Let me give you some perspective from someone who has been in your shoes.
In 1999, I was injured. My doctor told me my injury could not be fixed. I traveled to the Mayo Clinic for a 2nd opinion. (The Mayo Clinic is considered to be one of the best hospitals in the United States.)
Two doctors at the Mayo Clinic told me my injury was inoperable and that I could never run again. Not "might not" be able to run... NEVER able to run again.
l took some time off. The injury healed. I returned to running, but I was MUCH more careful about injuries. Even so, I remain injury prone so I've become almost obsessive about injury prevention. I've learned what causes running injuries and how to rehab them so they don't happen again. Looking just at your few sentences, I can guess what you did wrong and how you should fix it. You need to take the initiative to figure it out!
Anyway, that injury was 23 years ago. Since then, I've set four age group relay world records and numerous state age group records. I'm telling you this so you will know that I'm not just a rah-rah cheerleader. I have been where you are now (actually far worse than where you are now) and come back to be a very successful runner.
My advice is get to sports doctor and then to a physical therapist. Learn what you need to do to rehab the hamstring. AND figure out what caused it so you can avoid doing that again in the future. You should also use this time to figure out what caused your shin splints and runners knee so you can avoid those injuries when you return to running.
You can rehab and become an even better runner. You have to stop feeling sorry for yourself and be proactive!!!
Finding alternative ways to exercise has helped me get through the blues of being injured. Weights, cross training, etc. Injuries are your body telling you to slow down. It sucks I know.
I spent years chasing injuries round - it was rarely the same injury twice and drove me mad. I've spent a lot of time on posterior chain exercises and reduced my expectations and volume a bit and am now not quite as fast as I was but am enjoying it a whole lot more.
Depends what you want - if it's extracting 100% of your talent to see just how fast you can go, you'll always be on the edge of injury. If it's enjoying a hobby, relax and focus on enjoying your running, not just times.
I wrote about hamstring injuries in my book. Let me pull up the manuscript and cut and paste the hamstring injury part here. It will give you some perspective on why so many runners have recurring hamstring injuries. I don't remember if I gave specific rehab advice for hamstrings though. Give me an hour or so and I'll get back to you.
I've had nagging knee and IT band issues over the last couple years. You can still do other exercise- don't fall into the classic runner's headgame of "i am only a runner and can/should do nothing else ever." Swimming is a great aerobic workout and you can avoid using injured legs if you use a buoy for example. Or lift weights and focus on upper body. You'll be back running before you know it.
I wrote about hamstring injuries in my book. Let me pull up the manuscript and cut and paste the hamstring injury part here. It will give you some perspective on why so many runners have recurring hamstring injuries. I don't remember if I gave specific rehab advice for hamstrings though. Give me an hour or so and I'll get back to you.
Ah. Most of the hamstring comments stand on their own so I didn't need to rewrite it.
By the way, this is a simple cut and paste from a master document so the formatting is all wrong, but you should be able to read it.
Tip 39: Hamstring Injuries Hamstring injuries can be nagging little pains that never seem to heal completely. They get better for a while and then the pain comes back. It’s usually not so bad that it keeps you from running completely, but it just never seems to end. Typically, with hamstring injury runners might take a couple of days off and then attempt to jog a few paces. If there’s no pain, they start off on a conservative run. The hamstring is okay for a while, but then out of the blue—ouch!—there’s a sudden pain. Depending on the runner’s pain threshold—or stubbornness!—they’ll either stop or struggle through the workout. In either case, the damage was done on the first “ouch.” A strand of muscle tissue was partially re-torn. The next day the hamstring is too sore to run. This process can go on for weeks or even months. Here’s the secret to hamstring injuries. The reason the pain keeps reoccurring is that you are running before the scar tissue has fully healed. The tissue might handle running for a mile or so, but eventually, it re-tears, which forces the healing process to start over from day one. To treat hamstring injuries, you must limit the range of motion of the hamstring until the scar tissue gets strong enough to handle running again. The secret to hamstring injuries is to avoid stretching and restrict the range of motion until the scar tissue can heal enough to handle easy running. Rather than cover this twice, you can read a detailed explanation of stretching for hamstring injuries in tip 54.
-----
Tip 54: Stretching for Rehab and Chronic Injuries How soon can you start stretching after an injury? It’s difficult to say because proper rehab depends on many factors. Still, we can establish some general guidelines. To illustrate this, let’s look at a common running injury—a hamstring tear. If you’re a runner, chances are you’ve experienced a strained hamstring. It’s one of the most common of all running injuries. It can also be one of the most frustrating because it tends to hang around for months. It will seem to get well and then—with a sudden twinge—it flares up again. The reason is that these runners are re-injuring the hamstring before it can fully heal. They are not allowing sufficient time for scar tissue to form before stretching or they have attempted to return to a full range of motion too soon. The hamstring is a big muscle so you might think it would need to be stretched pretty hard, but that’s not the case. Unless you have a really severe injury, the scar tissue itself is only in a very small strand of muscle within the hamstring. Imagine you have a dozen rubber bands attached to something. All of them are loose except for one that’s tight. When you try to stretch those rubber bands, the tight one is going to break if you’re not careful. That’s what happens when you attempt to stretch an injured hamstring. For hamstring injuries, you should limit the range of motion and avoid stretching for the first several days. Then you can begin to jog slowly, continuing to limit the range of motion by avoiding hills, speedwork, accelerations, and pushing off. After several days, you can begin some light stretching, going only to the beginning of tightness and then releasing after a couple of seconds. While this approach is a good rule-of-thumb for all injuries, there are some exceptions. If your physical therapist recommends a different approach for an injury or muscle imbalance, you should follow the stretching routine your PT recommends. After all, this professional has seen your injury firsthand. However, you should always keep in mind two things. Don’t stretch too hard and don’t stretch a cold muscle.
----
I have some additional thoughts on hamstring injuries, but read this first and post any questions you have.
Why so dramatic? Why not, hey I'm pissed that I tweaked my hammy. Instead the world is ending. Life will likely provide you with perspective soon enough.
One of these days you kids will figure out that chronic injuries are from not eating enough beef, eggs and butterfat and vitamin D3 supplemental or direct sun.
Actually, no you won't, lol. Runners are so stupid about diet it is staggering.
Please find something else you love aside from running. I think this kind of thought process comes from putting all of your eggs in one basket. Often people seem to only have running in their lives. I had to give up running. I could cope with that, but I'm in pain when I walk. So it has curtailed holidays, day-to-day life, everything. At one point I could not walk around a supermarket for two minutes. Running is great but it's not everything. My best advice doesn't actually relate to running, it's to find other things you love as well. Good luck and I do hope your injuries heal.
1. Did you solicit the input of your Primary Care Physician (PCP) before you started training? Did you have a comprehensive physical examination?
2. Did you solicit the input of a Physical Therapist (PT) - letting them know you're considering a particular running endeavor - before you started training?
3. How much research on running did you do before you started training?
4. Do you do a proper dynamic warm-up before training routines and proper static stretching after training routines?
If the answer to any of the above is NO, make sure all 4 boxes above are checked before going any further.
Having been there, it's not the injuries making you suicidal. It's your mental health, so please seek professional help.
I respectfully disagree. The words mental health are used WAY too much these days.
He's simply really bummed out because he can't run and it plays on a person if it's something they really love to do. Been there, many times.
I don't need to "see anyone", it's on me. The mind is the most powerful tool that we have, use it to your advantage and as fisky points out, try to solve the problem through a sports doctor and a PT.
I feel like my hobby is being torn away from me. The irony is I never used to get injured.
I cured my shin slints and runners knee.
Then in January I started jogging again and tore my right hamstring a few seconds into a run.
I honestly can't take much more of this.
I hope that the talk of suicide is just hyperbole, but if not, do go seek help for that...I'm talking a suicide help line or therapy, not drug intervention.
Even if you can't run a step again, that's no reason at all to be suicidal or really even close to it. SOOOO many people have it much worse physically than you do. You may have to find another hobby, another form of exercise, another form of enjoyment/entertainment.
I understand that losing running can be disappointing, but it's not the end of the world...not even freakin' close.
I feel like my hobby is being torn away from me. The irony is I never used to get injured.
I cured my shin slints and runners knee.
Then in January I started jogging again and tore my right hamstring a few seconds into a run.
I honestly can't take much more of this.
No the original post wasn't hyperbole and I still feel the same.
I've had a plethora of injuries in my thigh / pelvic area and a couple of them were / are very bad. I damaged the adductor tendon in my left groin which at 14 weeks is just now allowing me to sit up without pain or turn over in bed without pain. I have been in chronic pain for months.
Furthermore, when I had an ultrasound in January they said I had an inguinal hernia. It is small and they said it can't be causing pain, but I think it is giving me referred pain in my inner thigh and causing the muscles to shut down. I had that happen a few times, with my thigh going numb at one point mid-run and adductor becoming visibly bruised.
For the last few weeks I did a couple of 10-15 minute jogs and my hamstrings are chronically tight. So much so, I fell over on my first run and cut my chin. I have never fell over when running, ever.
Before all of these problems I ran a 1:20 half in November. I used to be decent. Now at 35 my body has completely broken down.
I don't even know where to start. I am going to the gym to try and rehab my hamstrings. I tried static stretching to no avail. They are chronically tight and sore even with 14 weeks of rest. As for my groin... the NHS are not helping me as they don't see it as a serious issue because the inguinal hernia is only 5mm. I guess I will see if I can run without the groin flaring up (once my hamstrings allow me to run for longer than 2 miles).
Losing the hobby is one thing but feeling like my body is failing at 35 has left me seriously depressed. To compound matters, the NHS is absolutely useless and so I'm having to spend a lot of money and it's money I don't have.