Super fast recovery in a short period of time
While preparing for the Prairie Spirit 100 miler, I was trying a lot of new things, such as following a different training plan, adding in speed work, adding in a protein shake post runs, but unfortunately neglecting most of my leg recovery therapy.
Three weeks before the race on a city hike, I realized that my legs were just so heavy and tired. A good city hike is walking 7 miles to Dovetail Brewery and 7 miles back with a 15 pound backpack containing 8 16oz cans of Dunkel. It was an epiphany, “Wow, I haven’t been doing a good job with recovery”. At that moment, I started researching new massage therapists and start getting all of this “junk” out of my legs. The massage therapist I saw previously has not been practicing because of COVID. But it was also time to pull out the torture devices, again.
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| The typical beer haul. |
The ROLLER:
As soon as I got back from that tiring walk, I dropped on my
massive hard roller and went painfully slow over my quads. I like to use this roller to start working
the muscles as a whole and warm them up. I can’t seem to
get small sections very well or knots in general; but for the overall, it is
nice to get a big section starting to break up.
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| Foam rollers come in many different sizes and densities. Mine is 36" long and a high density. |
The MASSAGES:
I tried another massage therapist in Chicago who at first I
did like. He was able to help break up
my calves pretty well after I ran the virtual Hennepin Hundred in October 2020.
I visited him a few more times and but it just felt like my calves HURT
when massaging them. I wanted my
legs to feel worked over, but not in pain.
Instead, my shoulders and back felt worse from clenching those muscles
to compensate for the pain of my calves while being massaged. I was starting
from scratch again to find someone I liked, felt comfortable with, and could
help my legs.
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| A small collection of the massage therapist's reference material. |
Across the street from me, there is a massage therapist who has been in the business since the 1980s. No better time than now to try a new person out. Two days after my epiphany, I had my first appointment with him. Like I said before, he’s been doing this since the 1980s so he’s a much more seasoned person than I am used to seeing. Everything was done at a slower speed than I am used to, he worked on me for over an hour but only charged me for the hour. His technique, in my overall worse areas, felt like a deep pinching sensation. I think that’s the best way to describe it. He also worked other muscles that therapists in the past have neglected, such as abs and adductors.
During the entire time, I kept running through pros and cons and if I thought I liked the techniques to make a decision by the end of the session if I was going to see him again. I decided to go for it and scheduled another session with him that week, two sessions the following week and a session for immediately following the race.
As my legs and knots got better, his massage techniques changed. A good massage therapist should work with what is going on with the client, not use the same plan for everyone. I normally don’t do so many massage appointments in a month! I just REALLY wanted to get my muscles supple again.
The STICK:
The day after my first massage with the new therapist, I
decided to roll out my legs with The Stick.
Yes, that is the actual brand name.
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| The circled areas were all of the knots on this one quad. |
I always do a light warm up on my muscles first. I go over
my legs with light pressure, all over the area I will start with first. My quads were my focus. After doing the warm up, I started on the
outside of my left quad at the top and rolled down. As I was going over the sections, I started
to feel the knots (trigger points). I
haven’t been able to feel my knots in ages, that’s how hard my muscles
were! I was so glad to know that between
using the foam roller and the massage, I can finally start working on these
darn knots. I believe I had 6-8 knots on
each quad! Yeah, that’s a TON.
I continued to work the knots about every other day. They were getting smaller and some were even
starting to disappear.
The COMPRESSION BOOTS:
After working those poor knots, I like to sit for an hour
with my compression boots and read (or watch TV). I bought my compression boots roughly four or
five years and it has been the best single thing for me with my recovery.
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| Post run in my compression boots. I try to wear socks and long pants so my legs don't get cold. |
I also started to use my boots after a run. The goal was to keep the lactic acid from
sitting around. I wanted it out of my
system.
The EPSOM SALT BATH:
During those three weeks of
heavy recovery I was doing, I did one half hour session in my bathtub with
about 1 cup of Epsom salts and a few drops of eucalyptus oil. The magnesium helps with muscle soreness and
the salts help reduce swelling. Another
product I use instead of taking baths so often is Epsom salt lotion. This just goes on like any normal
lotion. I focused it on my feet and
legs.
