No ideas?

---

______________
HEDmafia.com

If it were me, I would approach this cautiously and deliberatley. I would pretend as though I were completely new to running and that I had never even run a mile before. I would start by concentrating on drills and exercises and then move to running again.

Before I took this project on I would also really assess why I wanted to do this. Is there a running-career ending injury ivolved? Do I just want to be more competitive? What sort of gains can I truly hope to make? And so on. It sounds as though you may have had some knee pain in the past, so maybe this is something that would be worth taking on.

Good Luck.

Bernie

---

______________
"Slowbern has always made astute observations."-Casey 03/10/2009
2013-2014 Detroit Lions---13-3 until proved otherwise.

If I were you, I would not "force" my foot in any direction. Maybe you should have a gait analysis done by a podiatrist or a really good ART specialist. Your foot turning in might be one factor that causes your knee pain, but there must be a reason why your foot is turning in. Orthotics might help.

I recently had a problem with my knee hurting and I was unable to run for a while. The problem did not really start with my knee. My hips and pelvis were out of alignment which caused my knee to not track properly which caused the pain. I also pronate. This could have played a role with the hips and pelvis being out of alignment which caused the knee to hurt.

I went to active release therapy for a while. After doing a gait analysis, my ART guy suggested orthotics. I barely ever have problems with my knee now.

I would take anything these people say with a HUGE grain of salt..

If you're really interested in what your feet are doing when you're running, you may want to have a gait analysis. I had this does as part of a physical therapy session once, during about with an achilles injury. One of the things that came out of this was that the shoe store employees -- all "experts" -- kept putting me into motion control/stability shoes, when what I really needed was a lightweight cushioned neutral trainer. I wonder how many niggles were caused by that...?

Sorry, I read your post yesterday, had a good laugh but forgot to post.

My advice is: Find another running store and get the help of serious people.

I am also pigeon-toed, and it sounds like you and I run about the same pace for a Half IM. Despite the best intentions of physical therapists and running coaches, both of whom I hold in high regard, it will be difficult to "turn your leg/foot back out" through exercises so that you no longer run pigeon toed; not saying it's impossible, but that's something that is much harder to fix than heel striking.

I likewise went through the conversion from heel-toe running to more of a mid foot strike last year after having running video analysis done by a local PT. After doing IM CdA last June, I developed a wicked case of plantar fascitis. Went to see a PT for several months to treat it. My PT is also an IM triathlete, and her assessment was that my pigeon-toed running style caused me to be more of a supinator, and that my shoes didn't have enough shock absorption for a supinator who was trying to be a mid foot striker. Neither she nor the PT who did the running video analysis recommended that I try to "fix" my pigeon toed running style. However, she did recommend a 'professional shoe fit' from a reputable running store here in town, and referred me to go see another PT in the area who is the custom orthotics guru. So I also went to the local running store and got the new shoe recommendation. They put me in a pair of Asics Gel Landreths. In addition to that I got fitted for a pair of custom orthotics (Sporthotics). After struggling w/ plantar fascitis for months, it went away pretty quickly after I began running in the new shoes w/ the orthotics. I should also mention that I've struggled w/ ITB syndrome in my pigeon-toed leg for years, and it has not flared up once since I went to the new shoes and orthotics. The only down side was the $$ (orthotics were $230, but I was told they could last 3-4 yrs even w/ the amount of running I do) and the Gel Landreths are not "light" shoes and become even heavier when I threw a pair of orthotics in them. I don't get caught up w/ that too mucht, though since I've PR'd at both the 15k and Half Marathon distances this year while running in them.

Not sure if this is helpful or not, but it is one man's story who has struggled w/ a similar running biomechanics problem. Best of luck w/ it!

It would be bery unusual for someone to be built different on the left than the right such that one foot "naturally" does one thing and the other does something else. This suggests to me that this is a compensatory pattern that has developed following an old injury and that you are unbalanced.

If an unbalance or bad compensatory pattern actually exists they might be on to something but this is extremely hard to both diagnose and to correct using "ordinary running store techniques". Although, if you are unbalanced and this is the source of the problem, PC's would have you pretty much balanced and this problem corrected in 6-8 weeks. If you are unbalanced but this is not the source of the problem PC's will have you balanced in 6-8 weeks but not correct this "problem". If you are currently balanced then this is probably the way you are built and trying to "correct" things will only lead to problems.

---

--------------
Frank,
An original Ironman and the Inventor of PowerCranks

I was born pigeon toed. I wore special shoes as a baby that forced my feet out. As a preteen my parents would yell at me if I walked pigeon toed so I forced myself to walk with my feet straight.



Well.....after many many years of doing that I ended up with some bad injury problems when I became a distance runner. Essentialy, I rotated my femurs at the hip to get my feet straight. Doing this causes an over exagerated arch in the lower back which caused chronic back pain. My femurs and shins were rotated away from each other which caused knee pain. My feet did not roll, but instead slapped the ground causing lots of shin pain.

After a VERY frustrating college career (I entered college with a 15:46 5K PR and ended being injured 60% of the time), I gave up running all together. A few years back I read a book reccomended to me by a friend. I did some self therapy reccomended by the book and have fixed 90% of my problems. I would fix 100%.......but I get lazy and don't do the exercises.

Anyway, by this book and read it:

http://www.amazon.com/...613?%5Fencoding=UTF8

It's only $10. It will help you understand how your body functions and give you a good starting point for biomechanics and how it directly relates to your body's function.

Also go to this website:

http://www.egoscue.com/htdocs/index.asp

This is the real deal and it works!! Go through the website and get familiar with it. You will have a few options:

1) Just read the book and figure it out on your own .. Cheapest

2) Take pictures of yourself and explain to them the problem. They will send you specific exercises to do....about $35 each time you do it (it's progressive).

3) Go to the clinic and talk to them in person .......about $200 a session but by far your best results.



Realisticly, you can probably solve most of your problems for less than $100.

---

-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

How about the running stores that have a video camera set up at the base of a treadmill. Would they be able to tell what type of shoe you would need by looking at your foot strike in slow motion.

Matt

It depends on who's looking at the video, right?

Before you go forcing your body into a position it is not accustomed to you should attemp to find out why your left hip/leg/foot turn in. maybe it is something that can be fixed with corrective exercise, maybe it isn't. But you should know if it is or not before "forcing" anything.

---

Fighting gravity on a daily basis

Okay, thanks guys. I thought it seemed a bit odd. Surprisingly, these guys come recommended as extremely knowledgeable, but I think I'll look into a gait analysis.

Thanks again for the relpies guys. Especially you Paulo. :)

---

______________
HEDmafia.com