After taking over a week off from any form of workouts I finally got back into running and it felt great. The stomach/body bug just keeps morphing into something else which is frustrating. I just want to feel healthy again. Last week’s runch was so great that I ran a negative split at lunch last Thursday – not sure if it can get any better then that!

However, Friday I woke up with lots of pain in…….my hamstring. Seriously! I thought I was over this injury but clearly I’m not. WTF {sorry Mom}. It hurt a lot. It hurt more then my other tired and sore muscles that were screaming at me every time I walked down the steps at work or home. It hurt more then I thought it should.

Saturday was all about swim lessons, craft fairs with the girls and some time with Grammy. I even managed to do some shopping on my own. Sunday was a busy day with both girls at soccer {no tantrums for Hilary – WIN}, Christmas pictures {tantrums for Hilary and I} and lots of frustration. I was mentally and physically needing to run Sunday night to shake off the frustrations. Since my husband is away for work (5 days, 6 nights on a rotating schedule), I usually find running helps curb the stress, ya know!

Once I knew the girls were asleep I jumped on the treadmill and was hoping to run 4-5k but stopped at 3k. My heart just wasn’t into it however the sweat dripping from my body could tell you otherwise! I should have just kept going but I wanted to stretch out my leg and soak in some epsom salts. The stretching alone helped and the pain had decrease significantly. I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming the pain went away or if stretching actually made the pain go away. The epsom salt bath made my leg feel a lot better as well.

Today I woke up and would normally cringe when bending over with my sore hamstring but it wasn’t sore. In fact, it feels pretty darn good today. So is it the fact that I’m not stretching enough after my last run outside while at work or is my hamstring just messed up? I’m really hoping it’s the fact that I didn’t stretch as much as I normally would – similar to my half marathon in October.

So what now? I have no friggin’ clue. Do I go back to physio which will take 3-4 weeks potentially to get back “in”. Or do I just keep plugging along and focusing more on stretching post runs? Don’t get me wrong, I can sometimes spend 15-20 minutes stretching post run but that’s not always the case when I run at lunch. Or there is something seriously wrong with my hamstring. It’s been almost a year.

All I know is that I’m taking it one day at a time. Run when I can, do better at stretching, strength train, do yoga once a week which I am LOVING and rest.

How was your weekend?

Anyone race? 

What’s your number one hamstring stretch?