Well, I'm not going to hit 1,000 miles this year. I've decided I need to rest to let my hamstring recover. It is just getting worse. I think I have high hamstring tendinopathy. I only base that on what I've read on the internet, but everything about it is almost exactly how people describe it. It was just there one day. Not while I was running, but a while after. It felt like there was this thin metal rod in the back of my leg all the way up from somewhere above the knee to deep inside the middle of the right half of my butt--right where the hamstrings attach to the pelvis. Over time, the pain left my leg and just settled where the hamstrings attach. It feels like a very hard pinch. I've been looking for any information I can find about it. I wondered if I did it running or stretching--I thought stretching, but something I read said that it only occurs in runners, so I guess it was the running. I don't remember when it started. It has been a couple of months. I can run with it and it hasn't been bothering me after warming up until lately. I tried stretching it because I thought it would help and that only aggravated it. Later I read that stretching is bad for it. What is good for it is not running and strengthening the glutes and abs. So I am going to take some time and strengthen my glutes, abs, and shins (might as well try to solve that problem, too.) I will also try to work on upper body strength, because, while my legs are probably as strong and tight as they have ever been, my upper body is way too soft. I don't know how long it will take, but I think the pain should go away after a few days of not running. But that won't be time to start again. I'm sure it will come back if I run too soon. So I will give it 2-4 weeks. In the mean time, I need a way to maintain cardio. I've read that biking is fine, but this isn't exactly the time of year for it--not when I have to work during all the daylight hours. I've got to do something, though. I want to build on where I am and not lose it.
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