Only Dogs Could Hear It

It better be freaking worth it.

I got needled again today. That sounds dirty, kind of like “corn dogging,” but it’s really not.

I talked about dry needling in this post. Basically, it is to release really tight muscles that haven’t loosened up with massage, stretching, rolling. A practitioner (usually a PT, but could be a doc) sticks an acupuncture type needle directly into the trigger point muscle causing it to spasm and release. So far I’ve had great success with it.

Today I realized the first go-round my needler had been quite gentle with me. I be-bopped into my session, singing the praises of myself and how well I did post-needling: very little achiness, able to run the next day. She must have taken that as a green light to needle the eff out of my muscles.

My IT band is so tight that if it could fart only dogs could hear it.

You have to be really advanced to get that joke, so I hope it didn’t go over your head.

And yes my dog is in every picture because he cannot be more than three feet away from me at any given moment. I think it goes back to that one time I used KY Jelly on him (not kidding). I’ll have to post that story sometime. It’s a keeper.

She stuck me twice in the gluteus maximus (ass). She then started at the tightest part of my IT (by my knee) and worked her way up doing a total of five needles. The twitching, cramping and achiness flips me out a bit, only because you never know what to expect.  She then attacked my TFL (kind of to the outside of your hip).

I told her, “Okay, try not to hit the bone.” I have boney hips. She said, “That’s the point, we want to hit the bone, it helps us know where we’re going and lots of time the most cramped muscles are by the bone.” Me: “Shit.”

It hurt like a mother. But only for a few seconds.

I walked in the Center for Sport’s Medicine with a spring in my step. I walked out with a limp. I know this is normal and by tomorrow I’ll be fine. I know that the last session of needling really loosened me up and was totally worth it.

I have my eye on the prize and the prize is NOT Boston, is NOT running faster, is NOT putting in high mileage weeks. The prize is running pain free and loving to run again because it feels good and it’s what I want to be doing well into my later years.

Okay, so tomorrow I am hoping to finally get up a review of some cool Pearl Izumi gear I received (shoes, shirt, shorts). I always associate PI with cycling stuff, but seems they are really coming into the running world and I’ve been incredibly pleased with the quality and performance of my gear.

What’s your favorite brand of running gear and why? – I’m all over the board. I like Mizuno shoes, UA mock turtlenecks, Asics socks, Athleta running shirts.

What’s your best injury recovery tip? – Mine is plain and simple. Rest and not being hard on myself.

Feeling the need to make a chocolate cake (wait until I give you this recipe!),

SUAR

Needles and Pool Raft

The things we do for recovery.

Today I went in for dry needling at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. Ever heard of it? Me neither.

Basically, it’s a practice used by physical therapists to help a particularly stubborn muscle to release. It’s called “dry needling” because no medicine is used within the needle. If you’ve tried rolling, massaging, stretching, icing, cussing, doing a rain dance and crying to relieve muscle pain, achiness and crampiness, but have had no luck,  dry needling could be a solution. The practice, mostly used in Australia, is becoming increasingly popular in the United States. You can read more about it HERE.

I begged my dry needler woman, Cathy, to let me take pictures. Here is the needle.

I should have put a quarter or tampon beside it to show the actual size. It was about four inches long and was to go in my ass. Not up my ass,  just in the muscle. She said they have longer needles for bigger asses. I am not the huge ass (“Hugh Jazz” as Bart Simpson would say when he calls Moes Tavern) category, so I got the four incher (that’s what she said).

I nicely asked her to please take a picture of the needle sticking out of my butt, telling her I didn’t care if my exposed glute was on the internet (the SUAR version of a sex tape I suppose), but she opted for my hamstring. Chicken.

So, here’s what goes on. The very thin, acupuncture type needle goes in. However, dry needling is NOT acupuncture. Totally different philosophy. The needle is moved around within the muscle. If the needle hits a true trigger point there will be some twitching, cramping and deferred pain. You may or may not faint, break into a cold sweat or just say the “f” word and pound your fists like I did. Seriously, it’s not that painful. On the pain scale, I probably only got to a six when she dug into my very tight IT band.

She did about six needles in my ass, four in my hamstring and three in my IT. We were going to do the adductors (inner thigh), but that is the most painful area, so we will do that next week. Needles in the inner thigh. Is that a type of porn? Might need some tequila before that one.

Cathy the Needler said that this practice is especially helpful to release IT bands. Just FYI.

Now I am achy, which is expected. I am going to swim later today and try running tomorrow. I will be very excited if this works because I have been dealing with glute issues for the past six months or so and think they may have contributed to my injury.

Prior to the needling, I saw my doc. Unlike past appointments where I cried and begged him to tell me when I would be better, we spent this session shooting the shit about Boston. He reviewed and okay’d my training plan and could not stop smiling at my progress. Said my body language and whole disposition were both completely different than four weeks ago. It feels might good to be on this side of the injury.

My doc ran Boston in 2008. As he talked about the course, I could visualize myself there, and I kept tearing up with pure and complete joy at the thought of it all. We even hugged. Oh good God!!

His biggest tip for Boston? Pool Raft. My eyebrow raised and I looked at him with my most profound WTF? expression when he said this. He explained that because you take busses to the start so early, you end up waiting around forever. His ass became frozen from sitting on the concrete and grass for so long, and it sucked. He noticed the Boston veterans brought deflated pool rafts with them to sit on. Target – $2.00. Good tip for any marathon!  I’m all over it.

In 40 days I will be sitting on a deflated pool raft in Hopinkton wearing Goodwill throw away clothes and some kind of cute running outfit and getting ready to experience and obtain this long awaited goal. It has come at the price of many ups and downs, tears, uncertainties. I think that makes it all the more sweeter.

Off to Tarjay,

SUAR

An Interview and Surprise Dinner!!

If you’re not following Leslie Rubinkowski of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as she trains her way towards her first marathon (the Pittsburgh Marathon on May 15), you really should be. Leslie, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, is a gifted writer and soon-to-be marathoner. She chronicles her training in a blog column of the paper called “The Starting Line.”

A few weeks ago she interviewed me, and the interview was posted today HERE. You can read what I say verbatim. And, all with no f words or poop talk. Weird, I know.

Moving on…

Thank you from the bottom of my un-waxed eyebrows and white underwear for your birthday wishes yesterday. Totally made my day.

Before:

After (still a bit hairy, but cleaned up at least):

I got my toes painted and went with the sparkly birthday theme. I think it accentuates my long Morton’s toe, which was the look I was going for. That thing is a FINGER!

At PT, I shared my woes of my glutes screaming at me during runs. We’ve decided to start dry-needling. Basically, a “dry” needle (kind of like an acupuncture needle) is inserted into a trigger point, hoping to make the muscle spasm and release/relax it. Sounds painful. Yeah, it does. I will wear my Depends that day in case something involuntarily slips out. I’ll start this in a couple of weeks and do it about four times.

No one, and I mean no one, guessed correctly on my birthday dinner. Not even close. My mom went Spanish with Paella and Tortilla Espanola. Also home made bread and a vat of butter.Yeah, that’s right. My mama can COOK!

I did get my lemon cake and it got messy. And I lost an eye:

Me with my amazing parents.

Me with Ken and kids. Emma is at that stage where she likes to look as crazy/unusual/demented as possible in pictures.

By far, the best line of the night was when precocious son Sam said, “Well, we’ve heard a many stories about how mom was born in Chicago during a snow storm, but we’ve never heard the story of the night she was conceived.” To which my dad said, “It was a Friday night…” I started screaming NO NO NO. Never. Don’t want to hear.

Ever tried dry needling? Did you crap yourself?

What’s your favorite birthday dinner?

Do you know the story of how you were conceived?

Glad  I was conceived,

SUAR