Do I need a run coach? (Page 2)

Those can be tricky.

Based on her album (my apologies if this embarrasses her), SHE DOES NOT NEED TO LOOSE WEIGHT.  The response was NOT thought out / researched.

Bringing up weight is one thing, and like you said, it's not necessarily bad. Could even be helpful. But blindly portraying that as the issue without knowing anything about the OP, and then saying one has to be like the top professionals in the field is quite another.

I'm sure you're correct as to the OP, but researched?  And how does that differ than a lot of advice that is offered here?  People ask about improving on the bike or climbing hills.  Well, one part of that equation is decreasing kg.  I'm certainly not going to scour someone's photo album before making that suggestion.

I think Tom just like pictures.  Frankly, any chance to post a picture of Goucher is good enough for me.  As a Tar Heel, I'm a little offended he didn't include a picture of Flanagan.  Anyway, I understood Tom's pictures a little differently.  Not that we all need to look like a professional triathlete/runner to be injury free-ish, but that many of us probably could stand to lose a few more pounds than we think if we wanted to optimize our performance.  The same ol' optimal race weight discussion that tends to freak some people out.

I lucked out and found a PT that was a marathoner.

She watched me on the treadmill and nearly instantly diagnosed why I was having IT Band Problems. A good run analysis might not change your gait, but might pinpoint things you can do to fix your stride.

I was dropping my right knee inside when I ran, and ST to strengthen the muscles along the outside of my leg, along with regular rolling and stretching, put me back in the game.

Don't decline to go out of fear of having your stride changed. Carefully interview a few coaches and find one that you feel you can work with. 

Whoa. Tune out for a day and look what happens. Yeesh.

FWIW, I'm not a huge emotional wreck from having someone who didn't bother to look at my logs or my pics tell me I could stand to lose a few pounds. Weight is certainly a sensitive topic and I'm pretty sure that if I were in fact overweight and needed someone to tell me I should lose a few pounds to avoid injury, being shown photos of elite athletes wouldn't be the gentlest way to do it.

That said, I don't think my weight contributed to my injury. I'm not sure how much extra weight I'd have to have on my person to cause a running injury (anyone?), and I've never really thought about it. I also disagree with you that thinner = better. Here's an interesting article about "ideal" race weight:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/fashion/04best.html?pagewanted=all

I am grateful to those who stuck up for me. Thanks. You guys are kind and thoughtful and make the BT community a friendlier, awesomer place -- for the beginners and the veterans alike -- and the tall, medium, venti, plump, skinny and everyone in between.

Anyway. No hard feelings. Now back to your regularly scheduled hamstring injury analysis.

Great response.

So, yeah I would suggest going to get a gait analysis so at least you can see if that is a problem or "the" problem or whatever.

Once you rule that out, or as a contributor I think I would go from there. 

Have you changed anything significantly in your training? You said you have been running for years and hadn't had a problem. I noticed in your logs you have BQ as a goal. Have you been pushing harder this time around? 

It sounds like it would be good to rest up and take it easy and then slowly work your way back into it and keep a diligent log and maybe you will be able to spot what aggravates it. 

Hi Fred, I have had chronic piriformis/sciatica issue over the past few years. At 5'8, 135 I don't think it's been weight-related. In fact it gets worse if I go under 135. It does get worse when I'm running over 50mpw. ART and deep tissue massage have worked very well for me.