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Summer Training and Hamstring Help
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Trironman15
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PostPosted: Wed May 14, 2008 7:04 pm    Post subject: Summer Training and Hamstring Help Reply with quote

Hey everybody I'm new to these forums but I would like to ask for some help and hopefully be able to help some of you in the future as well. I'm going to try and be as specific as possible in my asking for advice as to not waste your guys' time either.

I am currently a 19 year old that just completed my first year in college. I run the 400 and finished the season with an indoor PR of 50.95 and an outdoor PR of 50.94 before pulling my hamstring.

I was wondering if anybody had any training advice for a college athlete in the summer. I am afraid of overtraining this summer but then again I'm afraid of falling behind the elite athletes as well. I want to post sub 50 times next year as a goal. If I was to tell you a weakness in my 400 meter running it would be my overall speed. My PR's in the 100 (11.39) and 200 (23.01) are not overly impressive and I open my 400 with a 200 split in the 23's and come back in low 26's.

I would also like to ask if anyone knew of any ways to rehab a hamstring issue. I went to the doctor and he said that I had a minor tear where the hamstring muscle met with the tendon in an area called the musculotendinous complex(sp?) I am super flexible and I think it might have happened due to a messed up strength ratio between my hamstring and my quad. It's been 4 weeks and 4 days since it's happened so I was wondering what I can start to do for it. I stretch it everyday, I've been jogging lightly since 2 weeks after the injury, and I've been doing hamstring curls starting this week every other day.

Thanks for your guys' help in advance. I greatly appreciate it.
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Dan
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PostPosted: Thu May 15, 2008 4:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The number one priority is to make sure your hamstring is fully healed. What tests did they do? If not an MRI, it may just be the typical strain and guesswork on the doctor's part. I always recommend deep tissue (i.e. sports) massage. A good specialist will be able to quickly return a supposedly injured hamstring to full health, as it's often little more than a stubborn cramp/knot.

Based on your data, I would say you're going out a bit too quick the first 200m relative to your max speed. Mid-24 would be more reasonable. So, either you're faster than you think and you really need more endurance (because you're slowing down a bit too much the second half), or you're running too close to max and that's putting you in a hole at the end. Determining what your best possible PR is (one healthy, of course), might be a good starting point.

Dan
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Angelo Z
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PostPosted: Sat May 17, 2008 7:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

How long have you felt pain in your hamstring? Where is exactly is the pain, at the very end of the hamstring muscle or at the very beginning. If so, then it's a ligament injury if you feel the pain more towards your joints. If it's just in the middle it will wear off. Also to prevent future injuries warm up and stretch correctly before working out. Not only that but having great overall flexibility helps the most. I would just work towards the side splits outside of running. You will be so flexible that you probably couldn't pull a muscle even if you didn't stretch before running.

Also, you will not fall behind the other athletes. This could also be your recovery time with this hamstring injury. Aside from all of that you won't overtrain either. Skeletal muscles get overtrained about 500x faster than your cardiac muscle and smooth muscle in the lungs. Think of your heart and lungs being the muscles that do all the stamina, not your legs. The heart and lungs can't really be overtrained until a certain amount of effort where it forces your heart and lung muscles to expand. After you finish a run both your heart and your lungs are like enlarged rubber bands, thus the walls of both organs become very thin while they are stretched out after exercise. It takes around 30 minutes-1 hour for them to go back to their original size again. Just a scientific thing Wink
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Trironman15
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PostPosted: Sun May 18, 2008 6:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote



That is an image around where the pain was coming from Angelo Z. The injury happened almost five weeks ago and the pain has been completely gone for about a week now although I do get a little tingle when I sit with my knees tucked in towards my chest. It is on the outside of the hamstring fairly close to the knee. In the gray area between where the meat of the muscle seems to connect to the tendon. I can actually do the side splits as well from years of Tae Kwon Do and before the injury I could also do the front splits but I can't do those since the injury. Like I said I stretch daily even when not working out and am quite flexible. The day of the injury I warmed up, stretched, then did drills that further warmed me up and stretched me before performing the workout. Then on the second buildup sprint it popped on me.

Dan the Doctor didn't have me do an MRI. He felt the tendon behind my knee on the outside and said it felt loose. He pushed on the back of my hamstring and found the source of the pain with two fingers, and then made me do a million different movements and telling him when I was fine, when there was discomfort, and when there was pain. I had one of my coaches (who knows a little about deep tissue massage) do a deep tissue massage on me about 2 weeks after the meet and it helped tremendously but I no longer have access to that now that I've gone home from school.

I agree that I'm going out quickly but over the years I've found that I race best that way. If I try to go even splits or take the even a second off of the first 200 I tend to run the same in the last 200 no matter how fast I take the first.

I was just wondering if anyone had examples of a week of summer training for a college athlete? My coach is providing the entire team with summer lifting programs but I'm looking for some running or plyometrics to supplement it.

Also a friend of mine from another school is considering running in a few summer track meets. I don't know if this is such a good idea? What are your thoughts?

Edit: Also Dan, I just wanted to let you know that I have only ran two 100 meter dashes in the last 3 years one being an 11.39 and the other being 11.47 both in 2007. The 200 time of 23.01 is also my PR from 2007's outdoor season because I was not able to run outdoor this year and my indoor PR was 23.12 this year.
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Dan
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PostPosted: Sun May 18, 2008 10:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't have any sample training plans handy... As long as you're healthy, summer all-comer's meets can be an enjoyable, beneficial experience. I often did several of them with friends in college.

I'm guessing you just strained the tendon or the hammy at the attachment point... From what you described, I have little confidence in the doctor's diagnosis. This gut feeling is at least somewhat supported by the speed of the recovery. Stretching is good, but massage is much better. You can do it yourself by simply digging into the affected area (make sure the muscle is relaxed), working around until you find good leverage points, and slowly rubbing out the tension. Think about it like a taught rope -- stretching it will just add more tension... Some suppleness has to be added first.

Dan
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Angelo Z
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PostPosted: Tue May 20, 2008 4:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh that is a ligament injury by far. Not just because it's close to a joint, but if you grab that area with your fingers, it's a major ligament. They take a longer time than pulling a muscle to recover. I have had some ankle injuries that when every time I would pull my pants off of my feet I always felt pain in my ankle and it persisted for some 180 days. Ligaments are very serious, tennis players that have torn their rotator cuff have had to stop playing tennis. One of my teacher's hand got injured in a volleyball game when his fingers were bent back touching his forearm. For 2-3 decades he has trouble feeling his hand and typing with it.

Anyways, don't be too worried, running can't really cause such a serious ligament injury. Your ligament healed but it's working on gaining it's flexibility back, so there is an imbalance between it and the other ligaments.

For summer training, think of it that you just have more time on your hands. Increase the distance so you can develop your aerobic base more and include other drills like plyometrics if you didn't have time for them before. You don't really want to just increase intensity over the summer, that can even be done when it isn't summer, that's why I'm saying that if you have more time, then put more time into running. Do hills, or if you do not feel comfortable with running with weights like I do, buy a weighted vest which puts less strain on the joints, or just simply buy a resistance parachute. I highly support the idea of added resistance to running itself, because that's what it will help you in. Squats and legpresses help you in those particular areas, but not in pounding the ground harder and extending your legs more.
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Trironman15
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PostPosted: Fri May 23, 2008 7:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks a lot Dan and Angelo for the help, I've been rubbing the tendon every other day before stretching and I can hardly tell I was ever injured.

I guess since you guys don't have any basic training outlines handy I will run through the one I'm currently doing to see if that is ok. Our coach gives us our weight lifting program but it is kind of up to yourself to supplement it with running. Last year my season ended May 18th and I started running June 1st. I then hit the track hard starting August 15th, and team practices started October 31st and by December I had the worst shin splints I had ever had and was just drained physically. I still managed to PR indoors in the 400 though before hurting myself right before outdoors started. Here is a sample of what I would be doing last season.

This year because of the injury my season ended mid April. I started running with the purpose of getting in better shape rather than rehabbing my leg on the 4th of May and I just started to get on the track this week. Here is an outline of what I've been doing. I just want to avoid the drained feeling and annoying injuries I had last season so while I scaled back I want to know if it is enough in order to avoid overtraining.

Monday:
Warm Up - Stretch
8x200 @ 30 seconds w/ 2:00 rest
Cool Down - Stretch
Lower Body Lift Day (Power Clean 3x5, Squat 3x6, RDL 3x6, Seated Row 3x6, Seated DB Bicep Curl 3x6)
300 abs

Tuesday:
Warm Up - Stretch
Plyo Boxes or Stairs or Med Ball Throws
Cool Down - Stretch
300 abs

Wednesday:
Some sort of Cross Training (Perhaps Swim 500 Meters or go for a 10 mile cycling loop)
Lift Day 2 (Body Curls 3x5, Split Jerks 3x5, Bench Press 3x6, DB lateral Raise 3x6, Close Grip Bench Press 3x6)
300 abs

Thursday:
Warm up - Stretch
Short Hills 3x6 30 meter hills w/2:30 rest between sets
Cool down - Stretch
300 abs

Friday:
Warm up - Stretch
6x150 @ 24 w/2:00 rest
Cool Down - Stretch
300 abs
Lift Day 3 (Hang Cleans 3x5, Front Squat 3x6, Pull up 3x10, Incline DB Flyes 3x6)

Saturday:
Some sort of cycling or swimming or hiking or basketball

Sunday:
Day off!

Last year the intensity was way up on everything so I brought it back a bit. I just wanted your opinion on whether this is too much?
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Dan
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PostPosted: Sat May 24, 2008 7:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Seems pretty well balanced to me. The back to back speed/hill workouts are a mild concern, but if they're not both done all out, it should be okay.

Dan
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