Sunday, December 06, 2015

6K on treadmill, 3x200; 20K aborted due to hamstring

Yesterday: 6K on treadmill. I noticed that my left hamstring was sore, probably from 1) sitting endlessly in meetings (6 hr Thursday, and another 6 hr Friday) at the USATF annual meeting, and 2) the treadmill, which does really weird stuff to your gait, especially when RW. I did the 6K in 38:20, which was reasonable given that it was on the 'mill, and then headed out to the parking lot across the street for 3x200m @ 85% effort; did the first one in 1:04 then screwed up my watch so I have no idea how fast the second two were.

Garmin data here. 

Today: 20K. Not :(. I felt a little sore in left top hamstring (I think it's hamstring - doesn't seem like piriformis) the first 500m or so but then loosened up and felt really, really great. My first 12k was awesome. There's a beautiful walkway in Buffalo Bayou that goes right next to downtown Houston, and it was so perfect this morning. Low 40s and calm and clear (about 5-6C?). SO pretty. Kathy, who was with me on a rented bike, took a photo of downtown with the sunrise...gorgeous.

But then about 12.3km I felt something pull or spasm in the sore left butt, and I had to stop. I tried to stretch and casual walk it off, and then racewalked another 0.3km, but then it really pulled and I just couldn't continue. I think and hope that it is only a spasm and that it'll be fine in a couple of days. I curled up on the sidewalk and had a good cry. Kathy was very sympathetic as she is a racewalker too. Fortunately, we were close to the conference venue at that point in the walk, and I was able to ride the bike back. I can walk OK as long as I don't racewalk or try to walk briskly. It's definitely quite sore. I am very, very disappointed as I really needed to get in a long walk prior to the 1 hr postal in 3 weeks, and I felt SO GOOD this morning before this happened. SO FRUSTRATING and SO ANNOYING. I was doing 6:20/km before that happened - seriously good! Arrrgh!!!!!!!!!!!

I took an 800mg ibuprofen and am icing it now. Will take tomorrow as a rest day (planned anyway) and then re-evaluate. If I feel good I'll do my planned 10K fartlek on Tuesday. If not, I will rest more and go from there. If it's just a spasm, I should feel good in a few more days.

Garmin data here. 

1 comment:

Harriet said...

I hope that it is just a spasm. I had something similar prior to a marathon (during a 5K race walk race; went down and got DQ'ed as I could no longer straighten my knee) but I was a able to RW a marathon a few weeks later. I had thought that I would have to cancel.