Good news & bad news from today's run

Dear James, Daniel and Emily,

Today's Run

If you look at that link you will see I was doing great, I had just passed 3 miles, and had hit a nice open, slightly downhill stretch for my speed zone, when my left hamstring tightened up. Since it had been sore on Tuesday I realized that the smart thing would be to stop, walk home and then rub it out. Being I am a smart guy, I did the smart thing.

Here's the good news:

I did a little research, found a link with some good information, and it appears that I can keep running, but have to take it slow and easy, and ice it down when I get done. Here's what it says:

For immediate relief, ice your hamstring right after running. You may either use a commercially available cold pack or simply put a wet towel in the freezer before you go out for your run. Wrap the pack around your leg for fifteen minutes. Also, take an anti-inflammatory like ibuprofen or aspirin with meals, but never before running, to bring down the swelling.

The good news is that you can keep running. In fact, it's part of your treatment to help gradually stretch and extend your hamstring. Just take it easy, using short steps that don't require you to extend your legs too much.

That's the good news, this shouldn't slow down my training much, I just need to be smart about where I run and train.

The bad news:

I think it is pretty clear what caused all of this, all of that kick ball, especially on Saturday, because so much of what I was doing was straight sprinting from a dead stop, and very inconsistent, plus all the kicking, which is something my body is not used to. Also trying to add some hills back into my routes probably made things worse.

My plan:

At this point I plan to play our kick ball game with the BV folks tonight. Assuming my leg doesn't tighten up too much during the day. I just need to play as much infield as possible, and not try to sprint when running the bases. I think I can do that. Then make sure I stretch the next couple of days when I get up, and then take it easy on my weekend runs. Of course I will play it smart, if I am running and it really tightens up I will stop running, and if it gets too bad I will see the doctor to make sure there isn't a tear (but I don't think that's the case.)