Ice, Ice ... Maybe?

Two for the price of one.  Icing the base of my right foot's big toe, while also
icing the heel of my left foot.  That takes talent, people!  (Also note the
red blotch by my knee where I had already iced.  Sad, huh?)

I am sure this is just what you want to see - my bare tootsies on ice.  Sorry, but I thought it was a funny picture.

I am one of those people who rarely ices.  I have to have a pretty serious injury to sit around icing.  It's not that I am against it; I just forget that it is out there as an option.  So, I am grateful when I somehow am reminded that that is one more tool in the toolbelt I have to fight nagging aches and pains.

That's where I am at right now.  Last week's vacation to DC and beyond was supposed to be a recovery week of sorts for me.  Down mileage, few cross-training opportunities, etc.  What I didn't take into consideration was the fact that we would be walking and standing .... a LOT.  By a lot, I mean hours upon hours: several hours one day, almost eight hours the next.  We took cross-training to the next level!  Even with all the walking, I think I would have come away from the week well rested if it hadn't been for the stairs.

In Washington DC we took the metro around town a few times - you know, to avoid the walking?  Well, unfortunately, the metro station near us had a "down" down escalator.  So, instead of being carried into the bowels of the earth in relative comfort, playing imaginary muzak in our heads (doesn't everyone do that?), we got to march down the stairs to the beat of an internal drummer.

I wish I had gotten a picture of the escalator so that my massive whine fest here would make more sense, but I didn't.  Suffice it to say that I am not talking the length of a normal flight of stairs.  I am talking hundreds upon hundreds of steps.  The type of distance where you pause at the top looking down and actually point it out to the children - look, kids, see how far down it goes!  (I think historically it might have even been intended as a bunker of sorts in the event of nuclear attack.)

In any event, we took these monster stairs not once, but twice.  I tried not to complain too much, because touchy patellar tendon twitching and groaning aside, I wasn't the one who had just done a 50-mile running event the day before.  I know Hubby was hurting way more than me.  The problem is that I tend to feel the lingering aftereffects of insults to my body far longer than Hubby does.  So, while he is back to working his way into his running routine, I am icing everything.

Oh well, ice and foam rolling.  If this is what gets me through my marathon, then I am not going to complain about it .... too much.

On another note, I have to say that I am looking forward to rowing today.  I have missed that infernal machine while on vacation.  Hotel fitness centers just don't cater to the rowing crowd.  I wonder why.

Also, in other news, inspired by a friend's homemade granola (I may have eaten about half her stash while she was out teaching a yoga class), I decided to give homemade granola a whirl.  Lucky for me, in the new cookbook I received for my birthday, Fresh from the Vegan Slow Cooker, there was just such a recipe - slow cooker granola.  It wasn't as tasty as J's granola, but it is edible and Hubby and I both enjoyed it for breakfast.  The kids opted for Cheerios.

Happy Running!

Cryocup Giveaway!

So, in the past couple of months, I have tried to come up with a new name for my blog.

I have failed.

Well, that is not entirely true.  I have come up with a bunch of names that I don't like, or that other people don't like.  But, so far, I haven't hit upon anything that makes me happy, speaks to who I am and what I am trying to accomplish (better than Tales anyway), is original enough, and is pleasing to other people's ears.

Why change the name?  Well, it's a long story, and maybe I'll get into that another time.  What's pertinent here, however, is that it has crossed my mind on several occasions to somehow work "injury" into the title.  You know, something like:  The Injury-Prone Runner; The Wounded Runner; Tripping Down the Trails; or Run, Injure, Recover, Repeat....

Cryocup - Cryo Therapy, Inc.

The fact is that I have suffered from more than my fair share of injuries over the past couple of years.  No doubt there are many clear reasons for that, and maybe I'll even figure them out one day, but in the meantime, I have learned a LOT about how to manage my boo-boos.  One tool that I now find indispensable is the Cryocup.  And, I happen to be giving two away.

When you hurt and you need to ice something, there are a couple of ways to go about it.  One way is the typical ice pack.  They sell them in stores, you can use frozen peas, you can make your own (by mixing water and rubbing alcohol in a sturdy bag), or you can even get one as a freebie in a marathon goodie bag - like this one:

These are good, of course, but their downside is they take time.  You need to have the time to sit for fifteen to twenty minutes to let the icing take effect.

On the other hand, what I prefer (especially if time is short), is the ice massage.  By rubbing the injured area directly with ice for five minutes or as long as you can stand, (you don't want to give yourself frostbite!) you can get a nice icing of the area and a self-massage all at the same time.  With the types of soft-tissue/tendon injuries that I seem prone to, this works really well for me.

So, how to go about doing an ice massage?  Well, up until a month or so ago, I always either used an ice cube wrapped in tissue (so I didn't freeze my fingers) or a dixie cup of frozen water (peel top half of cup down and use).

The problem with these two options is that they are messy, and it's not long before the ice melts away and you are left with nothing.

Then, one day in my PT's office, PT #1 pulled out a Cryocup to ice my patellar tendon area.  Immediately, my eyes lit up, my mouth said "Ooooooooo," and my brain said "Must have."

I ended up buying myself two from my PT's office.  (I don't know why, because - as it turns out - one of these lasts forever.)  And, due to the extreme generosity of the office, they have given me two to give away.

Seriously, I love the folks at Peak Performance Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine.  If you are local to Northeast Wisconsin and have a sports-related - or other injury - I highly recommend them!  (They also do running clinics!)  If you're not local, check them out anyway.  They have some cool videos linked from their website demonstrating various strength exercises every runner should be doing.  They're so easy to follow, even I can do them!

So, back to the Cryocup.  I know you are just sitting on pins and needles wondering how it works.  Well, it's simple really. The Cryocup comes in two parts.  You stack them together.

Fill with water.

And freeze.

Easy.  When you want to use it, you pull it out of the freezer, remove the top half (with the ice on it) and use it.

You might need to run it under water to
loosen and pull apart.

Here's mine after a good month of use.
Like the way it has shaped itself to my
shin area - where my injury was?

When done, you stick it back in the cup and put back in the freezer.  There is no paper mess.  The ice doesn't all melt away to a nubby nothing during your ice massage session.  And, you can use it over and over again before needing to redo it.  I am in love.

If you happen to be the superstitious sort and think that winning something like this will suddenly make you get an injury requiring its immediate use - well, then don't enter.  I will say, however, that these things work well for all sorts of icing-requiring injuries.  They don't have to be running-related.  So, you can always just tell yourself you are entering in order to win another useful tool for the family's first aid preparedness kit.

So, how does the giveaway work?  Well, like the usual ones, except this time I shamelessly stole some ideas from some other bloggers, so there will be ways for you to enter more than once.

To enter for a chance to win:

- Leave a comment here telling me why you think this might be useful for you.

For additional entries to win:

- Like Peak Performance's Facebook page and leave a comment telling me you did
- Follow this blog and leave a comment telling me you did (If you already follow, then - what the heck - tell me that and I'll throw in another entry just for that)
- Like my Facebook page and leave a comment here telling me you did
- Let people know about the contest via blog, Facebook, Twitter, any other cool sites I don't know about and let me know you did.

That's it!  The contest will close on Monday, May 14.  I will pick two lucky winners via random.org, and I will announce them here on Tuesday, May 15.

In the meantime, happy running!

Picture of the day:

We celebrated E.'s "un-birthday" at school this week
with these beautiful little cupcakes made up by Festival.
Cute, huh?