#strength running

I don’t feel right in calling last week’s hamstring twang a tear. A tear implies that I’m not able to run, that it hurts with every walking step you take.

While I was cautious enough to stop running as soon as I felt the most minor bit of tear (a ripple, anyone?), it was still something that needed tending to.

So for the past week I’ve been ramping up the strength training. Lately my mind has been more focused on ramping up the mileage 😝

I neglected strength training for a month, I may have even used traveling as an excuse. But when it comes down to it I made my own bed. This wasn't a fully blown injury, I'm lucky that I just got a warning. 

I actually did some leg work yesterday, so today was upper body.

I’ve actually been putting in a lot of hamstring based strength sessions (4 since last Tuesday) but they’re kind of boring to take photos of. Pffft, who am I now?

Until last winter I was genuinely not convinced that strength training had the ability to give fast turnarounds to minor running injuries (stress fractures falling into the “major” camp). Jason Fitzgerald tends to call this strength running. It was in about January last year that Alison found his site and referred me onto it.  

This blog post is usually one of his goto pieces that I... go to. Maybe there are other blogs that preach this same kind of strategy too, but once I find something that works I tend to stick to it until it stops working. I don't tend to experiment or keep researching just for the fun of it. 

The most aggressive thing in this strategy is to stop running! That simple rule is what I used to get wrong for a whopping 16 years of running before 2014. 

16 years of running through injuries was a waste of time. It's funny how we always think that waiting patiently and NOT RUNNING is the waste of time, when in hindsight it's clearly not 😉

Freaking hill training on Friday!

My typical strength training sessions in the past week have been the following:

TUESDAY:

Planks - 3 x 50 sec 

Bent leg raises - 3 x 20 

Single leg bridges - 3 x 20 L/R 

Hamstring swissball - 3 x 20

WEDNESDAY:

Single leg bridges - 3 x 20 L/R 

Hamstring swissball - 3 x 20

THURSDAY:

Swiss ball sit ups - 3 x 30 

Bent leg raises - 3 x 20 

Bicycle - 3 x 30

FRIDAY:

Single leg bridges - 3 x 20 L/R 

Hamstring swissball - 3 x 20 

Lateral leg raises - 3 x 24 

Standing thera-band side pull - 3 x 15

I also did 10 x 90 second hill repeats on this day, just to add to the addiction of strength work this week. 

SUNDAY:

Single leg bridges - 3 x 20 L/R 

Hamstring swissball - 3 x 20

This is more than normal because of my hamstring. Usually I try to do 3 of these types of sessions a week. 

I don't normally blog my strength training sessions because that's a whole other mission that I do not want to have on my list, lol! 

But for anyone interested I always log strength training on my dailymile training log. I keep my training open, you can check it out anytime you want (if you really have nothing to do at work). 

Am I clear to resume normal training yet? No. But can I run? Yes. My physio said that once you reach a stage of no pain while running (which for me was Thursday), running will aid the new muscle fibers in preparing it for more running. 

Even though I've been rapidly strengthening, it I still have to remember that it's weak. It'll take another 4-6 weeks of strengthening it until it's at a level where I can be 100% confident.