R Upper Leg, Hamstring Pain
2008-12-26 – 2010-04-23
Grade: 4
Chronic hamstring pain finally peaked at 10mile race. Couldn't walk for a few days. Tried to keep running after that - one block at a time. Could not get distance back to where it was even after a few months. Did some hill training in March which I did not recover from.
Doctor provided me with orthotics but suggested I wouldn't race for the year. Physio thought this might be excessive. Chiro agreed with physio.
Numerous other areas aggrivated: lower back, knee, feet. I sometimes wonder if the orthotics contributed these as my body adjusts to them.
Had stopped all running and paddling (DB is too one sided). Cycling ok so did a fair bit of that as long as it felt okay.
Have been doing physio since January. Chiropractic treatments since April. Rehab pilates since May. Have seen two sport medicine doctors.
Ultrasound exam of my hamstring revealed nothing. Doctor requested an MRI for my knee because of a lump which might have been a torn miniscus. No injury to my knee, only worn cartillage.
Did 78km hike through Killarny in 26.5hrs on May long weekend. Hamstring felt better than it had in months but developed a tendonitis in my right shin which stopped me from any weight bearing for about 3 weeks. I think stopping all weight bearing for this long may have been the magic trick to heal me.
June 16 - am officially starting to run again. Am feeling really good. Pain is really just about all gone. MUST do a better job at stretching and continue with rehab exercises.
Sept 27 - almost fully recovered. Felt my HS tighten up a km or so before the finish in a 10k foot race but I sprinted the last 100m and it was fine. It will ache after long runs sometimes but I think my speed might be almost back to normal now.
Will hold off checking off the "recovered" box for a bit yet.
Nov 22 - Update.
HS aggrivated almost all the time now. I would say the pain is about a 3 out of 10. It's a low grade constant pain which hurts if I sit, run, walk, whatever. I'd been doing exercises provided by an osteopath. I haven't done them for 2 days now and the pain does seem to be subsiding. I can't tell if this is pain that I need to work through to get the muscle back to where it needs to be or pain which is telling me to stop doing those exercises. I'm seeing the osteo on Wed so hopefully he'll have some answers.
Dec 15 - update.
Osteo took away most of the exercises which he'd given me before. All I'm doing now is daily squats.
The HS pain has decreased and it doesn't bug me most of the time now.
Have been back to the chiropractor. My lower back has tightened up substantially again.
Dec 29 - tailbone, hips, hamstring and calves still a concern. Will work on core strengthening again to see if I can better stabilze my movements.
Jan 28 - Seems to be doing a lot better. I notice my SI on long runs (over 12k) but generally it doesn't hurt so much. It's always tight because I'm not stretching enough. Must add that in to my regime.
Feb 13 - 23k hill run w/ Warriors. My HS started giving out 15km in. So I had to walk for a bit. Managed to finish the full distance but did do a lot of walking. Couldn't lift my leg properly a few hours after finishing. Could lift it at all if I was bent over. Not good.
Feb 14 - full rest day
Feb 15 - 11k run - felt great. Little twing in my HS but other wise no issues.
Calling it healed. Stil lots of work to do generally but HS is pretty much fully useable now.
Need to work up mileage. Becareful about overtraining. If something is injured give it time for recovering - don't keep trying to train with the injury.