I had a little scare today. As the name of this blog states, I'm new to running. I'm unfamiliar with the various possible injuries. Well, I had read that if you're not patient when breaking into barefoot running, then you're likely to be injured. Fortunately, I can't run very far to begin with, so I can't really get impatient. However, I noticed that I was feeling more soreness than usual the last couple days. I thought at first that this was just the usual soreness that comes with using new muscles. I decided to heed some advice I'd read to massage the muscles. I was finding it difficult to find the soreness, which was odd.
Suddenly, my fingers rubbed against the bone and I felt a sharp pain. I hadn't read anywhere about bone pain associated with barefoot running. I realized that my calf muscles were just fine, but the soreness wasn't one that would just go away. I was doing something wrong. I walked slowly home, showered, headed over to school, and googled the problem. I never found a direct answer to my specific problem, though I did find a problem in my running form. I usually flex my calves so that I can absorb the impact, only allowing my heels to brush the ground. Apparently, I'm supposed to relax my calves. I'm not sure yet how I'll do a good forefoot strike, but next time I run, I'll experiment. However, that won't be for a few days. I'm going to let the soreness fade before I run again. Hopefully it goes quick.
I'm a little flustered by this, but I'm choosing to see it as a learning experience. I thought I was on track, but apparently I was headed towards injury. Thank goodness I caught it early. From now on, I'm going to check my calf bones after runs to make sure I've corrected the problem.
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