Monday: I took a day off, as per the usual. Thought this would help my hammie.
Tuesday: Ran 10 miles at aerobic pace and could feel my hamstring. It was still tight, but not so painful that I couldn't run on it.
Wednesday: Ran 9 miles at aerobic pace through the winter wonderland. Again, I could fee the hamstring, but it wasn't so painful that I thought I should stop. However, at the very end of the run it started getting tighter and sharper, almost like it wanted to pull. This alarmed me a bit, but I figured that it was just because it was pretty cold out and that the next day it would be fine.
Thursday: Same story - could still feel it. Was going to run 8-10 on the treadmill but after warming up for a mile decided to get off and try to stretch it. I rolled my glute on a lacrosse ball and did some deep stretching. Got back on the treadmill, ran another 0.5 miles and still hurting. So, I called it a day and decided to take a few days completely off to rest it.
Friday & Saturday: I didn't run, but did some light stretching and used a foam roller to try to loosen up my leg.
Today: I had an 18 mile run on my training plan today with marathon pace work. I decided I'd try to run and if I felt good I'd do the pace work, otherwise I'd just try to get in the distance. When I started running I could feel the tightness but it wasn't too bad. However, instead of getting better, it started getting more painful and by mile 0.8 I stopped and called my coach. He listened to me whine/cry about it, gave me a pep talk, and the following advice:
*If pain is 0-3/10, proceed.
*If pain is 4-6/10, back off activity.
*If pain is 7-10/10, stop activity and don't start again until pain is <7/10.
*If pain lessens as the run goes on, proceed.
*If pain increases as the run goes on, back off or stop.
*Ice/heat/ice/heat the hamstring 3x/day.
*Take Motrin 2-3x/day.
*Start water running to maintain fitness.
So the first thing I did was an ice/heat cycle:
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| Leftover snow/ice came in handy! |
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| Good excuse to get in the hot tub! |
Second thing I did was go to CVS and purchase a heating pad, Motrin, icy hot, and some Dixie Cups to fill with water, freeze, & use as little ice massagers.
Third thing was get all my swim gear out, drive to the YMCA and purchase a week pass to get access to the pool. Wow, back in the pool again!? I warmed up with a 250 swim. I felt like a million bucks for the first 25; the next 225 was more like a few hundred thousand dollars in debt. Swimming is hard. But little did I know, water running is harder! I put on the floaty belt and warmed up for a 50. Then I did a ladder of 1 min hard, 1 min rest, 2 min hard, 1 min rest, 3 min hard, 1 min rest, 4 min hard, 1 min rest, 5 min hard. My heart rate was through the roof and I was totally out of breath. I'm pretty sure I looked like an idiot though, like I was trying to doggie paddle but failing miserably, ha! There were a few people waiting on deck for a lane and I could read their minds, "Why is she taking up a lane when she's not even swimming!" Actually, after 30 minutes of water running, I decided to swim for 30 min. I did a mix of free, back, breast, paddles, fins, & pull buoy for a grand total of 1650. No, it wasn't 18 miles with marathon pace intervals, but at least it was a good workout.
So what does this mean for Quintiles and my sub-3 hr goal? Well, 2 weeks off for being sick + another 2 weeks off for this injury certainly does not bode well. I may end up dropping down to the half and using it as a training run for a different marathon, perhaps April or May. I still want to break 3 but since being sick & getting injured has happened to fall right in the peak of this training phase, I may just have to adjust and pick another race. We'll see how quickly this thing heals and how I'm feeling. I'm hoping to be back to real running again soon, but in the mean time I'll be keeping it real in the pool. Hey, it's fun to stay at the YYYYYY M C A! Right!?
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