Had a physio appt today and it was a weakness higher up in the chain, my left glute. When doing one-leg squats on my left side my knee would fall inwards. Right side was fine. Now having some ultrasound on my ankle and doing some glute strengthening. Here are a few take-aways for future readers who are having related issues:
- First year of running I was on the left side of the road. My left leg was fine, but my right often had issues in the ankle area. I switched to the right side of the road and was there for 6+ months. With the slope of the road my left ankle would rotate inwards. Key going forward is switching it up (like run same side of the road in both directions, or alternate days, find a flat surface, or run on surfaces that vary these slopes). Not sure if stronger legs would have solved this...
- I was doing so much lower leg strenghtening that I neglected the big muscles higher up. Not to make excuses, but I recall reading lots online about lower leg strengthening, without the balanced view of the total body being ready for running (shod or BF). I won't neglect the core again!
- I thought strengthening my lower legs, while injured, would somehow make them stronger. It made matters worse. I remember doing wobble board, one leg jumps, etc., and never felt great afterwards. Should have got the professional opinion and strategy to recover shortly after this happened (not six weeks after).
Party of my theraphy will include running on the treadmill and being able to view frame-by-frame my form. This should be interesting. Hopefully I can correctly interpret/act on what I see...but in any case it's kind of cool.
