My rollers, my friends

Thanks to these delicious rollers and balls, they are helping to relieve me from all my pains in various areas: Achilles tendon, calf muscles, ham strings, IT bands, etc.

I've been doing excessive hill running... so my achilles tendon is stretching more than normal on every stride.  On recent runs, it feels a though I have a metal rod in it's place.

So I dropped by my local running store and picked up a few rollers and balls to help me self-massage my sore areas. It's been a few weeks now since I started using the rollers and balls and I'm really feeling the rewarding results from using them!

The idea here is that you roll your body weight along the roller where you are experiencing tightness in your muscles to break up the knots.  Believe me, it's no picnic. The sensation will make you wither in pain, but in a good wither! (ha!ha!)

Last Sunday was a 9-1/2-mile icy run up in Annadel.  It was C0OoLD and it was muddy from the rains the day before. The first 4-1/2 miles was all uphill. Breathing deeply in frigid air was difficult on the lungs, but after awhile, I began to feel myself warming up. Once reached the top... we were treated to miles of fun fast downhill. 

That's me in the picture below running through the muddy water. I read recently that it's better to run through the deepest part of the muddy terrain than to skip and prance around them. It's much more slippier on the outskirts, and besides that, it gives your shoes a nice bathing. 

(Oh, who am i kidding.... running through mud puddles is an enormous rush for those of us who don't like to get dirty... and besides that, it makes me feel bodacious!).

 Heidi and I running on South Burma

Early tomorrow morning I'm running a grueling 9 mile run 2,729 ft to the top of Bald Mountain. Forecast calls out rain all day so I imagine it will feel like a even longer run.

 Coach Marc says, "the worse the conditions, the more memorable".

I'll keep you posted.