Miraculous Sports Massage

Nearing the race, I have my sports masseur come in more frequent. Yesterday' session was the start of bi-weekly routine, to build up towards WA. For a period, I did wonder whether sports massage was truly beneficial? And if you had read Triathlete, there were some reservations about it as well.


But yesterday's session was mind blowing. I had been feeling aching sore near the upper end of the quads. My masseur pressed on my hip flexor and the pain immediately disappeared! It was like a volcanic release of built up pressure. I was totally in awe.


So for its worth, sports massage may just be necessary to keep the body in tune and in shape. Well, at least for this time round. Perhaps it was coincidental that the symptom was related to the hip flexor. But since there is no sure way to know, sports massage will still be one of the solution to relaxing the muscles.

***

I had not realised that some of the blokes at Monday swim squad were more than a decade younger than myself and Julian. It was no wonder they were always zooming ahead of me. But that cant be used as an excuse for me. I learnt today that a 45 year old ironman triathlete, completed his Kona in 10:45 and a 36 year old did in 9:05 or so. And they were all age groupers. The only consolation I had was they had been in the game for 6 years. Maybe, just maybe I have a chance. In 6 years. Yeah... right.


Anyway, I missed the bike trainer session because I had the massage. Oh well. Cant pack everything into the little time I had.


Today I did an easy 12km run. Coach told me to keep it easy and not to blow myself up. I do have quite a long week coming up, starting from tomorrow. Did a very short negative split between the 2 halves, pace of 5:43/km and 5:39/km on the return. Although I must say that I did not feel that strong. Could be because I did not bring any hydration along with me. Fortunately there was no prescribed HR nor distance. Just complete it. And that was what I did.