8/17/10 - Thoughts on Therapy Future

After yesterday's run, I thought more about something I'd been considering, but had to decide whether I could afford to do it. Currently, I'm doing a form of therapy that seems to be helping called Active Release Therapy...ART for short. It's a certified method of manipulating with hands and other tools the soft tissue that seems to be damaged. It seems like it's geared towards areas where scar tissue has developed. Just like a scar on top of the skin, the scab tends to tighten up the skin around it, then when the scab is removed, you generally find that the skin underneath it has healed and it goes back to normal, leaving perhaps a little scar that really only indicates where the "injury" occurred.

I've sorta pictured that to be the same case with my Achilles. I injured it 5 or 6 years ago, which caused immediate damage to which my body quickly went to work at repairing. It did, but the scar tissue, or scab remains. Now, in breaking it up with the tools Dr. Leist has been using, it's slowly but surely gaining flexibility as the scab is removed.

The portion I'm considering now is EPAT, which I'm not sure what it all stands for, but is essentially electroshock therapy to the affected area. I know Coach has used this to a degree, and it does work faster...it's just a little more expensive, which is where the dilemma comes in. The number of treatments is fewer, but it's more per visit. In the spirit of healing, however, I have decided to give it a go.

Dr. Leist has really shown he knows what he's doing and is talking about, so I'm ready, but nervous. The nervousness, I think, comes from the unknown discomfort that will come from it. It also seems to be from the idea that...wow...it won't be long, if all goes well, till I'm ready to ramp back up again. In looking over my Coach's blog, I see he did 21 miles over the weekend, and man am I ready to get back there. But after going essentially from late March through early June of pounding the miles, and now going all of June and July, and at least all of August being WAY down on mileage, I find myself nervous because 100-mile weeks are no longer "uncharted territory." I've been there and know what it feels like. I'm ready, but anxious.

So, my first EPAT session is Thursday...it will be the electoshock, as well as ART, followed by the exercises and stretches, then I'm done. Once-a-week for a few weeks, and ideally, I'm done with that and ready to go again. By early/mid-September, the mileage could start piling back on. Just the thought of getting back into the swing of things makes my heart jump a little as I type that out. I can't help but smile and just be ready to hammer it out again... a little smarter...a little wiser...yet exponentially more determined. I've started to see the beginnings of what my body can handle and how to strengthen so it can handle that and more. Am I ready for it?

You bet I am.