Week 12 Recap: The Graston Technique & More

I had my first appointment with my physical therapist Friday afternoon.  I left the appointment with this:

Hurts so good

My physical therapist used the Graston Technique on my ITB and it hurt so bad.  I almost cried.  I told him that he should put pictures of puppies and kittens on the walls of his office so his patients can look at them while they are getting beat up.  He offered a picture of his kids for me to look at, which helped take my mind off the pain.  Also, the above is him going "easy" on me.  He knew I had a long run this morning and a 10K Sunday to run so he didn't want to beat me up too much.

We also reviewed some exercises that I need to be doing to help my ITB pain and Achilles pain.  My Achilles doesn't hurt when I run, but is a little sore in the mornings and after the run.  I learned how to do self-active release therapy on my IT bands by doing knee bends while on the foam roller.  He gave me some great calf stretches to do as well since those muscles lead to my Achilles.

Overall, it was a good appointment and I look forward to working with him in the future.  He said that he'll focus on more manual work instead of exercises if my pain goes away simply from doing the exercises at home.  Needless to say, the exercises are going on the top of my priority list.

Source

In other running news, this morning's long run of 13 miles was somewhat of a struggle.  I finished it in 2:11:xx for an average page of 10:07.  However, the splits were all over the place.

The run almost didn't happen since I broke my only hair tie on the way to the forest preserve.  Thankfully I ran into a guy who had extras in his car.  His friend freaked out over not having one at a race so he put extras in his car so that never happened again.  *WHEW*  I dodged a bullet on that one.

Also, only two other people in my running group decided to show up today.  My pace group leader was sick and his back up did not show up today.  So, I was tasked with leading our group since I was on the only one wearing a GPS watch.

The other two runners decided to turn around at the hydration stop, which was at 4.6 miles.  We caught up to the 9:30 pace group.  They invited me to run with them, but there was no way I could  go for it.  I know I can average out less than a 9:30 pace for 13 miles, but they were running faster than that and I didn't want to overdo it since I have that 10K tomorrow morning.

The 10:30 pace group showed up as the other two runners were turning back so I decided to run with them.  The pace was a little slow at times, but I ran with an elderly gentleman who picked up the pace quite a bit so I was able to get to a decent average.  My GPS must have measured it wrong since I had to circle around the parking lot until I hit 13.  It's so weird.  If Garmin doesn't say I ran 13 then I don't feel like I ran 13.

Anyway, the trail was covered with debris from the rain that swept through the area yesterday.  I rolled my ankle twice - on a crab apple and on a tree branch and almost went down.  It got a bit humid toward the end and I just really wanted it to be done.

The legs felt OK - I did the hip exercises, calf stretches and used my foam roller beforehand so my legs were a little tired, but overall, it was OK.

Truthfully, I'm a bit worried about the 10K since it's supposed to be hot, but I'm not looking to PR or anything so it should be fine.  I just want to complete it.  I bought a pair of CEP compression calf sleeves so I may try those out tomorrow during the race.  They say not to try new things on race day, but this is more of a training run not a race so I think it'll be fine.  Stay tuned for my recap tomorrow or Sunday!

How's your training going?  How do you make sure you don't get injured this late in training with the race getting closer?  Any big plans for the Labor Day weekend?

Phone call to my PT

Source

Truthfully, I've been living in denial regarding my ITB syndrome that has continued to plague me.  It did not heal completely.  The blame goes all on me for failure to keep up with my strength exercises and foam rolling post CM12.

However, this issue must be addressed.  My legs hurt when I run for an extended period of time on surfaces harder than the trail.  My leg (usually the left) will just get really stiff and then my form gets messed up causing pain.  It goes away after a while.  This has happened during various races I've run this year and on my training runs around home, which were run on sidewalks.

The trail is nice because it's easier on your legs, but not good in terms of training to run a marathon on the streets of Chicago.  Perhaps I should try to get to a site downtown so I can run along the Lakefront Path and see how my legs hold up.  But, let's be real... that's not going to happen unless I spent the night in the city.

So, this afternoon I called NovaCare's injury hot line on my lunch break and I was able to talk to a super helpful PT so gave me suggestions and advice on what I should do with my injury.  Unfortunately, this is not my first time with PT so I pretty much know what I have to do.

My game plan is to get an updated script from my PCP authorizing my PT sessions and I've already called the clinic where I was treated last year and I made appointments starting next week through the middle of September.  Hopefully I won't have to be seen a lot.

But, I liked being seen often since it forced me to be somewhat accountable for doing the exercises at home.  Also, my PT is certified at active release therapy (ART), which is what I think I need.  He was able to massage and stretch my muscles well.

I feel somewhat ashamed of myself that I have to return to PT, but at the end of the day, I know I have to be treated again.  And, hopefully this will be my last time at PT.  I'm going to have to plan my running scheduled around PT, but it can and must be done.

As far as my goal time, I'm not going to write it off yet.  I really want to hit that time goal so I have to just keep pushing and working hard and hopefully it will happen.  *fingers crossed*

First Week of July Updates

Runs:
- Tuesday 7/3: 5 on treadmill
- Thursday 7/5: 3 on treadmill
- Saturday 7/7: 10 on treadmill (this in and of itself deserves a prize!)
- Sunday 7/8: 5k race (see separate post)
Total Miles: 21.1.

We had a severe heat wave last week with temps in the 100s so I wasn't able to run any of my training runs outdoors.  That was somewhat disappointing, but somewhat of a blessing in disguise since I forced myself to run at a 10 minute mile pace (with a 1.0 incline) on the treadmill.  I even had to do my Saturday long run on the treadmill since the group long run was canceled due to the heat.

I saw my PT two times last week (Tuesdays and Fridays).  He has me do exercises to strengthen my leg muscles and stretches for my ITB.  We've been working on my balance issues as well.  Tuesday went over OK, but Friday kicked my ass.  Granted, I ran the day before, but it was tough.  My legs were shaking as I was stretching my ITB on the foam roller.  He stretches and massages my ITB and tapes it up at the end of every session, which is good.

The runs on Tuesday and Thursday went well.  I have yet to run 3 days in a row, but I figured that I would push the 5 miler to Tuesday, skip the three on Wednesday and move that to Sunday's race and just run 3 on Thursday.  I was able to get the miles in, which is what matters.

Saturday's treadmill run was mentally exhausting and I was wiped out for the rest of the day.  It was just so tough to stay mentally focused when all I wanted to do was get off it.  The treadmill at the gym only goes up to an hour so I was super tempted just to stop and use other machines when the hour elapsed.  However, I pushed myself to run the next 40 minutes on the treadmill.  I started to lose it after 7 and the wheels were falling off the bus in the last mile, but I made it through alright.  My upper thighs and glutes hurt so bad.  But, I think that's just because I worked them a lot on Friday at PT.

Oh, and I've stopped running in the minimalist shoes and gone back to my Brooks Adrenaline GTS 11s.  I haven't had any issues with them so far.  And, I'm tracking what I eat the night before long runs so I can avoid any tummy issues post run.  So far I haven't had any of those so all has been well on that front.

So, in conclusion - good week of running and pretty pain free.  Of course, the goal is to be able to run without tape on my knee and hopefully I will get there.

Up Next: Arlington Heights Frontier Days Stampede 5k Race Recap!