Ta -da! Three weeks of taking care of my hamstring and I am still having good days and bad (BAD) days. Some days are really great and others are frustrating, depressing and challenging to get through. That’s the life of an injured runner.

 “The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.” -Juma Ikangaa, 1989 NYC Marathon winner. 

As see on Runalicious’s Facebook Page this morning.

The last week went like this – starts off BAD and ends TIRED but GOOD!

Wed Jan 28th  – Yoga class – felt so good. I even managed to “Flip the Dog” and not fall over!

Thurs Jan 29th  – NOTHING. My hamstring was really bothering me and after a conversation with Sai, we agreed that I should take the night off from running and rest my hamstring. BAD day.

Fri Jan 30th – Physio late in the afternoon. It didn’t go so well. My hamstring was really swollen but we made a new plan to get back on track.

• Massage by hand and foam roll
• Ice
• Run when you feel good, easy on the PT exercises

Saturday Jan 31st – SNOW STORM! Felt pretty crappy; PT exercises and I iced it a lot throughout the day and foam rolled for a long time that evening. Oh, and shoveled snow.

Sunday Feb 1st – I played outside with our girls and ran 3 km, stretched and foam rolled. And shoveled again because we had more snow over night!

Monday Feb 2nd – PT exercises, Yoga (Melissa Bender Fitness – a little challenging for me) and SNOW STORM overnight – around 30 cm

 

Tuesday Feb 3rd – This is where things get “tired”…..

• I had to shovel us out of the house. Meh, no problem.
• Then out of our driveway in one little line because there was so much snow!
• My neighbour took the girls and I did everything I could to get my snow blower working.
• Three tries later, one call to my husband (not in tears but laughter), I got it going.
• Three hours later, 2 driveways were completely cleared.
• Shoveled the end of the driveway again around 4:30 pm with the girls and went for a short walk.
• Had a conversation with Sai about running as I had planned on doing so – verdict in – RUN.
• Put on my ProCompression socks. WHY, WHY didn’t I put them on in the morning????
• My legs loved me.
• Did my warm up of 10 minutes walking (1/2 a km) and then ran 3km.
• IT FELT SO GOOD!
• Stretched and foam rolled my tired legs.

My hamstring has gone from painful to discomfort/swollen to feeling itchy and normal at times. I can walk, run and do all my PT exercises pain-free. I cannot sit for long period’s of time unless I have something under my right leg/hamstring, slightly elevating it. At this point I am just listening to my body, if I feel good I run and if I don’t feel good, I try not to lose sleep over not running.

Good news: I’m off to physio again today; fingers crossed I get some positive news. I need to remember this is my “willing to prepare” for the “will to run long distances again”.

When you can’t run (insert favourite physical activity here), what do you do instead?

Do you colour coordinate your running clothing ?

Better yet, do you colour coordinate your running clothing with your physio taped up injury?