Ya’ll, I’m so excited my hamstring is finally really recovering. You’ve put up with months of mopey posts—now I may bore you with posts about how happy I am to be really running again—albeit cautiously.
Saturday morning smiles!
Really Running Again
At my second appointment of my second round of shockwave treatments, my orthopedist encouraged me to keep nudging up the load on my hamstring. I did that in two ways—nudging up the distance of my runs with Scooby and nudging up my treadmill intervals from 2 min/1 min run/walk intervals to 3 min/1 min intervals. The truth is, I feel my hamstring a bit at the end of these nudged-up runs, but the fantastic news is that it quiets down on its own by the time I’ve moved on to the rest of my day! I have been icing it post run (by sitting on an ice pack), but even the need to do that is diminishing.
The trick now is to keep making myself do my PT exercises and hold myself back from doing too much too soon.
What’s not really running this week is my Garmin. After three years of nearly constant wear my Garmin Venu Sq won’t hold a charge anymore. I contacted customer support and tried all the tricks, but it won’t last more than 8 hours. Garmin offered to send me a refurbished watch for $99, but I might just buy a new one for $199–or wait for a Mother’s Day sale?
Weekly Run Down
I’m so happy to be really running again, I focused on running and did minimal strength workouts this week. I did all the classes in the Breakthrough Crew Shamrock Shuffle challenge, but most were only 10 minutes.
Sunday: Another reason I scaled back on strength this week is that it took days for my arms to recover from the stack of upper body classes I took on Sunday. I thought Jess’s chest + back class would be a good compliment to Andy’s arms + shoulders class, but Andy’s class burned out my triceps that were recruited in all the push-ups Jess had us doing. I followed the programming of Jess’s HIIT run, but didn’t push my pace during the running intervals.
Monday: I dragged myself out of bed with the time change, and was glad to be working at home ahead of my orthopedist appointment. My legs felt good after Sunday’s tread run, so I did another tread run, knowing I would be using the Peloton bike at my office gym on Tuesday.
Tuesday: Still suffering from DOMS, I did a light strength workout at home, and then headed to the office gym to use the Peloton bike.
Wednesday: Marcel Dinkins is back to really running after her own injury and recovery from a torn ACL and surgery. She uses her Walk + Run classes to focus on a specific aspect of running form, and this class we focused on keeping our shoulders back and down.
Thursday: I celebrated Pi day and Kim’s birthday with a 3.14 mile run! Since I was working at home I missed the Pi day celebration at work, but we had “pizza pie” for dinner.
Friday: A rare Friday in the office because I was meeting Carianne after work for her pre-race dinner. Peloton dropped a Joan Jett artist series of classes this week, which I kicked off with CDE’s ride. She used those fast-paced songs to push us through some high cadence pedaling.
Saturday: Now that I’m back to running with Scooby, he has to be patient while I do a warm-up in my basement gym. He’s such a good boy, but starts complaining (whining) after about 15 minutes. 🤭 I played Jess King’s Joan Jett run and it was fantastic. If you need a playlist to pump you up and motivate you to run hard, this is it! I covered 3.3 miles—my longest constant run (not counting Scooby stops) in ages.
The neighbor’s dogs were out in their front yard during our post-run photo session, and barked at us so much they got other neighbors’s dogs who were inside riled up—it was a cacophony of barking, but Scooby wasn’t phased!
A huge thank you to Deborah and Kim for hosting the Weekly Run Down link up. And thanks to all of you for putting up with my hamstring saga!
Would you take Garmin’s offer for a refurbished watch or just buy a new one?
![The Ultimate Coffee Date](http://got2run4me.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Ultimate-Coffee-Date.png" "The Ultimate Coffee Date")
I’m glad the hammy is on the rebound! Tough choice on the Garmin issue, but I’d probably just opt for the new one (?) out of fear that the refurbished one would have issues down the road. Thanks for joining me for Pi 😉 It’s much appreciated having company 😉
Hooray!!!!! I wasn’t bored by your hamstring woes, but I know- I wrote about it in my post today. You get so tired of talking about your injury! They all heal up- it just takes time. Sounds like yours is in a good place, and just in time for spring running! I’m sure Scooby is thrilled to have his partner back.
I would probably take the refurbished Garmin, but that’s one of those decisions you end up regretting later on. So maybe you should get a new one for Mother’s Day!
So glad to hear about your hamstring! I know you are excited to get back to normal. You had some great workouts this week!
Scooby sounds like my Connor. He knows when we are about to head out for a walk but if anything alters our routine he whines and sighs very loudly and nudges my legs, lol.
I say see if Garmin has a Mother’s Day sale!
Glad to hear that your hamstring is feeling better and running is feeling good again. I think 3 years is about the life span of a run watch. I would just buy the new one vs the refurbished
I’m so glad that your hammy is feeling better! I had to buy a new Garmin last year for the same reason as you–my old one wouldn’t hold a charge. I was shocked at the prices, so I went on eBay and bought a used one for $99–and it was just like a brand new one.
Yay welcome back!! I’m finally feeling back to and it feels SO GOOD To run again, though I’m feeling a little out of shape and not where I want to be for half marathon training. Hope you continue to feel good!
Yay for 3.3 miles of non-stop running! That’s true progress! So happy for you, Coco!
At this stage, I guess it’s hard to be cautious but you are managing it very well.
What kind of Garmin are you thinking about? Did you see that they launched a lower-priced one, the Garmin 165?
Yay!! Keep these happy posts coming, you deserve it after so many months of hamstring misery! 3,3 miles is a lot to run non-stop after an injury!
I think for the Garmin, I would go for a new one. With tech I always prefer new if possible so that I’ll know that it’s likely it’ll last for a good while.
A class dedicated to running form sounds like a brilliant idea!
What good news!!!!!!!!!!!
I think my Garmin was refurbished. I only use it for races. Otherwise I wear my Apple watch.
This is all such great news! The relief is very clear through your writing and I am so happy for you.
I would probably opt for the new Garmin. Sales will be coming up for sure, and it’s probably time. I have switched to my Apple watch for the most part, but my old Garmin is chugging along like a champ.
I’ve had several refurbished Garmins but my last one was new. Which did you pick? I’m happy to hear your running is heading in the right direction. I hope that’s the last of your issues!