ART and Another Run!

Well folks, I had an appointment with Dr. Folske yesterday for some ART (active release therapy). He told me what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong. And then he dug into my hammy and heel. He would bend part of my body in one direction (let’s say my foot), then press his fingers along that muscle or tendon, and then force that body part in the other direction so the muscle moves across his dug-in fingers. Yummers.

It wasn’t too painful, except for a few moments. Those moments snuck up on me during our conversation: “...so when I was on the 17.5 mile RUN, MY HEEL STARTED flaring up around mile 10...” Yes, the loud talking indicates a sudden and unexpected jump in pain while the doc was doing his thang. But that really only happened twice.

All-in-all, I believed nearly everything Dr. Folske was saying and recommending. One of the most interesting thoughts of the day was when he told me that stretching my heel was the worst thing I could be doing. He said that tendons can HARDLY stretch, so when I hold a good, long stretch for my heel, I’m just making the sore tendon flare up. Makes sense. He gave me 3 “stretches” to do instead (they’re like stretches, but not exactly). I’m also done icing (which I was doing religiously before). Now I’m working with heat to get more blood flowing to those parts (it’d be great if my crotch was broken because I know of a few good ways to get the blood flowing to “those parts,” but I digress).

He also told me to go on a 4 mile run today. He thought by doing 24 hours of his exercises and after a few minutes of his ART-ful fingers, I’d be able to run a pain free 4 mile run today when 3 days ago I was hurting just over 1 mile into it. It sounded like a miracle to me, but who am I to argue with a doctor.

I set out for my 4 mile run this morning on the same route that my last few runs have taken (so I couldn’t blame a good or bad run on different terrain). I ran 6:15 miles, and I was COMPLETELY pain free until the last little hill over 3.5 miles into the run! I’m pretty sure Dr. Folske is the second coming of Jesus Christ (in a completely non-blasphemous way)! He’s gotta be related to Jesus at least. Maybe he’s the second coming of Jesus’s long-lost chiropractor cousin.

So I’m going to keep up with his exercises and “stretching,” and I’ll be seeing him a few times next week for some more ART. Then, taper and recover for a week. Then, marathon time.

Hot-diggity-dog.