A Daily Mile

As I posted on the website Daily Mile, I'm now literally a "daily miler."

I've decided that, instead of not running at all, I would try to coax my hamstring to get stronger and recover by running a single slow mile on a daily basis. Smart? Probably not. But a similar approach seemed to put my old heel injury behind me over a year ago. This might be a different situation, though, since muscle tissue is involved, whereas that was more of a bone/tendon issue.

My hamstring has become slightly more sore as the week has progressed (I'm on day 7 of my daily mile regimen.) It's not to the point where running hurts it. It actually hurts more when I'm not running...although I know it would tweak out pretty seriously if I tried to run fast.

I'm a very stubborn runner, so hopefully I'll know when to say when. But my real hope is that, after an initial period of slight hamstring pain, the muscles will start to strengthen and the pain will subside. That might be more of a dream than a reality...but five months of ZERO running earlier this year did little to fix my hammy, so I might as well give this a shot.

More as things develop...

Biding My Time

First, I need to give a shout-out to my daughter's cross-country team (Central Valley High School in Spokane, WA), who finished 4th our state meet yesterday. The boys finished 3rd. Every girl on varsity will return next year, so they should place in state once again. Natalie and I made the 2+ hour drive each way to cheer on her team. It was a hoot!

Anyway...I'm shut down my running program yet again. I tried coaxing my ailing hamstring along for several weeks, but it just isn't having any of that running business. I ran 8 miles a couple of weeks ago, but even a slow, easy 3-miler ended up making my hamstring sore for a couple of days after.

So, here I am trying to figure out when to give it a shot again, and how to approach it. Until then, it's strength training and Airdyne rides for me.

My tentative plan is to hold off on all running the rest of this month, then start with 1 mile jogs every other day for a few weeks. No more climbing my way back to 20+ mile weeks sooner than I should.

My body is giving me every indication that I should permanently consider a different form of exercise, but I'm still stubbornly holding onto the belief that I can run and race again regularly. I may be dreaming, who knows. Perhaps I should give in to the idea of splitting my endurance training evenly between cycling and running, doing each no more than 3x per week. At this point, I honestly don't know the answer. I'll have to play it by ear.

Which is pretty much what I've been doing since my first major injury, post-marathon, over 3 years ago.

It's frustrating, but at least it continually gives me something to work toward. If I ever do figure out how to fully recover and avoid future injuries, I'm going to bottle and sell it.

Okay, time to walk the dog. I can still do that, at least!