KT Tape to the Rescue!

How was your weekend?

It was a wet one here. Very, very wet. So wet in fact that we made The Weather Channel's Facebook page!

Yes, I liked The Weather Channel on Facebook.

Anyway, due to the weather both group workouts planned with a few of the lovely ladies from my tri club fell through so aside from a quick and hilly (oxymoron?) 3 miler early Saturday morning I didn't do much to get moving over the weekend.

Since I'm in a full taper now for the marathon (did someone say 2 weeks from yesterday?) in addition to wrapping myself in bubble wrap and preventative ace bandages I've also been trying out KT Tape to see if it could do some work on my mysterious leg injury and nagging hip ailment. I think the only reason anyone knows what KT tape is is because of the lovely Kerri Walsh, I mean, she's even on the box!

Anything I can do to A: replicate Kerri Walsh and B: cure myself before getting to the start I'm willing to do so I headed out to Fleet Feet and picked up a can of 20 strips to give them a whirl. I have no idea how they work. My mom's physical therapist has put them on her shoulder before and she told me they worked although she also didn't know how. I've gotten to an "It can't hurt" mentality so I was willing to try them out. I read the directions and promptly ignored them. WARNING: Do NOT ignore the directions. I bought them thinking I could just slap them on and go for a run. This is false. I tried it anyway and they came off pretty much immediately and didn't help my leg AT ALL. I vowed to follow the directions next time.

You're supposed to wear them for at least an hour before exercise and they are to be put on clean skin with no lotions or oils. As an extra precaution I also shaved my legs. Yeah, I don't always do this quite so regularly. Sue me. I watched the video again to make sure I was putting them on right and then gave it a try with some help from The Colonel. WARNING: Watch the videos or you'll have no clue what you're doing. I popped them on and then went to work and planned to run in the evening.

Peeking out from the bottom of my skirt at work

 Ready for action

Since I followed the rules they managed to stay on all day and actually did help my leg in some magical way. The test would be the run but the fact that it was helping in my day to day was a big plus! Autumn and I went for a little test run after work and I was really surprised by how much better I felt! Still not 100% but I'd say maybe 70% which is amazing! Afterwards I looked up how long I could wear the tape because it was feeling good and I really didn't want to have to buy a hoarder's stock of it (although I'm still willing to do so) and was glad to see it can be worn for up to 5 days at a time. I wore my first (well technically second) pieces for 2 days then took them off for a day. My leg felt better overall but I could feel the difference between wearing and not wearing them. They've been working so well I decided to give it a whirl on my hip. I can't pinpoint the pain in my hip and they have 2 applications. One for hip flexor and one for IT band. So I tried both and now know it's the IT band. No surprise there since my IT band towards my knee practically crippled me 4 years ago after my first half marathon. But I'm stunned by how well the tape is working. I've had the hip pain for a long time and even though it gets better at times it's always rough to go from sitting to standing. I put the tape on last night during Homeland (By the way, you NEED to be watching Homeland) and when I got up this morning it was feeling pretty good and just keeps getting better through the day! Still hurts if I really push on it but the movement part is going well and that's all I need for right now. Since I now have insurance (this is not an invitation to talk politics or healthcare. I just married the right person.) I'll likely hit up those fancy sports medicine docs (who will judge me for swearing by acupuncture) after the marathon to see what's going on. If it's a big deal I need to get things working right sooner rather than later so I can be in shape for Raleigh.

Speaking of Raleigh, I've decided to pick up a coach for this race so that I'm feeling confident and training to do the best that I can do. I have a lead on one that I'm super duper excited about but no spoilers ;) I'm planning to talk to him this week and hopefully I'll have something to announce soon! 

More importantly, on Saturday I went to visit my new legal in-laws and we went to a pumpkin patch. Oh how I love fall. The Colonel and I picked out our pumpkins and pumpkins for the kiddos. It was fun handing them out with we got home!