Hamstring fun

While doing speed intervals a week or so ago I managed to aggravate my right hamstring.  Everything was going well in my routine:  warm up, and then quarter mile fast/slow repeats. During my fourth repeat, instead of just doing a quarter mile fast, I decided to try for a half mile.  I felt good endurance-wise, nothing hurt, and even though I was tired, I felt like it was a good goal.  I finished the half mile fast no problem and then did my quarter mile recovery at a slow jog.  But when I went to start my next fast period something did not feel right at all with my right hamstring.  So I quickly abandoned the run and walked and massaged my ham.  I find that if I run my fingers up from the back of my knee up the middle of my ham towards my glutes, that it can often release what ever pressure or knot is in the muscle.  It helps, but of course, some kind of damage has occurred and it needs to repair itself.  I sort of jogged the last quarter mile home, but I was very concerned about what just happened.

I took the next couple of days off, massaging and stretching my legs.  I followed that with an easy 3 miles - ham still a little tender.  The following day I did 5 miles, and that was pretty scary.  At about 3.5 miles, my right ham felt very weird, like it was about to give out, so I walked it and massaged it for a bit. I also noted that my left knee was feeling weird, no doubt due to the fact that my left leg was probably compensating for my right. I did finish my 5 miles, but did so very carefully and took the next 2 days off.

By the time day 3 dawned, I was beginning to feel like I was behind in my training plan, so I naturally had to get out there and put some miles on.  I did 8+ miles.  The first 4 were very careful and I slowly upped my pace, while modifying my stride in order to help stretch out different parts of my ham and quads.  By mile 6 I'm guessing that my ham finally warmed up because it suddenly felt great.  It felt so good that I finished the last 2.5 miles at nice clip.

So what happened?  Was it the change in my stride that helped?  Did it take 6 miles for my ham to "warm up" and get loose? Both?

I iced my ham afterwards and for the rest of the afternoon it was very stiff.  Actually both of my legs were stiff.  I'm sure that my left leg was out of sorts for having to compensate for my right.  That night Amy showed me some Yoga moves that really helped. (way to go Amy!)   I worked through them and a few others this morning and things feel a bit better.

I have a long run (10 miles) to do this week, followed by 11 miles the following one with the St Patty's day 5K that weekend.  I need that ham to get right.