I apparently pulled my right hamstring, up by the insertion, probably while doing stiff-legged deadlifts (please coaches, don’t flame me for that exercise, I’ve been doing those for 18 years without a problem, I just let my ego get the best of me and went too far.) This happened in March.
Anyhow, my usual method of ignoring my injury until it goes away didn’t work, and I felt particularly sore after track workouts or hill running (no surprise, given the diagnosis). Over time I started to lose power. Two weeks ago (after caving in and going to the doctor) I stopped running entirely, but I am still cycling and I climb a lot (I live in the SF Bay Area, no other choice). I started (carefully) doing yoga. Also started pt which includes, massage, active release, stretching, core-strengthening, and ultrasound. After a couple of days of high dose NSAIDs recomended by my MD I’m off them entirely.
At 42, I have never had an injury that sidelined me for more than a month (I credit all that weight training). I REALLY miss running, and especially track workouts. My MD says the prognosis for getting better is good, my athlete friends tell me that this injury is intractable.
Have any of you Slowtwitchers prevailed over this injury? How did you do it? HELP!
I had a hamstring pull three years ago. I don’t think that it was as bad as yours, but it was annoying for a very long time. I was not doing any real speed work at the time as I was just running marathons and not far enough along with run training to do much besides long runs, sort of long runs, easy runs and tempo runs. Even so, I don’t think that it really healed entirely until over the winter when I went down to just base training. Since then, my hamstrings did not bother me much the last two years. They have been a little tight from time to time this year as I am doing more speed work, but I am being fairly cautious and backing off when they do twinge a little bit.
Whatever it is, respect it. I pulled a hamstring at the very end of marathon training last year, although it was closer to a complete failure than yours sounds. It was three months before I could begin running again. Although it seems 95% recovered, it has left me with what we think is ischial bursitis, which occurs right under the “sit bone.”
Per your question, here’s what what I did: Went to a sports med doc after self-treatment failed Doc referred me to PT, where I went through some serious stretching, as well as ultrasound Was able to bike without problems after about 90 days, I was released to run one mile at a 12:00 pace, about three times a week. Went up from there. Now, about 4-5 months after starting back to running, I’m one month from a 1/2 IM distance duathlon.
We’ll see if the bursitis lets me keep going. Needless to say, I have become quite intimate with the nose of my saddle.
My doc (or my coach, or my PT?) told me that hamstring pulls are like alcoholism: always recovering, but never recovered. It sounds like you’re taking steps to get it some attention - good luck!
I have an old “pull” or “tear” or “scar” that I have just started treatment for with ultrasound and massage. As one of you mentioned, I don’t run fast enough to pull it running, but, always seems ready to “give” if I start to work harder on the pedal upstroke. We’ll see if this gets anywhere.