Slornow and Wannabefaster's Winter Group version 3-CLOSED (Page 17)

It sounds like the hamstring is tight at both attachment points which I personally never like to experience.  If you pull something at the attachment, it is much harder to heal (especially at the glute) than a tug at the belly of the muscle (mid point).  If it were me, I would spend time working the full length of that leg wit a TP massage quad roller or the ball and block at the upper attachment point.  If you don't have that, a foam roller is ok, but not nearly as effective.

I know a lot of people do these 100 days of running, swimming, riding etc. but I'm not a fan.  It makes you want to keep the streak going versus listening to the body.  It isn't a harp on you as much as a personal reflection.  I've had a couple of friends knocked out of running for weeks because of it.

I would be doing easier things like walking after the foam rolling, not running,  but after having had a few debilitating injuries I am conservative in my approach. 

Thanks for all the thoughts on flip turns and swim drills!  All were helpful.

So this is cool...I went to a nutrition clinic put on by my Tri team last night.  There was a nutritionist from Boston who presented to us via the web.  Last season, after losing 50lbs, I started training for a half IM...and despite eating properly and training my fanny off, was gaining weight.  It was maddening.  Among the many things I learned last night was one little tip that might be beneficial to us weight battling endurance athletes -

I was told previously that you should always eat something w/a 4-1 carb/protein ratio within 30 minutes of a long workout.  This nutritionist guy says that is true if you want to GAIN weight.  (He says most of the nutrition stuff you see on line for endurance athletes is geared toward adding weight).  If you want to LOSE weight, you eat a 1-1 carb/protein ratio snack w/in 30 min.  I found that really interesting.  I'm going to try it!  Just thought I'd share b/c I know some of you were trying to drop a few pounds too. 

Erika

You're forgiven...that was a great post.  I'm going to try that on Friday.

Stuart, I think you should just come to Madison an give me these pointers in person!  I have had several people give me feedback on open turns (mine really do stink), but I always push the focus into other things.  I'll start to dedicate a bit of time to each swim to make this a priority.

Nancy-I do think swimming is fine (or even biking) if you feel no pulling or pain doing it.    I know you mentioned your hip in an earlier post, you could also test to see if the TFL is involved by using a tennis ball and rolling specifically on that area.  If it hurts, it could be a trigger point.  In that case, keep the ball there until it loosens (or the pain lessens).

Originally posted by PhoenixM

Originally posted by wannabefaster

Originally posted by PhoenixM

Originally posted by wannabefaster I'm with Suzy. This sounds a lot like the beginnings of Plantar Fasciitis. I would be googling this and figuring out the most conservative way to treat it so it doesn't become a full-blown case. I had the beginnings of this years ago when I switched to a pair of shoes that didn't agree with my feet. Got rid of the shoes and did a lot of work on stretching of the calves and rolling the arches with golf balls and tennis balls and fortunately dodged that bullet. I don't think you need to go to a doctor but rather use "doctor internet" to help you to create a short-term therapeutic plan. saveyourself.ca/tutorials/plantar-fasciitis.php looks pretty good to me

Gotchya. I can't get to the full content of that document without paying money, but I've dug around some on the internet about it. I wanted to run a couple questions by you really quick. 1) Since its such a mild case right now, would be safe to continue cycling? Some are saying it would work, but I wanted to run it by here to be sure since I don't want to get sidelined longer than necessary. 2) I'm not finding much about time of recovery since most of the internet is talking about full-blown cases and not early onset, at least from what I've found. Is there a rough time frame for recovery on this?

Sorry, I didn't go far enough to see that it was a pay site. My apologies. I am speaking to you as another athlete, not as a physician. I have no medical school based information to give about PF. If it were me, I would continue cycling. I would probably even run a little bit (in really padded shoes--like my Hokas). Again, not advising you as an MD. I did not stop working out. I stretched, iced, rolled out my feet on golf balls and got lucky because things got better and I kept working out. This happened to me prior to triathlon being my real focus (it may have been in my first go around of P90X ) so I can't really tell you about biking other than to say that I probably would keep biking.

Not a problem. I figured you weren't a doctor, but having gone through it already, you would have a rough picture as to what is and isn't a good idea to do. From what I'm seeing, the REALLY bad cases can be as high as several months, so what I'm thinking of doing is remove running altogether for 3 weeks, convert one run day into a bike day (making it 4 days a week) and using the others as additional rest days whilst following the treatment plan I found online. I'll go out for an easy walk on the 31st and see if anything is screaming at me then. If so, I'll be in a better position financially to have a doctor look at it, so I'll do it then if needed. This may seem excessive, but if it blows up on me, there's a good risk of missing a large chunk of the 2014 season because I'll be sidelined on the run for quite a bit of time during the winter and early spring; I need this time to get up to speed on the run (quite literally) because the early runs have indicated that my progress needs to slow down a bit from what it was. Furthermore, I'd like to be able to do at least two triathlons during that time.

Me again!

PF happened to me before I was a triathlete, but based on what i know now I think it is fine to cycle so long as you are really working on keeping those calves/soleus as loose as possible AND you don't experience pain post effort.  It is possible you will feel some pain as you warm up, but if it goes away and doesn't reoccur once you finish I think this is a good way to keep some base fitness.  I used cycling a lot when I had a met stress fracture a few years ago. Pain is always your guide.

I do want to warn you that taking time off isn't a guarantee that you will return PF or pain free. My coach at the time was an elite runner with PF and even after taking months off he had it when he returned.  I believe the rehab on the legs is a key component.   That  might include thinking about how you walk around all day (e.g. what type of shoes do you wear?). 

Once you return to running, I can share a taping technique I used to keep it at bay early on.  Taping worked quite well for me as I trained up for a Spring marathon.

Foam rollers are good but the Trigger Point products are even better. If you want to really get serious about working out a knot in your leg, glutes or hamstrings use a lacrosse ball. Dense, hard and cheap at around $5.00. I use the Trigger Point Quadballer every day and they make a ball that falls between the softness of the tennis ball and the brutality of the lacrosse ball.

I had a bout with PF 10 years or so ago when I was playing alot of tennis. I would freeze water in a 20oz soda bottle and roll my foot on it at night.   

Thanks for the great tips on turns, Stuart. Glad to hear you are walking again! Do you swim at the MH Aquatics Center?

I haven't experienced PF before, but I wonder if Bryan should try some aqua-jogging until things heal up? Bryan, I use the high density 36 x 6 foam roller nearly every day -- it works great for me. So far, I've been injury-free (knock on wood) and it does a great job helping me work through any soreness I have.

Chris, glad to hear you got in a cycle workout without pain to your knee. Hopefully, you can hit the pool soon.

Randy, thanks for the link to your blog entry on swimming -- very helpful. I'll check out the full series from Gerry Rodrigues when I get a chance. Looks promising.

-Steve