The least important part of this thread is the Title

RandyMann

Sorry to hear that, hope its not a serious tear. I know what its like as I did it a year and a half ago. If you are smart with your rehab work, you will be back in no time mate.

Pisco Sour

Sh1t man, sorry to hear that. I don't like those 2 x 400m sessions with long recovery in between. I find it is very easy to go cold during that time. Fingers crossed it's only minor.

dna_leri

Ouch!

Keep going with the RICE.

Oregano_State

Thanks for the support lads. I'll keep ye posted.

Oregano_State

I had a pretty painful session of dry needling done yesterday evening, and my leg feels a bit better already this morning. While he was giving me an initial once-over, before the stabbing began, the physio told me that one of my hips was rotated backwards so he sorted that for me as well.

The timeline for a full return is two weeks hopefully, so unfortunately that rules out racing next Wednesday. Luckily it's still early in the season, so I'm going to be cautious about doing too much too quickly.

Oregano_State

After surviving a rigorous four rounds of table tennis, the outlook is bright for a timely return to fitness.

Gavlor

Mind that hammer!

Oregano_State

I’ve been taking things easy since Monday, although I was itching to train. I was getting a few twinges in my hamstring on Tuesday and Wednesday but they’ve been getting less frequent each day. I can only remember one slight tingle from the whole day yesterday, and that was about five minutes before I went to bed.

I started doing some mobility exercises on Wednesday and haven’t had any pain, so I’m going to start doing strengthening exercises over the next couple of days and hopefully start jogging on Monday.

I’ve had a look at my race calendar, and I’m aiming for AAI open games on the 9th June for a return to racing. All going to plan, here’s a provisional race schedule over the summer:

Sunday 9th June: 400m
Wed 12th June: 100m & 400m
Friday 14th June: Beer mile

Wed 26th June: 200m

Wed 10th July: 400m & 800m

Wed 24th July: 100m
Sat/Sun 27th &28th July: 200m & 400m

Wed 7th August: 200m & 800m

That’s all I have for the moment, I’m sure I’ll fit in a few more as I find out about them.

RandyMann

Oregano_State wrote: »

I’ve been taking things easy since Monday, although I was itching to train. I was getting a few twinges in my hamstring on Tuesday and Wednesday but they’ve been getting less frequent each day. I can only remember one slight tingle from the whole day yesterday, and that was about five minutes before I went to bed.

I started doing some mobility exercises on Wednesday and haven’t had any pain, so I’m going to start doing strengthening exercises over the next couple of days and hopefully start jogging on Monday.

I’ve had a look at my race calendar, and I’m aiming for AAI open games on the 9th June for a return to racing. All going to plan, here’s a provisional race schedule over the summer:

Sunday 9th June: 400m
Wed 12th June: 100m & 400m
Friday 14th June: Beer mile

Wed 26th June: 200m

Wed 10th July: 400m & 800m

Wed 24th July: 100m
Sat/Sun 27th &28th July: 200m & 400m

Wed 7th August: 200m & 800m

That’s all I have for the moment, I’m sure I’ll fit in a few more as I find out about them.

You know I still feel that tingle in my ham every now and again, even last night on the track after a year and a half later of tearing it. The funny thing was that when I did, it came from nowhere with no warning whatsover and I was out for a number of weeks but it was a significant tear. You seem to be lucky in that it seems to be a minor tear.
So now it always worries me when I feel that sensation, it is in the exact spot where the tear occured.
My rehab was jogs on a treadmill(takes the work off your hams) with some strength work and then some gradual stretching after(when properly warmed up) to test the flexibility compared to the good leg. With regard to when I got back on the track, it was just gradually increasing the power with each session and it was really just experimenting and hoping to God it didnt go again. It was then I started to build up my ham/glutes etc with advice from a strength coach. I was told that the ratio between my quads and hams was not correct. I'd say yours is fine with the type of gym work you do anyway.
I know exactly how you feel with wanting to get back on the track, just be careful !

Oregano_State

Monday 27th May
I've been doing a fair bit of rehab work over the past few days, and so far the leg has responded pretty well. I haven't had any random twinges or tingles in the left leg since last Thursday evening I think. @Randymann, I think I know the feeling you're talking about, I get it quite frequently in my (uninjured) right hamstring, usually towards the end of long drives or when getting up off the couch. I don't ever remember pulling that one, but it has always been less flexible and weaker than the left one. I've been trying to work on evening that up recently, but it's still a bit off.

Anyway, in the past week I think I've done more glute/ham bridges, single leg deadlifts, and supermans than you could shake your granny at. They hadn't yet shown any signs of becoming fun to do, so with nothing telling me otherwise, I decided that I'd allow myself to do a little bit of jogging yesterday evening.

I made out a rough gym plan for myself before heading off, that included all my exciting rehab exercises, but I threw in a bit of upper body weights as well to keep it interesting.

The jogging in question was just a lap of the track with my training group, but I did a couple of light drills as well before heading into the gym. The leg held up fine, but feels a little fatigued today. I aim on doing a light 20mins on the bike this evening, then on Wednesday do a few strides on grass up to maybe 50%.

Fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly.

Oregano_State

Wednesday 29th May - strides/gym rehab work
I didn't make it out to the gym on Tuesday evening, but I had a few great games of table tennis out the back garden against my house mate. Great craic, I seemed to have improved noticeably from the last time we played. I might have a better chance of making the Olympics in that sport!
I spent about half an hour before bed stretching and doing my rehab exercises. It's quite literally a pain in the butt at this stage (well, hamstring/glute to be precise, but that doesn't have the same ring to it).

So, yesterday evening I headed out to the track again. Great weather. I started off warming up on the grass with a few slow laps, along with the club mates who were there for their track session. I did a few drills afterwards, with no issues. Time to try a couple of strides. I stuck to the grass, and started off easy, building up to 40% maybe on the first one. Stayed with that speed for the second, and upped it a bit to about 50% on the third. I felt a little bit of tightness on the third one, so I backed off and headed inside to do the rehab stuff.

I'm booked in for a second needling session tonight. Hopefully that should have me back in business for early next week.

Edit: I realised I won't be in Dublin on the Weekend of the 9th June, so I'm going to miss the AAI open games 400m. That means my next race should hopefully be at the graded on the following Wednesday, with the big one AKA the Boards Beer Mile coming hot down the tracks afterwards. *cue Jaws soundtrack*

Oregano_State

The main news is that I'm still not back to full health. I'd hoped to be back in training this week, which would have given me a chance to get back in shape for the graded next Wednesday, but my thinking now is that there's not a hope I'll be in shape to do myself justice over 400m next week, so I'll probably give it a miss. This means that my first race back is probably going to be the beer mile!

I'm into my third week of recovery now, with boredom the prominent theme, especially with the good weather of the past few days. The leg was feeling great last weekend, so on Sunday I did a few strides on the grass. It stiffened up a bit that evening so I'd probably done a little too much, but that wasn't my main mistake. I went to the gym on Monday morning and after warming up, everything felt nice and loose, so I didn't think twice about doing lower-body exercises. Bad idea. It stiffened right up again that evening and was sore walking around on Tuesday. I did another gym session yesterday evening but completely avoided anything that worked my left leg.

I'm going to try to remain sensible now until after the weekend. It's fine to jog on, but needs a few more days before I try anything that resembles a sprinting action I think.

Oregano_State

I've made some decent progress over the weekend in the form of doing some strides on grass without any trouble. On Saturday I did 3 x 120m-ish at roughly 40,50,60%, and on Sunday did the same at 60,70,80%. I did a pretty decent warm up on both days, and jogged into each of the strides to make the acceleration more gradual.

I hope to do a light track work-out this evening, but I won't go near the spikes just yet.

Oregano_State

Monday 10th June - Track
I'd said I was going to do a light track workout yesterday evening, and keep the spikes in the bag. I stayed true to half of my agreement, and didn't wear the spikes, but I don't think doing 5x300m could be classed as a 'light' session.

I felt really good warming up, got through all the drills and mobility exercises without a hint of a niggle, and promised to take it really easy on the first one, especially the first 50m or so.

I was aiming to do these at 800m race effort, i.e. relaxed but still pretty quick. It felt really good to be running on the track again, and I was pleasantly surprised after crusing through the line to hear 44.5s as the time for the first rep.

The rest was 4 mins but increased by a minute after each rep.

The times for the rest were 44.3, 44.3, 44.3, 43.6, so I think I can say that these were definitely one of the most consistent sets of 300s I've ever done, despite the 3 week lay-off due to injury, not being in spikes, and not giving it 100% so as not to risk aggravating the leg.

I think this shows I haven't lost too much fitness. Obviously I'll need to gradually build up the speed over the next couple of weeks, but hopefully I'm on the right track now.

I left the gym off today as I had a load of stuff to sort out after work, but I did get some mobility and stretching stuff done so the day hasn't been a complete waste.

Pisco Sour

What was your time in the beer mile. Give us a race report will ya!

Oregano_State

Pisco Sour wrote: »

What was your time in the beer mile. Give us a race report will ya!

Alright I'll do one up after work!

My official time was just over ten minutes I think, but I was a couple of minutes late arriving and had myself hand timed at 7:44. Tough event. Lap 3 was horrible!

Oregano_State

I’ve had a mixed couple of weeks as regards progress and training. I thought I was on the comeback trail after the promising session of 300s I did on Monday two weeks ago, but a week later I tried a similar session, only a little bit quicker and in spikes which didn’t go so well. I could feel the injured leg tighten up on the third interval so I stopped after that. In the few days after that, the injury was sore, so I’ve backed off with the running. I’m going to see a physio on Monday to see where to go from here.

In the meantime, I’ve been doing a few gym sessions, mainly upper-body stuff, with some strengthening and mobility for the legs, as well as a little core.

I don’t know whether I’ll be fit to race again this season, as I’ve lost 5 weeks training now at this stage. The main thing is to get this problem fixed anyway, and take it from there. If worse comes to worst, I can at least say that I’m in miles better shape than I’ve been at any point in the last couple of years, so once I get over this niggly problem I’ll be set to have a real crack at my PBs next season.

Also, I took the opportunity to see some of the top athletes in Europe at the Team Championships in Santry last weekend which was very enjoyable. As soon as I walked in I found myself standing next to David Gillick (looking trim and fit I might add, word on the street is that he might race before the season is out), and moments later walked past Pavel Maslak. There were some great performances by the Irish athletes despite the dodgy weather conditions, and best of all, I got to see it all for free.

Oregano_State

Another Update

I’m having a tough time at the moment shaking off the injury, any time I’ve tried to do anything resembling a sprint (beer-mile aside) it’s flared up again and left me in pain. So two weeks ago I went back to the drawing board and got a second opinion on it from a different physio. My lower back and glutes were in knots apparently, which was causing my hamstring to be pulled out of place, slowing the healing process.

I’m on a diet of rest, icing, with a little bit of jogging, and it’s looking like another two weeks before I start building up the speed again. I’ve been hitting the gym to do upper body stuff, as well as single leg work on my uninjured leg, which strength-wise has always been weaker.

I’ll start logging properly again when I’m running freely.

pconn062

Tough break man, hope you get back into it soon. These niggling injuries can be a real nightmare, we just need to have patience!

Cleanman

pconn062 wrote: »

Tough break man, hope you get back into it soon. These niggling injuries can be a real nightmare, we just need to have patience!

+1. Be patient with it and you'll get the fitness and speed back in no time. It's tough going to the gym and working on weak areas while injured but it's well worth it.

ecoli

Good to hear you have seem to get to the root cause of the problem man that is half the battle and from there will hopefully help speed up the recovery.

Oregano_State

It seems like, and has been, an age since I posted on this regularly. The reason being that I have been carrying a hamstring injury that I couldn't seem to shake, and was tired of posting solely about gym work, rehab, and stretching. I was seeing a physio, following their advice, but every time the intensity of training picked up I was feeling pain shortly afterwards. Frustrating to say the least.

The situation now is that, up until a couple of hours ago, I had done no form of organised training for about 5 weeks. Three of those weeks were spent on holiday, and the past two have involved moving over to the UK to do a masters.

My leg has been feeling much better given the rest, so I decided to do a very light 15min jog today, before an upper-body gym session. I'm going to give it a day's rest before going again, but hopefully I'm on the right track now.

The university's track club have already started training, but I'm not going to go to any of their sessions for at least another week, and will avoid speed work for a while after than.

My aims for the immediate future are:

1. Work incrementally towards being able to sprint again.

2. Stay healthy, keeping on top of flexibility and mobility issues as they arise.

3. Train regularly with the University track team and get back in shape to compete.

My main mistake in training up until I got injured was not being very sensible with rest and doing too much high intensity work. I will try to be more patient this time around and not pay too much attention to the times until I have a good few weeks training under my belt.

Oregano_State

Wednesday 9th Oct

Did another 15mins very easy on the treadmill before a gym session. Upper body was very stiff from the previous session, but got through it fine. Leg feels ok so far, but my god treadmills are boring.

Oregano_State

Friday 11th October - Gym
Took it up to 20mins very easy on the treadmill yesterday. I think taking a day in between runs is a good idea for the time being. I did about 20mins of stretching and mobility work afterwards, then some upper body weights.

Oregano_State

Monday 14th October
I took the weekend off, both as a precaution against too much too soon, and because my family came over to visit.

Yesterday was another gym session. I was supposed to be going to a circuits session with the athletics club, which would have been my first time meeting up with them, but it was cancelled. I'm skipping their track session this evening and going along to weights tomorrow morning.

Anyway, last night I did 10 mins easy as a warm up, took the pace up a bit and played around with the incline a little to test the leg. Seemed OK. Did a fair bit of stretching then, followed by upper body weights.

I've got a good routine going with the stretching now, and I'm really noticing the difference in flexibility. Hopefully that will translate to speed once I'm back in action. Patience is key.

Oregano_State

While I still haven't quite gotten back to full training yet, I've made progress. I've been able to start back doing lower body resistance training, which should hopefully strengthen the problem areas. I'm still at least a week out from attempting a track session, and even at that, I won't be going near spikes until the new year.

I'm keeping up with the flexibility regimen as well.

Oregano_State

Wed 6th November - Easy run
Did twenty mins easy today, just to see how things are going. The leg was grand, but my aerobic fitness is pretty shocking at the moment.
I'm going to start track sessions with the university team next Tuesday, I'd imagine it will take me 3-4 weeks to get up to speed with sessions, but I've got 6 weeks now before the new year to get some decent winter training done.

Last year, I didn't do any track work until January, and managed to hit 54.xx by the indoors, so if I'm in that sort of shape by Christmas, I'll be a happy camper.

Oregano_State

Update: I said I would begin track training two weeks ago, however I got caught up in literally the two busiest weeks of my life workload-wise, with exam dates and and assignment deadlines being changed last minute swapped and all ending up on the same week. It was a bit of an nightmare, and training went out the window until it was all over. Thankfully I made it though unscathed, and with a bit of luck and foresight I won't have to endure another episode like that one.

I have a chance to get a good block of training between now and the end of January, and I'm looking forward to seeing what I can achieve. I've started as I mean to continue, so here's what I've done over the past two days.

Mon 25th Nov - Easy run + Gym
AM 25 mins easy. Nice run. Aerobic fitness improving slightly. This was about my 5th or 6th run over the past couple of weeks. Not great but better than nothing.

PM Upper body (chest and back) gym session.
5mins treadmill w/u, then about 10 mins foam rolling & mobility work. Flexibility is pretty decent at the moment.
Bench: worked up to 80kg 2x5
Chest Press machine: 60kg 4x8
Bent Over Row: 65kg 5x5
Inverted Row: BW 3x10
Lat Pull-down: 65kg 3x10
Front Plate raise: 10kg 3x25

Good day's training. Happy with everything.

Tues 26th Nov ***Track***
I FINALLY made it out to the track with Leeds Uni. I think it's probably better that I waited the extra couple of weeks because my hammy felt perfect this evening. Touch wood it's plain sailing from here.

I picked I doozie of an evening to come out though. The session was 4 x [600, 500, 300] w/ 200m jog rest, 5min between sets. I don't have exact times for everything but the 600s were between 1:59-2:10 for the last, 500s 1:50-2:00, 300s, 50-55. I did the last 300 in 50.5 which I was pretty happy with. More-so the fact that I was able to up it than the actual time.

I don't know if I've ever done as much volume in a session, but it's good as far as I'm concerned, because my aerobic capacity needs to improve sharpish. I found the first set really difficult, but after that settled into a rhythm. It was a strange sort of session, the 600s and 500s were completely aerobic, I only got into sprint mode for the 300m reps, and as a result didn't go lactic at any stage.

There was a decent enough sized group out considering it was a miserable evening, and everyone was very nice and welcoming to the new Irish lad, so I'm definitely going to do my best to continue training with them.

Onwards and upwards from here, I expect my calves to be in bits tomorrow but that's a good thing in many ways.

I'm back.

RandyMann

Didn't realise you moved to England. Good luck with the move and your athletics season.

dna_leri

Welcome back

I presume you will give the indoor season a miss and focus on the summer?