How did you hear about The Running School?
The person I see for sports massage recommended the Running School on the basis that he treats premiership and England rugby players, a few of which had come to the Running School post knee op for walking and running re-education. He thought it would work for me seeing as I felt I didn’t walk properly post-hip operations and I’d seen a lot of physios and osteopaths, none of whom had been able to crack my various issues.
Running experience to date? (For example, a beginner runner/completed the London Marathon in 4hours)
As an adult I’d say a beginner runner. As a teenager I used to complete for my school in cross country and I ran 10ks as part of my rowing training, but before coming to the running I hadn’t ran for 4/5 years due to the pain it brought on.
How has The Running School helped you?
After years of bashing my body as an injury-prone international rower, when I first walked through the doors of the running school I had residual pain in my most recently operated hip as well as in my right adductor, lower back and ribs/upper abs, all of which either stopped me from walking, running or cycling. I’ve gone from feeling constant pain in my hip and adductor when walking to being able to walk for 3 days around St Petersburg as a tourist with no problems at all. In terns of running, I’ve gone from not being able to run for a bus (because I used to get a shooting pain in my abs and hip soreness) to being able to do 45 minutes of running as a mixture of intervals and continuous running, and I’m hoping to do the Royal Parks Half Marathon in October. I’m also able to cycle without back or adductor pain, so I’m now looking to commute to work on the bike. Despite all that, the main thing it’s helped with in confidence in my body. I trust that I’m not going to tear my hip by turning quickly and I’m willing to try new things (such as dancing, yoga) without worrying that I’m going to injure myself.
Would you recommend The Running School, if so why?
Without a doubt, they were the first people to take a global approach to my injuries and see that my gait, movement patterns, etc. needed re-educating. They were realistic in the time frame needed to get better, honest about the work I needed to put in and mainly gave me exciting exercises to do, which I wanted to do, opposed to the usual boring physio ones I’ve had in the past. In fact I recommended the Running School to two injured girls at my club, one with a stress fracture in her vertebrae who had to stop rowing entirely and is now able to race.
