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Defying the advice to “not do anything different during taper,” two weeks before the National Marathon in March I found myself in extreme pain in both calves after a poorly planned workout in inappropriate footwear. I could barely walk down stairs, much less run a marathon. Even though I had never been to a massage therapist for injury or otherwise, I was desperate. When a friend recommended ART, and specifically Terrel, I contacted him to see about a last-minute appointment.

Terrel was able to fit me in for several appointments in the week leading up to my event. He was patient and attentive to my concerns, and encouraging about my ability to recover in time to run. He also gave me stretches I could do on my own, and recommended some other strategies, such as ice baths, to speed recovery.

On March 20 I ran the marathon without pain, well, without pain from injury at least! A week before I wouldn’t have thought it possible. I’m preparing my triathlon season now, and am considering incorporating massage/ART as part of my regular training and injury prevention strategy.

Happy training!
Bronwen

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I tried my first hard ride today after Snapple Camp—Ouch! The team was out at the Lost River Barn in the mountain of West Virginia and I logged my 3 longest rides of the year on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The focus of the whole weekend is training. If you’re not training, you’re recovering.

The benefits of something like that are obvious. For those few days, I felt like a pro and imagined the fitness gains I could make if training really was my job and I didn’t have to squeeze it around 60+ hours of weekly work.
But there’s a definite downside to the max load sessions as well. Since I don’t log that kind of volume regularly, the toll on my body was high—there’s a reason why racing a marathon isn’t generally considered a smart training day.

My hope was that, after camp, I could take Monday off, log some easy miles Tuesday, and by Wednesday, get back into my general routine, which emphasizes high intensity threshold efforts that milk the most value out of my limited time.

Today’s ride, however, made the downside of max overload clear. I could ride decent tempos, but when I tried to respond to attacks or push big gears, I could feel the muscle damage in my quads. The power just wasn’t there. So while I get huge benefits from this weekend’s training overload, it came at the cost of some diminished training during the week.

In the end, I’m confident that my race day efforts will be better for the work I did at Snapple Camp, but I’m cognizant of the tradeoff it requires. Increasing my confidence, however, is my work with Terrel. Massages to help speed muscle recovery are a huge asset that minimize the drawbacks to max load by bringing me back to full strength faster.

Thanks for reading!

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My name is Mike Kohn and I just competed in the Vancouver Olympics on the sport of Bobsled. I finished 12th and 13th in the 2-man and 4-man respectively. We may not have won a gold medal but because of Terrel’s hard work I was able to stay healthy and stay competitive. For a 37 year old guy at the end of his career I was able to surprise some people. Terrel was my massage therapist for the 4 years leading up to the Olympics and was outstanding in performing treatments. I would highly recommend Terrel to any athlete looking to maximize their potential. Terrel is very committed to his profession and works extremely hard to be the best he can be.

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Almost 10 years ago, when I signed up for my first marathon, motivation to train was the chief challenge to success. The more I could convince myself to get out and run, the more success I knew I would have on race day. In the beginning, we have to develop the habits and routines that make training a regular part of our lives.

Ten years later, motivation simply isn’t a hurdle. While there are still days when I have to grit through a hard workout, or have to reluctantly suck up a ride in the rain, I’m now more likely to train through a rest day than rest on a training day. Training has become a part of my life, and lack of motivation is no longer a limiter.
Instead, my recovery has become the key to my ability to progress. As athletes, we progress by breaking ourselves down and rebuilding our bodies stronger. Your body will always recover from a hard workout, but how quickly it recovers will dictate the quality of your future work, and ultimately, your fitness on race day.
Effective training requires a constant progression. This progression can only happen by increasing load, and these increases are only possible if the body recover from day to day. That’s the cycle. A motivation to work will be quickly capped by an inability to recover.

Imagine an athlete who, on Monday morning, runs a 30 minute tempo run at 6 min/mile at a 90% effort level. If on Friday, the same athlete puts out the same effort under the same conditions, but only manages 6:10 min/mile, the athlete hasn’t progressed. While the perceived effort was the same, the workload was lower.
The athlete either needs more time between workouts, a better recovery regime, or both. If a better recovery regime allows more hard efforts in a shorter time period, the athlete can progress more quickly. Week to week, these may be small gains, but the cumulative effect over a training cycle can be dramatic.

This is why I’m so excited to start working with Terrel at Georgetown Sports Massage. Kneading my sore Achilles, Terrel said, “there are no overuse injuries when you work with me.” There should also be fewer lackluster training days. There are a lot of elements to maximizing recovery, including nutrition, icing, stretching, and hydration, but massage can also play a critical role. By increasing bloodflow and accelerating recovery, I’m less likely to have my training volume slowed by injury and more likely to be able to handle steadily increasing workloads.

With Terrel’s help, I’m hoping my recovery will catch up to my motivation.

As my season progresses (both training and recovering), I’ll report back regularly. I’m excited for a great year and for the gains that regular massage can help me achieve.

Thanks for reading.

Bart

Bart Forsyth is a triathlete, runner, and cyclist. He’s the director of the Snapple Tri Team (www.snappletriteam.com) and a coach of the Georgetown Running Co.’s Try the Tri Program.

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I have had shoulder, neck, and head pain for 2 years, and missed all my triathlons for the last 18 months. My pain and symptoms progressed and I received epidurals that did not help. I tried trigger point injections, accupuncture, muscle activation technique (MAT), and physical therapy. It has been a long road, and then 3 months ago I discovered Terrel and active isolated stretching.

Terrel advised me to take control of my medical care, and to learn to be mindful of what my body needed. Taking to heart his advice, I sought a new physical therapist while working with Terrel weekly. This has been the winning combination. Terrel asks for feedback from the physical therapist, and works specific to what the therapist requests. With a combination of massage, active release, and active isolated stretching, Terrel has helped me get past the pain and learn how to maintain what I have gained. I have never found a massage therapist so knowledgable and effective.

Karen

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