Injury Update – May

Well a few weeks has passed since we started his article.  An update on ststus is below:

New

Jarrod is first to acknowledge his predicament.

A pain in the bum

I’ve been called (a lot) worse. My injury, high hamstring tendinopathy began summer 2019. Up to then, I’d probably been running my best ever, at the tender age of 51 yrs! Trouble is, then you get complacent- niggle free, running well- therefore “bomb proof” and not only running more but always at least quite quickly.

I began to notice tightness of my right hamstring sometime August but thought “I’d run through it” (as you do). Eventually, things progressed, I couldn’t sit down or drive without pain in the bum, operating got painful etc etc. A 6 hour drive to St Ives in October just about finished me off.

So, I reduced my running, stopped anything uphill or fast (including Tuesday training) and went to a physio. He gave me a load of progressive eccentric loading exercises. This was a mistake in hindsight. At that point I needed to rest it and the exercises were making it worse.

By this time I was getting a bit desperate- endless google searches, buying crap Chinese devices from Amazon (supposedly low level laser thing), a variety of heat and icing things, weekly message, tried acupuncture etc. I had stopped running all together by then but still cycling a bit and also swimming quite a lot. Eventually got an MR scan that showed features consistent with tendinopathy and a lot of bone inflammation where the tendon inserts on your bum (maybe even a stress fracture).

The thing that started to get me better was stopping conventional cycling. Trouble is that you have quite a lot of hip flexion in cycling which pulls on the knackered tendon and its bone insertion. I couldn’t just swim otherwise I’d go insane so I bought an “Elliptigo” off eBay. Bloody brilliant! It’s basically a stand up bike with your legs going in an ellipse- a little but like an elliptical cross trainer. Unfortunately they are v pricey but I was lucky to get something called an ElliptiGO arc from eBay, supposedly new, at 1/3 price. It’s been brilliant- you get the same sort of buzz that you get from a run and its much harder than cycling. Funny thing is the looks I get. I’ve seen a few WRC people whilst out and about. Basically its a mixture of amusement, bemusement and frowning (that’s from the die hard cyclists because its not a “proper” bike). So, my hamstring’s much better now- up to running again very soon (I’ve had a couple of tentative jogs so far).

What have I learnt? Well same lessons that we all learn when injured. I’ve been injured and out before, e.g. after a big toe op, but this has been the worst injury so far. I missed running because nothing else really is the same (bike, swim, gym, elliptigo etc). I missed the ambience, chat, bragging rights and general piss taking of WRC and that feeling of completely emptying the tank after a race or training session. I went through the usual step of “running bereavement” (denial, anger, sadness etc). However, I now feel less reliant on running, yet can’t wait to get back to it. Ill keep on doing the elliptigo and will take core exercises etc more seriously. In the context of covid-19 and seeing first hand what the repercussions on healthcare are going to be, the injury was really no big deal.

Jarrod

Updates on last month:

Emmy:
I’ve done a little bit of running, mainly a combo of running and walking as I get very tight calves and feet at the moment. Feels good to be at least heading out to run now I know I’m not doing any more damage to it.

Hoping that eventually they will start opening things up a bit more and I can go to physio and maybe get an injection as well to see if that helps! I think I will come to Tuesday training when it starts up, and maybe start at half the reps or something to start building back up!

Bill:

My appointment with the specialist about my lower back and pelvis problems became a phone consultation and then on the day of the appointment was cancelled. There are greater issues in the world.

I’ve waited two years to get to this point and so I’ll have to wait a little longer. I’ve no idea when it will be but I’m guessing several months at least.

I’m still doing the odd couple of miles very slowly but it’s just nice to get out for a short time.

Matt

I’m always fairly busy with work tbh but I can usually find windows of time to shoehorn in some exercise. Like many people who work long hours in an office I need to run to maintain sanity as well as fitness.  Both my back and knee continue to cause me problems after running so I am limiting it to once or twice per week and even then only relatively short and easy efforts.

Instead I have decided to get out on my bike. The lockdown has provided the perfect opportunity to cycle more as I currently don’t have to do a school run, I can leave my car at work for house calls and can therefore commute to and from work by bike. The A34 from Monks Heath to Congleton is notoriously dangerous to cycle on when there is no pandemic but currently it isn’t too bad at all.

Jeremy Bygrave has also introduced me to a whatsapp group which has quickly grown into a 30+ group of cyclists participating in the Wilmslow 1 hour cycle challenge.  There is a new challenge every few weeks. This is evolving rapidly and has become quite competitive in a short space of time. This appeals to me and has ignited some new enthusiasm for cycling. It is also giving me something else to focus on whilst allowing my knee and back more time to fully recover.  With any luck I hope to make a full return to pain-free running at some point this year.

Hope you and everyone else at the club is well. All the best.

Matt

Ps. I may ask Jarrod (also carrying an injury) if he wants to join the Wilmslow 1 hour cycle challenge. I miss battling it out with him in the Summer Series. I usually win of course (hopefully he will take the bait)  🙂

Julie:

I am getting over my niggles, back to running, all be it very slowly. My original injury was plantar fasciitis, but this triggered problems with my hip which has a bit of wear and tear. The plantar cleared up ages ago but the hip has been hard work to get over, and I feel like I have lost a lot of strength and fitness. It is not right yet, but much better, so just going to keep slowly plodding on.

Ms C:

Rumour going round  that one of our lady members has a sore hip and was resting!!

Hip-Along:

Awaiting Covid crisis to settle down and for non urgent ops to be reinstated for my injection. Have I progressed from 660 steps to 850 then 950, finally 1.2k before I did the Peter Herd Classic 1 Mile.!  Not being so daft this time, so run, recover, rest, rest , rest, try a run!

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If any others are injured…  let me know about it we can track it here in future updates.  Please eMail me at: [email protected]

Thought a Mr J might be injured or recovering too!