Over- What?

I've never visited a podiatrist nor a physiotherapist before.

In all honesty, I don't know whom do I see for a general check up when it comes to sports related stuff. 

What about an orthopedic surgeon? *bimbotic blur*

My legs haven't been themselves since MWM on 7th April 2013. I gave myself 3 days of rest before jumping back onto the bandwagon, only to wince in pain as my feet landed onto the ground.

The pain would shoot up my thighs, making me think that I could have pulled a fibre or something in the ITB, I don't know! *flail arms in the air*

Walking would also cause me to wince or grimace, and it was hard to refrain from doing so. I caught myself doing so plenty of times and I knew, tsk tsk, that something could seriously be wrong.

A week after the marathon, I was back at the GCAM run group on Saturday for a 15KM run. The next day, a 14KM trail run in FRIM with a few of them.

Ooh

Aah 

Ouch.

Yeah, you guys didn't know I was grimacing every now and then, did you?

Why did you think I took a lot of walking breaks!

Anyway, enough is enough. It could be something serious, or it may not, but I finally went to see a podiatrist on Monday.

First thing they did was to have me walk and run on the treadmill, with and without shoes. Video recording was done for a gait analysis of some sort.

Gait analysis assesses the way we walk or run to identify any biomechanical abnormalities, from hip extensions to trunk flexion and foot-floor landing. People with these abnormalities sometimes suffer from pain in the back, knee, hip and foot and may need to be corrected. A brief explanation can be found here.

Upon observing the playback of the video and with the podiatrist's observations, we found out that:

1) My right foot pronates more than the left which was surprisingly very obvious and gawd, not a very pretty sight.

2) From walking and running barefoot, my toes to metatarsals would splay open as if I had web feet. 

To be honest, I did notice this web feet-like feeling last year when I gradually made the transition to minimalist shoes. Yikes. I never used to have that problem, you know.

3) My feet tend to roll inwards first, perhaps due to the bunions but there is no cause for concern. In the long run, I may want to consider insoles to prevent any potential injuries caused by the bunions.

After doing the necessary tests of this and that, it seemed like I'm a-OK and have no abnormalities. Phew!

I was afraid he would tell me that my hips were lopsided (from running with a painful knee and thereby affecting my pelvic alignment) and I'd need to trim a centimetre or two off one of my legs to make them even!

The conclusion was that my left ITB was just very tight and I needed to stretch it to loosen it as much as possible. The tightness was due to ... 

Wow, I didn't think I'd reach this stage, but yeah, take a wild guess!

No, it wasn't due to badminton, contrary to what some people say.

It was due to over-training.

Apparently whilst training for the marathon, I may have over-trained instead.

What rubbish! *with indignation*

Alright, if you have seen my mileage log, you may be entitled to come to that conclusion (that I did over-train)...

Right now, I think my legs are much much better now and I just pray that they will have the need for speed this Saturday.

I will be at Run The Rock, supporting Cancer Council Victoria and I just hope that the weather won't be so chilly because I won't have anything decent to wear for a chilly run!

Have a great weekend, everyone.

And have a good race wherever you are, be it at Bidor Half Marathon or World Kidney Day Run!