JefferStow's Road to the Marathon: Post 3: The Pain Addiction

I am now officially 3 weeks into my new shiny gym time table and not only have I stuck to it I have achieved the below:

- ran fastest 5km (sub 30 minutes if you minus traffic light waiting time)
- knocked 90 second off my swimming time for 40 lengths (1km)
- increased interval runs to 24 minutes 2 weeks ahead of schedule AND could have done more
- can tell 6kg weights (improvement from 2.5 - my arms are spaghetti)
- can touch the floor with fingertips and straight legs, and can reach mid-calf (in back with leg in the air, improve from only reaching back of my knee)

Three more weeks and the timetable will be a habit and I can build on everything towards the marathon. So easy. Generally I feel awesome but I wanted to share with you the best fitness tip I've ever picked up, but its only for the brave and those who, like me, have developed an affection for exercise that can only really fit into the BDSM category.

Everything about exercise hurts from your 5am alarm to the lock jaw you develop from straining during weights. But like with having children, the euphoric joy from that momentary, fleeting sense of achievement seems to completely extinguish the negatives from your memory and trick your mind into thinking you want more of that.

So, what is that tip I hear you cry?

FOAM ROLLING*

*to be pronounced only in loud booming voiceover voice

I was shown this technique by a personal trainer and bought my own mini roller at home and have never looked back.
The horrid thing one of the many horrid things about running is that it seems to make all the muscles in your legs contract and seize up, no matter how much you stretch.  The pain can be excruciating and it knocks you about ten steps back on any beneficial yoga you might be partaking in.
FOAM ROLLING* is basically a self inflicted deep tissue massage which (if done properly) is only for the brave and slightly sick in the head.

Here's a little video of me in my Aladdin pjs doing it wrong:

Now I can't film myself doing it right because:
1. I couldn't film myself as it takes every ounce of concentration and all four limbs
2. If I asked my husband to film me all you'd hear would be his excessive giggling at my grimacing and self inflicted pain

So to FOAM ROLL* properly you have to do it slowly. You have to use your other leg to put more weight on it and SLOWLY* work your way up each section of your leg, And every time you fine a tight muscle (which is every centimetre after a decent run) you have to rotate from side to side.

To know its working you need to feel like you have the thumbs of a thousand tint Eastern European women from your local spa digging their thumbs into that one section of your leg in perfect unison.

It hurts. So. Much. And you're doing it to yourself so you have to keep going. You have to torture yourself until your leg is white hot with pain. Because afterwards...

IT. FEELS. GLORIOUS.

Your legs will feel lighter than air and you'll want to immediately run again thanks to all your new found leg energy (legergy).
Exactly like childbirth.

That's all for now. Happy FOAM ROLLING* everyone.

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