Oh Everest, My Everest

Massages are jubbin' great. Today I had no comparable knots to last month, but my back was all manner of tense and she couldn't get my traps to relax for a long time. Nearly at the end, I flipped over and she put her hands under my back and gravity (and probably the previous hour of her work) did the trick and they just popped open and relaxed! It was like [insert Catholic school girl joke here]! Next one's scheduled for the night before the Quantico half. Word.

Oh, and it's accidental rest week again. Surprise! But this time I think it was my real rest week and I at least did a good specovery run on Sunday after the whopping 16. That should count for something. I'm sure the 12 this Saturday will be better than the last 12 I did. (Here's hoping anyway...)

Labels: massage, rest week

I had a rumble in my tumble again today, but I persevered and finished my first half marathon. I hope a 3:00 half marathon is never a PR for me ever again!

Looking forward to that well-earned massage tomorrow night...

Labels: half marathon, massage, race, Riley's Rumble

I feel worthless today for postponing my run another day when I had planned to do Monday-Wednesday-Friday this week in preparation for Riley's. But Monday brought on the most painful four miles of my life. I felt like I had heartburn the whole time. I brought water with me, though no beans or gatorade since the workout was only about 45 minutes. I threw up some water right at the end when I could feel my body running out of something after about 3.5 miles (was it dehydration? did I use up my glycogen stores? who knows?) and I pushed my limit and made myself finish the four miles.

The second I stopped running, it felt like that was the worst decision I had made all week... only I couldn't tell if the mistake was making myself keep running to that point, or stopping when I needed to keep going. Either way, after that first step I walked, the damage was done. I swirled some water in my mouth and spit out some kind of nasty goo that had formed in my mouth and the tried to drink some only to wretch it back into my mouth. Gross.

I had eaten a buffalo burger for lunch that day and it was slightly undercooked, but you'd think if it was that it would have bothered me sooner than seven hours later! What's worse is that I didn't wake up feeling better yesterday. I've been feeling queasy and heartburn-y since then and my body just doesn't feel like it's recovered from Saturday, let alone the second beating I gave it on Monday. I scheduled my first massage for Monday night, so I know that will be well deserved after I have a go at the Rumble on Sunday.

All this and those 10+ miles on Saturday felt like such a breeze at the time! Eesh.

But the real point of this entry should be that I looked back at my last few entries and--lo and behold!--the last time I felt this kind of a bodily funk was exactly a month ago. Fancy that! I guess I haven't taken a cut-back week since then, and my body is hollering at me for it. It's too bad Riley's falls on this week, but I guess this will just make into that much more of a test for me. At this rate, MCM might be falling on my off week! (Please no, please no, please no...) I think it will actually be a week after the off week if it keeps going exactly every 4th week, but I know that sort of thing is never predictable.

I don't know what else to say. The more I sit here to type, the more opportunity I have to whine, and that ain't helping no-one.

Can it be Monday now?

Labels: got dat funk, heartburn, long run, massage, race, rest week, Riley's Rumble, short run

I think it's time for me to start setting aside some more dough so that I can start getting massages... maybe once monthly is in my budget? I have to find a good affordable place first.

Basically since I started this running business, I have suffered from the same ailments - achy joints and overheating much too quickly. I had a system for after the long runs: stretch and eat at the run, drive home, turn the shower on, stuff whatever food was immediately available into my mouth, and get into the shower to let the cold water run over my legs for a few minutes before warming it up a bit for a more humane shower. Then I'd prepare more food, turn on some cartoons or grab a book, and sit on the couch icing my knees with frozen fruit (peaches seem to stay frozen longer than ice) until numb, and then curl up for nap time on the sunny spot of my couch with the a/c blasting. You know what? This worked. I had me a good system.

This last week, though, I have found myself taking hotter and hotter showers, wanting to just curl up and lie down at the bottom of the tub and wanting badly to soak in the nice hot water. My whole body aches and even though it's still pretty hot outside, I just want to curl up in a nice hot bath. These peculiar urges are what make me think that maybe, just maybe, I need a massage. That hot water isn't going to do much good to my joints, so I have been refraining, but the all-over aches are NOT going away. I think I may succumb later today and take a nice hot bath before I get back to icing my knees and popping NSAIDS.

Yesterday, I thought maybe I just really missed being in the water so I decided to actually do an ice bath rather than a cold shower and it was fun to slosh around in the small body of water I created for the occasion. It was fun with the sloshing, but not with the cold. My legs cooled down pretty quickly, which is obviously the desired effect, but then my muscles just ached again and I really wanted to make the water hot. Then I realized that there are definitely two things going on here: (1) I want to go to the beach, and (2) I need to have a massage.

Apparently I have always been able to spend at least a few days every summer in the water somewhere. Last year brought many visits to Florida and its beaches; most summers before then were spent in California (sometimes with brief sojourns out of the country), and the beaches were always part of that. Somehow, I have ended up in a place with no beach to speak of and my body is actually telling me to go find one!

The regular massage thing has always been a dream, but I really don't have the money for that kind of lifestyle yet. Now my body is aching something fierce and I may just have to give up some other things to make sure I have that money. There's just so much research and planning involved, I don't think I'll be getting one anytime in the next week. For today, a hot bath will have to do. And I'll have to see about that beach thing sometime. There has to be some place closer than Virginia Beach with a decent place to build sand castles and splash around in the ocean. Maybe Ocean City? I don't really know much about either of those places, but I think they are the closest beaches. Hmph.

Labels: beach, knees, massage, nsaids