Welcome to Hit Your Pace
My name is Chrissy Giordano and I am a RRCA certified run coach. I would like to welcome you to Hit Your Pace! I hope this blog provides you with insight and answers to all your running questions.
A little bit about me
I started running about 16 years ago, back in my teenager years. I ran to escape my problems and clear my mind. Now looking back on it, I ran for maybe all the right reasons but I did it in all the wrong ways. I ran every run as hard, fast and as long as I could go. I would probably run 6-7 days a week with little recovery and heck I would even throw in a spin class after a run. I never ran any organized races or with any groups. I ran alone outside or on the treadmill at the gym. I did a little bit of weightlifting and yoga a few times a week (so not totally horrible!)
It all caught up to me at the end of my twenties. I started feeling pain in my left foot but I had to get my runs in, a little pain wasn't going to stop me. Then it started hurting when I was walking and then I started limping. Next, I found myself at the orthopedist staring at an x-ray of my broken navicular bone. I ran through a stress fracture and now had a broken foot.
I spent what felt like forever in a boot and then started PT. No matter what I did, my pain was not going away. My bone had healed but now I had posterior tibial tendonitis that was an absolute killer. I went to several podiatrists and orthopedists. The verdict: I had a congenital defect called an accessory navicular. A rare accessory bone, that when problematic, irritates the posterior tibial tendon with activities such as running- HA! I continued with PT with no relief and then made the decision to have surgery in November 2018.
It took me a long time to come back from that surgery, much longer than the doctors told me. I honestly wasn't comfortable running for a few years after. Running 3-4 miles was my max and it was joyless. I really struggled and it was difficult that a sport I once loved was causing me such distress. However, I kept at it and in 2022 I successfully completed 2 half marathons.
Running my second half marathon in October 2022.
My goals as a coach
The point of me telling you all this is that through this journey I learned a lot about what I did wrong. Over the last couple years I have immersed myself in the running community to learn as much as I can and successfully rehab. I have learned so much about the proper way to train and learned that much of what I did in the past was a recipe for disaster. All of this inspired me to become a run coach and receive my RRCA certification. My goal is to pass on my knowledge of running and properly training to others. I hope that through my blog and by coaching athletes, I can use my improper training as an example and guide runners to a more efficient way of training. One where there is balance between hard and easy training days and there is emphasis on proper nutrition and recovery.
I hope to cover a variety of topics in this blog and I hope to answer many of your questions! Follow me on facebook and instagram for more tips and motivation! Be sure to visit www.hityourpace.com to check out training plans and coaching packages! Remember it doesn't matter how fast or how far you run, we are all runners. Let's find your pace and hit it together!
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