Active Recovery

Back in October I was diagnosed with tendonitis of the hamstring. It flared up after running a 5k put on by one of my Team Blonde Runner teammates. It was a repeat of an injury I'd had a couple of times over the summer. Every time I'd do a really hard track workout, my ham would hurt. My coach advised me to stretch and keep an eye on it, but it only happened during track workouts so I never did anything to address it (track workouts were every other week).

What I'm learning is that there's an entirely different stride when you're running hard. As I read up on it, it's very common for 1) cyclists transitioning to running and 2) athletes in their 40's and 50's to develop hamstring tendonitis. I had to laugh - I've got two things going against me! For cyclists, their quads are just a lot stronger than their hams, so they tend to overdo it. And we "middle aged" athletes are just prone to over-use injuries.

Back in October I did physical therapy and focused on my left ham. My therapy started with laser stim--think of it as really focused heat. Then I'd put in 15 min on the ellipitcal, "hands-free". After that, I did "leg shredders." With a 15-lb weight in my right hand, I would bend over (raising my left leg behind me) and touch with weight to the ground. Three reps of 20-30 each side. After that, I did an assisted stretch. I laid on my back with an ankle connected to a weight over a pulley. The weight would pull my leg up, increasing the stretch. I'd pull down and let the weight pull back up. Five sessions into therapy, we added two-legged and one-legged jumps on the total fitness machine. Finally, I did some static stretches and followed it all up with ice and stim. Problem: I focused solely on my left ham, so when I did a relatively light trail run a week ago, my RIGHT ham started acting up!

So for the past week, my training plan has been "active recovery". I held off on running all week, and put in an hour on the ellipitcal Saturday. This week I'll phase in easy running, probably in two 30-min sessions each day, a couple of days a week, in my Five Fingers to give that ham an opportunity to stretch and strengthen. I'd love to be pushing 6-7 mile runs already, but a little patience and dedicated strengthening now should build the base I need to get through the half-Ironman training I need to do.

Moral of the story: anytime you do PT, be sure you're balancing the strengthening and stretching portion of the therapy. Don't just sit around, either - give it active recovery, keep it moving, and give it a reason to strengthen.