Out of nowhere, my right hamstring started bothering me while out walking. I had planned on running easy intervals the next couple weeks to test out the approach, but I quickly dialed all my running plans back once it started bothering me.
It’s still bothering me a bit this morning, and this time around I’m not sure if anything in particular triggered it let alone what. I had run a brief easy interval session Monday with no problems. I had only rode the spin bike and strength trained otherwise during the last week, with no ill effects. I walked as much as usual with no problems.
At this point, the one set of training I’ve done full speed ahead is my strength training, and the only work below the waist I’ve done consistently in the last week has been the overhead squats. Even then, only four sets of 3 reps, with no soreness or distress afterward. Everything else works upper body or core, no ill effects from that aside from residual mild soreness here and there.
Now granted, yesterday I had other random pain come and go in my knee, my hip socket, while walking. So who knows… the weather isn’t really changing in Vegas, but maybe atmospheric pressure or the pull of the moon or something was screwing with my biology yesterday. I’ll be more concerned if I’m still hurting in a few days.
Still, I want to resume regular running, and none of this is stopping me from easy running. I had wanted to do the easy intervals to get away from slower easy running and try to do some faster runner at a lesser volume. If my body’s not reday for that, then I need to listen and just run easy until maybe it is. There’s going to be gaps and breaks throughout the rest of this year anyway, so it’s not like I can’t pivot or rest if I need to stop or outgrow running easy.
On the flip side, strength training is actually going quite well. I’ve substantially improved numbers on pretty much every exercise I do, and am making progress on the new overhead squat. Again, I only do 20 minutes every day, not a second more, and I’m not doing much lower body training beyond ab/oblique work and the overheads, so this probably isn’t cutting into my running capacity.
At the same time, I gained some weight back. Some of this is the combination of the added strength training emphasizing muscle mass, the water retention that comes with that and resulting inflammation, plus the diminished aerobic work over time since the spin bike simply doesn’t burn the calories running does, during or after training. I’ll be more worried if I resume running and the weight stays.
I’m going to run easy today, and if there’s no issue see if I can do some short repeats tomorrow.