I’ve read through a bunch of the existing HHT, but curious to get others perspective on my situation and if people have regrets from training through and racing with it.
I’m 7 weeks out from a full IM, I’ve been dealing with this injury since Sept. I can get through the training but not without pain. I’ve had an MRI which confirms HHT, tendinitis and a small tear at the insertion point.
After the longer sessions I’m usually sore the next day, but usually loosens up a bit sometimes I have to take a rest day. Sitting and getting out of the car is the worst pain.
I had a six hour bike ride Saturday with some climbing (6,000 ft) pain wasn’t too bad during, but I started to get similar pains on my ‘good’ side or towards the end. Perhaps I’m just being super sensitive to niggles in that area though.
My PT and sports doc basically gave the green light to racing, saying I can’t make it worse and it’s up to me on what level of pain I can tolerate. I’m doing advanced PT exercises but still have pain with certain ones, esp. single leg deadlifts.
I’m surprised I can’t make it worse after reading about people having surgery for tears, etc. but I’m also concerned that I might be getting it on the other side now as well. I’m thinking of pulling the plug on the race to play it safe.
Any advice would be great, if you’ve had it and raced and trained through it, do you regret it?
If it was a half distance I wouldn’t be as concerned, but my finish time is usually just under 14 hours w/o injuries. I’m slow. Please help.
I’ve read through a bunch of the existing HHT, but curious to get others perspective on my situation and if people have regrets from training through and racing with it.
I’m 7 weeks out from a full IM, I’ve been dealing with this injury since Sept. I can get through the training but not without pain. I’ve had an MRI which confirms HHT, tendinitis and a small tear at the insertion point.
After the longer sessions I’m usually sore the next day, but usually loosens up a bit sometimes I have to take a rest day. Sitting and getting out of the car is the worst pain.
I had a six hour bike ride Saturday with some climbing (6,000 ft) pain wasn’t too bad during, but I started to get similar pains on my ‘good’ side or towards the end. Perhaps I’m just being super sensitive to niggles in that area though.
My PT and sports doc basically gave the green light to racing, saying I can’t make it worse and it’s up to me on what level of pain I can tolerate. I’m doing advanced PT exercises but still have pain with certain ones, esp. single leg deadlifts.
I’m surprised I can’t make it worse after reading about people having surgery for tears, etc. but I’m also concerned that I might be getting it on the other side now as well. I’m thinking of pulling the plug on the race to play it safe.
Any advice would be great, if you’ve had it and raced and trained through it, do you regret it?
If it was a half distance I wouldn’t be as concerned, but my finish time is usually just under 14 hours w/o injuries. I’m slow. Please help.
i cant see that anybody here can give you a better answer than your pt and sports doc …
the one thing i will say if a strenght exercise gives you pain modify to the exercise
and while many experts say stretching is not useful i find that opening the hips and glutes does work for myself. while stretching of hamstrings does 0 the issue.
Like you I’ve been dealing with this since about Sept (albeit without an MRI to confirm specifics). Male, 53yo. I am doing PT exercises only to rehab. Things are on an improving trend for me, but it’s not linear. I’m at the stage where the remaining symptom is an ache at (I assume) the tendon insertion point. Like you sitting is a problem, especially in a car. A couple of months ago, getting in and out of the car was quite sore but I seem to have progressed beyond that now to the point where pain is proportionate to seated duration (including on my bike; TT position is worse). I too had discomfort with single-leg deadlifts, but persevered and progressed to the point I could do them without pain most of the time. Running is mostly ok now but I feel it sometimes. When I get pain it’s usually pretty obvious why (e.g. long time sitting, long TT ride, run after long bike the day before, faster running, etc).
I have also been cleared for training and racing and advised I won’t make it worse. I raced a sprint Tri in Apr, a long distance race in May (3k swim, 120k bike, 30k run) in <7hrs and a 70.3 this past weekend in <5hrs (I am mentioning race times only as reference to your expected race duration). I didn’t have any problems in the sprint Tri; a little discomfort on the bike during the long distance race and quite a bit of pain during the bike leg of the 70.3 (to the extent that it affected my enjoyment and performance) which eased off after a bit of running but was a little stiff throughout. I had put bike seat down a bit prior to Apr/May races, put it back up recently/before the 70.3 … and have now put it back down again!
I think my progress has slowed (possibly reversed) through the racing season because my race training build, tapering for and recovering from races has resulted in less consistent (less frequent, less intense at times and doing when more tired) strength work. Regarding my experience at the 70.3, I think an 8hr drive 2 days before the race was also a factor (and the drive home on the day of the race was a challenge to say the least!).
I have 2 further races scheduled this season: a standard distance race in 3 weeks time and another 70.3 at the end of Aug. I fully intend to do those races (and maybe a bonus final local race before the end of the season). I will get as much strength work done as I can within my programme but I suspect if I am going to get to a pain-free state it will be post-season when I will prioritise the strength work over the endurance work again.
I am at the PT again this week so will update if there is anything to add. Good luck!
EDIT: wanted to be more precise having read DrT’s post - my original, overly casual “can’t make it worse†comment isn’t the full picture; I was cleared to train & race within boundaries agreed with my PT, and those were (a) gradually progress the rehab load (if pain is 3/4 out of 10 then ok; otherwise back off until it settles), (b) my running progressed (with same pain guidance as for rehab) from easy only to modest strides to a little bit of higher intensity intervals and at this stage I am still being cautious with higher intensity loading.
I had this w a tear from fall 2019 to early summer 2020. I swam (almost always fine except if I did a fast or long kick set) and rode (up to 80 mi I think?) and cycling was ok for the most part. I like to run on the treadmill so gyms shutting down helped me not run on it for months. I think I didn’t run from mid Oct to June; I did pt. It is fine now. Pt was a lot of glute strength and loosening a tight TFL on that side.
Your doc and pt “can’t make it worse†is interesting- IMO injuries can always get worse, and the risk increases w more stress in terms of volume and speed. I have gotten more careful w injuries and I wouldn’t race on it if I were in your shoes. I wish you the best and I hope you’ll update us w how it goes. I’m far from perfect in babying injuries but I’m a lot more careful than I used to be and I’m constantly trying to be more careful.
I had this w a tear from fall 2019 to early summer 2020. I swam (almost always fine except if I did a fast or long kick set) and rode (up to 80 mi I think?) and cycling was ok for the most part. I like to run on the treadmill so gyms shutting down helped me not run on it for months. I think I didn’t run from mid Oct to June; I did pt. It is fine now. Pt was a lot of glute strength and loosening a tight TFL on that side.
Your doc and pt “can’t make it worse†is interesting- IMO injuries can always get worse, and the risk increases w more stress in terms of volume and speed. I have gotten more careful w injuries and I wouldn’t race on it if I were in your shoes. I wish you the best and I hope you’ll update us w how it goes. I’m far from perfect in babying injuries but I’m a lot more careful than I used to be and I’m constantly trying to be more careful.
I agree. True, you might not make the injury worse but it can certainly become chronic and then take much much longer to ever truly go away. That’s what I fear about any injury is me trying to continue racing on it and then turn a three month problem into a 12 month (or more) problem
Your doc and pt “can’t make it worse†is interesting- IMO injuries can always get worse, and the risk increases w more stress in terms of volume and speed. I have gotten more careful w injuries and I wouldn’t race on it if I were in your shoes.
yep, that struck me as weird as well.
I had the same symptoms. Very annoying because the pain interferes with everyday life (sitting). Stopped high intensity running for a few weeks and limited the volume, the injury went away, went back to running gradually and never thought of it again.
I had this injury for years. My biggest regret was trying to train through it and working with a PT who said stretching it would help it. I trained on/off through this injury and it just became more chronic. If it acted up at 2 miles into a 4 mile run, then the next run it started at 1.5 miles and then the next run it started flaring up sooner. I would really get to the bottom of it and back off on training (especially running). I was generally okay biking and swimming. I finally, after many years, got PRP and took about 10 weeks off from running and did a consistent, progressive strength plan. The very worst activity was trail running or hills. I would also stay away from yoga and aggressive static stretching.