(In) Flexible

As per last post, I took the "blue pill" and went to see a Podiatrist today. After taking some history and a brief look at my diary of disaster, dumped out from Google Calender, she got down to the business of bio-mechanical assessment.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how flat my feet are, and "C" wanted to investigate if there were any related problems in my legs which would exacerbate my over-pronation and thus lead to injury.

The good news is that my legs are the same length and I can walk.

The bad news is that I have substantially less flexibility in my calf and hams than would be normally expected. The main test for this was lying on my back and having one leg raised up, whilst kept straight at the knee, until it starts to strain. I managed about 50 to 60 degrees lift, when a normal person would expect to be much closer to 90 degrees. In addition, I have limited flexibility when stretching the calf muscle by raising my toes towards my shin.

This flexibility in the ankles is pretty important when running (hey! I'm an expert now!), as a lack of flexibility will increase the amount of pronation as the foot rolls forward.

And one leg was just as bad as the other.

So, how do I deal with this? The main two things I need to do are:

- stay off running whilst the calf heals up properly. Bah.
- undertake twice daily stretching of the calf and hams in order to gradually increase the flexibility and range of movement and thus reduce the chance of injury.

Shoe inserts to help with over-pronation are a possibility in the future, but I need to sort out the stretching and flexibility before we decide if inserts are necessary.

She also took a look at the shoes I'm using. The brand - Pearl Izumi - wasn't familiar, but I think she was happy with my general process of selection - which involved taking advice at a proper running store, trying the shoes and not being bothered with brand names.

However, there are some shoe features which she was at least a little concerned about - the shoes have some edge cut-outs which remove about 5mm of support from the sole in 3 small sections (back and both sides) around the outside of the shoe. These might adversely affect foot strike and roll, but I do find them comfortable to wear.

You can see the cut-outs in the picture here:



I'm considering trying different shoes, perhaps a little Pepsi challenge once I'm back on the roads again.

My stretching exercises are:

Twice a day
- 10 leg lifts per leg, holding 20 seconds when the muscle becomes taught under strain (this is best assisted by someone to do the lifting, but can be managed using a towel around the foot and hauled into the air)
- 10 calf stretches, using a stair, standing with the ball of my foot on the step and dropping my heel over the edge to stretch the calf muscle, hold for 20 seconds.

I'll also be back with my local physio soon to see if there is anything she can do to assist or measure progress.

Meanwhile, back on the bike, which was what I was doing Monday morning and plan to be out for a further 6 miles again tomorrow.

Mr Stumble.