Run Strong: How Sports Massage Supports Your Fall Race Season
Fall is my favorite time to run on Nantucket. The summer crowds have thinned, the air off the water finally has some bite to it, and the island's dirt roads and bike paths feel like they belong to us again. It is also race season. In the coming weeks, hundreds of our neighbors will line up for the Race for Recovery on Sunday, September 27, and the Nantucket Half Marathon on Sunday, October 11, and I want to share a few thoughts on how to arrive at the start line feeling strong, and how to feel just as good the week after.
Why runners come to see us
Running is repetitive by nature. Every mile is somewhere around 1,500 foot strikes, and the same muscles, tendons, and fascia absorb that load over and over again. Over a training block, the body adapts beautifully, but it also accumulates tightness in predictable places: the calves and Achilles, the hips and IT band, the hamstrings, the low back. Left alone, that tightness changes how you move. A tight hip flexor shortens your stride; a locked-up calf shifts stress into the plantar fascia or the knee. Most running injuries are not sudden events. They are the last step of a long chain of small compensations.
Sports massage interrupts that chain. Working with a runner, we are not just chasing sore spots. We are looking at how the whole system is moving, restoring length to the tissue that has shortened, improving circulation so that hard-worked muscles recover faster, and giving the nervous system a chance to reset. Runners often tell me that the biggest change after a session is not that they feel looser, but that their next run feels lighter and more natural. That is the goal.
Timing matters. In the middle of a training block, a regular session every two to four weeks keeps small problems from becoming big ones. In race week, we keep the work lighter and focused on flushing the legs, ideally three to five days before the start so that your body has time to settle. And in the days after the race, a recovery session helps clear the stiffness and gets you back to enjoying your runs instead of dreading the stairs.
Lessons from Chi Running
If you have trained with me or spent much time in the studio, you have probably heard me mention Chi Running by Danny Dreyer. It is the book that changed how I run, and I recommend it to almost every runner I work with. Dreyer's central idea is simple: running should not be a fight. Instead of muscling your way through the miles, you learn to cooperate with gravity and let relaxed, efficient form do the work.
A few of his principles pair especially well with the work we do on the table.
The first is posture. Dreyer asks you to think of your body as a tall, aligned column, with your feet, hips, and shoulders stacked over one another. From there, you lean gently forward from the ankles, not the waist, and let gravity pull you along. When your alignment is good, your muscles do far less work, and there is far less for a massage therapist to undo later.
The second is relaxed legs and a quick, light cadence. Rather than reaching forward with each stride and landing on your heel, you land under your body, closer to the midfoot, and simply lift your heels behind you. Dreyer suggests a cadence of roughly 170 to 180 steps per minute. Shorter, quicker steps mean less impact per stride, and less impact means happier knees, shins, and calves.
The third is what Dreyer calls "body sensing," which is the practice of paying attention. Notice where you hold tension. Notice when your shoulders creep up toward your ears or your hands ball into fists. Notice when one side of your body feels different than the other. This is exactly what we do together in a session, and the more you practice it on the road, the sooner you catch a problem while it is still small.
And finally, gradual progress. Chi Running is built on the idea that your body responds best to small, consistent changes rather than dramatic ones. The same is true of recovery. A little stretching after every run, a little attention to your form, and regular bodywork will carry you much farther than heroic efforts the week before a race.
Supporting our island runners
Lavender Farm Wellness is proud to be sponsoring and supporting both the Race for Recovery and the Nantucket Half Marathon this fall. Both events mean a lot to our island community. The Race for Recovery, organized by Addiction Solutions of Nantucket, raises funds for on-island addiction treatment and helps neighbors through one of the hardest chapters of their lives. The Nantucket Half Marathon brings runners from across the island and beyond to Bartlett's Farm for one of the most beautiful courses anywhere.
We will be at both events offering free mini massages to runners. If you would like a spot, please sign up in advance on the Nantucket Wellness App, since space fills quickly and we want to make sure everyone who wants a few minutes on the table gets one. Whether you are chasing a personal best or walking the one-mile course with your family, we would love to help you finish strong and feel good doing it.
Train smart, run relaxed, and we will see you at the start line.
Brandon Jellison, MBA, LMT, is the owner of Lavender Farm Wellness, a mid-island wellness center helping our island community discover and maintain a healthy lifestyle.