A Lean and Hungry Look

Easy effort with Maja.  As I was leaving, Brooke asked me to turn around because she thought she had seen something on the back of my right leg.  It turns out there's a pretty dark bruise in the vicinity of where I've been feeling tightness.  I wonder what that means--a tear, maybe?  Feeling a little concerned about it, I took it easy on the run and kept my stride purposely short.

Took yesterday and today off after setting up an appointment with a physical therapist (Ryan Fuhriman) to have the hamstring looked at.  I went in today and learned the following:

• It was probably a cramp that slowed me down around 18 or 19 of SGM, but when I kept running on it, I did some damage to the tissue.  There was a palpable difference in the quality of the tissue in the area  where the pain has been.  The bruise Brooke noticed was several inches below where the damage took place, but gravity does that after a few days.  Ryan was sure that the bruising was caused by the strain.
• The damage is pretty minor and will not require time off, just a temporary reduction in mileage and intensity while it heals.
• I had some pelvis alignment issues that Ryan addressed through different releases and adjustments.  It's unclear whether the alignment issues were a cause or effect of the hamstring problems.
• After the releases, the alignment issues improved considerably.  Ryan wants me to come back next week to see if the alignment problems return.
• I have neural stress that could be a contributing factor to the hamstring problems.  Ryan gave me some exercises that should help me improve in that area over a period of several months.
• I should be stretching twice a day.  I'll try to do that by stretching after my run and before going to bed.
• Another contributing factor may have been lack of strength in the portion of my hamstrings that failed.  Ryan gave me some exercises to work on (with a T-band) that should help improve the strength.  One of them involves doing butt-kicks with the two ends of the band around my ankles.  He suggested mixing things up with this one, doing some "intervals" where I jog in place slowly for 1 minute, then up the pace for 30 seconds, etc.  These are supposed to be pretty difficult at first but should get easier as my strength improves.
• He had an assistant do an ultrasound treatment on the hamstring to speed the healing process.

That's all I can remember.  I'll get back to running tomorrow, but will try to keep the mileage down for the next week or so, and will start doing my exercises and stretches tonight.

Easy effort around neighborhood Memorial Day 5k loop with Maja.  Didn't notice any tightness in the hamstrings.  Did the prescribed stretches after the run.  It was gorgeous this morning, with what my kids used to call a "fingernail moon" in the east and a temperature that was perfect for shorts and a tee with gloves.  Too bad it won't last long.

I dropped Kaela and the rest of her carpool off at Sunnyside Park 45 minutes before their game on Saturday, then parked the car and ran from there.  I headed north and ran across the U campus, through lower Federal Heights up to Popperton Park, then up to the Shoreline Trail and all the way over to Sunnyside and back to the park.  The weather and temperature were perfect, the fall leaves were spectacular, and the run was invigorating.  I picked up the pace a little once I got off the trail above the zoo.  I had a little pain in my left hip during the faster portion of the run in the same area as in the final miles of the marathon and the rest of that day.  I probably need to spend more time stretching, but it's a little crazy right now with Brooke's family in town for her sister's wedding this afternoon.