Steph wrote:Thanks for the update! Reading your story and reassurance was timely for me. I too am a runner (although not nearly at your level) and recently have been struggling with exercise intolerance/muscle soreness. I have run several marathons and halfs, but have gotten somewhat out of shape in the past two years. I was still running 3 or 4 miles 3 or 4 times a week when all of this started in August (clear EMG in mid-October). Since then I have been trying to increase my distance and speed to prepare for a half this spring. Every time I push speed or distance I pay with severe muscled soreness and extreme twitching in my upper legs. I ran 7 miles yesterday at a decent pace, but my legs were so sore/stiff afterwards that it felt like I had raced a full marathon. I get what feels like delayed onset muscle soreness only a few minutes after finishing a run. I am debating on whether or not to run again today, as my plan was to run 5 miles this afternoon, but my legs are still fatigued and sore. Do you have any advice for working through this?
Hi! I feel your pain. My muscle burning and soreness was mostly in my quads. As my original story stated it kind of just hit me out of know where. My post above can be very applicable to this as well. I would actually get some extreme stiffness in my legs too. I do believe that gapabentin helped me through the original symptoms (obviously this is a personal decision to make). BUT I also think you don't need it to get through this intolerance. Since there were times I was sure if gabapentin was more of a placebo for me. Although Im confident it did help with cramping.
Regardless I'm a strong advocate of being reasonable in what you are doing but just pushing. I think it helped mentally because I could prove to myself that I was really the same as before and the only difference was a "feeling" that didn't ultimately dictate would I could and couldn't do. Not sure if that makes sense but I started treating it as only a feeling/symptom that was just now my new normal and part of running. Sure it made running a bit less fun for awhile but I eventually ran through it and past it in a sense. Can honestly say now that I don't experience any of it besides twitching.
The best part is that other than the mental stance I stole the push through it from someone else on here that also had success doing this. So, I'm not the only example of this working.
The only real way that I can explain the mental stance is that if I was in the middle of the road and a car was about to hit me I knew I could get out of the way. Despite the feeling that I was so tired and muscles weak and burning I could get out of the way. To me this said, these feeling are only that. Feelings. And they don't dictate what I can actually do if I try. Sure the feeling effect you mentally but that comes with time.
Hope this makes sense!
. And I went through just about every symptom mostly because of the stress and anxiety we all place on ourselves through this. Once I got through that mentally and accepted I was going to be fine things got MUCH better. Not easy to do but it can be done. My 2 year update tells how I did that. Anyway, I still twitch hundreds of thousands of times a day and don't even care anymore. I Promised myself I wouldn't look at them several years ago and this only aided in my reduced obsession. In fact I feel them going crazy as a type this. I still run way too much and have really grow to appreciate my otherwise good health. In the grand scheme of things I feel lucky to have bfs cause people suffer from much worse. I know this is easier for me to say than someone fresh into this experience but I promise you that you will eventually get there. 
