running
so i'm about ready to come back from only my second serious injury during my ultimate career. my first was a broken collarbone (nationals 2000) that pretty much meant 8 weeks of inactivity followed by some range-of-motion stuff and i was back. recovering from a hamstring is a different deal.
maybe i should start with some background. the week before regionals i was at practice and my hammy was having a hard time loosening up. after warmups and even an initial drill i couldn't get it loose. we went into a scrimmage and while some teammates told me not to press, another said he felt a similar thing previously and some tiger balm and a leg sleeve solved the problem. i probably knew that this was a little more serious, but i followed his advice anyways and the first sprint i made i felt it pop up high. i had ice on it within a minute. 4 weeks later it was time for nationals and i thought i had a 50% chance of surviving the tourney, but the first time i tried to stress it at all it tweaked again in a different spot (probably due to a tape job to reduce stress to the initial injury, which resulted in extra stress to other areas). i tried to run on it a little more but there was not strength and nothing could be done. the leg had no power in it. one of the biggest disappointments of my ultimate career, as losses are difficult enough to take, but watching our team lose close games where i felt i could have made an impact was even rougher.
this time i had the luxury of time off. 3 weeks of total inactivity. probably the longest stint of my life. i don't think my heart rate ever crested 100 bpm in this period. then i went to therapy and had a great therapist who pushed me. the fallout from the first week of therapy was rough as my body wasn't ready for exercise. things that would have hardly caused exertion in september were now kicking my ass. a few weeks of therapy and some work on my own and i was ready for the new year. i made a deal with the hamstring that i would baby it until Jan 1, and then i would expect it to be ready. i tested it on monday with some light halfcourt hoops (very casual) and tuesday with a moderate track workout. 880's at a moderate pace. no sprinting, but fast times under some level of fatigue. it held up quite well, although i've been pretty sore for the rest of the week.
this weekend...probably some beach ultimate. my first cutting since september. should be a good test, without too much stress. i was hoping it would take longer to recover so i would have a good excuse to avoid the stupid social tourneys (like the LA beach tourney next weekend) where you have to pretend like you really enjoy hanging out with ultimate players that you don't really recognize, rather than competing against/with them. i think that came out wrong...i keep meaning to write my "ultimate community" piece, but it would take some significant time. so much for focusing my writing.
maybe i should start with some background. the week before regionals i was at practice and my hammy was having a hard time loosening up. after warmups and even an initial drill i couldn't get it loose. we went into a scrimmage and while some teammates told me not to press, another said he felt a similar thing previously and some tiger balm and a leg sleeve solved the problem. i probably knew that this was a little more serious, but i followed his advice anyways and the first sprint i made i felt it pop up high. i had ice on it within a minute. 4 weeks later it was time for nationals and i thought i had a 50% chance of surviving the tourney, but the first time i tried to stress it at all it tweaked again in a different spot (probably due to a tape job to reduce stress to the initial injury, which resulted in extra stress to other areas). i tried to run on it a little more but there was not strength and nothing could be done. the leg had no power in it. one of the biggest disappointments of my ultimate career, as losses are difficult enough to take, but watching our team lose close games where i felt i could have made an impact was even rougher.
this time i had the luxury of time off. 3 weeks of total inactivity. probably the longest stint of my life. i don't think my heart rate ever crested 100 bpm in this period. then i went to therapy and had a great therapist who pushed me. the fallout from the first week of therapy was rough as my body wasn't ready for exercise. things that would have hardly caused exertion in september were now kicking my ass. a few weeks of therapy and some work on my own and i was ready for the new year. i made a deal with the hamstring that i would baby it until Jan 1, and then i would expect it to be ready. i tested it on monday with some light halfcourt hoops (very casual) and tuesday with a moderate track workout. 880's at a moderate pace. no sprinting, but fast times under some level of fatigue. it held up quite well, although i've been pretty sore for the rest of the week.
this weekend...probably some beach ultimate. my first cutting since september. should be a good test, without too much stress. i was hoping it would take longer to recover so i would have a good excuse to avoid the stupid social tourneys (like the LA beach tourney next weekend) where you have to pretend like you really enjoy hanging out with ultimate players that you don't really recognize, rather than competing against/with them. i think that came out wrong...i keep meaning to write my "ultimate community" piece, but it would take some significant time. so much for focusing my writing.
posted by greg at
4:36 PM
2 Comments:
I'm interested in the 'ultimate community' piece...
By
Anonymous, at 1/07/2006 6:12 PM
following nationals i had 3-1/2 weeks of absolute nothing before finally getting to the physical therapist. while this was much longer than i thought would be healthy the therapist said it was a good move. my initial visit consisted of a lot of diagnostics, and the one thing i took from that was that the hamstring is very complicated, so my program might not be great for everyone.
early therapy sessions involved real low-intensity stuff like bike-riding, variations of body weight lunges and body weight squats, followed by elictric stimulation and icing. i was going 2 or 3 times/week so it ramped up fairly quickly and after 2 weeks i was doing some controlled plyometrics, dynamic lunges, backward walking on a treadmill and slide board work. i think i had 4 solid weeks at the therapist before the holiday break, and i haven't been back since.
beach ultimate this past weekend was great and i had no ill effects from the hamstring. i think grass will be more strenuous, but i feel very good.
By
greg, at 1/09/2006 8:09 AM
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