So, I'm in the final stage of Birmingham Track Club's Triple Crown Challenge. I had no expectations going into this since I've only run one Half Marathon in my life (Mercedes Half, 2/12/12) and suffered an injury afterward. I hadn't run a race since then so my main focus was to train better and complete the Triple Crown without injury. So far so good until yesterday afternoon.
Since I had a day off from work I wanted to get a 6 mile run in to keep the legs loose and get my taper week off to a good start. I headed out the door and drove to Mountain Brook for my normal 6 mile route when all of a sudden, after a mile and a half I feel a pain in my hamstring! OUCH! WTF?? This isn't supposed to happen. At least not until NEXT week when I'm basking in the glow of success and admiring how expertly I ran in the middle of the pack. HA! If I'm lucky! More like the back of the middle?
At least I had my wits about me.. My immediate thought was, 'cut the run short. See if you can get in 4 miles . Only one more steep hill then cruise the last 2 downhill and you're home free.' I have the devil on one shoulder urging me on, and the angel on the other telling me, ' stop! Turn around and go home! Rest up for the race'
Clearly this is quite the quandary. Do I let the ego win or listen to the brain? What would you do? The pain is bearable but certainly something isn't right. I feel it on the foot strike and when I push off. Ah well, it's only a training run. I listened to the angel and went home.
Now my concern is how to get myself ready for Sunday's race? I'm on my feet all day at work so I have that to contend with. I'm alternating heat and ice, and just started using a foam roller so I hope that helps. I would really HATE to walk this Half. It would feel like I cheated or something. And this race will qualify me for the Half Fanatics.
Any thoughts? Have you experienced this kind of injury? What did you find was the best treatment?
Thanks for reading!
4 comments:
hey there! so first off GREAT job on cutting the run short. dang, it's so hard to deal with the angel vs. devil, i know it! but it sounds like u prolly strained ur hammy; so keep up with the heat and ice and take some IB. how is it feeling now, and wat area of the hamstring is it? i'd actually suggest holding off the foam roller for the next two days, just because doing too much after a fresh strain will actually make the area more inflamed. so do some LIGHT stretching but mostly icing. then take each day as it comes, sometimes it'll go away as soon as it came out. good luck!
Cait, It was HARD not to keep on running but there is that race thing I have on Sunday :) The area that hurts is one of the inner muscles that make up the hamstring, closer to the knee.
I can move my leg with side and front swings without any twinges of pain. I really only feel it when I walk and plant the foot and push off. It's only a little dull ache so it's not very bad, imho.
I have been taking ibuprofen as well. About to ice it down in a few. Thanks for reading and if you don't mind I'll add you to my reader list on the right of my blog.
Good luck in the morning! Hopefully you took it easy this week. Doing that the week of the race, you won't lose any fitness, but hopefully resting it was enough to get it ready for tomorrow. Run or walk, you're still finishing 13.1 miles, which is a great accomplishment no matter how fast your go.
from seeing your medal it looks like you did great. Awesome job
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