“It’s only Pain”

Resting HR (average): 55

Injury status: Right Hamstring tear 3/10, (R) Sacroiliac pain 1/10, (R) Forefoot pain 5/10

Neural stretching (knee to nose. averages in cm):
Baseline 27.5; Afterwards 22.5

Despite the pain and suffering, I managed to get through a solid week’s training, before I tore my Hamstring!

Monday and Tuesday were easy runs, very slow due to the fact everything hurts! Monday my body was still sore from last week’s effort, although my foot pain had gone. Tuesday my (R) lower back was very sore, and very limiting by Wednesday. It’s been niggling away for a couple of weeks, reminding me to do something about it.

I got Rheanna to put some needles in it and within a day or so it was feeling a lot better. Gotta remember to keep using my needles as my body always responds well to acupuncture.

Thursday was a good tempo run, and I had two upper body sessions. Weights in the morning, and total trainer in the afternoon. Short (sessions) and sharp.

Friday morning I was out just before 3am with a goal of 40km. I felt sore through my shins straight away, and tight through my right calf. Having neural tension problems, Im always wary of starting off with tightness in my calf, as it may be a sign of bad things to come if I don’t heed the warning signs.

However there’s also something called being soft. And as a marathoner, you have to learn to live with pain, embrace it, and just deal with it. By 5km, my pace had slowed right down and it was going to be a matter of one step in front of the other, over and over again (for 35km) through the pain, and see how far I could push myself.

Whilst the pace between 10-20km reached over 6:00 min/km, I’m glad I was able to find something to get me back below 6:00 min/km. Despite wanting to give up, I kept going and decided to do 42km, to ensure I had run a marathon (even if only for my psychological benefit!). 4:10 pace for a marathon is shockingly slow, but at least I finished, and I can work on greater speed once I build my endurance back up again.

Friday evening disaster struck. I had felt quite good after my long run, but playing hockey on Friday nights after a long run is probably not my smartest decision.

Playing social sport is tough, as it is hard not to push oneself. As I lunged forward at the beginning of the second half I felt the sharp stab in my Right Hamstring. Immediately I took it easy and played in goal (well the smart thing would have been to go off, but we had no reserves!).

I was so annoyed with myself, and later than night and Saturday morning it had stiffened up and become more sore, even though I had done all the right things (active ROM exercises, stretching, ice, voltaren etc).The worse thing is that Saturday morning my right Forefoot was sore again. I think it’s the sideways movement of playing hockey.

Saturday I could barely walk, but I still managed a total trainer session.

Sunday after staying up all night to watch the Currie Cup semi-finals, I decided I could have a day off!

It’s important to get back into the running as soon as possible. After 2 hard weeks I was going to have an easy week anyway, the trick is to do small amounts to allow recovery, whilst still maintaining fitness.

Should I give up the hockey? Or shall I give it another shot and see if the dynamic activity helps my eccentric muscle strength?

“I may look bad and feel even worse, but I’m still going.”