Oh man.
I’m on vacation these two weeks, on Long Island where everything is flat. Well, not totally flat. But compared to Westchester, it’s like a pancake here. I’ve been looking forward to running and biking, thinking I could make up for some quality runs lost this summer.
It’s been a busy couple of months — I was in Shanghai last week, and although I did have some great runs, I skipped both a long run and a track workout for various and sundry reasons. One being that there was no track. The other being that it was like a million degrees. Celsius.
But I did get in 30 or so miles, and the pace felt good and the workouts felt worthwhile. I’ve been asking my new and improved Garmin
Out here on the Island I did a nice ride on Monday — clocking just over 15 miles. Good workout. Nice and flat here. Wait, I guess I mentioned that. Came home, felt fine. Maybe a little sore. Then, Tuesday (yesterday), I headed out to do an easy 7 mile loop. Got to the end of the block and realized I was in bad paid. Quad pain. Little hamstring pain. Crap, I thought to myself. This blows. But maybe pushing it on the bike was a mistake. Take it easy. Take a day off.
So I did.
Today, my training plan had a fairly intense track workout:
2 mi at 8:10 – 8:39 pace
2 x 2 mi in 6:47
2 minutes recovery
3 x 1 k in 3:53
2 minutes recovery
4 x 200 m in 0:44
200m recovery jog
1 mi in 8:10 – 8:39
Man, this Jack Daniels plan is freakin torture. That’s a tempo and a interval workout all in one. That freakin’ blows! So off to the track I went, did the warmup slowly (like 9:30 slow). Messed around with my ipod. And started the first mile of the tempo. I was just crossing the 100m line when I felt two sharp — sharp — pains in my left hamstring. And one thing went through my head. ”Stop. You’re done.” And I was.
I stopped. Walked a few feet. Tried to run a little. Massive pain in the hamstring. For Fuck’s Sake. Stretched a little. Walked a little. Tried to run. Massive pain. For Fuck’s Sake.
No idea why. I’ve had hamstring issues before, like in 2008. Then it was a tear. Same side. Here we are again. But this year I’ve been training smart. I think I even stretched once or twice. And I rode a bike the other day. That’s good, right? See, I’ve been cross training!
As I’m on vacation, I don’t have my usual community of enabling medical professionals at the ready. But I did call the fantastic Dr. Stu, who gave me the names of some people to see close by. I have an appointment on Monday, and I did see sports massage guy.
This blog post is going to be short. Er, it’s already long. It’s going to end abruptly because it’s all still very unresolved. The key is mentally I have to take it easy. I’m worried that…
- I’ll never run again.
- I’ll put on a massive amount of weight.
- I’ll because so obsessed with my injury that I’ll make my friends and family nuts.
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