Women's training thread - week of 5/3/09

I didn't mean to offend Outback fans. And I've seen that Domino's video making the rounds!

We'd thought we were getting a room with a kitchenette, so I was all prepared to cook a healthy pre-race meal consisting of known entities. When that fell through, it just wasn't a good feeling to have to scramble to find somewhere (and something safe, meaning not laden with fat, etc.) to eat 1.5 hours before we were scheduled to go to bed.

The food was fine. It's obviously a good place because it was mobbed by 6:00PM.

And I credit Outback for their very good wine list -- too bad it was the night before a race, or it would have been fun to sit in their comfy booth and get completely plowed.

mrpac, gosh we had a similar w-end, I was reunited with a close friend and running pal from the 80s this w-end, this time around it had been 8yrs since we had seen each other making her 2 sons seem so grown at 15 and 9. We reminisced also and did a 90 min run together but that put me over the top for whatever bug I had and I ended up in bed for awhile after the run.

I also bought my massage table along and was able to work on her which was a real joy.

Races like a Girl: note to you, GREAT job, the first marathon is always venturing into no man's (woman's) land and i have often called it a crap shoot because you never know on the day how things are going to go. You simply prepare for battle and off you run.

Even though I have done 14 of them there is still no rhyme or reason sometimes for everything to click or stuff to go haywire.

How many people can even get out and race that far? You are one of few relatively speaking.

Just wanted to tell you way to be, and keep on keeping on.

16x actually the mushrooms sound kind of yummy, how fun to have hunted them for an exclusive period all these years.

Have a good week all, I skipped my run today still feeling puny!

for what it's worth, WATC, my ART guy is also a chiropractor. i've never done the chiro thing before, but i feel as though i'm getting a two-fer, so no complaints from me. moreover, there's a massage therapist in the office who calms down what the PT/chiro riles up, so really it's a three-fer. my only caution (and perhaps it's completely unwarranted) is that i would feel out of whack if i didn't get adjusted regularly after doing so for a while. i'd say i'm over that worry and just let him do what he wants with me.

Thanks, Sarah. Actually, this was a half marathon (my tenth) in preparation for my fifth marathon in a month. Does that make me a grizzled veteran?

The person here who deserves the huge pat on the back is AZRunning, who did run her first (and a very good one!) in Eugene on Sunday.

16x, or puff ball?

I don't eat puff balls, but I have friends that do. I only eat the sponge morels.

interesting, Robin is on leave, there is a guy in town named Ken Long, I think - and yes, many chiro's are the ones trained in ART. You can just say no to any adjustments and stick with the soft tissue release.

There is also a terrific guy - but he is up in Marion Ohio, which is a way to drive. He is really really good and I can rack my brain to give you his name if needed. Been years since I've seen him.

I can't remember, what is it we are fixing?

Oops sorry RLAG I have been trying to read and keep all the race reports straight and got loopy any way, and YES AZrunning does deserve the kudos for a race well run, so I can only blame my sinusy crapola for the misread and will pay more attention in the future.

I don't know what connotes a grizzled vet to be honest? Age, time in the sport, both? neither? Open to interpretation.

I will say as a Massage Therapist I think I have found a

Sports trained person to work on me so I am excited about that as it is vital to get the tissue loosened up after tensing it all up with running and life, and Therapists can be the worst for actually taking care of themselves in this realm so yay! :O)

I get a 90 min massage tomorrow,can't wait!

16x wrote:

I don't eat puff balls, but I have friends that do. I only eat the sponge morels.

interesting, Robin is on leave, there is a guy in town named Ken Long, I think - and yes, many chiro's are the ones trained in ART. You can just say no to any adjustments and stick with the soft tissue release.

There is also a terrific guy - but he is up in Marion Ohio, which is a way to drive. He is really really good and I can rack my brain to give you his name if needed. Been years since I've seen him.

I can't remember, what is it we are fixing?

We are fixing my super tight calves and some kind of knot I've developed over the past week. I think you may be thinking of Ken Johnson? I went to him before but that was when I had my ART session/PF tear day, so I'm a bit wary. Not his fault, I know, but it left me a little gun-shy.

NLS - that is interesting that your ART person is a chiro. I didn't know this was common. Anyway, I will see what I think and report back. I am certainly not ruling it out, although I just get nervous about needing to be a lifetime customer. Maybe my ideas are wrong, and maybe going a couple times a month or so wouldn't be bad if it helped me!

WATC I am seeing a trend with Chiros adding ART work to their tool kit so to speak. My ART guy in up-state NY was/is a Chiro and the appt I have scheduled coming up is another Chiro/ART practioner combined.

The great thing about the NY guy was he wanted you fixed in a few sessions and it was never a long laid out protocol like I have seen with many straight up Chiros. The goal should be to get you going again not how many appts can be made right?

All the Best with this!

zero running for another week, coming up to 2 months now. everything I do seems to produce pain in it, haven't been able to go about my day to day life normally now since october, crap situation.

actually, today it is az-norunning ;-)

Thank you ladies, it is fading into more happy blur now. I really don't remember much about miles 22-26 though - other than I hurt so badly.

Anyway - all the ART people I have seen (3 of them in 3 states) were chiro's. The current magic man I know also does Graston - he has quite the torture package deal. I agree with Sarah though - the ART people tend to be "fix" you type people not maintenance. Rarely do they even set appointments up as you leave, they just say, "call me and let me know how that goes". AND - the best part, at least for my injuries, they want me to run through it!! Something I am likely to try to do anyway ;-).

Good luck everyone, and thank you again for your inspiration and support.

track chick wrote:

zero running for another week, coming up to 2 months now. everything I do seems to produce pain in it, haven't been able to go about my day to day life normally now since october, crap situation.

sorry to hear track chick, you sound down and out. I'm out of the loop, what's hurting?

you'll be back.

I missed the Ken Johnson story cats, fill me in sometime.

My knee (cartilage damage) and my back (came after the knee problem), now the surgeon is saying he's not sure operating on the knee will help. Even going on short walks causes pain & keeps me awake at night. I'm scared it's going to be like this forever. Not sure if I will run again. Having said that I feel I'm coping positively with it, focusing on other areas of my life and doing the best I can. I guess I could sit around and mope or do things that make me feel happy, so I'm going for the latter.

Track chick, I'm so sorry to hear about your injuries. I hope you can find a way to run again. I have had a lot of injuries but none that bad. One thing that has helped me is to find some kind of project - for example, I took swimming lessons during my time off from a stress fracture and also started doing weight-training DVDs that are a 12-week program (P90X). It helped me to have some physical activity even if it is not as fun as running. I'm not sure if that's a possiblilty for you if you are in so much pain, but sounds like focusing on other areas of your life is a good idea. Maybe a cooking class or something new like that? I hope you recover quickly.

Report on the ART - it helped a ton! I liked the chiro and he found the knot in my calf and said it was some scar tissue where the posterior tibial tendon attaches. It hurt pretty bad when he worked on it but I ran after (with his blessing) and felt great! He also put that kinesio tape on it (that black tape people were wearing at the Olympics). I'm not sure how it works but it does feel good. I'm not sure if I'm into the back-cracking stuff (he did that because I told him my back was bugging me a bit) but I'm definitely going back for ART.

16x - my other ART story was in 2007. I went to Ken and was having work done for a groin pull and then ran later that day and partially tore my plantar fascia on the same side. I don't know if they were related but it freaked me out on ART. Now I know to tell the provider I"m planning to run after and see what they think! Also, I just got a bunch of morels from a coworker who hunts them. I am ready to make a delicious dinner tonight!

WATC, i'm curious what part of your calf he worked on. when i ran with my PT last weekend he noticed issues with my posterior tibial area, and on monday he worked deeply on the medial area of my calf immediately below my knee, which seems to have alleviated my shin issues a bit better than when he worked all up and down the border of the soleus, as he had previously, although i expect loosening things up more generally permitted him to get down to "pay dirt" this week. about running after ART, i often do, but listen carefully to my body and tend to go very easy.

although it ended up putting me into nasty traffic on the beltway, i had a lovely run in catoctin mtn park in maryland on my drive to DC yesterday. it was lush and beautiful, although wet-and-muddy was also part of the picture. it's fun to stop at random natural areas when en route, especially when there are plenty of hills to get in a good effort (and a map to make sure i can get back to where i started ;-)

track chick, wishing you the best, too.

[quote]no longer stressed wrote:

WATC, i'm curious what part of your calf he worked on. when i ran with my PT last weekend he noticed issues with my posterior tibial area, and on monday he worked deeply on the medial area of my calf immediately below my knee, which seems to have alleviated my shin issues a bit better than when he worked all up and down the border of the soleus, as he had previously, although i expect loosening things up more generally permitted him to get down to "pay dirt" this week. [quote]

He worked on the inside of my calf about 4-5 inches below my knee, right where the calf starts to get big if you flex it. It was way higher than where my original SF and post-tib tendonitis issues were, which was down by my ankle bone. It was more towards the top of the calf. It really seemed to help a lot. Sounds like you had a great trail run!

What about the cats wrote:

16x - my other ART story was in 2007. I went to Ken and was having work done for a groin pull and then ran later that day and partially tore my plantar fascia on the same side. I don't know if they were related but it freaked me out on ART. Now I know to tell the provider I"m planning to run after and see what they think! Also, I just got a bunch of morels from a coworker who hunts them. I am ready to make a delicious dinner tonight!

what a gift! (the morels not the plantar tear)

that is a true friend.

I also had a calf tear last fall - and it would not heal - went to see Master Chen in Worthington (accupuncturist). It was a strange and wonderful experience and after 6 weeks of not being able to run, barely walk - it was healed in 3 days after the accupunture. He told me to wait 10 days for new tissue to be laid, so I was completely pain free, but did what he said, went right back to running...he also told me to boil a whole fish head and all and drink the water it was boiled in, or I could purchase some glucosamine....so no whole fish in the markets out my way - so I bought the supplement.

What a small world! I've been to Chen also and had very good results. My husband and father have too. I was ust thinking about him this morning when I was thinking about this calf thing! I hope the ARt will do the trick but I tell lots of friends about the acupuncture.

Hey, thanks for the support. At the moment I'm doing stuff like seeing my friends as much as possible and going for meals out. Even though it hurts walking around I've decided I'd rather do that than sit in doing nothing all the time (which was affecting me quite badly and didn't even seem to help the injuries anyway). Funny story about the fish head, I'm not sure I could drink that without gagging.