Follow Gines as he trains for the North Face 100 in May, 2011. He was Australian Martial Art Champion in 2009 and has since then decided on a change of weather. Watch a pretty fit, yet non-runner take on Ultra Marathons and then hopefully finish his season after the NF100 with a lazy road 42km marathon. Big shout out to the sponsors: Head to Toe Health Care, ZONE Fitness, The Summit Camp Freedom Tiger, St.Mel, Brooks and Like a Freak.
2 weeks 2 days to go until race day. The start of this saga feels so long ago. With such a short time to go before it is race time, the thoughts running through my head are up and down. Having Easter just passed I had to splurge out at least a few chocolate eggs. Last Sunday was suppose to be a long day, however, I felt pretty flat. So flat that I questioned, really why am I doing this?
I found that question gets frequently asked to me when I tell people what I am training for. I usually answer ‘why not?’ Running is not only good fitness, but it gives you ‘me time’ and time to think. Think about life, about work, about relationships pretty much about everything. I went and saw my physio last week, Michael at Head to Toe Healthcare in Hampton, I told him I have slight knee pain when after a while of running. I expressed to him, we only have 3 weeks to and we need to do what it takes to get rid of this pain, and this pain can not come up in the race. Michael replied with a laugh, “ You are going to hurt during the 100km race Gines, its only a matter of time when the pain will set in, our bodies are not made to run a 100k.”
Recently I finished the book, Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. It is about a hidden tribe full of super athletes. In this tribe there are ultra up to the age of 75 years old. Tonight I went down the track with a friend to do some sprint work, 180 second repeats. As we were training, a group of older runners were starting to warm up on the track. These runners would have been close to my parents age. In between our sets we asked them what group they were, they were the local ‘Masters running club,’ which is a 30+ club, that hold training and races of Wednesday nights. These runners for their ages were in very good shape.
Coming to our last set, we kindly asked what lanes there using for the rest of the races, in response we got, “Just the first 3 lanes, we have a one mile race in a few minutes, do you want in?” I was surprised they asked as they looked a closed knit group of runners that kept to themselves. I thought ‘why not’ and answered, ‘Sure, let’s race!” While lining up, thoughts were racing through my head, ‘just did 3min sprints x 4, wrecked, but I need to run hard to gain the respect of these old runners.” The only way to do that was to make sure they did not make a mistake by inviting me. The gun went out off, they set a pretty quick pace, with the leader breaker away within 400m. It came to the final lap, where I gave it all I had. I was currently sitting it second position, with the leader 80m in front. ‘You gotta love the chase,’ the final 100m I felt like my lungs were going to collapse, but I finished first.
After a friendly chat with the runners after the race, they invited to keep coming and racing with them, which I will take them up on. It got me thinking, ‘why am I running this crazy race?” I like training hard and pushing myself to see what I can achieve. There it was, ‘I want to see what my body is physically capable of, lets find out what it can do.” 2 weeks 2 days to go.
Dry Needling
This week our resident athlete, Gines went for a session of Dry Needling at Head to Toe Health Care in Hampton. For those of you that are unaware of dry needling please check out the video and description below:
What is Dry Needling?
Filament needles (similar to acupuncture) are inserted into the soft tissue to activate the healing process, resulting in pain relief and restoration of healthy physiology. Also known as a process of activating "trigger points."It mechanically disrupts the integrity of the dysfunctional endplates within the trigger area.
Gines thoughts on Dry Needling:
Tried dry needling this week at Head To Toe Healthcare, surprisingly they do not hurt. We worked on relaxing my glutes, 'honestly I didn't expect to having needles in my arse Wednesday morning, but it worked, my afternoon run was a dream.'
EXTENDED INFO ON DRY NEEDLING
Myotherapy is a multi-faceted form of soft tissue treatment and can be defined as the physical diagnosis, treatment and management of myofascial pain and other musculoskeletal conditions which affect the integrity of human movement, It can also be used for pain management for chronic musculoskeletal conditions.
Myotherapy can be used to treat a wide range of conditions, from sporting or occupational injuries, to postural conditions, chronic neuromuscular disorders, the pains associated with muscular overuse, misuse or disuse and may also help to prevent injury. A myotherapist treatment tools include all those of a remedial therapist and, in addition, myofascial needling, functional taping, therapeutic exercise prescription, nutrition, electrotherapy (TENS) and corrective exercises. Comprehensive pre and post treatment assessment and client education strategies are emphasized to aid with the body rehabilitation and to assist with future injure prevention.
Myotherapy includes many treatment modalities which include massage, cupping, myofascial dry needling, stretching, exercise prescription and joint mobilization. These modalities are used to treat a variety of conditions.
WHAT IS A MYOFASCIAL TRIGGER-POINT?
The formation or activation of a trigger point may be due to an acute injury or chronic micro-trauma to the muscle (e.g. sustained muscle contraction due to tension and poor posture)
These conditions can be caused by trauma, ageing, overload or misuse of muscles arising from occupational, sporting and recreational activities or congenital factors such as short leg discrepancy. Systemic disorders can also cause myofascial pain and may include conditions such as chronic fatigue, post viral myalgic conditions, fibromyalgia, vitamin deficiency.
Myofascial Trigger points (MTPs) are areas of low grade inflammation and contracture in muscle fibre. This produces muscle pain or more accurately myofascial pain They will normally present as palpable nodules or taut bands of muscle fibre, producing local and characteristic referred pain. This pain may be ischemic in nature or result from stretching a muscle sustaining a MTP or taut band.
What is Myofascial dry needling?
Myofascial dry needling primarily focused on musculoskeletal injuries and, is utilized as a specialist tool to accompany soft tissue skills, and is therefore an integral aspect of myotherapy. It utilises insertion of acupuncture needles into active trigger points (hypertonic muscle lesions) to relieve pain, resolve musculoskeletal pain patterns associated with the specific points and restore freedom of movement. Stimulation of trigger points using Dry Needling can desensitise these points and associated referral pain areas, promote healing and enhance production of endorphins as well as increasing the blood supply to the affected area.
Dry Needling can be used to treat conditions such as joint pain and osteoarthritis, inflammatory conditions such as tendonitis and disc pain, headache and migraine, post surgical conditions, back pain, as well as acute and chronic trigger point pain
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