Petite women OWN me! (especially blondes......)

What the heck happened to me this past month or so?   It used to be that I was manipulated and pushed around (and happily so) by just one blonde (well, maybe three if you count my lovely daughters!) but otherwise was "my own man".  Yes, of course She Who Must Be Obeyed still holds huge sway and influence over me, but suddenly the ranks of petite ladies who are having influence in my life are swelling!

As you know, I signed up for coaching so The Puppeteer was added to the list of controlling influences some weeks back.  This one's my own silly fault - I actually pay for the privilege of being told what to do; scolded if I don't do as ordered and ridiculed where necessary!   :-)

Then, as detailed in a previous post, I officially became The Snitch's beee-eatch when she rode longer on the trainer than I did.  I'm still throwing a red flag on this one but never-the-less, until I prove otherwise, I am also officially "owned" by The Snitch.

Now, much to my horror, there is another petite and attractive blonde administrator of pain and suffering..... Holly!   Perhaps 5' 2" and a generous 100 lbs of pure evil! 

Seriously though, Holly is actually a saviour!

Because of the back issue that I have been experiencing for the past week I decided to try some "therapy".  On Tuesday I visited a chiropracter for some Active Release Techniques (ART).   A form of muscle massage designed to release pressure etc.   To be honest, I was a bit underwhelmed.

On The Snitch's recommendation SWMBO very kindly also booked me a one hour deep tissue massage today with Holly.  The Snitch has been getting regular treatments and highly recommended her.  Holly practices at a pretty swanky "spa" in Raleigh (relaxing music and all sorts of scents - not necessarily my thing) and when I met her I doubted that she had the phyiscal strength to do much damage - boy was I wrong!!

After asking about my back Holly pretty quickly got to work and based on quickly finding muscles that were "as tight as guitar strings" recommended that we spent the whole hour working on my back.  Holly is a runner herself and quickly demonstrated a tremendous knowledge of muscle inter-connectivity, physiology etc.  Then she really got to work - it was PAINFUL!   In the words of John Mellencamp...  "hurts so good"....

It turns out that while my neck and shoulders aren't so bad, my back is very tight and I also have some build-up of connective tissue that may be a contributing factor.  When Holly was done with me I felt well beaten-up, but I could also feel some loosening in my back. 

I felt a little uncomfortable sitting in the car on the way home, but after lunch did some stretching and ventured out cautiously on a gentle 20  minute test run.  Wow!  I actually managed it without any discomfort - something that I wouldn't have thought possible yesterday.   Now it's alternating ice and heat this evening and working the connective tissue with a tennis ball!

Hopefully I'm on the road to recovery.  I will certainly be going back for a series of deep tissue massasges in the new year!

Back on the road!