Necessary Evils

In running, like in life, I've come to find that there are a handful of necessary evils. A few examples being:

• Hill's: Y'all should know my motto by now, "Hills are for Hero's!" It's what I chant to myself as I fight up yet another repeat each and every week. When I lived in pancake-flat Orlando I resorted to overpass bridges and parking garage ramps to incorporate them into my routine because they make you faster and stronger.
  
  "You can never run a hill too hard, you will collapse before hurting it."
  
  
• Speedwork: Speedwork comes in many torturous forms; intervals, tempo, pace, etc... whatever you call it, hitting the puke threshold is the single best way to get fast! Even incorporating a few fartleks can get you started at chipping away your race times.
  
  "If you don't feel like you're going to throw up you're not running fast enough."
  
  
• The Foam Roller: Who knew a foam cylinder could simultaneously cause you tear jerking pain and euphoric release?!?! Investing in one of these babies changed my life and I use it every single day to work out all my various tight muscles, knots, etc... I often joke I have a date to make sweet love to my foam roller because you can literally roll your entire body out on this thing!
  
  "Hurts so good!"
  
  
• The Stick: Much like the foam roller, but more importantly, it gets at the really deep knots that lodge themselves in your muscles. While extremely effective I find it hard to really get the most out of this thing because I can't bear the pain I'm causing to myself. Anybody else ever feel this way with this thing?
  
  
• Massages: Wait, did I just loose some of you on this one?!?! I'm sure many of you are thinking, "But I LOVE massages, they are the greatest thing since Arctic Ease!!!" And typically speaking I would agree with you but if you're cursed with extremely painful calf knots that build up like plague on your gum line, you find yourself impatiently dreading a massage.
  
  And that is exactly what I was doing Saturday morning after my long run... but I get ahead.
  

See Thursday after my pace workout I began to notice the unmistakable pain of calf knots. I'm no stranger to calf knots, I experienced them at the tail end of my first marathon training cycle, during most of my second, and they started the derailment of my defunct third. I immediately started fretting, stretching, icing, compressing, sticking, foam rolling, you name it! Anything I could think of but by Friday afternoon I was pimp-limping and fearing the worst... when I thought to book a calf massage. I spent the rest of the day in my compression sleeves, doing all the previously listed every few hours and when I woke up Saturday morning I felt slight relief but knew I'd be feeling them during the run. I ended up making it through just fine, I think fighting the wind helped me keep my mind off them, but afterward they were screaming and I impatiently dreaded my massage...

Within a few seconds of feeling up my right calf, the one that was really plaguing me, the sports massage therapist let's me know it was going to take more than a half hour to get me worked out... and for the next hour, 45 minutes of that on my right calf alone, I laid face down, tears streaming down my face, doing breathing exercises to stop myself from passing out from the pain, grunting "OMG!!!", as he got every last, horribly painful, deep rooted knot out. I limped in and walked out. My calves are bruised from the experience but I can run pain and knot free. A necessary evil (and unexpected expense) that I think might be making a regular appearance in my training regimen.

What necessary evils are a part of your training regimen? Do you regularly get sports massages? Have you ever had an ART massage?

On an unrelated note:

Anniversary Contest: Of those of you that guessed on my anniversary post Saturday, I had written 355 posts so both Nelly & Kevin win a little something since they guessed 350 & 360 respectively. Please email me your mailing address and I'll drop a little something in the mail for both of you.