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It's been two weeks since I figured out that my poor posture was causing some or all of my leg pain.

At first I focused on my pelvis. I concentrated on tipping my pelvis up and back by arching my lower back. After a day my left heel and Achilles tendon felt much better. The top of my left leg - what I used to call my hip - also felt much better. But my lower back started aching a little and my left hip joint started aching.

At first I ignored the new ache in my hip. But after a couple of days of shopping with my wife I began to notice that I was still sort of wobbling on my hip while I walked. So I started to concentrate on fixing that too. I also relaxed my back a bit because I found that it didn't take much to tilt my pelvis to the correct position.

It's been a few days since I made the latest changes and I feel like a new person. My legs are now pain free.

Now when I walk I focus on a few key points. First I make sure I'm standing up straight like my mom always told me to. I pull my stomach in, pull my shoulders back, and push my chest out. Then I make sure my pelvis is in a neutral position. I try to keep my pelvis still while I walk. I imagine my legs are pendulums hanging from my pelvis and I try make sure they swing back a forth inline with the direction I'm traveling.

I used to stand and walk with my lower back flat and my pelvis pushed forward. This would cause my legs to bow out slightly. When I walked I could feel my left hip sort of roll. Instead of swinging from back and forth from the hip my legs sort of twisted around. Also at some point, probably a reaction to my Achilles pain, I started favoring my right leg. This caused me to rock on my hips to try and keep most of my weight on my right leg. My whole pelvis was like a seesaw. Teetering from right to left. This wasn't a real exaggerated motion, but it was apparently enough to cause me a lot of trouble. When I noticed I was doing this I stopped and the remaining pain in my left hip is now gone.

It is amazing how much I used to take my walk for granted. And it is amazing how much time I've spent thinking about this stuff this week. I was surprised at how difficult it was for me to break some of these bad habits. But now that I know what was causing my pain I know it won't take me long to change my habits and fix the problem permanently.

Yesterday I went for my first pain-free run in over 10 years. I plan to run again tonight. It looks like I'll be able to do my first triathlon next year. In fact I may shoot for the longer Half-Ironman distance Pigman Long Course Triathlon next August.

In April I tried to start running. But I had to quit when my "hip pain" and Achilles tendon started bothering me.

A couple of weeks ago I tried to run again. I felt great for the first five minutes or so. I felt much lighter on my feet and I felt like my form was better at first. But then I started to get tired and my form changed. Halfway through the 20 run/walk my hip started bothering me. I finished the second half just walking because I wanted to minimize the damage.

My initial plan was to start out slow and run just one day per week if my body could handle it. The next day my hip was sore, but nothing too terrible. We went hiking that day. The following day my hip was bothering me even more. This continued for most of the next week. It would get better after a couple of days but if we did any walking during the day the ache returned. After a week of this I knew I wouldn't be running again.

This was very frustrating because I really want to start running this fall. I started to pay attention to how I felt while I walk. Last night I noticed that if I contract my lower back muscles and tilt my pelvis back a bit my entire gait feels much more relaxed and natural. I noticed this as we were just getting our grocery shopping started. I decided to focus on this and try to keep pelvis tilted the entire time we were shopping. Sure enough it seemed to make a difference.

Now I'm consciously trying to change my posture. The muscles in my lower back are tender because they aren't used to working this much, but so far I think this might solve some of my troubles. Who knows, maybe my funky gait is what caused my Achilles tendon trouble too.

This is great because I now have some hope that I'll be able to start running soon. I'll report back after I have some time to see if this eliminates my hip pain[1].

[1] Actually it isn't my hip that hurts. Hip problems are felt in the groin. I did feel some pain in my hip in April, but when I say hip pain here what I'm talking about is pain on the outside of my upper thigh.

I was planning on running tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be pretty good in the morning - warm with a chance of light showers. But my left hip is still a little tender. I think I'll give it one more day of rest and run Saturday.

I was able to go out for a bike ride this evening. That was an unexpected surprise. We were supposed to have thunderstorms all afternoon. But the storms stayed to the west of us for the most part. That gave me chance to get out in 80 degree weather. There was a major headwind for the first half of my ride. But that didn't take away from pleasure of my first 45 minute ride in shorts and short sleeves.

Yesterday I talked about some of the aches and pains I get from running. TTGF is worried about my Achilles tendon. I'm not too worried about it though. I'm hyper aware of it, and I will not push it too far because I know how long it can take to recover from.

But I am a little worried about my hip pain. For years now I've suffered from pain in my hips - more so in my left hip - when I walk any distance. I've always assumed that it was arthritis. The only time it was a problem was when we would go walking around the mall for a long time. Or when we'd go on a very infrequent nature walk. But when I started running and the hip pain sprouted back up I wondered if it was something similar to my Achilles tendon problem.

I did some research last week and I came across this page where ultra-marathon runners talk about hip pain from running. That got my attention because I've always assumed the pain would get better after I got in better shape. But if ultra-marathon runners can develop hip pain then maybe this isn't a short term problem. In fact, I started to see the same flawed logic I used when my Achilles tendon started bothering me.

So I've been paying special attention to my hips. When they ache I try to focus on where the pain is coming from. It seems to be coming from the ligaments that surround the hip joint. The pain doesn't happen while I'm running. It develops after, similar to my Achilles problem.

On the page about Hip Pain, one person said that compression shorts helped them resolve their problem. I thought I'd give that a try. Last night I bought a pair of Nike Pro compression shorts.

As soon as I put them on I felt a difference. The pain in my hip just melted away. That confirmed what I imagined was happening. The muscles, tendons, and/or ligaments in my left hip seem to be too weak to support my hip properly. The compression shorts seem to take just enough pressure off my hip to ease the pain. But I don't see the compression shorts as a long term solution. My body needs to be strong enough to support itself.

This morning I was listening to SimplyStu's interview with Jessi Stensland. She talked about how she almost had to quit competing because of hip pain. She said Core Performance was the solution to her problems.

I've seen the Core Performance book in the bookstore but I've never looked at it. I will have to check it out tonight.

P.S. Jessi has a discount code on her home page for 10% off at the Core Performance site. The same code gets you 3 weeks free training on the Core Performance site.

Last week I started running. I've been cycling for 3 months now so I'm in the best aerobic shape of my life. But I've read that aerobic fitness doesn't necessarily carry over from one sport to another. I expected it to take me a while to get comfortable running.

My plan was to walk/run for 20 minutes, 3 times per week. To start I decided I'd warm up by walking for a couple of minutes. Then I planned to run for 30 seconds and walk for 60 seconds. I decided that if I needed to walk for more 60 seconds then I'd do that.

I got my heart rate monitor on Friday, March 24. Sunday, March 26 was the day of my first run. I stayed out for 20 minutes. I had to extend a couple of my walk intervals to 2 minutes, but for the most part I was able to stick to the plan.

I felt pretty good after my first run. My hips and knees were a little sore for the next couple of days. But I kept icing them and they improved fast.

On Wednesday March 29 I did my second run. It was very cold that morning, but I had my coat on, my hood up, and my gloves on, so I stayed fairly warm. The only real problem was the wind was blowing into my face on the second half of my run. My face got pretty cold and my nose ran, but other than that it was a great run. Later that day my hips and knees started aching again. This time my left Achilles tendon got a little tender too.

A few years ago I had a minor bout with tendonitis in my left Achilles tendon. I had started walking. At the time I was 300+ pounds and I would get to the point where I could walk faster and then I'd over do it. At first I thought it was just a muscle ache. I kept walking every day thinking the pain would go away once I got used to the exercise. But after about a week the pain kept getting worse. It got to the point where I was noticeably limping. That's when I decided to do some research.

I self-diagnosed it as tendonitis. From what I could find that was the least of the problems I could have. The recommended treatment was to ice it and elevate it regularly. Most importantly, I needed to rest my ankle. I didn't worry about my diagnosis being wrong because the treatment for tendonitis wouldn't worsen the problem if it turned out to be something more serious. I decided if I didn't notice an improvement I'd go see a doctor.

Icing, elevating, and resting helped. Within a week my limp was gone. Within a couple of weeks most of the soreness was gone.

Anyway, I'm very aware of my Achilles tendon now. I also pay better attention to other aches and pains too. I now know the difference between muscle aches and sore tendons

On Thursday, March 30, I got the speed and cadence sensors for my bike. I originally planned to run again on Friday. On Friday morning I felt like I was physically up for a run, but I really wanted to ride my bike to test out my new gadgets. And I figured the extra break from running would give my body a few extra days to recover from my first 2 runs.

I didn't run again until this Monday. I hadn't planned on increasing the length of my runs or the amount of time I spent running. But when I got out there I felt good enough to run for 45 seconds and walk for 60 seconds. I also decided to stay out for 30 minutes. The extra 10 minutes and the increase in my running time meant that I basically doubled my distance. The first week I covered just over a mile in 20 minutes. On Monday I went about 2 miles in 30 minutes.

I felt very good during my run. But later that day my left leg was pretty sore. The tendons in my hip and above my knee were sore and my left Achilles tendon was also tender. My left foot was also sore. By Monday night I decided that I'd probably need to skip the run I planned to do this morning. But by last night I was feeling pretty good. In fact my daughters and I ended up going out to play a little tennis. The weather was beautiful and the sun now stays up until almost 8pm.

I felt good after tennis but I wasn't sure how I'd feel this morning. My legs were a little tender. I iced them before bed but I thought I'd probably end up skipping my run this morning.

But when I got up this morning I felt great. My legs weren't sore at all. I threw on my running gear and hit the road. I felt great until I was almost home. Then my Achilles tendon started to feel a little tender. I decided to walk the last 3 minutes home. After I got ready for work I iced my ankle for a while. I've felt pretty good throughout the day. My left hip is sore, but not as bad as it has been. My Achilles tendon is almost completely normal. There are a couple of positions where I can feel just a tiny bit of swelling in it but that is only because I'm paying very close attention to it. I iced my hip and ankle while I was at home for lunch. I'll ice it again tonight.

I plan to run again on Friday morning. At this point it seems like I shouldn't have any trouble doing that.

I did notice that my aerobic fitness didn't translate to running. On my first two runs my heart rate was very high considering my pace wasn't much faster than a brisk walk. But this week I noticed that my body is adapting much faster to this new stress than it did when I started cycling. I expect I'll see the same thing when I start swimming too. But I hope my body adapts quickly to swimming too.

I recently bought a Polar S625X Heart Rate Monitor. I love it.

My stationary bike has a heart rate monitor built in. But I wanted to be able to monitor my heart rate while doing other exercises. I also wanted something that would help me stay in the right heart rate zones while doing interval training. And I wanted to be able to download the heart rate data to my computer and track my workouts over time.

I knew I'd be getting a bike, ideally I wanted a heart rate monitor that would help my track my cycling workouts too. I also wanted something to help me track running and swimming workouts.

The S625X fit the bill perfectly. It comes with a foot pod that you attach to your shoe. The foot pod monitors your steps so the heart rate monitor can track how fast you are walking or running and how far you have traveled. That makes the S625X a heart rate monitor and a running computer combined.

The foot pod is water resistant so you can use it in the rain. It is surprising light weight so you don't notice it on your shoe.

The accuracy of the foot pod technology isn't perfect. It is best to attach it to your shoe the same way every time you use it. And you should also calibrate it. Even then it isn't perfect. But it is good enough for my purposes.

The S625X is also water resistant to 30 meters. So you can use the watch and the heart rate transmitter in the pool. Heart Rate monitors don't always work for all people in the pool. I haven't tested mine in the pool yet so I'm not sure if it will work for me or not. But even if the heart rate monitor doesn't work while I'm swimming I can still use the stopwatch features on the watch to track my swim workouts.

The S625X can also be used as a cycling computer. You can purchase the speed sensor to track the speed and distance of your cycling workouts. You can add the cadence sensor to monitor your pedaling rate. Those sensors cost about $40 each. There is also a power meter available that let's you monitor the power you are producing on the bike. But that is much more expensive at about $350.

The S625X can communicate with your computer using infrared or sound. It comes with Polar Precision Performance (PPP) software that lets track your workouts.

So far I'm very happy with the S625X. I just got the speed sensor and the cadence sensor for my bike. They both work well. The foot pod works well enough. I could have gotten a GPS based heart rate monitor. But the GPS monitors are much bigger than the S625X. And I have plenty of experience with GPS and I know how unreliable it can be in certain situations.