Up On Blocks

A bumper sticker I created for myself. Hey, it's true for me!

Well, despite my high hopes, substituting cycling for running didn't quite agree with my hamstring.

Which means I need to let it rest completely. Which also means no 5k race tomorrow and likely no 5 mile race on April 6th.

Aside from wasting money on entry fees, I'm really not too bummed about the situation. I've gone through this many times, so I'm confident that I'll be "resurrected" as a runner once again. The tricky thing about this particular injury is that it's hard to gauge. One day it'll feel fine, the next I'll feel a tweak while merely walking around the house. I'll err on the side of caution (which I didn't do when the injury first appeared) and let it rest for at least another couple of weeks.

What to do in the meantime...assuming I don't get the urge to swim (and if I do, I'll just consider it a beer or ice cream craving...or both)...

How about weight lifting!

NARCISSISM ALERT

I've bounced back and forth between running and lifting weights numerous times, so my body usually gets back into the "iron groove" relatively quickly when I start hitting the weights pretty seriously...which is what I've done this week.

I'll never be mistaken for the Hulk, but for a scrawny runner, I put on a decent amount of muscle:

After this morning's workout. I vil crush yoo!

So please forgive the narcissistic photos, but when I'm a droopy old man, I can look back and laugh, er, be proud of having a couple of muscle fibers to crow about.

I just wish the hamstring muscle fibers would cooperate!

Hamming It Up

Well, it seems that I'm in the throes of a persistent, nagging, semi-debilitating hamstring injury. And I'm pretty sure my overly zealous track workout on February 13th was the genesis of said injury.

It didn't hit me all at once. In fact, it seemed to be more of a hip flexor/groin tweak at first. But gradually, and after a race and a few fast-paced training runs, my right hamstring (every injury I've had over the years seems to be on the right side) has progressively gotten worse.

Which is a shame. No sane runner would ever desire an injury, but what bugs me most about this one is the fact that I'm starting to feel fit and some of my speed is returning. I thought I might be poised to take a shot at my 5k PR in a couple of weeks, but after a 7.5 mile run with a guy in my club yesterday morning, and the necessity of walking backward up a small hill during a family walk yesterday afternoon, I'm not so sure. Even taking three consecutive days off before yesterday's run didn't seem to help much.

My immediate plan—aside from icing, ibuprofen, and self-massage—will be to run at an easy, steady pace on flat courses the next few days. No surges, no hills. If the pain remains the same or gets worse, I may be shutting it down for a while. I still haven't hopped on my bike to see if that aggravates it. If not, that'll be the alternative to running, I suppose. But already being signed up for two races makes me hesitant to nix my training runs.

Which is exactly what I should do if this hamstring isn't improving.

Which is why I thought "Resurrected Runner" was a good title for this blog. Some guys are "babe magnets." I'm obviously an "injury magnet."

Okay, and a "babe magnet." Well, at least to one "babe."*


*who didn't know what she was getting into, obviously.

Numbers

As you probably know, I'm a numbers guy. I keep close tabs on mileage, times, body weight, waist measurements, resting heart rate, shoe mileage, Mariners losses...the list goes on.

Yesterday, I "celebrated" my 46th birthday by completing 4,646 pushups in the month of February. I'm currently involved in two online challenges to do 20,000 pushups in 2013. At 7,446, I'm far ahead of pace. I'll be slowing that pace since I was unable to devote much energy to other resistance exercises last month.

Another interesting number I nearly missed was passing the 3,000 mile mark for mileage run since my return to running in 2009. That includes nearly two years of down time due to an injury, so that number should be significantly higher. Still, I'm grateful for any mileage I'm able to run.

There are a couple more mileage milestones coming up that I'll share in the coming months.

The next number I want to address is my soft 5k PR, which I hope to take down in three weeks. I'm dealing with a hamstring issue (and a frustrating respiratory problem that won't go away), so we'll see how it goes.

Until then, Run Happy!