I gave birth to this blog the same day I started running again. That was three weeks ago, and I only ran again today. I owe the three week break to the pain, which crept its way back into my ankle. It was not as intense or punishing though, but it was definitely there again. I was close to kicking myself because I had already told myself that I would only start running in January, but I got impatient and ran earlier—setting back my healing by another few weeks.
So I rested, and waited, and rested, and waited. Finally today, when not a trace of pain was left, I went for another run. Taking my cue from Jeff Galloway‘s Run-Walk method, I walked one minute, and ran another minute. In my attempt to break away from old patterns that could hurt me again, I decided to change my foot gait from forefoot striking (which irritated my ankle still) to heel and midfoot striking (which, surprisingly, erased all pain).
Changing how my foot landed felt weird and almost unnatural because it meant undoing everything that I was used to. For some reason, something in my foot changed, and it took me a while to accept that I had to work with that change—not fight it—if I wanted to keep running.
At the start of 2013 when we’re all striving to make changes in our lives, we’re bound to feel uncomfortable and unsure, but if we give these transformations a chance, we make room for healing, surprises, and miracles to happen.