i'm done hiding

a lot has happened since i last blogged a week and a half ago. i was in the thick of physical therapy and was hopeful that my pain would get better. i was given the go ahead to do a light run on sunday, which was may 8th. i was very excited to see how i felt. i even bagged out of the usual saturday routine of a long hill ride just so i could keep the legs fresh. i ended up doing a 20 mile ride on the trainer, a 3000 yard swim, and the elliptical for 8 miles. i rested the remainder of the day, stretch, did the tennis ball, golf ball dealio, iced, etc... woke up on sunday excited to run. i already decided 2 miles would be my limit no matter how good i felt. felt great for about 1 minute and the rest of the entire 2 miles (which i pretty much forced myself to do) hurt a lot. very discouraging. i got home and the j-man asked how it went and my exact words were, "it was horrible, not good at all." i felt it as we did our 50 mile ride and the worst pain was when we were done and i clipped out of the pedal. that inward hip rotation about made me come out of my skin. i felt like crap the rest of the day and then on monday as i was sitting at work, in pain, i had a light bulb moment. something made me think about ART (Active Release Technique). i remembered reading about other bloggers and some friends on facebook having had this done. i immediately started googling and researching about it. i asked friends on facebook and dailymile what their experiences were with ART and if they recommend it. i received nothing but positive feedback and everyone pretty much said, go for it. i quickly cancelled the 2 physical therapy sessions scheduled for tuesday and thursday and found someone in my area who does this specific therapy.

meet my new best friend Andrew (the ART guy)

here is the readers digest version: i called him on monday from work as i was writhing in pain and we made an appointment for the following day. i ended up calling him back on my way home to see if he still had the opening for that evening and he did thank goodness because i don't think i could have waited until the next day. that is how bad i felt. i got there at 6pm and we started right on time. yes it was painful, but OMG it worked. i literally walked out of there with about 75% less pain than when i walked in. i went back on friday for round 2, another hour of pure torture and pain. this time it was even more painful but amazing how it works. in a nutshell, it works by breaking up scar tissue and adhesions that have accumulated and i obviously have accumulated a lot. damn those swim fins! round 3 is on thursday.


my other best friend, the foam roller found on clearance at TJ Maxx. i don't leave home without it.

i was supposed to race this past saturday but with this injury still lingering, i thought it would be best to not jeopardize the healing process. i also found out that the race director announced (only 4 days prior to the race) that the run would be on the beach unlike last year when it was on the sidewalk. looking back on the decision not to race, i'm glad i didn't because i think that the resistance of running in the sand would have set me back.

as for upcoming races, i'm still not sure about the 70.3 in Clermont coming up in less than a month. i'm not sure that i will be ready to throw down a decent 1/2 mary. we'll see! the good news is that i ran 3 miles yesterday. even though it was slow, i was running and i felt a lot less pain. i still have tightness but it is sooooo much better.

one last update before i sign off. the website i used to log all of my workouts and races on for the last four years, crashed.  as in, all of my data and everyone else who used buckeye outdoors, lost all of their history. it made me feel nauseous when i read what happened. apparently, all of the terrible tornadoes that swept across Ohio, wiped out the servers and the backup. they were unable to restore any of it, so for about a week, i felt lost ...i couldn't run and had lost my log, could it get any worse, LOL! i'm now logging my workouts on dailymile. many of us bloggers have connected on there already but if you are on dailymile, please come by and say hi. you can find me HERE.  

to all those who raced this weekend, i am slowly making my way to reading your race reports. congrats to all of you who raced!

much love and peace out!