A wee little glimmer o' hope

Today I am feeling a little bit better about my race in 5.25 days. Not an overwhelming rush of confidence or surge of readiness, but rather a little sliver of optimism. For the last 3 or 4 weeks my runs have been generally pretty rough. I have felt beat up beyond belief and my knees have ached and complained *loudly* when I run, sit, or attempt to sleep. I met with Erin, my coach on Friday and she suggested I attend the free Physical Therapy clinic at Solepepper Sports. These guys are the same guys who work on my BFF Alan Culpepper, so they clearly have a clue.

So today I went and am happy I did. They were able to tell me that my knees are not the problem but rather my Iliotibial Band (IT) is so stinkin tight it is putting a ton of stress on my kneecap (essentially pulling it out of line). My IT bands are tight because of my hips which are messed up because of my lower back. That pesky L5/S1 and L4 vertabraes. I had to laugh when he asked if I had low back "issues". When I told him I had surgery a few years ago he said "Well that explains a lot." While I was there they gave me 'Trigger Point Dry Needle Therapy" and I am now a believer. I felt immediate release of much of the tension and discomfort. It is by no means going to "cure" me, but it is a good start and will hopefully get me through some of the race without pain, which is more then what I've had these past few weeks.

If you are interested, here's the 411 (and for the record I had VERY notable twitch responses!):

What is Dry Needling? Dry Needling involves multiple advances of a filament needle into the muscle in the region of a "Trigger Point'. The aim of Dry Needling is to achieve a local twitch response to release muscle tension and pain. Dry needling is an effective treatment for chronic pain of neuropathic origin with very few side effects. This technique is unequalled in finding and eliminating neuromuscular dysfunction that leads to pain and functional deficits. The needle used is very thin and most subjects do not even feel it penetrate the skin. A healthy muscle feels very little discomfort with insertion of this needle. However if the muscle is sensitive and shortened or has active trigger points within it, the subject will feel a sensation like a muscle cramp -'the twitch response'. The patient also may feel a reproduction of "their" pain which is a helpful diagnostic indicator for the practitioner attempting to diagnose the cause of the patients symptoms. Patients soon learn to recognise and even welcome this sensation as it results in deactivating the trigger point, reducing pain and restoring normal length function to the involved muscle.