To the physiotherapist

When my knee issue from my last half marathon didn’t quite go away I decided I wanted to see a physiotherapist. The one who had sorted my ankle problem clearly had a good precedent, but I had heard there were good sports physiotherapists closer by, so I asked at work if anyone knew one. And someone did: Adam from the Physio Room in Llanfairfechan, who seems to specialise in runners. And I managed to get an appointment in before my next race, be it only just. 

I was really keen to see him. I hadn’t run for a week to give my knees a break! And that’s long for me. The runs I had done since the race had all been quite short and careful. I really wanted to get back to proper running. 

When the moment came and I sat in his eponymous room I explained to him what my background was, what symptoms I had had during that fateful race, and what had happened since. And that already sounded good to him. He said he figured there was nothing wrong with my knees. That's good to know. Then he needed to find out what else might be the problem then.

He first asked me to do some things like walking on the spot, standing on one leg, standing on tiptoe et cetera, both facing him and facing the other way. Then he put me on his treatment table and checked out my strength and flexibility. He noticed the excessive flexibility in my knees, but was not worried about it. And he also spotted some insufficient flexibility. He figured my legs can move the desired distance forward, but not backward! And he figured that that was where the problem might lie.

It seems that if, when you stride, your legs don't move behind your centre of gravity enough, your ITB never gets to relax. And if you then run too fast or too far, or especially both, it will start hurting. And that seems to have been what happened to me doing the Snowdonia half marathon.

He said that the answer would be to do exercises to become more flexible. And for upcoming races, make sure to run slower, but a bit longer, as training. I hadn't done any training runs longer than 14 km for a 21 km race. And then on the day I had overdone it! So if I can improve the situation with flexibility exercises, I can probably at the same time slowly crank up the running again, until I am to my old level. I sure hope so!

I also asked him if I was making the situation worse if I did my upcoming duathlon, and he said no. I was glad to hear it! I was looking forward to it. And I knew my knees would be okay with the biking. And the running was only a 2.5 km stretch first, and a 5.8 km stretch last. That's not much! And if my knees would hurt too much, I could always walk part of the second stretch (I didn't think I would make my knees hurt in only 2.5 km.) I would still easily make the cut-off time. And then at least I would know what it is like to competitively ride a bicycle!

I immediately started the exercises at home. I hope I can feel the difference soon! And there already is the next race in the diary after the Duathlon, so that will be the evaluation point…

Not entirely sure what this has to do with flexibility, but the the easiest exercise to photograph: banded crab walk