I know that when we hear the word ‘injury’ these days, we might think about a footballer rolling around on the floor seemingly writing in agony because a light breeze blew up his shorts, but for runners, especially those seeking to push themselves, injuries may be regarded as as an occupational hazard or as a legal issue (learn more here).
Yesterday evening, I checked myself in at Facebook from Bournemouth hospital A&E department. Let me tell you what happened and why I’m writing this….
My PB plan for London marathon and then onto the Rat Race wall 69 miler in June was on track. It had not been without challenge, but it was on. I had moved my mileage up a lot from what I was used to and had not cross trained as much as usual as a result.
After feeling a slight twinge in my hamstring last week while teaching a 9 day hypnotherapy diploma course, I really eased into the taper.
Yesterday, I ran into the house from my office and bombed it up the stairs. The explosive motion resulted in my left leg having a sharp pain down it and within it, moving into my backside. I struggled to put weight on it. The pain location and sensation was identical to what I had experienced at Bournemouth marathon festival last October, so whatever happened then may well be related and I have not had much respite from training since then to be honest. The pain intensity lessened and I was able to walk around gingerly and called the doctor to get a late appointment. The late surgery could not offer much beyond suspicions and advised I get it X-ray’d to rule out anything more serious or sinister. So I ended up at Bournemouth hospital.
I discovered that sitting felt as if my hamstring and bum cheek were having a sumo wrestle to the death. Sitting in the car hurt the most. Sitting in waiting rooms filling out forms hurt a lot too. So much so, that I chose to stand up while I was waiting in various areas to be seen. The nurses kept telling me to sit down, but it was actually less painful to be stood up.
The physical examination, MRI scan, x-ray and discussions with the consultant led to the diagnosis of high hamstring tendinopathy. It is an actual pain in the arse that runs down into the back of the leg too. It is a strain in the hamstring muscle that also has some tendonitis thrown in for good measure, so is hard to detect and equally hard to treat. The issue is that it can persist and be chronic and I think that because I just ‘ran it off’ for a few months, I have made it worse and will now need lots of rest to heal.
Once the acute pain sensation has died down, I’ll be seeing the physio and in the meantime will have to take some extended time off running. With that in mind, I’ll be taking up some cross training options and thinking of sports and exercise that will not aggravate the injury. I don’t want to become so weak that even my work will pose a threat to injury, I much rather be browsing for cross training options over looking for a company like pacelawfirm.com to get a settlement.
So things will be a bit quiet here on this hypnosis for running blog (as they have been) for a little while longer. However, once I am back running and training again, I’ll be back writing here some more.
My mental skills will be transferred to whatever I do in these next few months, they’ll also come in very handy with dealing the the frustration I have right now and the fact that my plans have been interrupted, and my current set of goals will have to sit on the back burner for now. I will be back and I will learn a lot from this.
