Right now, sitting out on the deck of a Venice, Florida couple we consider to be friends as well as relatives, I’m increasingly torn between taking a few days off to let my hamstring fully heal and trying that 30-20-10 workout Colleen wrote about when we go down to the beach this afternoon.
I got in four great runs last week – including a quick 4-miler along a rapidly rising Wabash River that gobbled up more and more of the Greenway as my sister and I ran – as well as three extremely satisfying bike rides. In all three cases, I was riding either to or from Bluffton after hitching a ride in one direction or the other. Our son started his first real summer job last week, which meant I went several days without using my car keys.
No matter. I seem to have more fun commuting by bike than riding for training or pleasure. There are fewer decisions to make. I don’t tie myself up in knots figuring out where and when to ride, and it shifts my focus off our high-traffic, recently chip-sealed road onto the journey ahead. Even when I got caught in the rain one day last week, it was fun to view Bluffton through the perspective of various carports and overhangs as I leapfrogged toward my eventual destination. (I was early, so I had time to kill. Luckily, I had some reading material and a couple of yoga poses in mind.)
Riding several easy miles home after Thursday’s hard run helped loosen up my hamstring pretty well, and Friday night’s 90-minute slow jog didn’t bother it at all. I skipped running this weekend during our drive down here, so we’ll see what the next few days brings.
All I know right now is that I’m definitely going to be doing this fantastic hamstring stretch I found on a YouTube series called Dirty Yoga (as in quick & dirty, not anything R-rated). It works my hamstring like nothing else I’ve tried before.
Watch that hamstring Tisch… I know I’m late to the party but I had a big problem with a saddle on my trek. I thought I had a running injury but it was really that the saddle on my bike was too wide for my sit bones.
I only bring this up because you rarely have hammy issues and you’ve been riding a lot more. If you ride and it hurts one of you sit bones (even if you barely feel it), there’s a good chance it’s your saddle and not running.
Thanks for the insight, but I’m pretty sure it’s running. Can’t wait to ride again once we get back home.
Cool. I know that feeling too… I’ve put in 77 miles in the last three days just catching up from vacation and it’s been awesome.
Tanya, are you familiar with the Kinetic Revolution? Here’s the web address http://www.kinetic-revolution.com/running-technique-programme-v2-0/?vtid=HillTechNewsletter
That sounds cool. I’ll check it out when we get back to Indiana. (Limited web access while we’re traveling.)