Track and Field Blogs - Mark From Flotrack

XC season is about to really begin and we are starting to ramp things up here in Austin, TX. I returned to the good ole US of A on Aug 26th from China after 20 days in Beijing. Beijing was quite an experience to say the least and I have the photos to prove it. The best thing about Beijing was that your money went so far. Beers at the stadium were 65 cents and hot dogs (actually they were called sandwich hot dogs?) were $1. I felt like a king buying rounds and sandwich hot dogs for everyone. After 17 days of China I was getting pretty drained and following a walk on the Great wall with the Black Cactus I decided that I needed something to train for. Over the last two years I have not really trained for anything, other then the Flotrack Lueven 800, and I have not had any consistent training since my college days at UT. When I was at UT I always wondered how people could get out of shape after the ran track for so long, but it was starting to happen to me and I did not like it. To keep me sane and to lose a little weight I decided to run the NYC marathon on Nov 2nd. I needed a new start and everyone who I talked to was getting these foot and back massages and since I was the King of China and a 90 min massage was only 15 bucks a massage seemed like a perfect way to start my training.

I went with a couple friends to a massage parlor in the famous Beijing ally ways. The place was a pretty small but it was packed with ex-pats who were trying to take advantage of how Cheap China was. I get the owner of the place, a man in his middle 30s, but I am no George Costanza and all I care about is a good massage. He went to work on my feet and waved his 10 year old son over to show him my callus. The kid was sitting there oohong and ahhing at how my feet looked. I told him that I had run a lot and he instantly thought that I was in the Olympics so I went with it. There were a couple tender spots on my feet and the man tried to explained that I had toxins and I needed them to be removed. He pointed at a card that said Chinese medicine so I thought that if I want to run a decent marathon I probable need to get these toxins out........ and when in Rome...... you get Chinese medicine. The guy pours some kind of oil on my back and then proceeds to go to town with a butter knife scraping up and down my back. This did not feel to great but I have had ART before so I could take it. Next he gets plastic cups, sprays some flammable fluid in, lights the fluid and sticks the cup on my back. I feel the skin suck up into the cup and I start to get a little nervous. The man proceeds to do this about 8 more times and throws a blanket over me. The cups did not hurt but they were not comfortable either. The scary thing was that I really could not move and I had no idea when they would let me off the table so I started to feel chlosterphobic. After about 5-10 mins he left me off the table and I went over to the mirror and I will let the pic do the explaining.......... I guess he got the toxins out?

Anyway I am back in Austin, Tx and we are getting ready for XC. I love America and you never really know how much you love the USA until you are in a communist country for 20 days. I have been hitting the miles for the marathon and you can view my build up here on my log. The baby is my first nephew Marti'n. I guess that is it, if you have any advice for the marathon let me know.

Later,

Mark