Just got back from the sports doctor.  Apparently, there are a LOT of things wrong with me, but nothing that cannot be fixed by the time of my half-marathon!

Here is my diagnosis:

• overuse injuries to the posterior tibial muscle, patellar tendon, and IT bands (mainly in the left leg)

The posterior tibial muscle is one of the “shin splint” muscles.  If you have shin splints, it will be because of these shin muscles.  This is apparently what is causing my upper ankle pain!  This is excellent, because I was worried that it was ankle tendonitis which requires a lot more rest and rehab.  It is also good that I caught it now, because he said that more stress to these muscles can cause stress fractures in the tibia.

The patellar tendon is the tendon that connects your knee cap to your shin.  I have a bit too much stress here (more on that later).  My IT bands are also very tight, but it hasn’t progressed to IT band syndrome (also very good news!).

So what is causing all of this?

Basically, I have a simple muscle imbalance in my pelvis/butt.  Both of my glutes are weak, however my right side is even weaker than my left.  This is causing me to put more stress on my left leg (where I am having the most problems) when I take each step, because my right side is too weak to hold my left leg up for any period of time when I take a step forward when running or walking.

I also have almost flat feet (who knew?) which isn’t helping matters.

But he says that he WANTS me to run in the meantime (as long as I don’t overdo it), and that I should be good to go for the half-marathon!!  I am just going to be doing some rehab for the next couple weeks, and he also showed me how to make a couple patella straps (to absorb some of the stress in my knees) out of prewrap.

All this excitement doesn’t bode well for my final exam that I have tomorrow.  I am much to happy to study!!