I've ignored this blog for basically the entire month of May because I didn't want to write another, "I'm dealing with a nagging injury" post. I kept hoping maybe if I waited just one more week, I could write the "I had this annoying injury, but some time off fixed it and I'm good now" post. But alas, that is not the case. And since this blog has been heavy with book and house updates, and seriously lacking in running updates, I didn't have much to say. 

So here we are, about a month later, dealing with the same hamstring injury I had at this time last year, plus that nagging tight hip flexor that cropped up last summer. Basically I'm falling apart from the waist down. 

The hip thing I've waxed poetic about over the last several months and all the stretching and strengthening work I've been doing to try to alleviate that issue. 

And wouldn't you know it, while I was focused on building strength to help fix my hip issues, I tweaked or pulled or in some way hurt my left hamstring again. I can't place exactly when I first noticed the hamstring tightness creeping in, but by early of May it was pretty clear this wasn't just a tight muscle that needed some extra TLC. 

After my last attempted run, sometime in early May

So for the next several weeks I backed off big time, no running, no lower body strength training, and then eventually even my walks around the neighborhood had to go because walking hurt. I added ice, I took anti-inflammatories. 

But now I'm headed back to the orthopedic doctor and likely another round of PT because I feel like I've got a bit of a chicken and egg situation going on here. What kind of rehab stuff do I need to be doing for my hamstring and my hip? Did my hamstring issues last year, that eventually seemed to heal with time, cause my hip issue that started last August? Or are those things unrelated?

Did my hip issue cause this most recent hamstring issue? Am I messing with my form really badly to accommodate one of these injuries and that is causing the other to worsen? And how in the world do I treat two different injuries on different sides of my body?

Normal PT stuff usually focuses on correcting the muscle imbalances I have on one side to fix the other side. But when I have stuff on both sides what do I do? What do I prioritize? And how in the world do I not lose all my strength and general fitness in the meantime?

I'll be curious what the doctor says, and I really look forward to when I can stop sitting on an icepack every day while I'm working.