Potvin Personal Training

In the past few years, but especially during the pandemic I've messed around with running a lot. I say messed around because I was never really able to turn it into something I was as disciplined with or excelled at like barbell strength training. I owe this largely to my chronic struggle with shin splints, which one time actually turned into full blown stress fractures, as well as the improper form that most likely led to the shin splints.

I tried everything to fix my shin splints. I ditched my ol' reliable gel Asics and went minimalist and even some days unshod. I had read Born to Run which is a great book, but perhaps not the most scientific. This had inspired me to transition to barefoot/minimalist running in a spurt of enthusiasm to emulate the Tarahumera runners who run with nothing but what is essentially Tevas. I ran on asphalt unshod, no need for trips to the foot spa, I was exfoliating every week. After this masochistic endeavor, I adopted zero-drop shoes which promised the same supposed benefits of barefoot running without the aches and pains of skin-to-asphalt. I saw this transition as a panacea, but it wasn't. Within the next few months I was back to the drawing board, or rather the chair, because I couldn't walk much without excruciating shin pain.

Half a year later in my second to last college semester I chose jogging as my final activity elective thinking that this would force me to fix whatever nascent issues I had with my form. My idea was sink or swim. Well with risk of getting long winded, this time I ended up with stress fractures, despite trying to adopt every proper cue of running possible.

Every run, I had a laundry list of cues that would perfect my form. I would focus on quick steps, not having an egregious heel-strike except for on downhills, looking ahead, tilting at the ankles, not swinging the arms cross body, not over striding, head up, chest out, hips up front, tense the core, relax the shoulders, etc. Although my head was in the right place, I let my neuroticism get to me and tried to fix every single small thing at once. I wouldn't stick with one cue or even a handful of cues for long enough to master them, instead I wanted all of them yesterday. Which gets back to an issue I've brought up in previous posts and has plagued my running 'career' to date. That is, I lacked patience. From the get go I was looking for a one size fits all solution, and if I couldn't find that the next best thing was all of the solutions. I didn't have the nuance to try a few things, see if they worked, and then make adjustments later. I wanted this solved yesterday, and who could blame me really I mean shin splints suck and I had already dealt with them for years, but you don't recover from illness by drinking bleach. So, finally I arrived at a balanced approach which was a combination of a few strategies.

First, I stuck with the same intensity and duration of running until I was comfortable with it. If you increase your mileage or duration too quickly, like going from running 3 days a week for 30 minutes to 6 days a week for 30 minutes. You risk injuring yourself with no fault due to your form, because the body just cant recover from that massive increase in volume.

Second, I slowed the F#&! down. I started running at an easy or conversational-pace which is great for multiple reasons. Running at an easy pace means that you are maximizing aerobic adaptions while minimizing stress on the body, I ran just hard enough to make sure I was improving, but not any harder than that. This is what many pro-runners recommend beginners or even professionals at the beginning of their season do to build what is called an “aerobic-base” (See: Lydiard Method). Also these easy runs allowed me to implement the final solution effectively because I didn't have to use every ounce of my willpower to maintain my pace and instead could focus on other things.

Finally, I ditched that laundry list of cues and stuck with one I felt fixed nearly everything at once. That is, to extend the hips forward like when you're having sex... You penetrate the sky? Anyway, what this cue helps with is turn on the largest muscle in the body and the most important one for running, the glutes. When the glutes are turned on the stress can shift from the quads and lower legs, which were compensating, back to the glutes which are now firing on every stride. Say so long to quad and calve cramps!

In sum, I adopted a balanced and patient approach to running in which I didn't try to get ahead of myself, literally and figuratively! I focused on what was important: staying injury free, enjoying the process, and making gradual improvements overtime.