Stretching Continues

I know one thing about myself and you should know it too.  I am not super great at keeping track of things because I don't write them down when I do them.

It's been a couple of weeks since I started yoga workouts and I've been pretty faithfully stretching.

I swim on Mondays so I stretch in the evening,  Wednesday mornings I do a yoga workout with the club and then Thursday evening I stretch at home.  The last two weeks I was lucky and able to swim three times a week.  Wednesday night swim after being up since 5am was hard.  I was in the middle of a 300m set and thought to myself "Why is my form so sloppy?" Then I realized it's probably because I was tired.

The Monday and Thursday evening stretches weren't necessarily a yoga session, but I stretched until I felt loose in the legs.

Right now I'm on Christmas break from swimming and spinning. I squeezed in a bit of a stretch yesterday and today and honestly I feel like I could go for a run right now.  I plan to hold off till the new year though.

That's a lie......I'm going to be running between Christmas and New Year.

I picked up a couple of DVD's from a club member and will try them out this week.  I believe they are stretchy/yoga workouts but will find out for sure soon.

It's baby steps, but I feel I'm making progress.

Week one - Exercises to improve my hamstring

This past week I was excited about my first session of Yoga.   Had a bit of a stretch on Tuesday in anticipation of the yoga.  

We did a Mike Dennison yoga DVD called "Yoga Made for Runners" on Wednesday morning.  I consider it a success because I didn’t pass wind while stretching with the girls.   I wasn’t expecting to break a sweat, but I completely left a sweat stain on the mat I used.  Afterword I had shaky legs so I’m calling it a workout.  I felt so good during my twenty minute walk to work, that I felt like going for a run.  I’m smart enough to not do that.

I did have to run across the road that evening and I could feel my leg.  No pain, but it was tight.

Thursday night, my wife and I did the same yoga workout and again, I felt great.  I felt so good I tried a P90x ab  workout after yoga.  It was sixteen minutes long, but I only lasted about ten and just lay there for the last bit feeling humbled.  I fully expected to be able to keep up.

Friday and Monday I swam and could feel my hamstring both days.  No pain, but I could feel the tightness of it.  I blame the fin drills.

Saturday was 60 minutes of Sufferfest spinning on the stationary bikes.  That was hard as I was definitely limited by my leg.  It hurt.  We follow that up with about thirty minutes of core exercises. 

10 crunches

10 right side crunches

10 left side crunches 

10 right side crunches (raising legs)

10 left side crunches (raising legs)

10 tummy crunches (with bottoms of the feet touching)

10 push ups

10 supermen/superwomen

10 squats

10 lunges

Now this was repeated 10 times! (10x10x10=1000)

That's me doing the side crunch.  The picture is stolen
from a buddy's blog: http://darrellrun.blogspot.ca/

It was hard, but I got it done. I did a bit of stretching and felt great the rest of the day.

More stretching on Monday evening after swimming in the morning and I could feel the improvement in my legs. 

We’ll see how things keep going.

Injury

I'm hurt.  It isn't super serious, but it is hindering my run.

Here's the story.

Last winter, during the "Tri the Oval" race, I was caught wearing "Maritime Race Weekend" gear and was awarded entries into the Tartan Twosome.

These are the great Tridents that I raced with.  Claude skated, I biked and Beth brought it home on the run.  It was c..c..c..cold!




I was pumped about the Tartan Twosome and had plenty of time to prepare.  I was planning on setting a personal best 5k run on Friday night and a personal best 10k run on Saturday.

During the summer I ran.....a lot.  Lots of speed work lots of 5 and 10k runs with some longer distances thrown in too.  I was feeling pretty confident until about two weeks before the races, I pulled the hamstring in my right leg.  It wasn't a limp inducing pull, but it hurt to run and hindered my stride.

I decided that I was healthy enough to run, but the idea of pushing for a personal best was out of the question.

This isn't my race costume, but I am running in a  kilt.
I wore this kilt plus a pirate hat and an eye patch for the race.

 Friday night I dressed in a costume and enjoyed the 5k run.

Saturday, I was so tight that I couldn't stride out at all.  It was turning into the worst run I've had in a long time. I simply could not extend my right leg to anything close to a normal stride.

 Luckily around the 2k mark my leg loosened up and I could stride out and it turned into a good effort run with consistent leg pain, but nothing walk inducing.  I met up with about five other people running the same speed.  Three of us crossed the finish line seconds of each other.

After the race, I started stretching and took a couple of weeks off running, but any time I ran and pushed some speed, the pain in my right hamstring was walk inducing.  My stride has changed to compensate for the stiff leg and that is causing pain in my left knee.

Luckily I'm able to keep swimming and cycling so I'm not bulking up too much, but I miss running.  Needless to say, the last few months have been frustrating as far as running goes.

Road to recovery.

I hate stretching - it is boring and simply not fun.  To make myself stretch I've organized a morning yoga session once a week.  I'm hoping yoga combined with a couple of days of stretching combined with rest will get me back running.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.