And when I finished this race, like two years into my adult onset running journey,
I actually finally called myself a runner. Before that, I wasn't a runner. I wasn't any of those
like skinny runners, right? I've been doing it since like middle school and cross country.
I wasn't a runner, right? But I ran a half marathon. So now I felt like I was able to finally call
myself a runner. And like a lot of members in our healthy runner coaching program who don't identify
as a runner, they go on to crush five Ks, half marathons and marathons. I thought I had it made.
I thought I had to figure it out. I was a runner. But did I?
If you are constantly worried about getting injured or you don't know how to get faster as a runner
and you want to continue to run for stress relief, then this is the podcast for you. Welcome to
healthy runner, the only place that provides you with training tips, injury recovery and prevention
tools with actionable strategies by experts in the running industry. So you can develop a stronger
running body and feel confident that you can overcome any obstacle as a runner. I'm your host,
Dr. Dwayne Scottie, avid runner, running physical therapist and coach, educator,
founder of Spark Healthy Runner, where we help dedicated runners get stronger, run faster,
and enjoy lifelong injury-free running with the perfect online running coach, even if you've
been told to stop running with an injury or you think coaching is just for fast runners. Learn
more about our signature coaching program at learn.sparkhealthyrunner.com. Every week we help a runner
just like you learn how to consistently get in your mental clearing miles and even hit PRs well
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the show on Spotify so you don't miss the next episode. Thanks for joining me now on to the show.
I couldn't sit for more than 10 minutes, let alone feel my buns, which ironically wound up being
the beginning of one of the lowest points of my life. The thought of sitting in a car
for my morning commute into work stressed me out, let alone being told by my doctor to stop
running until my injury healed. I was a 31 year old father with two little girls at home. I was gaining
weight, feeling out of shape, getting dad bod, and I couldn't run because of an injury.
Can you relate to this? Maybe you are in a similar situation that you're trying to get out of.
My name is Dr. Dwayne Scottie. I am a running physical therapist, coach, educator, and my mission
is to preserve the health and longevity of runners everywhere by allowing them to get stronger,
run faster, and enjoy lifelong injury free running. I'm the CEO of Spark Healthy Runner and creator
of the Healthy Runner Podcast. This past week, the Healthy Runner Podcast and the Spark Healthy Runner
YouTube channel just turned three years old, which means I've been sharing content consistently
on a weekly basis for three straight years, which I am super proud about, but also need to be
grateful for and thankful to you, the listener who has been following along, who has been tuning in,
who has been sharing the episodes, free plug. If you haven't rated the podcast yet, just drop a
star rating. It will really help this podcast continue to grow, continue to grow our YouTube
channel so we can reach more runners and save them from having to be frustrated, injured runners
so they can enjoy lifelong injury free running. Today, I am going to share with you something
that I have never shared before on the podcast, as well as the YouTube channel. I've alluded to
my story, my backstory in bits and pieces, but never have given you the full picture
and context and quite honestly, I didn't really have it all put together until I've been able to
reflect on this journey these past three years and really how I have become a healthy runner
and why I decided to do what I do today, living my passion, educating the running community,
and why I decided to pivot my professional career from being a traditional in the clinic physical
therapist to more of a holistic mindset running physical therapist and coach so I can better serve
the running community in a way that you quite honestly really deserve to receive care, guidance,
and really get back to injury free running so you can become a lifelong, healthy runner instead
of a frustrated runner who gets injured every time you try to get faster or every time you try to
extend your distance and run longer. I want you to maintain a strong mind, a strong body,
and just keep running into your 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond. Alright, I already shared with you,
I was 31 years old, I was a father to two little girls and I was gaining weight, feeling out of
shape, or I get in the dad bod, and I couldn't run because of this injury and I know many of
you are going to be able to relate to this who have followed along the show so I'm really excited
to kind of share this personal journey that I've been on and it really needs to start by taking
a couple years before that. So really taking you back to my childhood honestly is when I grew up
in the late 70s, 1979, I was born, like most kids, we were playing outside, right? I was always
outside with my friends riding my bike into the dark hours of the night with my brother without a
care in the world. My formal sport that I did do, you know, it was definitely informally
basketball, baseball, street hockey, those types of things. My formal sport that I did
was dance. Yes, I was a dude who went to dance school and I'm not ashamed of that. Like I was
in middle school and because it really led me to meeting my lifelong partner, my wife,
who was my dance partner at the time at our local dance studio and I'm going to connect the
written blog to this video and podcast episode and share some pictures with you. So if you want to
check out the blog, you can check out my wife and I in our duo picture, our senior year of high school
and I would get my exercise in by dancing three hours a day for, you know, three to four days
per week and you know, that is really my first introduction to exercise and I would take classes
on the weekends in New York City, Broadway Dance Center. So I grew up on Long Island, New York
and I really love taking tap classes. That was definitely my forte. I was not a hip hopper
and you know, I really loved tap and that was kind of like my jam. So you know, for those,
you know, who could relate to this. I really idolized like Gregory Hine,
Savion Glover and then the oldies, but goodies like Fred Astaire, Jean Kelly, just to name a few,
they were like my idol growing up. And at this time, I also started working out in the gym because
I needed to build upper body strength, you know, as being like a young adolescent boy,
it was like you always partnered with a female partner and then you started doing some lifts
and partnering work and I really enjoyed that. Not just because I got to fling girls around,
which is definitely one of the benefits of being a male dancer, but I digress. This was really
my first introduction to working out for physical health and that really accelerated when I went
to college. I, you know, went to college at Quinnipiac University and wanted to study physical therapy
and, you know, taking courses in anatomy, biomechanics, kinesiology, I really loved applying what I was
learning in the classroom, learning about the muscles, how they function, what their connections
were, and then applying that in the gym and being like, okay, if I do this squat, yes, I do feel
less of my quads because it extends your knee, right? It's a knee extensor. And I really loved kind of
integrating that into my own strength routines and really applied that as getting my strength and
conditioning certification as I was going through grad school and then working as a personal trainer.
So I would work with clients, design programs and be able to kind of practice, right, exercise and
applying it and figuring out what exercises are good for what individuals and for what problems
and then for the first seven years of my physical therapy career, I really began my pursuit of
lifelong learning by taking loads of continuing education courses and becoming a board certified
specialist in orthopedics. And during this time, the one constant form of exercise for me was working
out in the gym five days a week. Like I was like that consistent person woke up in, you know, four
o'clock, five o'clock hour would always get in my gym workout prior to getting into work.
And I absolutely love trying new exercises, pushing hard to gain new muscle and witnessing
firsthand the physical benefits I received from strength training. Now let's fast forward to the
day that really changed my life forever. And it wasn't in the way I thought it would change my life.
This is August 2010, while playing some backyard volleyball during my youngest
daughter's first birthday party. And you know, this is a big Scotty bash like we're big on
celebrating birthdays. And you know, we always love having our family up. And you know, this is
my younger daughter who has the summer birthday. So she always gets the summer pool parties,
whole backyard barbecue, the full nine, I set up the volleyball court. And you know, we play as a
family. Unfortunately, we get kind of competitive. And I did, you know, land a little awkward after
going up, trying to like spike the ball down on my cousin. And I felt this, you know, sharp pain
inside of my left hip. And my leg almost gave out. I was like, Oh, it's kind of weird, whatever.
You know, I probably just pulled something. Unfortunately, the pain worsened over the next
couple of days and progressed to the point that I couldn't turn to change directions, even just
walking, not even like running and cutting or anything, just like walking in the clinic,
you know, working as a PT, I would like turn to like go into the room. And you know, my hip felt
like it would just like give out. So that was really, you know, the beginning of like, Oh, okay,
what's going on here? Good thing for me. I was an orthopedic sports medicine PT. And I had some
good connections and knew who to see what guidance to get. And I did my best efforts to treat it
conservatively with rehab, you know, so I saw one of my colleagues and then really follow through
with like the exercise I needed to do. And unfortunately, you know, I did need to undergo
a surgical procedure called a hip arthroscopy or a hip scope. And what they found when they went
in there with the scope, and you can look inside the joint is that I did have a torn labrum as well
as a torn piece of cartilage. So as a result of more of the cartilage tear,
the surgeon elected to do what we call a microfracture procedure. So they drill little bones,
little bones, they drill little holes into the bone to actually facilitate it to bleed and
facilitate healing to theoretically throw down some cartilage to protect the bone surface,
right? So I wouldn't develop like osteoarthritis in my joint.
That procedure, there's definitely been advances since this time. At this time, when I had the
procedure done 12 years ago now, it was fairly new. There was only like three surgeons in the
state of Connecticut that were doing this surgery and that specialized in this. This was kind of
newer technology in doing these hip arthroscabies. You know, they've been doing them in the knee and
the shoulder forever. And this was something new in the hip joint. So unfortunately, because I had
that special procedure done, I was forced to use crutches and not weight bear at all through my leg
for six weeks at that time. So now, you know, think about being reliant on your wife to not only take
care of your two daughters under the age of five, but now should take care of me, right?
So I felt like an invalid. And during that time, because I was on crutches and I wasn't able to
work out like I was used to doing five days a week, I unfortunately gained some weight,
lost a lot of muscle and felt really quite disgusting, honestly, in my body as I never,
you know, looked the way I looked. Like I said, ever since adolescence, like being in dance,
all of that, I always liked staying fit. And I never experienced anything like this before.
And now I'm not my 20s anymore. Now I'm in my 30s. I'm like a father of two. And, you know,
I asked my surgeon, I was like, you know, what do you recommend that I can do to get back into shape?
And, you know, he was like, just go for a run. Now I never have been a runner. You know, I did try.
So I did try running in college. And every time I would run, I would get what we call
piriformis syndrome, where I would get like this deep icky pain, kind of in the middle of the butt
area, where that muscle would go into spasm, as well as I would always get shin splints.
So every time I ran, I was like, Oh, I can't run because I'm going to get shin splints.
So I couldn't run for any distance. And the only time I ever ran was for a quote unquote cardio,
after my strength workouts in the gym, where I would do these short bursts when I would want to
like lean down, right, get some cardio in. That's the only running that I've ever experienced was
on the treadmill. And my surgeon explained to me that, you know, due to the area of the hip that
they did the surgery, it's in the front of the hip joint. And he really didn't want me running
on the treadmill because it kind of adds a little bit of force to the hip joint coming in a forward
direction. So I was like, okay, well, like, what do you want me to do? It's Connecticut. It was
March at the time. It was actually we're actually coming up at the time of this recording up on my
12 year anniversary, or my run anniversary, when I took my first run outside, because he told me
he was like, just run outside. And I was like, all right, it's pretty cold still, like seriously,
like you want me to go outside? But I was like desperate guys, I needed to get back in shape,
right? I was like, all right, I need my active lifestyle back. So I gave it a shot. Can you guess
what happened next? You probably could, right? I actually really enjoyed running outside,
getting that fresh air feeling, taking in my surroundings. And for me coming off surgery,
it was just great to be able to work up a sweat and exercise again. And I loved it so much that I
started running more. And I started running faster. And then I saw that there was these road races
that people do. And I said, you know what, maybe I should try this, right? I've been running now.
Let me like try this race. It's a 5k. It's this big race in New Haven, Connecticut. It's a Labor Day
road race. And I knew a bunch of people doing it, friends of mine. So I was like, all right,
let me try it. Sure. And I managed somehow to do pretty well finishing in 2120 or 652
minute per mile pace, which I think is actually pretty darn good for being like a novice runner.
And you know, I, at the time, I didn't realize how good of a time that is like reflecting now.
I would be like, yeah, I would be really happy with that time. And you know, just starting out.
And I kind of looked at, you know, where I placed in my age group, and I was like, wow, I didn't do
too bad. Like, that's not too bad for someone just starting out. You know, maybe, maybe I can do
more of this, right? So I continue to explore this whole new world to me of running. And I
trained and, you know, worked on getting faster, worked on running longer distances. So I can
train for 10k. And then I train for 10 miles. And then, you know, I was getting faster in the 5k,
getting PRs. And I wanted to challenge myself more and train for my first half marathon,
because people, you know, we talk about these half marathons. And I'm like 13.1 miles, like,
no way I can do that. I'm not a runner. And I actually, before I did that half marathon,
you know, I did this local 10k. And I was just like floored that I actually finished third of my age
group. And I got a little trophy. And I was like, wow, I haven't got a trophy since like, you know,
youth soccer or youth baseball. And I was like, wow, this is really neat. I was like, okay,
let's like explore this half marathon thing. So I started training for a half marathon. And
can you guess what happened next? It wasn't exactly what happened when I started running.
And everything went great. This is when I actually got my first running injury. And it was this deep
aching pain in the bottom of my butt, right where the sit bone is, or at the top of my hamstring.
And initially, I thought the pain would go away. But it was stubborn. And it just kept getting worse
to the point that I couldn't even feel my buns anymore. And I couldn't sit for more than 10
minutes, let alone run. And the pain lasted for months in my family. And I couldn't even drive
to Long Island, New York, living Connecticut. We couldn't visit our family. It was a two hour drive.
And I just remember dreading all of the holidays around that time period, because I knew that I
would be like in pain, sitting off to the side, you know, not putting any pressure on that side
on my left side. And I didn't understand why it wasn't getting any better. And I was doing
everything that my PT books said I would should be doing, right? I was resting it. I was stretching
my hamstrings, because when you have a hamstring injury, you have to stretch it, right? Makes sense.
I was told by my doctor to stop running. And he even told me, maybe running isn't the sport for you.
So this devastated me because here I was kind of this young father, finding this new sport,
where I was a dancer earlier on. And now I found running. And I found, you know,
myself getting back in shape, right, getting my active lifestyle back after my surgery. And
this really devastated me. And here I was this board certified orthopedic sports medicine PT,
certified strength and conditioning specialist who prided myself on getting all of my patients
better, right? Like I would literally like do research on certain patients and their conditions
and, you know, do programming and we have progressions like late at night at home on my own time,
right? Like I definitely perseverated on getting my patients like better to 100%, like getting
them back to where they needed to be. But I couldn't even fix my own body. So talking about feeling
like a fraud, right? You know, feeling like I was an imposter. And I'm just wondering, can you
relate to this at all? Maybe not feeling like an imposter or fraud, but having this type of injury
where you just were frustrated and you tried some things and it wasn't getting any better. Because
even though this has been a while for me now, I know how you feel. And I can remember how much
this affected and, you know, infected me mentally and was such a downer because I really, you know,
couldn't fix my own problem. And, you know, you might have IT band syndrome, you might have
planar fasciitis, you might have Achilles tendonitis, runner's knee, or, you know,
pain on the outside your knee, IT band syndrome. You probably don't have PhD or proximal hamstring
tendonopathy. You could, but you probably have one of the other injuries I mentioned. And I just
want to let you know like I feel you. And I was in the same exact position that you were.
And I managed to figure it out. And after googling like crazy, trying to fix this problem
in my butt. So I could be able to run and be able to sit for my commute to work. I managed to
actually start running again. And I was able to get stronger. And now I'm in a very much
better position today. And a better state of mind. So I'm going to share with you exactly what I
found when I searched Google, because honestly, all the PT references that I had at the time
was not telling me what I needed to know to kind of really take that next level in healing from my
injury. And it made me really change my whole outlook on how I train as a runner. And I'm going
to explain to you what I did to get out of this bleak situation that I found myself in. And I
really figured out something that changed everything. So this is really my epiphany.
So this was certainly one of the low points of my life. And you know, now I'm here to share with
you like what I found when I googled proximal hamstring tendinopathy injury and how I overcame
it and got back to running. So just like when we were first time parents, and some of you might
be able to relate to this right now, or you can remember this. You know how we overcame like
rocking our babies to sleep every single time that they were due for an app? Like we had an epiphany
and soon realized that cell soothing and crying would be the best in the long run to keep us parents
sane, right? Like despite how painful it was to hear them cry. I can remember my first born, right?
Olivia. It was literally I'd be like rocking and shushing her to sleep for five minutes, 10 minutes,
15. It got to half hour. And then tools like an hour, right? Or I put her in the the stroller and
we'd literally be in her room. And like I'm sitting there rocking the stroller back and forth to get
her asleep just to take like maybe a half hour nap. And I'm like, I'm spending an hour for her to
take a half hour nap, right? Like what time freedom does that give us as parents? So I think, you know,
you guys could probably relate to this who are parents. So just like that instance where I realized
like, this doesn't really make sense. My hamstring injury was similar. And the fact that really what
I did in the beginning to try and fix it, now looking back was really quite silly. And I soon
learned that this running related injury was very different. It was unique from any other
injury that I had learned about in physical therapy school. It wasn't the same as a hamstring strain.
It wasn't same as when you pull your hamstring or another tendon injury that younger, you know,
adolescent athletes get that is more inflammatory in nature. And you know, it wasn't something similar
that really I that really responded to the way other injuries responded to that I was treating
in the clinic. And I learned that one of the worst things that you can do for this injury,
proximal hamstring tendon off the is stretch the hamstring muscle, which is quite counterintuitive
because it just feels tight. And a lot of my clients now will tell me that as well. It feels
tight and it feels like you want to stretch it. And your instinct is to do that. And just like
my instinct was to rock my first order Olivia down for a nap each and every time until I was
literally doing it for an hour. I also learned that this condition is actually quite common in
distance runners, especially middle aged adults who are training for a half marathon who are training
for a marathon. And I also learned that hamstring loading and with strengthening targeted to the
hamstring tendon was key. And once I changed my plan of attack, I suddenly was able to run again
and go visit my family in Long Island because I could actually sit. So I was back to running.
So all is good in the world back to running super pumped. I was even able to finish my first half
marathon, the Cheshire half marathon, which the medal is somewhere behind me. For those of you
watching the video version here. And I had a pretty respectable time of a 136 59 in 2013. And I do
have the picture to prove it on in the blog there of myself, Olivia and Gabby at the Cheshire half
marathon. And when I finished this race, like two years into my adult onset running journey,
I actually finally called myself a runner. Before that, I wasn't a runner. I wasn't any of those
like skinny runners, right? I've been doing it since like middle school and cross country.
I wasn't a runner, right? But I ran a half marathon. So now I felt like I was able to finally call
myself a runner. And like a lot of members in our healthy runner coaching program who don't identify
as a runner, they go on to crush five Ks, half marathons and marathons. I thought I had it made.
I thought I had to figure it out. I was a runner. But did I?
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Now I'm going to share with you the secret that led to my fastest half marathons and my first
marathon. Before that, I need to share with you that remember how everything changed for me when
I started strengthening to get over my injury and I stopped stretching. Let's go to now April 2013,
two years into my adult onset running journey. I was finally able to acknowledge I'm a runner.
I finished my first half marathon and there were some amazing benefits or hidden benefits, I guess,
I should say, to adding in strength training for running. During the next four years,
I really went on to run faster and faster by racking up half marathon PRs. They were going out of style.
And to be quite honest with you, when I was getting some of these half marathon PRs,
it wasn't all roses all the time because every time I actually tried to run faster
during my training, I got another injury. Yes, the running sports medicine PT got
runners knee. I got patello for moral pain syndrome. And then I got inside of the ankle pain posterior
tibial tendonitis or tendonopathy. And then I got planar fasciitis and the bottom of my heel hurt
every time I took my first step out of the bed in the morning and then I got a killese tendonitis.
And the good thing by being a PT who helped many patients get out of this type of pain
is I was able to treat myself initially, right? I was able to like calm down the symptoms. I knew
what to do. The secret that really kept all of these common running related injuries that many of you
have had at some point or maybe battling right now, the key to keeping it from coming back
is really the secret that I want to share with you. So you can stay active, stay healthy,
and just keep running without having to be told to stop running by your doctor again.
And you want to know what the secret I learned. It is that runners are athletes
and runners are different from the ordinary person who gets hamstring pain, who gets knee pain, who gets
foot and ankle pain, right? Versus the generic, we call it like general orthopedic patient population.
That was really I was seeing in the in the PT clinic and runners need to train in order to run.
So let me say that again for the folks in the back, runners must train in order to do the thing
they love run not run as your only form of training or exercise. So what do I mean by that?
Runners need to strength train train on one leg train with jumps or what we call plyometric
training. And we need to train smart with proper progression. And that's really the coaching aspect
that I've added into my toolbox. So once I started implementing these principles into my personal
training, the injuries started going away and stopped coming back, which led to the following
results in 2015. I was able to get a Hartford half marathon PR of a 133 56. I don't know if I'm
going to ever see that time ever again, guys, I'm not going to lie. Right? That is when I was
peaking in my my race times at this time when I really started implementing strength training for
running. And you know, I was continually kind of PRing. And then I had that that one magical day,
weather was perfect. My race strategy was executed perfectly. I was feeling good. And I got a sub
134. So I haven't been close to that ever since to be quite honest with you, but I'm slowly chipping
back as the years go on. And then what I was able to do after that was, you know, because I got a
bunch of half marathon PRs and people who were talking about this marathon thing. And I'm like,
well, I'm not a marathon runner. Like I finally call myself a runner, but I was like, I'm not a
marathon runner. And I challenged myself to run my first marathon. And I was super proud to finish
26.2 miles in 2017 at the Hartford Marathon. And you know, this was a a huge accomplishment
finishing the distance. Just like we tell our athletes now, I made a lot of mistakes. I've talked
about this in many episodes before a lot of our marathon specific content. I've talked about a
lot of those mistakes I did make in the marathon. But I was super proud to be able to cover the
distance, right? Finish my first marathon. And that's really where kind of my personal running
journey kind of grew and give you that backstory on where I come from there. And now I want to
shift gears to I'm going to get a little personal with you. I hope that's okay. I consider you guys,
my healthy runner community as my family. So I really want to share with you the why in what
I'm doing today. And it really stems from ever since I started sharing content publicly. I've
always said, my name is Dr. Dwayne Scotty, right? And I take great pride in saying Scotty and adding
my last name and not just saying, Hey, it's Dwayne. Because really, that name means like the world
to me. And the reason it means the world to me is because I decided to actually change my last name
going through physical therapy school. Because of the woman, I was lucky enough to have in my life
for 41 years. And I'm grateful for having my mom as a part of my life, each and every single one
of those years. And on January 26, 2021, my mom, Janice Scotty, lost a two week battle with COVID
just weeks before the vaccine was approved and available. There's not a day that goes by that
I don't think of her and her legacy definitely lives on in her love of family and friends. And
it's now at the time of this recording been over two years that I have not had her here. But
you know, I think about the sacrifices that she made. And I think about growing up without a father,
you know, in my house without father having a relationship with any of us. My mom was a single
mother raising three children working full time overnight. We need to get a babysitter for us
overnight. She worked at the local community college and picked up a public safety job.
And then she would go to school during the day, went to a local community college, went to school
to be able to get her associate's degree, went back to school to get her bachelor's degree.
Because she wanted to instill in us from a young age that, you know, we can accomplish anything,
right? We came from, and I've definitely never shared this before. I've done a deep dive reflection
episode after my mom passed away two years ago. But, you know, we grew up in welfare, right? We were
on government sponsored food. I remember waiting in lines, long lines, to walk away with like this
huge block of cheese, powdered milk, a huge thing of butter. And, you know, we would like live on
pasta and butter growing up because my mom was trying to make a better life for us, right? And
she sacrificed a lot. And she instilled in me from a very young age that I need to, number one,
you know, strive to work hard. And that I was going to go to college. And, you know, to make a better
life for myself than what the situation we were currently at. And she instilled in me to express
myself and never hold anything back. So in her honor, I wanted to share with you my why and why
I am truly living my passion today, serving the running community through education,
whether it's through our one on one signature coaching program, weekly YouTube videos,
or podcast episodes. So for those of you who want to check out the blog, you can see a picture of me
and my mom at my master ceremony graduation from PT school. And she has her big beautiful smile.
She was just so proud of her son for accomplishing that first in the family to get an advanced,
you know, collegiate degree. And, you know, I'm really on a mission and to empower runners,
to get stronger, run faster, and enjoy lifelong injury-free running, just like my mom was on a
mission to get her college degree. So we could follow in her footsteps and go to college and make a
difference in the world. Hence why I wanted to share, share with you why I changed my last name
to my mom's maiden name so I can carry on the Scotty legacy when I graduated college. So,
you know, on that day of, you know, January 26, 2021, my life changed forever after I did lose my mom,
and she became our guardian angel in heaven. It was definitely heartbreaking, say the least,
that the only parent I had ever known and the one grandparent my girls
had who was also their best friend who attended all of their volleyball games,
concerts, dance recitals, gymnastics competitions, right? She was not there to witness them grow up
to see what I'm witnessing in my girls, like being the amazing young ladies that they are
becoming. So I'm really, you know, talking about a comeback story and wanted to share my story on how
my mom is the reason I am here doing this with you today and able to follow my passion
of serving the running community. So remember how earlier I mentioned I started training in order
to run and then I got stronger and I got faster and I was able to get consistent
without getting injured anymore. You know, I really needed and hopefully this makes some sense and
transitions into why I mentioned, you know, my mom, I needed to share what I was learning with
other runners who I was treating in the clinic after they got injured. And, you know, however,
unfortunately, the traditional medical model does not allow myself or other clinicians to,
you know, treat runners in the ways that we all know that you deserve to be treated to prevent
the injuries because, you know, how it works is you have Achilles pain. I'm going to evaluate you.
I'm going to treat you. You're going to get better. Insurance is going to authorize maybe 60 visits.
And then once your pain levels are down and you're able to go upstairs pain-free,
you're able to walk, you're able to do your job, that's all they're paying for. They're not going
to pay for you to run a half marathon. They're not going to pay for you to run a marathon, right?
So the only pay for services when you're a quote unquote broken or you're injured.
And I was constantly seeing the same patients in the clinic and I'm a people person. So I love
developing relationships. I love the interactions with my patients. And I would love seeing them
again. But I only really loved it if it was a different body part, right? Like if I helped you
with your Achilles pain and now you have a knee problem like, yes, let's work on that.
But if I'm seeing you for Achilles pain every six months, where every time you go into a marathon
training cycle, then I was really getting frustrated with that because I knew there was a better way
to prevent these injuries because I had put in the strategies and I put them to the test personally
in my own training. And I figured out how to stop those stubborn running related injuries that I
was battling. So in 2017, I really decided to open up my own quote unquote side hustle, right?
Clinic. And that is when spark physical therapy LLC was born. So now we're five years into this
journey or six years into this almost six years into this journey at time of this recording.
And initially, I was only helping my local running community here in Connecticut. I was actually
doing like in home visits. It was like concierge PT like come to your door like old school,
doctor visiting you at home. But we were working on exactly what you needed to get rid of your
injury to prevent it from coming back for you to be able to be like, crush your running goals.
And unfortunately, COVID pandemic hit, right? My business came to a full stop, essentially.
I was renting space out of a gym doing home visits, like that wasn't happening, right?
If you think about what was going on when COVID first hit. So I really needed to go fully virtual.
And you know, the big reason for I the reason for doing that was I really, it was quite frankly,
I had to do it out in necessity, right, to make some money and to be able to continue doing what
I was doing. And I found a way to do virtual visits and started helping runners all over the world,
from Scotland to Australia to the UK. You know, all throughout the US is pretty neat to like
meet people from Hawaii, Texas, Ohio, Utah, Florida, Vermont, like all other states I've never treated
patients in before, right? And a big reason for this was because of the growth of our Spark
healthy runner YouTube channel, and he helped to run our podcast, our Facebook community.
And it was really through these platforms that I was able to connect with the running community,
share weekly tips, tricks, exercises, training principles to help runners stay healthy. So they
can continue getting in the mental clearing miles that we all needed at the time going through COVID.
And so we can continue running, showing up better for the people that matter most in our life.
And bringing it back to the loss of my mom and the stress during the peak of COVID and needing
to totally pivot my business, running was the one constant in my life that I could depend upon.
It was always there for me to clear my head while grieving the loss of my mom. The strength training
in order to run was always there for me to get those endorphins going while making me stronger
and more resilient as a runner. So today I do what I do living my passion at Spark healthy runner
to show my girls that anything is possible and that they can have as little or as big of an impact
that they want to have on the world as they grow up. So I'm super grateful to have the impact that
I have today that you're actually listening to this. I am not treating you in a clinic and you're
getting this information, but I'm able to connect with you. I'm able to add value and I'm able to
serve you and to help the running community stay healthy and to be able to do it for longevity
and to do it for a long time. And hopefully me sharing this personal story with you.
Maybe you relate to some of it. Maybe it provides you a little backstory that you never knew about
me. If you haven't kind of pieced together all the other episodes where I've kind of made hints
and I've talked briefly about my hip surgery. I talked briefly about my hamstring pain. I talked
briefly about the loss of my mom to give you like the why on how I created the system that
we've created here at Spark Healthy Runner and why I actually want to share and give back to
our running community. And the one thing that really we dominate honestly
beyond great running health content that you're listening on the podcast or on the YouTube channel
is really providing clarity on what you need to focus on as a runner through our Spark
Healthy Runner Coaching Program. And if you are a frustrated runner who is trying to get out of
the injury cycle or you're a dedicated runner who has constantly put in the time training for
races, but you're not getting any faster and you've like plateaued, then the solution you've been
waiting for is really enrolling for limited spots right now. So we can take on in our high
touchpoint coaching program, eat spots each month, and they're limited. So they do run out and
this is really what we honestly dominate in the run coaching market space or even if you're looking
for a traditional physical therapist to get a real run injury. And I'm proud to say that we have
five star rated coaching services for our clients through our unique delivery system to really get
the results that you deserve as a runner, getting rid of your stubborn running injury or taking
your running to the next level without having to stop running because you wind up getting
a pain or an injury and you don't have to really rehab after your big race goal.
And you're able to still hit that race goal. So one of the worst feelings is not being able to run
to get in your mental clearing, you know, runs due to an injury or pain. And I can certainly
relate to this recently, just last week, and you can probably still hear it in my voice. I was
sick and I wasn't able to run for a couple of days. I wasn't able to get that mental clearing
miles I needed. So everyone that we work with, those that have not been able to run for weeks,
for months, I just worked with a runner at getting her back. It's been nine months, literally,
that she didn't run and working in our 16 week coaching program. She's now up to six mile long
runs. Or so when I think about, you know, in our program that just finished up a while ago,
last fall actually running her first marathon in Chicago was Katya who got over a kiddies pain.
And, you know, being able to fulfill these big dreams of yours, these big goals, as we age,
as we're middle aged, right, as we're parents, just like I want to continually challenge myself
to the physical mental limits that I can do, I want to be able to provide that to you. So,
you know, how do we add a spark to your training? We help you train consistently with proper support
and structure to get stronger and run faster so you can enjoy lifelong injury-free running.
And we have a four month coaching program where we're hyper focused and really dialing down what
you need to focus on, strength training for running, as well as your run plan. And really,
where this comes out is training you on the six parts of growing as a runner or advancing in your
running journey. And we really cover the mindset, having that proper mindset that you need,
the strength training, which is the foundation, the run plan, all structured out for you, take away
the guesswork, you know, the proper progression so you don't get injured. The nutrition, we have
broke our registered dietitian four runners in our program. And she also takes on one on one
client for run coaching in addition to having a specified specific nutrition plan. And then
recovery, because recovery is a part of the training. So we tell you exactly how much recovery to do,
what tools, what do you need, what stretching should you be doing, all of those things. And then
your race strategy. And we really provide clarity, accountability, and structure in all six of those
components on how we grow as a runner. So if you don't know how to implement any of those six things
that we just talked about, and you want clarity and focus, that's exactly what we do in our high
touchpoint one on one coaching program, where I'm your running physical therapist and coach all in one.
Or you can work with one of the coaches on our team. And I serve as your running consultant,
guiding you along in that journey and that process. So you can learn more about the Spark
healthy runner coaching program and schedule a call now by going to learn.spark healthy runner.com.
If anything I said today with you resonates, I want to be able to help more runners in our
community so they can enjoy lifelong injury free running. If you're watching this on YouTube,
please hit that like button. It will help it reach more runners. If there's a running friend that
you can think of needs to hear some of this, share it with them, copy the link, share it with them.
If you're listening on the podcast, like I said before, drop a quick rating, hit the star button,
hit the follow button on Spotify, share the podcast link with a friend of yours. That will go a long
way. I appreciate you for listening. I appreciate those of you who've been with me these last three
years on a weekly basis, sharing the content, whether it was like marathon specific training,
how to do a temple run, what are strides, how to get over a plantar fasciitis, right? Like any
of the specific topics that we've covered. This episode, this video was totally different.
But hopefully it provides more insight into really where the information comes from that I do want
to share with you. And more importantly, the why, like why I want to share it with you, why I want
to serve our running community. And I really needed to share what I learned in my personal running
journey, my professional career path, and apply that to how we as runners can continue doing what
we love. So as always guys, let's maintain a strong mind, a strong body, and let's just keep on running
until next time. Thank you as always for listening to the healthy runner podcast where we help you
get stronger, run faster, and enjoy lifelong injury free running. If you found this content
valuable, here's five ways we can help you grow as a runner for free. One, grab a free copy of my
spark blueprint at learn dot spark healthy runner dot com to follow my Instagram page at spark
healthy runner. Three, join my free group by searching healthy runner on Facebook.
Four, subscribe to my YouTube channel at youtube.com forward slash spark healthy runner. Five,
leave us a five star review so we can gain access to more experts in the running field and bring
those lessons back to you here. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button on Apple podcast or the
follow button on Spotify so you don't miss the next episode of healthy runner so you can maintain
a strong mind, a strong body, and just keep running. Lastly, if you've been struggling with the
constant injury cycle, not eating the right foods for running or not getting faster as a runner,
and you are ready to invest in becoming a lifelong injury free runner, head to spark healthy runner
dot com to apply for a one on one signature coaching program. Thank you again. I meet it from the
bottom of my heart that I appreciate you for listening and sharing this podcast with a running friend
who can use the help. Now go and crush your run today. See you next week.