Hamstring

My hamstring seems to be slowly getting worse. I've gotten to the point where I seem to have a constant dull ache in the area of the injury. I'm probably doing too much exercise and creating inflammation in the injury area. Yet, compared to my "normal" exercise levels of the past few years, it seems like I'm doing very little.

I've only run 700 miles so far this year and I'm on pace for my lowest running mileage year since 2002 or perhaps even 1998. In 2002, I had surgery to repair a torn ACL and lost a lot of the year to the injury and rehab. In 1998, I was simply stressed out by work, a new baby, and a late-year job change and cross-country move. Between all of those things, I simply didn't run very much that year - 967 total miles and 450 of those miles came in November and December, after I'd gotten my job situation settled. In 2002, I ran 1365 miles. Since 1990, those are my two lowest mileage running years, but it's pretty obvious that this year will be worse than 2002.

I've got less than two weeks until the PRP procedure, so I guess I just need to back off somewhat and not do any (more) damage until that procedure is done. After the procedure, I'll have two weeks of very limited activities while the PRP does its work.

In the interim, I'll try to stay active, but perhaps moderate things a bit. I'm not very good at moderation, so we'll see how that goes.

Today, I'm scheduled for an upper body lifting day, which I should be able to do without irritating the hamstring. Today is also supposed to be the last day of the brief heat wave that has hit Vermont recently, so training indoors in AC is fine with me. I ran a few easy downhill miles to the pool after work yesterday and it wasn't fun in the heat.