can live with that too. Then he explains that he wasn't a fan of these shoes for me specifically. Because of my flat feet (that he also confirmed) I need a better stability shoe. He took my Newts and bent them almost in half and then bent my Nikes. Huge difference. Case in point: he told me if I continued to run in them I would more than likely hurt myself. It's also not a coincidence that I have had some minor foot pain since starting with the shoes. Hmmmm. From this point on in the assessment he shows me a few stretches, tells me I don't need over the counter orthos, and then shows me all the different kinds of shoes and the science behind them. The information I learned was invaluable.
Fast forward to the end of the assessment. Mark talks to me and warns me that more than a certain amount of miles could lead to shin splints and that I'd be good doing 5ks. He said I could even try for a 10k! That was the comment that hit me in the gut. I'm not the most in shape looking guy but when I told him I ran a marathon he seemed a little surprised, "wow, good for you!" Zoinks. Where's the woman from the Help when you need her?
Just kidding. I wasn't insulted. I mean I WAS wearing a turkey trot shirt WITH matching bag! I find the assumption funny and, in a weird way, motivating.
You can look throughout the Bible and see people who didn't have certain strengths. Moses was afraid to speak up. David was too small. Peter denies Jesus. I'm not putting myself in the leading people out of Egypt realm but God uses crooked sticks to make straight lines. I don't have a runners body but I've been used as an instrument and have raised over $1500 for people in need and have completed half marathons and a full. I'll take it!
I'm bummed out about the Newts though. They were a birthday gift from my wife and family. The whole reason I did the assessment was so I could wear them. Now I'm outside of the return period. My plan is to try one or two places to sell them and donate if none of that works. The way I see it is if I can't sell them I can help someone. I'm not going to walk around in running shoes that I don't run in. My Nikes have seen better days. I now start the process of finding some new kicks. I think I love shoes more than my wife does.
Next week the Cleveland Marathon will be featuring my blog. I'm going to focus on running for a charity.
If you are interested in getting a runner assessment through Concorde Therapy give them a call at 330-493-4210. It's 25 bucks, you'll learn a lot, and there's a 15% off coupon for second sole.
Also I'm still working out some news for Active:Water. If you want to run the Akron Marathon with the AW Canton team let me know. The price for the race increases February 28th. Team training starts in April!
I've never had a real running assessment. I've had the guys at Second Sole put me in a proper pair of running shoes though and it really does make the difference. Once they put me in the wrong shoes and I was getting a lot of knee pain. I had my shoes over 60 days before I suspected it was the shoes, and they were so great (the Lyndhurst store) and replaced my shoes at no cost! Thanks for the info on Concorde Therapy. I might have to try that. It's not a bad price. Also, sorry about your Newtons. My son loves those but I haven't bought him a pair. I wonder if you could wear them to 5ks?
ReplyDeleteSame story from a friend. He was told to wear stability shoes and ended up having severe IT band issues. The person I met with wasn't a doctor but he was an experienced physical therapist and runner. Definitely worth the price. I'm not a paid advertiser either. I ponied up the dough. Apparently my blog isn't big enough to merit free stuff lol.
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