For the past 30 plus years, I’ve run the same way. Long legs = long stride, over different continents, different climates, different decades. Sometimes I’ve been faster, and sometimes I’ve been slower, but the basic stride has always been the same. About 8 years ago I hurt my foot, which resulted in orthotics. Over time, one knee started to hurt, then the other. Stretching, strengthening, physical therapy, lots of ice and a relatively high tolerance for pain kept me on the road. Recently though I’ve decided that the ability to get up from a squat without squealing is a priority, which has cut my running way back. A new plan was called for – pain tolerance turns out not to scale over decades.
I started with the assumption that running is natural and shouldn’t hurt. Then I figured that the people who are crazy enough to do ultra-marathons must have something that could help. Two books pointed me in the right direction: Why We Run and Born to Run. The second made me think that there might be a connection between the orthotics and the knee pain. More reading on optimum running stride ensued, and I decided to do three things:
· Aggressive physical therapy and strengthening of the muscles around the knee.
· Ditch the orthotics, which opened up an entirely new world of non-running shoes, btw.
· Change my stride to reduce impact and stress
So for the past few weeks I’ve been running one or two miles at a time, focusing on shorter stride, quicker turnover, striking not on the heel of my foot but more mid-foot, with my foot hitting the ground as much underneath me as possible. It’s hard, ingrained habits take a while to change. The jury is still out in that I don’t have many miles in, but my knee is starting to feel better, and I’m optimistic that I’m on the right path – and it is a great reminder that sometimes (even in the absence of pain!) it’s worth challenging the way I’ve always done things.
Of course this is true in more than running. For the past seven years I’ve filled this blog with musings on running, on baking, on the changing nature of communications, of the need for increased transparency. Everyone in the communications field is constantly changing stride, at least if they want to stay in the field. It’s a fact of life.
So I’m changing stride here at work as well, moving from an agency I love to a client I love, and will be joining Microsoft as Corporate Vice President of Corporate Communication at the end of August. And yes, I know this is called “burying the lead.” :)
I’ve been incredibly blessed by my time at Waggener Edstrom on a professional and personal level. I’ve been able to work with some of the smartest communications people in the world, and have been encouraged to try new things, allowed to fail, been given challenges and opportunities that I never dreamed possible. And I’ve been able to work with Microsoft, a company who truly believes in the strategic power of communications.
This is a big change in stride, for sure. I know there will be pains and gains along the way. But I am buoyed by the fact that I’ll continue to work with many of the same reporters, teammates at WE and people at Microsoft as I have for the past several years, albeit with a changed view from my window.