Hamstrung!

As a metaphor "to be hamstrung" suggests having limitations, externally imposed or not, preventing full freedom of movement or utilization of resources.

Yes I am definitely hamstrung at the moment but signs are encouraging.  After a painful couple of days post Sunderland 5km I am back into some steady running with a few morning runs no quicker than 7:30 miling and evening runs closer to 7 min miling.

Tonight was the first "speed" session since Sunderland and I opted for steady loops around my old training patch in saltburn.  Generally struggled to get anywhere under 6 minute miling but it certainly was a step forward from previous runs.

Tomorrow nights biomechanical assessment will hopefully give me a few answers about why these left sided injuries keep re-occurring but more importantly may provide some preventative measures to stop the injury cycle.

Interestingly my last few years have been relatively injury free.  In my mid 20's i was in a similar cycle of running well, injury, rehab, running well, injury etc etc and it reached a point where I just ended up cutting back on running and cycled, swam and ran more for fitness than competition.   A few years of this and I got the running bug back and started "training" again.   Its sometimes a fine line between being able to enjoy running as a daily pleasure and training to achieve a pb or working towards a specific target.  With the latter comes an increased risk of injuries but a greater sense of pride!

I made the decision to miss Sundays Great North 10km and concentrate on getting back to some decent running.  I have a few other races lined up so the decision was a sensible one.  The "computer" made the decision not the "chimp".  For those thinking I have gone a bit mad this is a reference to the British Cycling Psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters who uses this paradox to explain athletes behaviour....once ive sorted the body I may invest in this book to sort out the mind!   On this occasion the decision not to race was the rational "computer" making the decision and not the irrational and impulsive "chimp"!  The chimp sometimes wins the day though.....