Injury Update

I went to the CMT today and got the best possible news - there's no real injury - no tear, pull or strain.  In fact, she couldn't determine that anything was damaged at all.  I went through a series of tests and stretches and there was no pain anywhere.

However, there was considerable tightness in one of the hamstring muscles on the right leg (as it turns out I have similar tightness in the same muscle on the left side) and she worked on loosening them up.

What appears to have happened was the exertion of that high turnover 200m triggered a muscle cramp, which then went into spasm and simply locked up.  So essentially the muscle forced me to stop before an actual injury occurred.  (so glad my muscles have more brains than I do!)

Being that I have similar tightness on the left side, it could just as easily have been the left leg that had the problem, so I'll need to be careful.  Another tidbit - the next day (Wednesday) my left quad was really stiff, and as it turns out it too was a casualty of that sprint.  There's a good sized knot in the left quad which she worked on as well, and hopefully w/ some rolling that can be improved.  

The good news here is that in a couple of days, I should be able to resume running, and if all goes well I hope to be back into workouts by Wednesday of next week.  Of course I'll need to be careful on anything faster that 30-second/200m pace - and under no circumstances will I be attempting the 25-26 second 200m stuff.  It's really not necessary for 800m training anyway.  I was hoping to crank one out to determine where I might be in regards to running the 400m in the summer which was not particularly smart w/ a race coming up.  The speed training had been going so well I was thinking if I could run a 26-flat 200m now, that I might be able to get it down to 25 or so by the spring, which would translate to a 54-flat quarter, yada yada yada - dumb move.  

If I can't run by Saturday I'll be heading to the gym to x-train on the bike or elliptical  After that I'll play it by ear but I'm really hoping to start back up again very very soon!

Training:  

Wed, 1/21:  Off (scheduled)

Thurs, 1/22:  Off (unscheduled)  Appointment w/ CMT:  hamstrings, quads.

 

No Race this Weekend

Well, I had made it a long long way w/o any legitimate injury, but today (the last workout before the race) I broke the streak.  Right hamstring.  I don't think it's that serious, but serious enough to keep me out of action on Saturday.

Workout:  3 x 200 @ about 31 pace, followed by 2 x 300m @ 46 pace - then 2 x 200m hard.

It started out well enough, the initial 200s came in on pace as I was imagining them as the opening 200m of the race.

The 300s provided a great confidence boost:  the first 300m was used as a simulation of the last 300 of the opening 400m of the race - just trying to maintain an even and relaxed rhythm.  (time was 45.8) 

The second 300m (now w/ the fatigue from the first as I just had a 1-minute break between them) was used to simulate the last 100m of the opening 400m, and then the first 200m of the second lap.  (i.e. keeping that nice even pace, and then upon hitting 100m (the 400m mark during the race) picking up the effort level to maintain pace through the next 200)  This went very well - first 100m of 15-flat, then I increased my effort, but still very much in control for a 30.8 last 200m giving me another 45.8.

Last up - 2 x 200m hard.  This is where I had the issue.  Up until now, the 200s were always run quickly, but not actually cranking up the turnover to get into a "sprint mode".  The idea was to hit these 200s hard, but I really hammered the first turn.  I felt some sudden tightness on the outside of my right hamstring about halfway through the turn - then it disappeared.  About 2-seconds later it zapped me again.  At this point I decided to pull the plug about 100m in.  The 100m was 12.x seconds even w/ the flare ups, so this was a drastic departure from what I had been doing on other 200s.  Perhaps I just went a little too hard, but the temps here were over 65-degrees today so certainly it wasn't like I was doing this in the cold.  

I stretched out some and tried to test out the damage before heading home.  I don't think it's pulled and it's certainly not torn.  It's just tight, almost like a cramp deep within the muscle.  I can feel it when walking, but even at light pace it doesn't hurt.  There's no bruising which would clearly be the case if it were torn or pulled.  

I ran yesterday (usually my off day) as I had planned to push the off day out until tomorrow.  I'll obviously stick w/ that plan now, and I guess I'll just ice and ibuprofen for a couple days and see how it feels Thursday morning.  I also scheduled an appointment w/ my CMT for Thursday to have her go over it to see if she can figure out how bad it is.  My guess at this point is that it's just tight and sore and hopefully within a few days I'll be able to get in some light running.  

Kind of a drag to have this happen right before the first race.  But on the bright side, today's workout leads me to believe that 62-63 pace per 400m is something that's sustainable for me for a good portion of an 800m race.  I figured I was going to face some adversity at some point and I'm not going to let it get me down.  It certainly could be a lot worse - now I just need to do what I can to heal up and get back out there.

Training:

Sun, 1/18:  8-miles @ 7:19 pace (148-HR)

Finally - I forced myself to slow down.

Mon, 1/19:  5-miles @ 7:03 pace

Tues, 1/20:  Reps:  3 x 200m (31.4, 31.2, 31.4), 2 x 300m (45.8, 45.8)  2 x 200m (tweaked right hamstring on first rep)