Running Chick

Seems like ages ago, right?  I haven’t been on a complete hiatus, but I haven’t really been in the mood to blab about my continual struggles with shin splints, tendonitis, podiatrists and all that stuff because it’s pretty much as depressing as it sounds.  Suffice it to say that I think I’m going to christen myself the Queen of Injury.

In my latest effort to rid myself of my various injuries, my podiatrist recommended that I get myofascial release therapy.  I’ve read about it before and was surprised that we actually have a massage therapist who specializes in that locally.  I figured I’d give it a shot.  It’s not like I have anything to lose except money. :-/

My first session was early last week and he worked on my left leg which has been giving me trouble for over a year.  It was a little weird and unlike any other massage I’ve had before.  Instead of attacking knots & tightness using his fingers, palms & elbows, the therapist just placed his hands on whatever area he found that was tight and firmly pressed and stretched at the same time.  I could feel the muscle slightly constrict against the pressure, but then, after about 30-45 seconds, I could feel it completely release.  It was so bizarre.  After an hour, he sent me on my way.  I went home feeling so great that I immediately went out and went for a five mile run and it my left leg was completely pain-free.  A little over a week and three runs later and it’s still pain-free.  Woot!

Earlier this week, I had my second session.  My right IT band has been super tight and giving me some lateral knee pain, so that’s where he focused his time.  I went for a four miler tonight and, while the pain isn’t all gone, it’s probably 85% better.

I have two more sessions scheduled, and then we’ll evaluate where I am.  I’m hopeful.  So far, this is the only thing I’ve tried that’s returned positive results.  It would be really nice to start increasing my mileage into the double-digit range, I’m getting so sick of the short two and three milers!

I took shovel to ground today and dug away at the last section of Josh's side garden.  This is a really large section, so I decided to break it up into thirds to make it less  daunting.  This section was pretty much devoid of the giant rocks from the last two sections (yay!), but the majority of it was sod and a tangle of miscellaneous plants that made for lots of root-pulling and digging. Boo. Anyway, here's what it looked like before I started poking away at it.

Here's what it looks like now:

In the far back corner is a peony plant that I dug up from a spot where the garage is going to go.  They can be a bit finicky so I’m really hoping that it takes to this new spot.

The front corner has a tomato plant that some nutty lady gave me for visiting her garage\book sale.  She even had a name for the plant, it was “Helen”.  Helen is comfortably residing in the front position.

I relocated the herbs I originally planted in the first section of the side garden to this new spot.  Josh is planning on fixing the wall soon and needs the work space, so all the thyme and sage have been moved to their permanent home. 

Their old spot is looking rather naked.

BTW, the herbs are looking really good. We should be ready to harvest the first batch in a couple of weeks. I hope Josh makes me something yummy for all my efforts!

Finally, on a semi-unrelated note, Josh’s apple tree is bursting with apples.