Say "Hello"

Say "hello" to the new addition:

It is a Spirit XT 675. We decided to go for the fully loaded Honda. The deck is nice because it's 22X60. I'm fine with a shorter deck, but we brought Freddie to run on it and he's almost 6 feet tall. It's got a couple of fans which I would have loved to have at the gym today. I sweat like crazy when I run on the treadmill. Also, it has heart rate control which is great for me because I've been doing heart rate training. It's coming next Wednesday.

Tea asked: Sorry to change the subject, but I was thinking about you while I was running today. I was wondering what your long term goals are....not this year goals, but have you thought about what you plan on doing few years down the road? Any interest in doing ultra-races? (like the wild west relay or other ultras)? Or are you more interested in getting a BQ?
Just curious

I really don't have too much interest in getting a BQ. I need 4:00 and I'm only at 4:31, so I'm not even at a place where I can visualize it. If it's challanging and fun, I'm interested. Ultras don't interest me because they seem more painful than fun.

Lately, when I look in the mirror, I see a couple of things running has done for me. One good, one not-so-good. The good -- my body looks great. I've never been in better physical shape. The bad -- my face. I wear sunscreen and hats, but for the first time in my life, I look in the mirror and think I look my age (still 44 for another month). I'm used to looking younger than my age, but my skin has caught up with me. I'm not happy about that part. I'm not going to give up running, but maybe with the new addition of the treadmill I'll do more of my running inside. Maybe I'll even schedule certain runs for the treadmill. Running outside is great but it's brutal on the skin. To all you young women running -- wear LOTS of sunscreen ALL THE TIME. I did not have these wrinkles two years ago. It came on fast.

I ran at the gym today. Temperature-wise, it's not that bad -- 31-- but it was windy and snowy this morning and I was on a tight schedule. Sarah had a late start today so she didn't have to be at school until 10:15. I was supposed to run 9 miles with 4 at 15k or half-marathon pace. It didn't exactly happen that way though. I ended up doing a general aerobic run for 7 miles. HR stayed in the 150-160 range. My pace was 9:40 throughout with 1% incline. EVERY SINGLE TIME I start running on those treadmills, I get the urge to go to the bathroom. The bathroom is downstairs from the gym so it's a real pain. Sometimes I stop to go and there's nothing there! I stopped at 7 miles because it was 12:00 and I had scheduled an Active Release massage for 12:45. I had just enough time to shower, buy a protein shake, and get to the spa.

Muscle Release Technique Massage

First, FYI on the Garmin, when I connected to my computer, since it's a different unit, I had to associate it with a different user. So all my old runs for the year are logged under the old me and from tomorrow forward, my activities will be logged under the new me.

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Muscle Release Technique Massage

This morning I had a Muscle Release Massage. It's the second time I've had this type of massage. The first time was two days after running the Cleveland Marathon and I had no residual muscle soreness from the marathon after the massage. I was able to walk up and down stairs and get back to my running routine very quickly.

Having become a believer the first time, I scheduled another one. I've been feeling a little bit creaky after the heavy summer of running and weight training, and now the miles are starting to build as I get into the meat of the NYC Marathon training program.

As usual, the therapist, Kevin, started by asking me if I have any trouble spots. I told him about my achilles. He showed me where the tendons connect between the calf and somewhere else, blah, blah, blah technical muscle stuff let's just get started.

I layed down on the table face up and Kevin strapped me on with a couple of seat belts. This is so when he stretches my legs, my hips stay square and I don't try to compensate by using other muscle groups. First he stretched my hamstrings by lifting up my leg to a 90 degree angle to my body and massaging the muscle as he did this. He did about ten leg lifts, each time pushing my leg further back and I told him if there was any pain on a 1-10 scale. As he stretched the muscle, I breathed as I would while lifting weights. He stretched and massaged my quads, hip flexors, ITB, inner and outer thigh, calves, I don't even know the names of all the muscles he worked. All the while I'm breathing and telling him 1-10 if there is pain (there wasn't). The whole lower body part of the massage is like this. I lied face down for hips, buttocks, feet, more hip flexors. Upper body was a typical sports massage.

I highly recommend this type of massage for all kinds of athletes. I just lucked into finding out about it, because I already went to Kevin for my massages before he got the Muscle Release certification. I imagine it would take some calling around to find someone certified in the technique, unless you're in Colorado which is where the originator of the method, Michael Young, holds his workshops.

Tomorrow I'm going to hit the pavement again and see how the achilles holds up.