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Hamstring Tendon Injury: How to Treat When a Season of 8 More Double Centuries Looms?
Related: double century, exercise, hard core, health, How-To, ultra endurance exercise
At about mile 120 of the Joshua Tree Double Century, I began to have shooting pains up my left hamstring. While this slowed my pace, I was able to compensate by use the gluteus muscles more and giving up some power in the left leg.
At first I thought it was a small muscle tear, but it turns out to be something with the sheath around the tendon itself, which feels sandy or crunchy. I rode two days after J0shua Tree for 20 miles, and it re-irritated it. So I am not riding at all this week, hoping it heals up enough to do well at the Solvang Spring Double Century on March 17.
I have no idea how to treat this (any specialist doctors out there?), but I had a few prednisone tablets from treating persistent airway impairment from a virus and then allergies, and these seemed to help. Not taking much—don’t want to—but it seems to have taken out a lot of fluid from the area, which was swollen with fluid of a baseball size or so. Apparently prednisone has the same fluid-reducing properties there as for lungs.
Update 15 March: I have not ridden for 3 days, which will give me 4 days for the hamstring tendon to get well. The key factor was 10 mg prednison before bed, which took a great deal of fluid out of the affected area and no pain as of yesterday. Still a slight thickening in affected area, but minimal. I now have two more days and nights for it to recover until Solvang Spring Double Century. I expect it to act up late in the day there, which will rob me of some power as it did in Joshua Tree, but then I have two weeks to baby it and treat it until the Southern Inyo Double Century.
