Hello everybody,
I would like to receive as much advice as possible please, because I've reached the conclusion that my training methods untill today were doing much more harm than good, including a chronic hamstring injury.
I'll try to keep things relatively short at first and if I get any replies I can provide more information if needed.
I would really appreciate any help, so please if you can try to read this even though it's long and boring and I'm just a slow hobby jogger beginner.
I'll start with this: today I set a PR of 20 minutes or just under for 5K -
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/724539397
I made it public on garmin connect so I hope it is viewable.
It wasn't a race, just a personal time trial but I verified the distance with google maps and the GPS is usually accurate.
I've never actually participated in a race.
This was the first time I ever tried to set a PR running on road, but it wasn't my best run in my opinion as I've done similar time trials on trail and on treadmill.
Recent Results include a 34:15 8K on trail and a 19 minute 5K on treadmill with 1% Incline.
Results from several months ago were 45 minutes for 10K on trail and 38:50 10K on treadmill without Incline. I ran on different models and units of treadmills to rule out any possible inaccuracies and my times were very similar on all of them.
These are the facts, now here's what I'm speculating:
- I believe I have High Hamstring Tendinopathy in my right leg, but it's only self diagnosed.
- I think I have an absolute dreadful running form which I'm 100% covinced is caused mostly by this injury.
- I think that these flaws are the reasons for why I have such a low cadence which I can't seem to improve no matter how hard I try.
- I think I'm very limited by all of the above, and that with a normal running form I could do much much better even with the same aerobic abillity.
So the first question is the one in the title:
How low a 158 strides per minute cadence on average for a 20:00 5K really is?
In every comparsion I've made it seems to be very abnormal and apparently this type of cadence is only common with much slower runners.
Now keep in mind that 99% of my non treadmill runs were at an even lower cadence, usually around 150-152 for average training pace and less than 150 for easy runs.
For this 5K run in order to run fast I was trying to put emphasis on keeping the cadence as high as possible and I was staying aware of that the entire run so it really was the best I could do in that aspect for this runnning pace.
The only way I can get above 180 is sprinting(400 meter race pace or faster) . Actually despite the injury I'm comfortable sprinting without any pain and the lower the distance the better my results are.
This changes significantly when running on treadmill where I can get comfortably above 166 or 168 cadence at 10K pace. Obviously running on treadmill is a lot easier(the moving belt) and for me in particular(because from the moment I started running up untill around 9 months ago, 80% of my runs were on treadmill, out of convenience) but surely such a difference is not normal, right?
The important thing I would like to ask is what to do from here with my injury.
I'm 21 and started running consistently 2 years ago after being very sedentary my enitre childhood and teenage years. I've made many many stupid mistakes that led to this injury because I'm so ignorant about training. I stopped making the mistakes I knew about but I'm probably still doing some things the wrong way.
Do I stop running immediately and start rehabilitation at the cost of losing fitness but for any chance to be a decent runner in the long term?
Or do I keep running and improving(which I am doing, however slowly)? The thing is, there is no pain when running, I wouldn't even call it a discomfort. I feel my right upper hamstring, I know it's limiting me, but it's not painful.
The pain happens when doing certain movements(Back planks for example, I practically can't raise my right leg when doing them as the pain is very sharp). There ary many more movements that cause this pain:
http://runnersconnect.net/runn...-a-pain-in-the-butt/
I basically can't do anything from any of the exercises in this link as it's really painful and I can't stretch the hamstring at all which only makes it less flexible and causes an imbalance between the right leg and the left leg.
And it's getting worse too, every time I try to do any of these movements it's more painful and stiff and less flexible.
I also almost always have a vague pain while sitting which becomes sharper if i move or squeeze to try to sit differently.
But for running, cycling, elliptical or swimming it's not really pain, at least I wouldn't call it so. If anything it's less comfortable and more noticeable when I do slower and easier runs, and maybe for a second or two when I accelerate from walking to running.
So I could keep running 25-40 kilometers a week and maybe increase it gradully.
I haven't run more than 50 kilometers in a single week for almost a year now but I don't feel like there's a connection between mileage and the injury.
So how stupid would it be to keep running?
Thanks a lot in advance, I would really really appreciate any advice.