Meet my latest enemy-turned-friend:

The foam roller.

As I might have mentioned about 16,000 times, I injured my iliotibial band the final 5 miles on January's 50 miler. It's an incredibly painful, slow healing process, as it's a tendon and doesn't get as much blood flow as a muscle would, so about 3 weeks ago, I acquired the name of a physical therapist through a fellow marathoner and headed to Santa Monica.

Her name is Holly, and she's incredibly cool and incredibly informed about knee, hip, and ankle injuries. I arrived to her office/pilates studio (I felt like a mom from Pacific Palisades, you know, the kind that does power-yoga 5 times/week and shops only at Pavilions?) and she began asking questions and taking notes. it was then I realized that I should have brought a pair of shorts, since she'd be doing some work on me.

"No worries," she chirped. "Here: Borrow mine."

And held out in her hand was a tiny pair of women's soccer shorts.

TIE.NEE.

She stretched and massaged the hell out of my IT band, and at one point, I told her, "I know you understand where this is coming from, but I want to punch you SO BADLY right now." She told me that was a good indication that she was doing her job. That's when the introduction was made.

"Foam roller, Russ. Russ...THE FOAM ROLLER."

Laying on my side, the roller pressed along my IT band, my entire body's weight on my legs...it hurt. Like hell. Actual tears of pain streamed from my eyes. I massaged my leg for nearly 5 minutes, the promises of, "The more you do this, the less painful it will be," barely penetrating the grunts and growls emerging from somewhere unevolved inside of me.

I bade Holly farewell and made plans for another round of pain, and later in the week, picked up my own foam roller, which I use 2-3 times daily, with little to no pain after 3 weeks. I'm back to running 30 + miles/week, mixing in cycling once/week as cross-training, and am considering this training as my base-building for October's 100 miler in San Diego.

ALL HAIL THE FOAM ROLLER!