Welp, strained a hamstring 3 days before 70.3. Advice?

Triathlon Forum
1

I’ll be RICE’ing as much as possible and am wearing compression most of the time. Plan to wear compression for racing, will wrap an ACE tightly around if I must, the support is noticeably helpful right now.

Any other advice, particularly for running and not shuffling, during race day if possible? Any advice for pain since NSAIDs aren’t in the mix? Not unbearable by any stretch but pretty uncomfortable.

I should avoid stretching and deep massage on it for now, correct?

Thanks.

2

Did the same thing before a marathon a few years back. There’s not a lot of time to really do much, unfortunately. Just keep doing what you’re doing.

However, on race day, I did use KT Tape to hold my hammy together. And it worked - although I ran so tensed up that literally every other muscle in my body tightened up before the end of the race, even my forearms! …Everything except for the hammy I had taped, that actually felt fine.

Just my N=1. I may have taped it each day leading up to the race, as well - can’t quite remember. But good luck to you!

3

Thank you! I’ll pick up some KT tape.

4

Stretch out your lower back as much as you can. That will help keep tension off of your hamstring.

Compression around your upper leg will help during the race. Maybe a quad sleeve would work but being so close to race day it’s a risk not knowing if you’ll chafe badly or if it will affect something else.

5

I’ll be RICE’ing as much as possible and am wearing compression most of the time. Plan to wear compression for racing, will wrap an ACE tightly around if I must, the support is noticeably helpful right now.

Any other advice, particularly for running and not shuffling, during race day if possible? Any advice for pain since NSAIDs aren’t in the mix? Not unbearable by any stretch but pretty uncomfortable.

I should avoid stretching and deep massage on it for now, correct?

Thanks.

I would alternate ice heat throughout the day the next 2 days

Natural anti inflammatories

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/foods-that-fight-inflammation

6

Cut the leg off.

7

Any other advice, particularly for running and not shuffling, during race day if possible? Any advice for pain since NSAIDs aren’t in the mix? Not unbearable by any stretch but pretty uncomfortable.

Thanks.

I would adjust your expectations for race day to include a bit of shuffling.

8

depending what you consider strain, the hamstring is a big muscle and if you want very fast healing (and the injury is in the muscle, not the ligament)…you need to give it as much heat as you can to force scare tissue to build up quickly.

so, i m not a big fan of ice unless in the first few hours of a acute injury but for strain muscle…get as much inflammation happening in the meat of the muscle, no streatching it at all and wait until race day.

hamstring is a very dumb muscle that dosnt get hurt easily…if it does…you have something going on higher up…hips/lower back most likely…focus on that part also…

9

Change to regular (non-automatic) pedals. You’ll only be pushing (quads) and not pulling (hammies).

10

This is probably unhelpful, given the details of your post, but a few days before Mallorca 70.3 I strained an adductor. I was traveling from far to get to the race and still wanted to do it, so I simply took painkillers containing Ibuprofen, Codeine phosphate and Paracetamol to get me through the race (I am aware of the dangers). Of course, the injury is now worse (grade 2 tear), but I wasn’t going to not do the race. I had my second best 70.3 run, though it was not totally pain free by any means.

Use it dont use it

11

Echoing comments above - my experience: heat is far better than ice to treat an injury. 10-15 min a treatment, as many times a day as possible. Deep rolling is also beneficial - find the pain point and work it extensively. NSAIDs slow down recovery, so avoid, except for final kilometers of a race, if really necessary to finish.

12

Make sure you are safe to swim. If the injury hold you back or makes you DNF on the bike or run, it is what it is. But you have to know going into the water that you will be able to swim safely.

13

I’ll be RICE’ing as much as possible and am wearing compression most of the time. Plan to wear compression for racing, will wrap an ACE tightly around if I must, the support is noticeably helpful right now.

Any other advice, particularly for running and not shuffling, during race day if possible? Any advice for pain since NSAIDs aren’t in the mix? Not unbearable by any stretch but pretty uncomfortable.

I should avoid stretching and deep massage on it for now, correct?

Thanks.

Miss the race and come back for it when you are fit? Is it worth it?