A check-up with the doctor today resulted in a few recommendations to get me back to running again. First, it was confirmed that I pulled a muscle, likely either a hamstring or gluteus maximus, possibly the most fun-sounding muscle in the human body, but one you don’t really want to injure because it is big and kind of important for walking and such. My doctor recommended a couple of things. The first was a few visits to a physiotherapist to get the lowdown on how to gently and lovingly work the muscle(s) back into shape. The second was to generally do more stretching to become more limber, as he described my legs as “tight” and in this case tight does not mean cool, hip (ho ho) or the equivalent, it means my legs can’t bend much before stopping like rusted slabs of steel. The improved flexibility should reduce the chances of the same injury happening again.
Also when I showed him the stats from one of my runs this summer, he looked at the heart rate (155 BPM) and said while it wasn’t bad per se, it would be wise to not run any faster as I’m in the upper level of safety for heart rate. Basically I am doing long distance runs at a sprinting pace (something the TomTom tools also confirmed), which is fine if I can handle it but maybe I should be less macho about the whole thing.
I also need some kind of echo test to check out a “low” murmur in my heart to get a better idea of what may be wrong (leaky valve, etc.). It’s not a huge concern right at the moment but the doc thinks it’s best to determine what is up now before I go on to emulate famous runner and heart attack victim Jim Fixx. I concur.
Finally, there is no way to remain convincingly nonchalant when having a medical practitioner stick a finger up your butt.