Carmen Gama

I love running! I run every day because it brings me peace and joy to my very busy professional life and it keeps me fit. But running also brings me a lot of problems (i.e., a lot of injuries - first my knees, then my ankles and finally my back). I chose to ignore them because I had two options to relieve the stress of work - running or eating tons of sugar. I always chose running. Last year I started increasing my pace and everything went south and at that point my body decided to not keep putting up with my terrible habits of running with injuries so I had to stop. I found HSS through the New York Road Runner (NYRR) and I gave it a try. It was the best decision ever. Well, it was not fun in the beginning because who wants to hear that running every day is not good and that your body is so weak? Not me because throughout my adult life I thought that I had a strong body due to running, but it turns out it was super weak. I did the Running Mechanics assessment and there was an overwhelming laundry list of things I had to change and improve. I decided to work with Kaitlyn on a weekly basis to help me improve my strength, balance and running technique. It has been a rollercoaster of emotions because I had to balance with the idea that I can't run every day and that I have to do strength training. For a person who hates gyms or doing home exercises, it was a hard new habit to develop. It hasn't been that long since we started working and I can tell you that I am so pleased to see the difference. I wish you can see a recording of my first sessions. You would laugh so hard - I mean I do. I couldn't even do a proper squat without falling. Apparently, my glutes have been dormant my whole life so we had to wake them up and get them to do their job. I am not near where I am supposed to be, but I have been running without pain for a while now and I feel so much stronger. As of this writing, my legs and glutes are burning due to the strength work I have been doing and it feels so good. I want to thank the HSS team and Kaitlyn for helping me achieve my goals of getting stronger to be able to run without injuries.