Archive for July 16th, 2010

The Frugal Runner is back again, this time with a tip borne out of this morning’s hamstring injury.

I got home, made my blog post and immediately set about following good ole RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.  I managed R, I and E with no problem, but what to do about C?  The only compression things I have are for the ankle, so I looked around the apartment for a McGuyvery-type alternative (because after limping home 4.25 miles, the last thing you want to do is hobble over to the drugstore).

I tried wrapping a towel: too bulky.  My homemade neck gaiter: too big.  Then it hit me…the lingerie drawer!  Aha!!  I have a bunch of old tights and pantyhose that I wasn’t going to be wearing in the foreseeable future, if ever, so I started pulling out stuff, ending up with a pair of thick black tights and an old pair of Leggs Sheer Energy Pantyhose, especially perfect because they’re support hose, so they’re thicker and tighter – in fact, I think they’re from when I started running (which I feel the need to mention because I’m not a supp-hose type of gal).  Anyway…

You’ll want 2 pairs.  Take the hose/tights and cut the panty part off and the toes, so you’re left with 4 tubes.

These are it!  Depending on how tight they are and what area you need to support (I’m mostly hamming it up here, though I wanted the top of my calf, too), the toe end is usually smaller so if you want to favor the thigh, pull the toe end up first.  Also, put the looser tubes on first, which in my case are the black tights.  Lastly, ask your wife’s permission before you go cutting up her stuff.  Et voila!

Not the prettiest thing but dang if it doesn’t work well – I’m a sausage!  So there you go.  R-I-C-E.  Done.

Wow.  I had an extremely boring post ready to go, then wouldn’t you know, something happened on my run to spice it up.  Just not in the good way.

The irony was I woke up feeling like a million bucks, my ankle has been great for the past few days thanks to going back to full-dosing on the Glucosamine and changing brands.  Suddenly, that dark cloud hanging over me since April was finally receding for real.

And yesterday I had the pleasure of running with a fellow blogger, MarathonMaiden, who was in Philly for job training.  She’s sweet as can be and it’s always a blast meeting someone you’ve come to know online, in the flesh.  We happened to run into each other in the park this morning, too, which put a huge smile on my face.

So I was feeling great for today’s tempo workout: 9 miles with 10 min@Half pace, 10min@15k pace, 10 min@10k pace, w/2 min. rec’s. between each.  Even though the weather was pure suckage (79 w/dewpoint 75), I felt confident about it and completed the first portion only 5 seconds over my “if the weather wasn’t pure suckage” pace, so 7:15/mi.  About halfway into the second portion is when it happened.

In the blink of a hamstring
I’ve heard the injury description “it felt like I’d been shot” , and while I’ve been held up by a gun-wielding man before, he didn’t actually use it, so I can’t say that’s how it felt.  And I imagine that if I was shot, I’d start crying and this didn’t make me cry, but damn, it was an instant shock of pain.  If we were to compare it to imagined weaponry, I’d say it felt like I got tasered.

That was the end of that tempo.  That was the end of that run.  It hurt too much to do anything but limp home, 4.25 miles.

I stopped once to feel along the leg and check for swelling, there wasn’t (and still isn’t yet) but while I ran my fingers over the area, I felt the taser again, so now I’m reticent to even touch it.  I’m not even familiar enough with where it is on my leg because I don’t want to feel that feeling again, but it’s somewhere above the crook of my knee.  Time for a Google injury hunt, woohoo…

So now it remains to be seen what damage has been done.  I’m sitting on my huge pillow-sized icepack while I write this.  This was a cutback week and tomorrow, thankfully, was a scheduled rest day anyway.  I’m just worried that this is a “real” injury.  If so, I’m screwed.  So I’m not going there mentally yet.  Ice and NSAIDS will be my BFFs for the next couple days and we’ll see what Sunday brings.  Definitely not a long run, that’s for sure.

Never a dull moment.

11am Edit: OK, feeling way better already.  I’m not limping one bit and it doesn’t hurt unless I stretch it by mistake.  Consider it a comma, not a full stop!