As I started today’s run, I asked Dave if he had ever tried to run through an injury in preparation for a goal race. He replied, “I’ve been doing it my whole life. You’ll know if you have to stop because it will hurt that bad."
Oddly, this response gave me a bit of comfort during today’s 18 miler.
While I made the decision to (mostly) not let up on my training regimen a few weeks back when I realized the hamstring strain was not going away, I’ve been neurotically questioning the decision every day since. Is this a bad idea…maybe I should rest for a week and then try to train? Will I jeopardize Ironman Boulder? Will I blow out my whole hamstring? I guess this is what happens when you have a goal you don’t want to give up on, the plan does not go as expected, and you are having to adjust.
I’ve been adjusting here and there. I’m keeping my intensity and long runs but am substituting one or two runs each week with a bike ride instead. This seems to be helping…there is no perceived hamstring pain on the bike. But 18 today was a big test. I decided I was going to keep my targeted pace and see what happened. Went out a little bit slow, but inched it back up close to 7:30 average by the end of the run. Hamstring felt pretty good the whole way, but I do feel it EVERY step I take. Given today’s result, I still think I’m in an OK place. Hamstring is pretty sore tonight though.
Current hamstring treatment:
- Compression - almost all of the time, even wear it to work every day
- Icing
- Kinesio tape (today for the first time)
- Foam rolling
- A little ibuprofen ….I’ve been mostly off of this.
Thanks to Dave for the company. Lots of school talk today …. because there is a lot to say and discuss.
Here’s the scene at the end of today’s run:
Other updates:
- Jon publicly addresses me as his “rival” but says I threw down the gauntlet:
Read this first: http://gobears-natsandbeyond.blogspot.com/2015/03/morning-track.html
- Today I noticed Dave’s Garmin measured the run longer than mine. I think this is how Dave appears to be so fast.
- I continue to like coffee, but I enjoy other beverages too. :-)
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