Did an Ironman a few months shy of 4 years ago. I had never really biked before and the process of trying to find a good bike fit did not work out for me well. I was constantly injured. In the 12 months leading up to the race I was constantly injured and having to take 1-4 weeks off at a time from cycling and running. In the three months before the race I was able to run and cycle a month before the race but not for 2 months before that. So, I went into the race grossly undertrained from where I wanted to be. I pushed too hard and came in right under 12 hours which was something I was pretty happy with.
Gave it a week then started trying to run a little and had a nagging ache in my right hamstring. Gave it another week and then tried again and still had the ache. Gave it a few week. Repeated this for a few months before I realized I’ve got something more than just soreness going on here.
After almost 4 years my chronic hamstring tendinitis or tendinosis or tendinopathy is finally gone.
I went to the physical therapist and did the exercises and strength training he gave me but whenenver I tried running and got close to 20 miles a week it would come back and I’d have to take a few weeks off again. I tried running super slow and it still came back. I took about 9 months off and came back super slow and conservative and it still came back.
Granted this is my experience of N=1 but here is what I was doing when it finally went away. I don’t know what specifically I was doing that helped but here is everything I changed.
I was running in Hokas before. I got rid of Hokas and have some Saucony I run in. I was thinking that barefoot running might help and tried for a month to transition to barefoot running. I’d run a mile in barefoot shoes then do a few miles in my normal running shoes. When I’d try to increase the time I spent barefoot running my body didn’t seem to appreciate it too much. So after 2 months of trying to transition completely to barefoot running, my compromise was to do a 1 mile w/u in minimalist shoes then i change into my regular running shoes for my workouts. I think this has helped change how I run and maybe what has contributed to not getting re-injured. It’s been hot this summer so that has helped keep me from running fast. I’ve been doing all my running the last 2 months at 9-10 min/mile pace.
I started at just 1 mile a day and increased to 2 miles a day then 2 miles every other day and the days that weren’t 2 miles were 4 miles. Now I’ve done 2 weeks in a row of 30 miles and starting to add some temp stuff and not a twinge of pain in my hamstring.
Plan is to carry on doing 1 mile w/u in minimalist shoes before each run except long runs and to keep slowly increasing my miles and the speed of my tempo runs. In the past my chronic hamstring tendonitis would have long flared up before now so I think i finally have it beat. I don’t really do any dynamic warm-up or stretching and don’t do any strength training. I’m in a big running block to get ready for a marathon in march so right now I’m not doing a lot of biking, just about 2 bike sessions a week. When I was starting out with really low milage then I was biking 3-4 times a week.
Don’t know how much, if any, this can help anybody else but I know chronic hamstring tendonitis and how to get over it seems to be something that shows up fairly regularly on this forum.
In summary then, you feel that running a 1-mile warm-up in barefoot minimalist shoes was the key to getting rid of your hamstring issues??? Interesting, I’ll keep this in the back of my mind in case I have any hamstring problems. Thanks. 