Not Firing on all Cylinders

As I was working from home today I thought it was a great opportunity to get two runs in – an easy one in the morning and a speed session in the evening. Unfortunately, due to hamstring, glute and calf tightness and pain, neither of these sessions happened.

I can be a bit overly cautious sometimes when it comes to injuries, although some would say that’s a good thing. Basically, if I have a niggle I rest to avoid the niggle getting worse. Some might say that I should just take the pain and run through it but I would rather not end up properly injured and unable to run at all so I’d rather just have a bit of a rest. Call me a wimp, I don’t care.

Instead, I did a good long yoga session and had a walk with Ruby up to 2 Lads. Sometimes it’s nice to have a walk and just take in the scenery instead of running past it all.

View heading down from 2 Lads (toward the kennels)

I was told by a biomechanics specialist a while back that I'm not firing on my glutes when I run so I'm looking into how to sort this out at the minute. I've been doing quite a bit of internet research and have got some exercises to try out. I did a little test today and tried to isolate contractions on both glutes. I can contract my left glute independently of my right really easily but when I try to contract my right glute independently it's much more difficult and my left one wants to contract with it. This is in line with the fact that it's my right glute which is the one I have trouble with. Hopefully I'll be able to get it sorted out as apparently it's mostly just a case of strengthening the muscles and this in turn will make them activate when running (there's a bit more to it than that).

I won’t be running tomorrow as I’m going out straight from work (pub quiz) so hopefully the two days rest will help my hamstring heal in readiness for cross country on Saturday. Fingers crossed!