At my age with a dodgy knee and a half a back I have to carefully plan my progress. Yesterday was all about doing the distance. Im well ahead of my timetable for an attempt at the 10k summit.
Great running yourself by the way. With a bit of luck some of the other lads wont post a time and youâll get promoted and we can renew our athletic rivalry in the actual intermediate division.
Is it just hammer or pain anywhere else?
Ger Hartmann has diagnosed me to a tee ---- iâve a nice bit of scar tissue in the middle of my hammer
(taken from âarticlesâ at www.hartmann-international.com)
The most common injury which I see in middle and long distance runners is the chronic muscle tear. These injuries are almost always localized to a large muscle group, either the buttock, groin, hamstring, or calf. I term chronic muscle tears insidious or menacing because they present in such a way that the athlete can continue to run daily, but when fast running is attempted, especially track workouts or racing, the chronic muscle tear interferes to the extent that either the speed work is painful or impossible.
In contrast to acute (sudden) muscle tears and bone and tendon injuries which improve with sufficient rest, chronic muscle tears never improve unless the correct treatment is prescribed.
The athlete can rest for months or even years without any improvement. This type of injury is usually reasonably easy to recognize. The characteristic feature is a gradual onset of pain, in contrast to the acute muscle tearâs sudden onset of pain. At first the pain of the chronic muscle tear comes on after exercise. It develops to where the pain starts during exercise, with the athlete being able to run through the pain. Pain finally becomes a limiting factor, getting progressively worse, interfering with training to the point that speed work in particular becomes impossible.
The athletes describing their injury confirm a chronic muscle tear in their own simple way.
Eamonn Coghlan was aware of injuring his hamstring two years ago but it never became a serious injury until he upped his training last September in his quest toward masters greatness. He describes his injury as âa drag in the leg and a pain in the buttâ; âI cannot get full extension when running fast. Thereâs a constant ache deep in there.â Running slow didnât bother him but faster work became painful. Marty Liquori, the legendary US miler, had retired years ago from running due to a calf injury and on every attempt to resume running the calf acted up; his description of it âI get to about 3 or 4 days back running and the pain starts and I have to walk home; I canât get up on my toesâ. After working with Marty this winter he resumed running and recently ran a 4:46 mile.
Chronic muscle tears occur in muscle at sites that are exposed to high loading. This loading is especially high during faster running. Because the loading is so concentrated over a small section of the muscle, an initial small tear develops at that site. The tear is initially too small to cause discomfort. The athlete may be aware of a tightness or low grade soreness similar to delayed muscle fatigue in the muscle involved. However, once the initial tear has occurred, a cycle of repair and retear develops that leads ultimately to a large tender knot developing in the muscle, which comprises muscle fibres surrounded by scar tissue. I like to use the analogy of scar tissue as being like chewing gum stuck and hardened to a wool carpet.
Image: Minor muscle tears. The formation of intramuscular scarring (top and centre) can painfully limit broadening on contraction (bottom).
In the muscle the scar tissue is inflexible so when the muscle either contracts forcibly (shortens and broadens) or stretches (lengthens and narrows) the scar tissue re-tears and the cycle of repair and re-tear develops with increased irritation and a matrix of more scar tissue is laid down. Excessive Scar Tissue Formation at the site of tear inhibits normal contractibility and extensibility of muscle.
TREATMENT
To confirm that the injury is indeed a chronic muscle tear, a physiotherapist needs only to press firmly with a thumb or two fingers into the affected muscle. If it is possible to find a very tender hard âknotâ in the muscle then the injury is definitely a chronic muscle tear. When palpated with digital pressure, the knot in question can be excruciatingly painful. Tim Noakes MD in the Lore of Running states, regarding chronic muscle tears: "Conventional treatment, including drugs and cortisone injections, is a waste of time in this injury; the only treatment that works is a physiotherapeutic maneuver known as cross fibre frictions. A better term would be âcrucifixionsâ because nothing, not even the runnerâs toughest ever race is as painful as cross fibre frictions applied to a chronic muscle tear. Therein lies the key to the treatment of these injuries.
A chronic muscle tear will only get better if (a) the cross fibre frictions are applied to the injury site, in this case the tender knot in the muscle, and (b) they are applied sufficiently vigorously. If the cross fibre friction treatment does not reduce the athlete to tears, either the diagnosis is wrong or the physiotherapist is being too kind. âThis is the one treatment for which you must have a physiotherapist who has big hands, the forearms or a gorilla, and unbridled sadism.â
Image: Deep Transverse Cyriax Friction Therapy. The muscle fibres are teased apart.
I have been named everything from Hitler, to âthunder thumbs, magic fingers, Saddam Hussein and worse,â but the painful treatment is well appreciated by the athlete as chronic muscle tears respond rapidly to six or eight sessions of therapy. Physiotherapists who specialize in sports injuries usually have expertise in administering cross-fibre friction and because of the invasiveness of the therapy, which I term âbloodless surgery,â it is important to go to a therapist with experience in the physiotherapeutic maneuver.
PREVENTION
To avoid chronic muscle tears the athlete should be fastidious about stretching, especially the main locomotive muscles which cross two joints, ie, the hamstrings, gastronemius, quadriceps and adductors. Muscle strength imbalances between opposing muscle groups should be corrected. The strength balance between hamstring and quadriceps is very important and serious athletes should have their strength ratios tested on a Cybex or similar strength testing machine. At all times, but especially when doing speed work, it is imperative to be adequately warmed up. Prevention is better than cure, but for the runner who has the symptoms of a developing chronic muscle tear a little treatment early on saves time out and a great deal of agony later on.
It never ceases to surprise me that your injury profile is so closely mirrored by elite athletes
Yeah, non elite athletes have completely different anatomy.
I went out to do my time there but felt an ongoing twinge in my inner thigh that I didnât want to push. Stopped at 4k to try and stretch it. Decided to go on and get 5k done and will go for an effort either during the week or the last weekend. One proper effort will do me. Trying to get the pace right is my ongoing challenge
Just a tightness in the hammer.
I just need to be careful with it and take my time.
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took off this afternoon with the new trainers, shorts and truly wireless earbuds expecting great things and was getting a really good pace but got hit by a motherfucker of a stitch, even though i hadnt drank or eaten in over and hour and 45 mins. had to give up.
i dont normally get stitches. any ideas @fenwaypark or @backinatracksuit
What did you eat?
No water before run?
Were you going too fast (by your standards)?
had a protein snack bar about 2 hours ago and a bowl of porridge for brekkie with fruit and cinnamon and milled linseed
id have drank 1.5l of water by 12
nope, was felling grand otherwise (legs etc )
How was HR?
140-150
you werenât overdoing it anyway.
The lads might have a better idea. The only time I recall getting one as an adult exercising was going for a run early into my running days about an hour after a feed of fajitas. I was lucky it was only a stitch I got
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Youâll need to buy a stitch reader⌠Handy contraption that will tell you the likelihood of a stitch before a run. Only ÂŁ300 , a right steal.
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Youâd know all about that
@artfoley, you should have just slowed right down for a minute and if you squeeze your fist on the side you are getting the stitch it helps for some bizarre reason. Next time you feel a stitch coming on squeeze your fist really tight.
stitches are due to your breathing and foot strike, the best sure is to slow down and take a couple of a deep breath and reset your rhythm
if you got a stitch on your left-hand side of your right foot and your breathing is causing it.
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How do you get your heart rate to show on Strava??
record on the watch, and ensure HR is enabled on strava
Do you have a heart rate? ⌠It should automatically appear. Iâd say itâs more from the app for your watch, you might need to turn something on there.