RICE

I had a wonderful 4th of July weekend filled with fantastic fireworks, hamburgers on the grill, a nice cold beer and lots of RICE. No, I didn’t suddenly acquire an insatiable taste for the food. I’ve been working on recovery with rest, ice, compression and elevation.

I injured my hamstring again. A week or two ago, Jason and I set out for a short morning run. Right away I could feel a twinge in my knee. I went ahead and started out slow, but that nagging ache in my knee started to throb throughout my leg.

Getting quality reading and lap time in while
resting up.

Later that day my hamstring started to hurt. It wasn’t the first time it had hurt recently. I have felt a dull ache a few times the past few weeks. However, I’ve felt dull aches in my hamstring every now and then since I injured it a couple years ago.

Regardless of my initial vague acknowledgement that something wasn’t right, the injury was settling in. We had plans though. A weekly ride to join. Holiday plans to travel to new trails. What an inconvenience. I didn’t have time for this. Apparently my hamstring had little regard for my schedule.

Honestly at this point, I can’t pinpoint specifically what caused this painful flare up. I have a couple of theories but nothing concrete as I had been having success in my workouts, even doing a couple of mild interval workouts. That, I’m certain, wasn’t the cause.

I had considered just taking a day off and moving on to something with less impact. In fact for a day or two I did that. When I realized the soreness wasn’t going away, I knew it was time to be serious. I pulled out previous research to remind myself of the different levels of injury and studied the symptoms list to see where I fit. Thankfully, I believe it’s a minor injury that simply requires some careful attention that should lead to full recovery. The first step is RICE. That means no activity for a week.

I have taken the recovery plan seriously, even if it’s a little disheartening to my outdoor spirit. I’ve had to miss several group activities and alter weekend plans to basically sit on the couch with my leg propped up and a cold bag of frozen corn under my leg. It’s working. I can feel a big difference already. I want to be back outdoors, but I know it’s not worth hurting it any further and that there’s a tried and true recovery method that I need to follow. So no new exciting outdoors adventures to report; instead I’ve worked on several new sewing projects and caught up on a few good books. The change of pace is welcome, as I’ll have a new level of motivation and new goals to work towards!

How do you handle detours in your fitness routine? Are you able to acknowledge a setback (like an injury) and do what’s necessary to move forward in a healthy manner? 

Miss FitGab