Recovery

Slowly, slowly is how the recovery is going.

With Mrs Rogue having gone away for the weekend with friends on a camping trip, I am in charge at home looking after our 3 year old son. He's merrily singing along to a tv programme just now, which gives me the chance to research some rehabilitation work for my injured hamstring.

I found one or two sites and they have advised the same. Plenty of RICE

R - Rest
I - Ice
C - Compression
E - Elevation

Unfortunately a three year old doesn't understand why daddy wants to sit on the sofa with his leg propped up on the wall! So the rest is out the window. To be honest, the injury feels a lot better today. Yesterday I had a pain from buttock (euphemism for arse cheek) to the back of my right knee as well as a dull pain in the sacrum area of my back. My initial research suggests that my sitting at a desk all day has probably contributed to a contraction of the muscles in that area and the demands of running has caused the damage.

So to counter the effects of sitting all day I've decided I'll do some stretching each day to loosen up the muscles. Having completed the first session this morning my leg felt loose and pain free but sitting down for any length of time causes the pain to flare up again. It isn't intense and occasionally is nothing more than a spasm in the muscles but I'm not going to rush back.

I will do some weights work and stretches in the gym, perhaps moving on to bike work after a fortnight. I will then try walking on the treadmill and perhaps some cross trainer work. The elliptical movement of the cross trainer reduces impact trauma on the joints and reduces the stretching of the muscles. I'm on holiday (Disneyland Paris) for a week after the FA Cup Final, so more relaxation (not!) with probably quite a few hours walking each day.

I'll then spend another week building up to running with a view to starting harder training at the beginning of June. That gives me a 6 week recovery programme which should allow the hamstring time to recover. Even if I have a setback in my recovery, I will still have plenty of time to recover before my return to the green stuff in the Yorkshire Cup at the beginning of August.

Now excuse me while I go back to watching Dora the Explorer ... Swiper has just stolen the steps and Boots needs to help Dora to find something that can replace them ... help I'm turning into a vegetable (was a pudding before lol)!!!