Hamstring Still Painful

Ran a bit...a tiny bit...on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, with the hamstring getting more painful each time, so decided that "active rehabilitation" at least in the form of running, is not what is called for. Also had some massage, acupuncture and PT, which feel nice, but the effectiveness is questionable. I think I just have to rest until there is no more pain, however long that may take.
My preferred treatment now is heat (to bring blood to the area) and compression. Patience is called for.

If you or anyone you know has actually cured a badly strained hamstring, please let me know what they did.

Cheers....

Bursitis!

Week of June 18 ~ 24

Still no running, as soreness persists, but is lessening.

I found this and it describes my smyptoms exactly, so I guess this is it.

A common spot for bursitis is on the side of the hip. Here a large tendon passes over the bony bump on the side of the hip. The bony bump is called the greater trochanter. Inflammation in the bursa between the tendon and the greater trochanter is calledtrochanteric bursitis. This problem is common in older individuals. It may also occur in younger patients who are extremely active in exercises such as walking, running, or biking.

Friction can build in the bursa during walking if the long tendon on the side of the thigh is tight. It is unclear what causes this tightening of the tendon. The gluteus maximus attaches to this long tendon. As you walk, the gluteus maximus pulls this tendon over the greater trochanter with each step. When the tendon is tight, it rubs against the bursa. The rubbing causes friction to build in the bursa, leading to irritation and inflammation. Friction can also start if the outer hip muscle (gluteus medius) is weak, if one leg is longer than the other, or if you run on banked (slanted) surfaces. … This thickening, constant irritation, and inflammation may result in the condition becoming chronic, or long lasting.

The first symptom of trochanteric bursitis is usually pain. The pain can be felt in the area of the hip right over the bump that forms the greater trochanter. Eventually the pain may radiate down the outside of the thigh. As the problem progresses, the symptoms produce a limp when walking and stiffness in the hip joint. Eventually, the pain will also be present at rest and may even cause a problem with sleeping.

This is exactly where I have had pain for the last 6 months - sore to the touch - so I guess that qualifies as chronic. And I do have it at rest, in fact, it gets worse when I sit down.

I thought it was weird that that spot is ALWAYS sore to the touch, so I guess that is why.

I sent this to a fellow club member with leg/hip problems, and he said Yes, this is what I have had for 15 years (!!). He controls it with stretching, specifically, with the stretch known as Pigeon in yoga, where you put the affected leg in front of you at a 90-degree angle and extend the other one in back of you. I can't do 90, so I do about 45 and lean forward until I feel the stretch. You can also bend the back leg to make it easier to do.

Sometimes he stops while he is running and stretches for a while.

He says if he stops running he can walk with no discomfort, but it never heals completely - comes back when he starts running again. (Maybe if you stopped for 4-6 months it would go away, but that is an experiment I am not willing to try - as long as it is manageable.)

So I am stretching a lot, and since I have not run for a month, I plan to start tomorrow with very easy and short runs. Let's see what happens.

Still No Running So Here's an Aussie Music Video

Hamstring still sore, so no running yet. It is improving, but I plan to be super-cautious and not run until I am sure, no doubly sure, that it is healed.

Now for all you Aussie blokes, do you remember this? Most people, at least Americans, think it is a Johnny Cash song. Some know that it was done before him (and better) by Hank Snow. But the original version was by Lucky Starr.

Here is the Hank Snow version.

Still No Running

Week of June 4 ~ 10

But I did jog 1km on Friday and 2 km on Sunday! With pain in the hamstring, though....
I guess it will be a while yet.

Bummer: Hamstring Pain!

Week of May 28 ~ June 3

Well, the stress on the legs of two races in two weeks caught up with me.
I ran a Half on the 13th, then a 5K on the 20th. In between them I did a fairly hard interval workout on Wed. night, otherwise easy or nothing.
The following week, I only did two workouts: 6k of fast intervals on Wednesday and a fairly hard 24k on Sunday. So five days of rest. Then I took off Monday and Tuesday.
7 days of rest out of 9. You would think that would be enough. But...
Went out Wednesday for a 5k time trial and felt ok while warming up. Then felt ok at a not too hard 4:00/k pace for 400m. Then the left hamstring (where all the previous problems were) was sore for 400m. Then more sore for the next 400m. A dull pain. Which suddenly turned into a sharp pain, whereupon I immediately stopped.
After which it hurt to walk. And today, Sunday, it still hurts a bit to walk.
(By "sharp" I don't mean a severe pull, just sharp enough to tell me to stop.)

So...this time I think I've really learned the lesson. Don't do two races in two weeks, if one of them is a half marathon. (At least, if you're an older runner, don't. Older being, over 50?). Or if you "have to", just rest/jog for two weeks afterwards.
I think it was the second interval workout that was the mistake. Which was compounded by the Sunday 24km run.
Anyway, I'm out for at least a week, probably two. I believe that hamstring injuries require "active" rehab, so I'll jog a bit when I can, but today I couldn't even jog 4 strides. Did walk for an hour, though.

Hope the rest of you are feeling ok.

Easy Week, Sendai Half Result, Birthday

Week of May 21 ~ 27

Ran: 0/0/8.2/0/0/0/24 - 32.2km / 20 mi.

Monday
Rest
Ran a 5k ekiden race yesterday, after a Half the week before, so think it best to rest for two days.

Speaking of the Sendai Half, I found out I won my age group. (It only took them 10 days to post the age group results!) Out of 598 men. So that was nice. I beat one guy by 11 seconds. I remember passing a guy who looked to be about 60 sometime in the last km, so I guess that was him.
One of the delivery services has been trying to deliver something to me for 3 days, but I haven't been home, nor has my wife, so I guess that is my prize.

Tuesday
Rest

Wednesday
7:30pm - club track workout.
1200/1200/1000/1000/800/800
4:24/4:20/3:34/3:37/2:59/3:00
Interval: 200m jog, then walk, abt. 3 mins.
Felt fairly good, worked pretty hard the first 4.
Weather: 21C/70F

Today was also the first day of the Far East HS track meet, at the Yokota Air Force base (about an hour by car). So I was standing and walking for a good part of 7 hours.

Thursday
Rest - sore.
Second day of the meet. Our boys finished 2nd and girls 1st, out of about 20 schools. Lots of our kids had great performances.

Oh, and my 65th birthday. No one, including myself, believes I'm that old.
This puts me in a new age group in the US, so it would be nice to run a big race next fall or spring. Maybe Boston....

Friday
11:30 - Gym workout.
Rest.

Saturday
Drank way too much last night. Can't even think about running. Went to watch the Namban Rengo (club) Beer Mile, always a fun event. If you are watching.

Sunday
4:15 - 24k in 2:01:06 @5:00/k
26:55/25:00/24:18/24:45/20:06
Warmed up after 5k. Quads started hurting after 14k. You'd think the legs would be fresh after 3 days rest, but maybe 3 days rest is too much.... Quads and left butt (but not hamstring) pretty sore the last 6k, but held the pace fairly well and picked up the last k from 5:05 to 4:50, as practice for trying to run faster when in pain. Marathon mental training.
Weather: 24C/75F, 20%, sunny
Weight: 62.2 (lots of food, not much running).

Next week will be the club 5,000m time trial on Wednesday, which I will run easily, because the next night is the twice-a-year big multi-club time trial. I'll run that one hard.

Then from Saturday, June 2nd, I'll start my summer program. The theme this year is: All hard, no easy, work your butt off.
The program will be:
Wednesday - 10k. Intervals on the track. Run them as fast as possible. No cruising. This is speed work!
Thursday - A 30k run I'm calling the Caballo Blanco run. Get off my usual marked course and just run out about 15k in various directions, then back. Use the garmin, but don't take 5k splits, don't pay attention to time. Run as you feel, but basically a moderate pace. Just a nice free-form run for the enjoyment of running.
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Total 20k very hard. Choice of various workouts, including marathon pace for 15k, half marathon pace for 10k, 5k x 3 at half pace, 3k x 6 at half pace, 10k of hills.
Fast, sustained paces is what I did not do last summer.
Sunday - 30k at a hard pace. Probably progressive. Running the second half as hard as possible. Maybe up it to 35k occasionally (although that's pretty tough in the heat).
Monday, Tuesday - Rest.
So 4 hard days, no easy days, but 3 days of rest. I want to try it and see how it goes.
Oh, and no sweets! Of any kind. The other theme is: lean and mean by autumn.

Easy Week with Fun Ekiden at the End

Week of May 14 ~20

Ran: 0/0/15.4/9.6/0/6/9 — 40km / 25 mi.  3:36

Monday
Rest after Half Marathon on Sunday

Tuesday
Rest

Wednesday
3:00 — Easy 7k (approx) with two girls on the track team.
7:30 — Club track workout.
600/800/1000/1200/1000/800/600
2:20/3:01/3:38/4:36/3:40/3:06/2:22
Only 1.2k warmup. Felt stiff on first 600 and 800, then good on the 1000, ok on the 1200, real good on the 1000, then tired.
Weather: 23C/73F

Thursday
3:00 — 4.8k School to Fuchu track and back at easy pace.

Friday
11:30 — Gym workout
Rest day

Saturday
6:30pm — 6k very easy in 34:00.

Sunday
Mari Tanigawa Ekiden (she's a famous Japanese marathoner, now retired).
4-person teams, each person running 5K. The club entered 3 teams. It's a very large (Men's and Mixed team races, with about 600 teams each), but not high-level, more low-key and friendly, ekiden.
I ran my team's first leg in 18:53, which was not bad considering I had basically no warmup and it was a hot day. Legs were ok (recovered from the Half), I felt pretty good and worked hard.
Our team finished 43rd, our A team was 21st.
Beer and kebab afterward while cheering for the other runners, it was a fun day.
Weather: 26C/79F (approx. - anyway, it was hot in the sun)
Weight: 61.1kg

Next week will also be mostly easy, then the following week, or maybe from the coming weekend, I'll start my new hard summer program, which I'll tell you about next week.