My running gait is a little "off" for my left foot, causing the left foot to land just a little left of center. I am dominant in my right hand and generally put my right foot forward first. My right side is definitely stronger and more stable then my left.

This is placing a strain on the outside of my left lower leg that feels like bursitis. It really sort of bugs me for the first 15 minutes and then diminishes until it is gone by 30 minutes. By 1 hour, it was as if I never had it. As for speed, I start out at around 6 mph and work my way up to 7.5 mph by the end

I have not analyzed why my left foot is not landing in the center of foot, as my right foot does. Maybe it is the shoes? Maybe my gait corrects itself over the run? Do not know.

My bigger question is can I run through this minor pain without long term consequences? Long term for me is somewhere in the future, either 3 weeks or 3 months from now.

For now, it is annoying more then anything for the first 15 minutes or so until the sprain feeling subsides.

I don't know much, but I would probably take a couple days to rest. If pain persists I'd call the doc. I think u could cause other issues if ur having a change in gait even if u r not bothered by pain as u get further into ur run. Often times the feel good endorphins we get from running masks low level or annoying levels of pain. I've run through blisters or with something in my shoe that bothered me at the beginning of my run and as a result my sock and shoe was a bloody mess. Just something to consider.

I don't know much' date=' but I would probably take a couple days to rest. If pain persists I'd call the doc. I think u could cause other issues if ur having a change in gait even if u r not bothered by pain as u get further into ur run. Often times the feel good endorphins we get from running masks low level or annoying levels of pain. I've run through blisters or with something in my shoe that bothered me at the beginning of my run and as a result my sock and shoe was a bloody mess. Just something to consider.[/quote']

Thanks for the information and care.

Whenever I think of pain that diminishes as the muscles get warm I think of inflammation. My understanding of bursitis is that it is usually involved with a joint, and gets worse as you go not better, typically getting even worse immediately after overuse. Not that it officially matters....inflammation and bursitis pretty much have the same cause (overuse) and remedy (rest). Of course, most overuse injuries have a deeper root cause that is usually related to bad form, posture or anatomical imbalance like muscular imbalance or a shorter leg. So it's good that you're thinking along those lines.

Have you ever had anyone video tape you while you run so you can see what it looks like? Most of us are smooth as a ballerina in our mind's eye, but in reality we may not be. I've seen some crazy ass runners out there and I often wonder how they are not cripple with their weird ticks and gaits. I think I saw somewhere where you can send in a video and they will analyze your gait for you.

Also, you say on the side of your leg, are you familiar with ITB pain? It usually presents right on the outside of the knee joint.

Whenever I think of pain that diminishes as the muscles get warm I think of inflammation. My understanding of bursitis is that it is usually involved with a joint' date=' and gets worse as you go not better, typically getting even worse immediately after overuse. Not that it officially matters....inflammation and bursitis pretty much have the same cause (overuse) and remedy (rest). Of course, most overuse injuries have a deeper root cause that is usually related to bad form, posture or anatomical imbalance like muscular imbalance or a shorter leg. So it's good that you're thinking along those lines.

Have you ever had anyone video tape you while you run so you can see what it looks like? Most of us are smooth as a ballerina in our mind's eye, but in reality we may not be. I've seen some crazy ass runners out there and I often wonder how they are not cripple with their weird ticks and gaits. I think I saw somewhere where you can send in a video and they will analyze your gait for you.

Also, you say on the side of your leg, are you familiar with ITB pain? It usually presents right on the outside of the knee joint.[/quote']

Thanks for the information. The pain is in the lower left leg, right above the ankle on the outer left side. It feels tender and definitely hurts at the beginning of runs. It might be that my tendons are being stretched in an awkward way because my left foot is not landing quite right on the surface at the beginning and followthrough of each step. I have been running a lot since January, about 3-4x a week and up to 20 miles a week. My longest run is usually 10 k, but I am often doing crazy things like increasing incline to 5.0 or running at. 8.0 mph to make the runs more interesting. The hill runs may or may not be what is messing up my left side. Not sure.

Figured out the issue today. Yesterday, I had my treadmill serviced and found out the left side was just a tiny bit lower then the right side. This was causing my left foot to land a tad wrong with pain in lower left leg and left hip flexor. Once it was leveled, no pain today at the beginning of the run or during the run. What a relief! Glad to have my trusty old precor c954 back in top shape. It has served me well.

When I run on the roads around here, all of them are badly crowned (old country roads) so I have to alternate between running on the left side and right side. I try to run right down the middle when there's no cars. Luckily, that's possible many times because of the low traffic.