Work it out!

I may have mentioned on one of my earlier posts that I am fortunate enough to have a twin sister who has a Doctorate in Physical Therapy. I suppose I would still be fortunate even if she were not a physical therapist, but still, having a free physical therapist on call is a pretty sweet deal. And this past weekend, when both my sister and I were at home in New Orleans, she did a myofascial release along my IT band to help aid my recovery from IT band syndrome.

Now, if any of you have ever had myofascial release done (she also calls it skin rolling), you may have experienced a bit of pain, or perhaps a better description would be a prolonged burning sensation. One website I read stated that "skin rolling can be painful because of the result of muscles being stuck to the deep tissue or the release of compounded tissue in the form of knots." If that's the case, my entire IT band must have been super-glued to my connective tissue, because it felt like my sister was holding a burning candle to my leg (pretty sure there was some sisterly torture in those strokes too).

However, the leg that she worked on is feeling looser, and I started running again this week. I am trying to slowly ease back into it, so this week I did just two 4-mile runs. I felt no pain in my knee or tightness in my IT band during either run (very exciting!). So finally, after six painful weeks of not running and one (much more painful) half-hour of myofascial release, I think I'm back to my base. Feels great to be at it again. Thanks, Sis!