rest

This afternoon I joined the legions of runners who wear compression socks.

I’m planning to use them for recovery; however, I've been hearing from fellow runners that some runners are using them during races and training too.

The idea behind the use of the 'leg sleeves' - as some runners call this piece of gear - is to increase oxygen blood flow to the leg muscles.

I had a choice between a full foot or just-calf compression sock. I went with the calf compression option.

Actually, here is the re-play of me purchasing a compression sock, written as a play.

Sylva Kassarjian is a licensed massage therapist who works at Therapeutic Kneads located in Highland Park, Illinois. She earned her certification from the Chicago School of Massage Therapy, now called the Cortiva Institute, in 1989. During her two decades of massage practice she has treated a number of runners training for marathons.

For runners wondering how their performance will improve with the use of massage, or why getting a deep tissue massage the day before your race is a bad idea, you'll want to read the email interview I conducted with Sylva below.

I got in!!

Let the training begin!

The 40th ING New York Marathon had well over 100,000 applicants for this year’s road race. On June 3rd, in celebration of National Running Day, the New York Road Runners drew the names for this year's run.

*Largest field of more than 40,000 in NYC Marathon
 

I’m finding it very hard to resist going for a walk. These past several days I have been massaging my calves, essentially in an effort to gently test how much pain I can effort from them, in an attempt to assess what state of injury I am currently in.

Diagnosis: Recovery. Not recovered.

Standing in the kitchen this morning I reminded myself that I should not do calf raises to pass the time while waiting for my bagel to toast. No extraneous activities. Which made me start probing my calf muscles again – to see how they were doing post-sleep.

Ugh. At least I will have survived day five, which only has two hours left before I post this message.