In For a Tune Up - 3/7/08

I think that it's a good idea to go in for a sports massage once or twice a year. It's a good way to keep the body loose and address any problem or tight areas - kind of like bringing your car in every 6 months for a checkup or inspection. Although I stretch more than most people, it seems inevitable that my glutes, hamstrings and hip flexors are going to tighten up. Once that happens, the snowball effect occurs - it gets harder and harder to strectch the areas that are troubling me, so I stretch them less and less and then things get to the point that it affects my running. This is exactly what happened recently. My usual problems areas were starting to feel uncomfortable a few weeks ago and I tried to work through them to no avail. Then during the downtown Monday night run this week, my lower back stiffened up (which never happens) and did not get better throughout the rest of the run. I needed to run almost straight up because my back was getting tighter and tighter. Although it got a little better through stretching during the week, I figured it was a good idea to nip it in the bud and get a sports massage which I got today - again at Eastside Massage. I wanted to make sure that it didn't get to the point like last August. I waited much too long to get a massage and my hip flexors and glutes were killing me and it was very uncomfortable to run. Also, if I didn't address my back and glutes soon, I didn't want to jeopardize my half marathon coming up at the end of April

The downtown run - Although I really like running it, I find that my body feels "messed up" for the rest of the week. I'm not sure if this is because I'm used to having Monday as a day off or because of the harder concrete surfaces that we run on the West Side. It could be that when I run on a Monday, it usually comes after a Saturday and Sunday run. Three days in a row might be too much for now. I'm not going to stop going to the downtown run but I think I need to make sure not to run the Sunday before.