I found my compression shorts stashed with all my winter gear (obviously unused since Chicago). I’m wearing the shorts today and it has certainly helped moving around feel better, as two of the muscles they support (hamstring and groin) need their support today and beyond. I feel a bit of residual pain/soreness when I move but moving around is nowhere near as difficult as it was before.
Waking up markedly sore, my leg felt somewhat better after moving around for a bit this morning, and now feels even better in the shorts.
I slept another 8 hours last night after spending an hour on the elliptical at the gym following work. Yesterday originally was a scheduled rest day, but obviously with the hamstring and groin issues most of the last week has been full of de facto rest days.
I split the difference and kept the elliptical set at the minimum level 1, an easy effort to sustain. I had no trouble sustaining it pain-free and comfortably for a full hour. I’m starting to get real comfortable with the elliptical, though perhaps that’s just the rest of my body being fresh from a lack of running.
I also managed on the elliptical session to get my heart rate into training range, around 70-75% of max. I actually couldn’t do this with the machine set at higher levels, as the extra strength needed prevented me from going fast enough. So by accident I’ve found the key to successful elliptical training: Keep the level at 1 or similarly low. I had ironically done it as a rest-day measure but instead it allowed one of my better aerobic sessions on the elliptical.
While tempted to take a complete rest day and see how that affects the leg… I’ve had bad experience trying to sleep after those days (probably unused energy and blood sugar), found I sleep better after training, and don’t want to screw up my current run of good sleep. The plan tonight is to strength train, then go again on the elliptical and see if I can handle another hour.
I’ve seen and heard of people training themselves into shape or maintaining shape through elliptical cross training, and if I can make that work long-term I may be okay for Indy even if these issues take weeks to heal up. Meanwhile, we’ll stick with the elliptical for Operation Shutdown as long as it doesn’t cause any pain.