three things thursday
1. My cranky shins started barking extra loudly earlier this week after a double-digit double-run day, so I went to see my "strength is important and oh this is actually going to really hurt" PT for some relief. My left shin/calf was aching every time I put weight on that leg, my IT band/hip was sending zip zaps of pain all over the place and my knee kept buckling inwards for some reason. His diagnosis is that none of it is anything too serious, but it's all related and slowly crawling upwards from my foot. My shin crankiness has been around for a while, and is largely from my body adjusting to the changes that happened to my gait once my glutes started firing last summer. In the past 2-3 weeks, I've run a higher volume of weekly miles than I probably ever have in my life, so that contributed, and I'm in a peak week of training right now, where the name of the game is loading up the training stress. I also started wearing a pair of extra-comfy new pink shoes about six weeks ago without taking the time to transition into them correctly slowly. Add all those pieces together and I've got a stack of angry body parts. So he Graston'd my shins, my adductors, my IT band and my hamstring, did some ART on my hip flexors, realigned my sacrum and sent me packing with a prescription for ice, stretching, and less Newton-running for a little while so everything can just calm down. This morning I feel like someone beat the shit out of me, which is usually a good sign. I've got four more hard days of hard training to get through and then I can sit on the couch for an entire day and call it rest.
2. I've always kind of poo-poo'd the idea of getting a regular massage - mostly because I'm usually in and out of PT so often that I don't need anything extra. But before yesterday, it had been almost six weeks since anyone had smashed my bits. I've started to consider the idea of getting a massage done, maybe monthly or even bi-weekly if I can afford it, going forward into IM training. I've collected a handful of recommendations of people who will pound the living crap out of me, and I'm hoping that starting in March this can fit in the budget. I'm curious to hear from you guys - do you get regular massages as part of your training? Where in the cycle do you get a massage and what magic does it do for you?
3. All of that said, it's confession time. For the past two months, I've done a really crappy job of stretching, sticking, icing, foam rolling, or really doing anything except fluttering my eyelashes at the poet and asking him to rub the knots out of my back. I KNOW. For some reason I decided that I would just wear compression socks all the time and eat more spinach and that was all I needed. Sadly, this is very obviously not the case (see items #1 and #2), so I'll be trying to make friends with my foam roller on a daily basis instead of just chasing Molly around with it (she barks her brains out, it's hilarious). I know most people say to just do it at night while you watch TV, but I don't ever watch TV and I pretty much go straight from the dinner table to bed. I know you're jealous of my incredibly exciting life. I also probably need to finally invest in a decent desk chair since I've been working from home for almost three years yet am still sitting on an old kitchen chair that I inherited from my uncle in 2002, which can't be helping my cranky sacrum at all. But does anyone honestly ever remember to foam roll every day? I'm going to try and roll, stick, and do some light stretching at least once a day. We'll see what happens, I'll probably either pull a muscle or poke my eye out with the stick and that, dear blog friends, will be the end of that.
2. I've always kind of poo-poo'd the idea of getting a regular massage - mostly because I'm usually in and out of PT so often that I don't need anything extra. But before yesterday, it had been almost six weeks since anyone had smashed my bits. I've started to consider the idea of getting a massage done, maybe monthly or even bi-weekly if I can afford it, going forward into IM training. I've collected a handful of recommendations of people who will pound the living crap out of me, and I'm hoping that starting in March this can fit in the budget. I'm curious to hear from you guys - do you get regular massages as part of your training? Where in the cycle do you get a massage and what magic does it do for you?
3. All of that said, it's confession time. For the past two months, I've done a really crappy job of stretching, sticking, icing, foam rolling, or really doing anything except fluttering my eyelashes at the poet and asking him to rub the knots out of my back. I KNOW. For some reason I decided that I would just wear compression socks all the time and eat more spinach and that was all I needed. Sadly, this is very obviously not the case (see items #1 and #2), so I'll be trying to make friends with my foam roller on a daily basis instead of just chasing Molly around with it (she barks her brains out, it's hilarious). I know most people say to just do it at night while you watch TV, but I don't ever watch TV and I pretty much go straight from the dinner table to bed. I know you're jealous of my incredibly exciting life. I also probably need to finally invest in a decent desk chair since I've been working from home for almost three years yet am still sitting on an old kitchen chair that I inherited from my uncle in 2002, which can't be helping my cranky sacrum at all. But does anyone honestly ever remember to foam roll every day? I'm going to try and roll, stick, and do some light stretching at least once a day. We'll see what happens, I'll probably either pull a muscle or poke my eye out with the stick and that, dear blog friends, will be the end of that.