Friday, January 20, 2006
Ouch...
It is a bit of a giveaway if I am injured - I don't blog. So in this case no news is bad news.
After a run-free day on Sunday, following a big night at a wedding on Saturday, I also skipped my scheduled Monday morning gym/run session, as I had a lot of work to do for a client meeting that afternoon. The meeting was about 15 mintues from Narabeen, so I thought I could get some hurdling practice on tartan in afterwards, and indeed, events unfolded that way.
After a fairly thorough warm-up with stretching, 2km run and some run-throughs with one of the sprint squads, I set up 5 hurdles on the track that someone had nicely marked for me (OK, maybe they didn't do it just for me). A few practice starts, and then some one hurdle runs. BANG - right abductor strain on the first one. Not a collapse to the ground in agony injury, but defintely more than just a tight muscle. I walked back to the start line, did some stretches, and attempted another start, but quickly learnt that there would be no more running today.
Home to ice and lick my wounds (not literally - although give him a biscuit and he might let you).
Did the right thing this time round - lots of icing, no training, and some Internet research on groin injuries. Definintely only a grade one pull, and probably about 0.8. Walking normally I did not notice it, which was good news. I learnt that unlike nearly all other leg injuries, stretching is not recommended in the early stages of recovery, and rather some strengthening via squeezing a ball between your knees with straight, 45 degree and 90 degree knee angles, is the order of the day. Have been doing this with Louis's spikey ball, which is good, except when Louis is around, and either tries to take the ball, or just climbs over daddy while he is on the ground.
Today (Friday 20th) I decided that is was time to test things, and headed out at 5:30pm for a run. Usual Loretto on grass, and after a first km in 3:57 to loosen up (I hadn't run properly for 6 days, so was a bit edgy), I decided to give things a shake, and ran the next 3km in 10:43. After a brief encounter with a small yappy dog threw out my rhthym, a decided to alternate the next few km, doing 1 strong, 1 easy. Eased back to 4:25 for the 5th km, then 3:32 for the 6th, 4:51 for the 7th, 3:25 for the 8th and an eay 4:36 to finish with. 9km in total in 35:30. Not a spectacular run, but importantly the groin was relatively pain free, and actually became less noticeable as the run went on.
However, I am pretty worried about it. Being able to coast along at 3:30/km is very different from running 100m in 12 seconds, and as I have been going through each event, I am realising they all depend on strong muscles in this area. I have started some stretches and strengthening work in this area, and it is probably better for this to have happened now when I can take remedial action. However, it is an area that is going to be stressed in any training I do, which will make recovery more difficult, and reinjury highly possible. With the National Decathlon champs only three weeks away, and some glaring holes in a few of my performances, I really can't afford to rest fully and will have to train around it. Hurdles will go on the back-burner for another week at least, but I will head along to pole vault training on Sunday, and do some throws work tomorrow, as well as some 1500m pace intervals. Most annoyingly, time and finances really make getting proper physio for this hard to justify. I will see how the weekend goes before ruling this out altogether.
After a run-free day on Sunday, following a big night at a wedding on Saturday, I also skipped my scheduled Monday morning gym/run session, as I had a lot of work to do for a client meeting that afternoon. The meeting was about 15 mintues from Narabeen, so I thought I could get some hurdling practice on tartan in afterwards, and indeed, events unfolded that way.
After a fairly thorough warm-up with stretching, 2km run and some run-throughs with one of the sprint squads, I set up 5 hurdles on the track that someone had nicely marked for me (OK, maybe they didn't do it just for me). A few practice starts, and then some one hurdle runs. BANG - right abductor strain on the first one. Not a collapse to the ground in agony injury, but defintely more than just a tight muscle. I walked back to the start line, did some stretches, and attempted another start, but quickly learnt that there would be no more running today.
Home to ice and lick my wounds (not literally - although give him a biscuit and he might let you).
Did the right thing this time round - lots of icing, no training, and some Internet research on groin injuries. Definintely only a grade one pull, and probably about 0.8. Walking normally I did not notice it, which was good news. I learnt that unlike nearly all other leg injuries, stretching is not recommended in the early stages of recovery, and rather some strengthening via squeezing a ball between your knees with straight, 45 degree and 90 degree knee angles, is the order of the day. Have been doing this with Louis's spikey ball, which is good, except when Louis is around, and either tries to take the ball, or just climbs over daddy while he is on the ground.
Today (Friday 20th) I decided that is was time to test things, and headed out at 5:30pm for a run. Usual Loretto on grass, and after a first km in 3:57 to loosen up (I hadn't run properly for 6 days, so was a bit edgy), I decided to give things a shake, and ran the next 3km in 10:43. After a brief encounter with a small yappy dog threw out my rhthym, a decided to alternate the next few km, doing 1 strong, 1 easy. Eased back to 4:25 for the 5th km, then 3:32 for the 6th, 4:51 for the 7th, 3:25 for the 8th and an eay 4:36 to finish with. 9km in total in 35:30. Not a spectacular run, but importantly the groin was relatively pain free, and actually became less noticeable as the run went on.
However, I am pretty worried about it. Being able to coast along at 3:30/km is very different from running 100m in 12 seconds, and as I have been going through each event, I am realising they all depend on strong muscles in this area. I have started some stretches and strengthening work in this area, and it is probably better for this to have happened now when I can take remedial action. However, it is an area that is going to be stressed in any training I do, which will make recovery more difficult, and reinjury highly possible. With the National Decathlon champs only three weeks away, and some glaring holes in a few of my performances, I really can't afford to rest fully and will have to train around it. Hurdles will go on the back-burner for another week at least, but I will head along to pole vault training on Sunday, and do some throws work tomorrow, as well as some 1500m pace intervals. Most annoyingly, time and finances really make getting proper physio for this hard to justify. I will see how the weekend goes before ruling this out altogether.
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So sorry to hear that Sparkie. Physio bills are killing me too. Take care of yourself & I'm sure you'll be back to 100% very soon
Hi Sparkie,
Where did you get your quote "the plural of anecdote is not data"? That's a great line, did you come up with it yourself?
Dave
Where did you get your quote "the plural of anecdote is not data"? That's a great line, did you come up with it yourself?
Dave
Hope the adductors are feeling better...although your lack of blog updates since Friday seems to indicate that it isn't. :-(
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