Massage (9 weeks to go)

My left calf has been getting a harder and harder knot in it.  After my brick on Saturday, it was so tight I thought I wouldn't be able to do my three and a half hour ride Sunday.  So I went to a spa and got a leg massage.  I'm not a massage person and I was a little embarrassed to go, but I didn't have much of a choice.  It's tough to find an open slot on a Saturday so I started calling down the list in the Poynt application on my Blackberry.  On the 5th try, I got into Spa of Tranquility, drove over, left my man card in the car and went in.  It was a very foo foo place, as you could imagine, and very nice.  I got a message therapist named Melonie (sp?) and explained my dilemma.  She went to work on my quadriceps first, applying a lot of pressure.  It was kind of painful pushing on the muscles to the point I could feel them flipping from one side to the other of my femur.  I had to ask her to take it a little easier a couple times.  We made some small talk as she kept torturing messaging my legs.  She mentioned that she used to be a massage therapist in Utah and treated many more athletes out there than she does in the mid-west.  When she got to the knot on my calf, she worked on it pretty hard.  Overall the experience was painful, but got the job done.  I managed a 2 hour brick (1 hour ride, 1 hour run) Saturday and a three and a half hour trainer ride Sunday.

I also bought "The Stick" to massage my calf at home.  It is painful too, so it must be working.

The Stick

 
I'm still having trouble getting my morning runs in. I plan to rectify that this week by getting up early Tuesday and Thursday and if I don't, brick my run Tuesday and Thursday night. Bricking is not ideal, but I need to get my run volume up. Running once a week is not going to cut it.  At least the weather is a bit warmer so I should be able to run outside.


Another big training week this week, capped off with a 4 hour ride.  I hope I can do this one outside.