Dry Needling & Long Run Sunday

If you guys remember from my last post, I had an issue going on with my left calf/shin

My own tape job...I didn't know what it was so ya.
I taped all of it.

So off to physio I went on Thursday.  I was truly fearful that Jeff would say it was a stress fracture or something.  I told him it would stop hurting after 3k or so....'yes'...he said....'after the good endorphins would kick in.'  Yaya.  So Jeff started doing some poking and proding and discovered it was a simple over use of the muscle with a bunch of little knots forming.  With a smile on his face, he said "Let's try some dry needling!"  Oh boy....if nothing else...it would make a good blog post I said. 

The needle is slightly bigger than an acupuncture needle.  Instead of putting the needle in and leaving it for 10 minutes, Jeff would insert the needle...into the muscle...and then he would wiggle it around until he got a reaction out of me.  Yup....a slight yelp or rise in my voice and he'd gain a big smile...and then he'd wiggle it for a little bit and then pull it out.  He repeated this 3 times.  The pain was bearable while it was being done but afterwards, it was SORE!  I've heard that it can be more painful depending on the area being worked on.    Did it work??  Well....today I ran 15km....not without pain...but with a lot less!

Thank god for Tracey or I would have quit several times.
The temperature was high with no breeze.

I was super thankful for the shade that the trail provided today as the sun totally zapped every ounce of energy I had.  Poor Tracey is a marathoner 7 times over and a half ironman finisher...and she was running a 6.10/km pace with slow me!! 

A couple walk breaks pushes my pace to the 6.25 pace

How do I deal with a hot, hot run?  I refuel with Tim's frozen lemonade!  The brain freeze that resulted took my mind off the pain that my foot was having.

I am completely useless after a long run...all I want to do is sleep and be lazy.  It doesn't help that a migraine quickly developed that throws me on my ass!  It's the 2nd one in two days and they are putting a damper on my weekend plans!!  I really wish the runs didn't zap me like they do...and they make me wonder how I ever ran a half last year!