Tight Hamstring

So, I spoke too soon about how I didn't seem to hurt myself at soccer/football on Monday. On Tuesday afternoon I began to feel some tightness in my right hamstring and my lower back and by Wednesday morning it was painful to walk and my hamstring was painful to touch. I had hoped that the tightness was just a sign of using my body in a different way than I had in a long time (probably at least a year) and that the tightness would be less on Thursday.

Unfortunately, the pain was about the same on Thursday morning, so I started doing Static Stretches both (Internal and External rotation) every couple of hours. I felt an immediate improvement and wore my compression shorts for the rest of the morning and afternoon. With the 10K at the Cary Distance Festival coming up on Saturday, I decided that I needed to do some kind of run to see what reaction my hamstring would have.

I stretched for a good 10 minutes before I started out on my normal 5 mile loop a little slower than I typically do and although I could feel a little tightness in my hamstring, it didn't get any worse and in fact began to loosen up as my muscles got warmer. I increased my speed in miles 2 and 3 to close to 10K race pace and didn't feel any worse. Feeling much happier and positive about my chances of running on Saturday, I decreased my pace slowly for the final 2 miles and couldn't feel any tightness at the end of the run. I stretched during my warm down walk and the iced my hamstring when I got home.

I continued to stretch on Thursday and am happy to report that although my hamstring is still tight this morning, it is much better than it was on Thursday. I will stretch throughout the day today and should be able to get through the 10K tomorrow. Hopefully with more stretching over the weekend and next week and a limited amount of running (I have only a few shortish runs left before the Half Marathon), I will be pain free my next weekend!