Dang those hamstrings! This week I finally got back on the roads after a good month of recuperation. I probably wouldn’t have taken that long but I have been busy with the work thing. At least that was my excuse, and it was an excuse that seems to have paid off. I have run the last three days in a row and I haven’t had any issues with the hamstring at all. The hips, now thats another story. They still seem to be giving me grief.
The hip grief started up in ful force right off the bat. I have been putting in the time to stretch them out while I was not running. I am sure it has been worth the effort despite still having soreness in them. I do think that I have gotten a little over zealous in my approach to trying to create some greater flexibility in that area, especially during this week of returning to running. If I can just remember to go slowly in my hip stretches then I should be fine. But I find myself wanting to get it over with as soon as I can and that increases the speed in which I throw my leg back behind myself (literally throwing the weight of my leg back behind me rather than gently lifting it into position, bad Marco!) I do think that overall I am doing myself good through this process… I hope.
The runs this week have been somewhat slow and short. I had to force myself to do shorter runs which have slowly been increasing (4-5.1-5.2) I don’t feel like I am over-doing it at all yet. We’ll see how this continues, but so far so good. In the three runs this week I have noticed that the point in which I begin to get tired has gotten further along each time. Which must be a good thing, not sure if I would say that it reflects an increase in physical performance but it still looks good to guy who is trying to get back into it. Overall I feel a lot better too after just three days. I think I have really been jonsing for those endorphins. Feels good to have the coursing through my system again!
One last thing, I have been running on regular running shoes (as opposed to the zero drop shoe) in the hope of leveling out my hips. I am not real sure it is helping any, but I am going to keep it up for awhile before I give up. The zero-drop shoes are much more comfortable, I htink it is the wider toe box that I mostly miss as my feet feel a bit squished and achey in the regular shoes.