Well it’s no surprise that I have a weak hamstring and glute area. I keep saying this but it’s been a long, long road to getting better.

If you are new to the blog {or can’t remember how I did this injury}, I was playing soccer December 10th {yes, you read that right} and did “something” and then my hamstring hurt that night. I took a week off and played another soccer game. Within the first 10 minutes of the game starting, I couldn’t sprint or kick the ball…seriously injured…but I played the rest of the game because we had no subs (mistake #1).

I started Physio mid January and went until the beginning of April but wasn’t seeing progress during the last 4 visits. I saw a massage therapist mid February that started to make a difference in my glutes. More recently, 4 weeks ago, I started to see an Osteopath which lead to me having no pain when I was sitting. All good things but I was still hurting.

Running outside (5k’s) left me in pain hours later in March and April. We had a crazy CRAZY amount of snow that fell this winter so I ran A LOT on my treadmill, which I am very thankful to have. I had a lot of PT exercises to do daily and would sometimes lose track of which ones I was doing.

This week, I started with my new Sports Physiotherapist, Chris, he works at my alma mater, Acadia University. After 45 minutes of talking; getting my history, asking questions, pain treatment, workouts etc., he spent another 45 minutes testing me. All major muscles from the lower back down to my toes.

He tested how flexible I was, if I have any nerve damage, how strong my glutes, hamstrings, quads, calfs, and feet were. At one point he was testing my hamstrings and glutes and I thought I was going to pop a muscle as he was telling me to push harder against him. I was super nervous my right hamstring was going to pop and I would scream in pain. However, it didn’t, thank goodness!

My new plan is

• No running outdoors (for now) 😦
• I can run indoors on the treadmill
• 3 PT exercises – slow and steady – quality over quantity. 2 sets of 15 each:
  • Lunges (hover over the ground for a few seconds)
  • Squats (two feet)
  • Bridge (a low bridge)
• Weekly physiotherapy starting Friday {too bad I used up all my medical coverage for this one} Oh well!

It could have been worse. He could have said “NO RUNNING AT ALL” and that would have sucked royally. I know I have really strong quads, strong calf muscles and weak lower abs, weak glutes and weak hamstrings that I need to strengthen. Really, that hasn’t changed…so maybe I wasn’t focusing enough on the PT exercises before or maybe it was too much…who knows. I could even go and say that my old PT didn’t know what she was doing but that’s not fair, she did….she just wasn’t able to get me to 100%. She’s a lovely person but I wish I made the decision to switch sooner to a Sports Physiotherapist.

So, I start over.

I’m not signing up for any races right now but do have two in September (Maritime Race Weekend 5k & Half). I’m not giving up on my 2015 running goals just yet, though they may have to change later on. I’m just going to focus on getting better and hopefully get back to running outside, long distances {ie: hopefully I’ll have better running blog posts soon as I can’t entertain all of you on my injury alone 🙂 }

Have you had to start over during an injury?

Do you change your running goals throughout the year?