Houston, We May Have A Problem!

My worst fear may be materializing. After a hard but successful Monday workout, Greg is noticing symptoms of a sore left hamstring. He is not running badly but feels discomfort (I refuse to term it pain) midway up from the knee. According to the trainer, this is good news. A pull or strain close to the bone is problematic and hard to heal. He is confident that careful stretching, good warm-ups and nightly ice will keep this in check. I hope he's right. We have an invitational tomorrow. Although the weather is questionable (a return to colder weather with highs only in the mid to high 40's and chances of rain mixed with sleet) it should be a good meet. Greg had flu like symptoms on Wednesday which necessitated him sitting down for a dual meet against one of our main rivals. Although we lost the meet handily, the 400 was won in only 53.02 and if healthy, Greg would have been competitive. Our competition took pity on us and did not run their best 4x400 relay so we won in a relatively slow time of 3:38. Last year with two now graduated seniors, we ran 3:27 but those times are a fantasy for us this year. Honestly, besides what the trainer is doing I'm at a loss as to what else to do. Our head coach is not very sympathetic towards injuries. I want to continue to train the guys hard (especially Greg) as I believe this is the only way he'll be ready to run faster times as we get to the end of the season and the championship meets. On the other hand, I don't want to aggravate a sore hamstring into a full fledge pull. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

One of our other star runners (hurdler, 400 and 200) is also experiencing sore shins and a hip. He is a senior and tends to be injury prone. I'm surprised he has been relatively injury free up to this point. This guy has run a relay leg in the mid 53's. We have two other guys running mid 54's and two more in the mid 55's. These are not bad times but will not be competitive against the stronger teams and certainly not in the post season. Our strongest relay is the 4x200 which Greg is lead-off. They have run 1:35 so far this year and we are hopeful they can get closer to 1:31 (our school record) if everyone stays healthy. Right now, that's a bit of a question mark.

Now I think I have a much better appreciation for the frustrations and challenges coaches go through. It's one thing to plan a workout schedule. Another to motivate your runners to train hard, be ready for competition (mentally and physically) and be confident. Fending off injuries and dealing with them while trying to stay focused on the other objectives is more daunting than I ever realized.

Dave