Eureka!

Everybody ready for a happy and non-frustrated post? Brace yourself...

Good news and bad news first though. The bad news is that I didn't call the doc last week like I said I would. Most of it was because I had a million and five things on my mind and I just kind of forgot about it. The good news? I think I finally found a solution to the problem!

Recall a couple of posts ago where I mentioned that a physical therapist recommended something called fibular head mobilizations. I found out more about them a few days later at the injury clinic and it felt like it temporarily did some good. So I had them do it again a couple weeks later and it produced the same result. Basically all they do is get a grip on the head of the fibula and try to loosen the joint a little bit. This past Wednesday I went back in to have them do it again, and the physical therapist noticed that my left fibula moved pretty easily while my right fibula (the injured leg) was pretty tight. After some poking and prodding, she eventually got it loosened up, but mentioned that I'm gonna have to do some work on my own to keep it like that. So I've been doing that every once in a while since then and I actually feel like all of my knee problems are going away. It's just weird that I never thought of something so simple as the fibula as causing these problems. It makes sense though based on where my pain has been.

So that's one thing that's exciting. The other is that I'm ready and eager to undergo a total makeover. Well it's not that extreme...I'm just changing my gait to be more biomechanically efficient because I'm convinced that has played a role in my injury too. The owner of Playmakers practices and also is a firm believer in Chi Running, where the major points are that you strike the ground on the midfoot and also keep your center of gravity over your legs. During these injury clinics on Wednesday nights, he's there to promote Chi Running/good form and also has one of the other employees (the one who was in the last Olympics, so obviously he runs with good form too) help educate customers on what good form looks like. Usually I work on those nights, so I've been kind of watching them while I'm not with a customer and I've absorbed a lot of good info. Sometimes I have to go to the back to get a shoe or something, so I jog back there and lately I've been kind of practicing this new and improved gait, and I think I'm really getting used to it. A couple of days ago, we were already closed and just waiting for a couple customers to finish with their shopping, so me and my coworker were dicking around on the treadmill where we can videotape and analyze someone's gait. I was curious to see what I looked like, so I did two tapings - one with the gait I've known and "loved" for so long, and one with the new technique. Once I did that, I looked at them side by side and could REALLY see a difference - I wasn't putting any strain on my legs by landing on my heel and I was also hitting the ground at a greater frequency. I called Grant over (the olympic guy) and asked him what he thought, and he said that my new gait is pretty much exactly what he preaches to the customers. And by looking at the two pictures here, you can see how I've been landing on the heel and putting that strain on other parts of my leg, especially my knee.

Sooooooo all in all, I've definitely been feeling better. That's what keeping a positive outlook does for you. I've still been swimming and doing my exercises and stretching, and I'm not about to rush back into things either - I'm gonna start on the elliptical and bike and then work my way from there. I've been out far too long to set myself back even further, but I'm still gonna wait a few days to start all that...just to make sure.