my appointment with Greg, the 5 time finisher of different Ironman races, was at 6PM yesterday. i arrived 15 minutes early as instructed by Dr. Martinez so we could chat about my progress or lack there of. the reason he gave me the okay to run last night was because i have no immediate pain in my IT area when doing the strength exercises he had given me, giving the allusion that i am good to go. seeing as how that was not the case during the actual movement, he wanted to get my feedback on the situation. because my glutes aren't standing at attention and firing when instructed, my IT is superbly tight, therefore unforgivably pulling and tworking my knees to make up for the lack of support that normally buffers this type of injury. he spoke to Greg about a plan of attack and off we were to tackle my flabby ass :)
I should state again that this was a free session (as are all first sessions with a trainer @ Coastal Sports Medicine). Greg mentioned that his client after me had canceled, so he was going to spend a little extra time with me seeing as how i had the La Jolla Half Marathon coming up in about 3 weeks and i REALLY wanted to run it. Dr. Martinez gave me the okay to do it as long as i showed marked improvement and i promised to walk down the Shores Drive (a gnarly, bitch of a hill that could likely snap my IT in two...this i believe is the hill that caused all of this mess while training for Wildflower 06). he started by stretching me out on the foam roller. wow, i never knew why so many people refer to this device as the torture roll until now. we stretched for a good 45 min, enough to bring blood flow and movement into areas that were previously immobile to a point. it brought tears to my eyes a couple of times, but i sucked it up and let him do his thing. we also went through a routine of stretches and core exercises to accomplish each morning before i leave the house. miraculously, i was already feeling stronger and more limber.
he then proceeded to take me through a pretty rigorous strength session focusing mainly on my glutes. he jokingly mentioned that i should prepare myself to have a Serena table ass - an ass so large and strong you could eat off of it)....HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHA, don't know how i feel about that, but whatever gets me running pain free again, i'm game!
so this brings me to today's run. it was a 14 miler in downtown San Diego. it was a fantastic run, great scenery and great friends. MAO wanted roaming SAG for this run, which i disagreed with because if you wait for the last runners at one stop, you miss the front runners at the next...but he is the boss so we did our best. the exact thing that i warned against ended up happening and Michael was his monster of a self, screaming "give me water!!!" when he finally did get to hit up an aide station. pretty funny seeing as how he was pushing Eli (his son) in a stroller that could have very easily held water had he been able to just admit that carrying hydration on runs was a good idea. he's stubborn, what can i say?
i felt pretty good at the beginning of the run, but as we started to get into mile 7 i was REALLY feeling it. by 7.5 i was thinking there was no way i could go on, so i stopped to do some of the stretches Greg taught me and what do ya know? i was able to get in another mile and a half before making myself stop. well, that's both true and not, i knew i should stop, but that damn competitiveness screaming at the top of its lungs wasn't going to let me puss out easily. had it not been for Jenn demanding that i stop so i didn't hurt myself further, i probably would have kept going. i listened to her reasoning and rode with Angie and Emily (our SAG) for the rest of the run. thank God i listened to Jenn because as soon as i got in the car my legs felt like complete shit. i spent the rest of the time stretching while Angie and Emily feverishly tried to catch Michael at the last aide stop, missing him by minutes, sending them into a driving frenzy. Angie ended up doing some crazy, illegal u-turn and high tailing it back to the finish/starting spot.
so going from hurting pretty damn badly in a 4 mile training run, to completing a 9 mile training run without too much pain is a bit of a miracle in my book. maybe this trainer is on to something... :)
I should state again that this was a free session (as are all first sessions with a trainer @ Coastal Sports Medicine). Greg mentioned that his client after me had canceled, so he was going to spend a little extra time with me seeing as how i had the La Jolla Half Marathon coming up in about 3 weeks and i REALLY wanted to run it. Dr. Martinez gave me the okay to do it as long as i showed marked improvement and i promised to walk down the Shores Drive (a gnarly, bitch of a hill that could likely snap my IT in two...this i believe is the hill that caused all of this mess while training for Wildflower 06). he started by stretching me out on the foam roller. wow, i never knew why so many people refer to this device as the torture roll until now. we stretched for a good 45 min, enough to bring blood flow and movement into areas that were previously immobile to a point. it brought tears to my eyes a couple of times, but i sucked it up and let him do his thing. we also went through a routine of stretches and core exercises to accomplish each morning before i leave the house. miraculously, i was already feeling stronger and more limber.
he then proceeded to take me through a pretty rigorous strength session focusing mainly on my glutes. he jokingly mentioned that i should prepare myself to have a Serena table ass - an ass so large and strong you could eat off of it)....HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHA, don't know how i feel about that, but whatever gets me running pain free again, i'm game!
so this brings me to today's run. it was a 14 miler in downtown San Diego. it was a fantastic run, great scenery and great friends. MAO wanted roaming SAG for this run, which i disagreed with because if you wait for the last runners at one stop, you miss the front runners at the next...but he is the boss so we did our best. the exact thing that i warned against ended up happening and Michael was his monster of a self, screaming "give me water!!!" when he finally did get to hit up an aide station. pretty funny seeing as how he was pushing Eli (his son) in a stroller that could have very easily held water had he been able to just admit that carrying hydration on runs was a good idea. he's stubborn, what can i say?
i felt pretty good at the beginning of the run, but as we started to get into mile 7 i was REALLY feeling it. by 7.5 i was thinking there was no way i could go on, so i stopped to do some of the stretches Greg taught me and what do ya know? i was able to get in another mile and a half before making myself stop. well, that's both true and not, i knew i should stop, but that damn competitiveness screaming at the top of its lungs wasn't going to let me puss out easily. had it not been for Jenn demanding that i stop so i didn't hurt myself further, i probably would have kept going. i listened to her reasoning and rode with Angie and Emily (our SAG) for the rest of the run. thank God i listened to Jenn because as soon as i got in the car my legs felt like complete shit. i spent the rest of the time stretching while Angie and Emily feverishly tried to catch Michael at the last aide stop, missing him by minutes, sending them into a driving frenzy. Angie ended up doing some crazy, illegal u-turn and high tailing it back to the finish/starting spot.
so going from hurting pretty damn badly in a 4 mile training run, to completing a 9 mile training run without too much pain is a bit of a miracle in my book. maybe this trainer is on to something... :)
No comments:
Post a Comment