Unable to produce speed months after injury

The Forums Ask Us.
1

Something annoying is going on here and hopefully you guys can give me a hand here…

Around 2 months ago, during my “practice spp meets” I was running times of 6.5 HT in practice, and 11.1 FAT in a meet, under SPP load.

2 days after that meet, as some of you know, I had a g1-2 pull in my hamstring, I started going back to speed about 2 weeks after the pull, and full workouts about 1 month after…

Since then I had a relay, 2 100’s and 1 200, and about 8-10 speed sessions.

I have yet to produce a good light feel,springy sprint in ANY of them !!!
At first, the starts were Ok after the injury, almost like pre-injury… Only the TS and SE suffered… but now, it’s all just LAME.

The feel is that I can’t sprint at all, I am muscling it, my stride is too short, the muscles don’t stretch as good… and nothing is reactive… times of course are about 0.5-1 second slower, every time.

Weights are OK, about the same numbers ± on the deadlift and PC just like before the injury.
Bodyweight - same with even less fat.
The muscles look “fibrous” most of the time, they look like they are ready for speed, but they arent.

Now should I just stop for a few days and rest completely ?
I feel like all i’m doing now is enforcing bad form each workout.

Man, sprinting alone ain’t easy ! Sorry for the strange post, any ideas would be welcome.

2

sounds like the muscles are overloaded everywhere. Massage, hot/cold showers, and a reduction of intensity for 10 days may help.

3

I see… I never considered that option because I was holding MUCH higher loads in SPP with no problem… But I guess there is no other way to explain this “bad stiffness” thing that I am feeling.

thanks for your input !

4

Any time there is an injury the body moves differently. There is also excess tension as CF stated. An example: My tendon tear caused my chronic stiff shoulder to become much worse, which itself caused my walking (once I was able to walk again) to be worse. You may have not only tightness but some altered mechanics that you aren’t aware of. I suggest some good massage to reset muscle tonus, posture, etc.

5

Thanks, this is rather optimistic for me :slight_smile: Thats good, I really hope a few massage sessions can fix that.

I have a 100+200m coming up this thursday, how does a massage session tomorrow and Monday sound ?
I could also skip the meet, if it’s wise… I don’t want to run with irrelevant times again…

6

Massage on that schedule seems sensible.

This may be crazy but I think the 100 would be okay but not the 2. My rationale is that the SE requirement of the 200 will re-introduce tension. I am kind of taking a flyer on that though.

7

Its been some time now, missing this thurs coming meet should be seen as vital.
I would do what you can to get lots of massage in - start with a pro massage day 1 - girl friend massage day 2 - pro massage day 3 - GF massage 3 and 4 - pro massage 5 - GF massage 6 and 7

ie, massage daily - Even if foam rolling instead of Girl Friend or Do Foam rolling AS WELL - perhaps even try Acupuncture

Get 10 days of Therapy every day

Plenty of tempo, med ball work, mobility work etc

8

Roger that… I am doing plenty of tempo and mobility, it seems like it’s more of a tightness issue, today after some self massage my on calves, quads and hamstrings (used heat rub as lotion) it was about x3 easier to lift the knee up… If thats how it’s supposed to feel when you sprint, then I like it !
It’s like there is no resistance, the leg feels very quick and light…

It’s back to feeling heavy right now but I guess 1 self session ain’t gonna cut it.

10 days it is, will try to arrange a pro massage, it’s very expensive here.

9

Just finished another meet with crap times and horrible feel, even after aggressive therapy this past week.

I will tell you exactly how I look like…
I lift my knee ok, but the stride is cut short, it looks from the outside like my hip is low and im not taking the time to extend, causing very very short strides.
I feel like I am not sprinting at all, it’s more of a “faster than tempo” feel, I just can’t go faster, It’s not a sprint.

Strength levels are fine, the state of the muscles is also not too bad, at least in the quad and hamstring…

What other thing can cause what I described ?
I guess it looks like I’m running with my quads…

But I do alot of activation and alot of GM, deadlift, etc.
What happened ?

Frustrating… How can 12 months of ass busting go down the drain like that ? I can’t accept whats going on here… I got so much better, lost fat, im a different man this year (at least was) and now it’s all lost !
I wish I had explanation at least…

10

I think I had suggested staying out of any competitions for a while -unless it was the nationals or something- in order to feel yourself again first. I really don’t get what your gain is from ‘ingraining’ such bad habits and performances. Charlie had suggested you stay low for 10 days, too! Is this a ‘self-defeating personality disorder’? :confused:

11

No sir… Just stress, this is important to me.

Ran a meet yesterday, seems like I am relatively back in business, 11.18.

My top speed ROM is back, that oily hinges feeling is back… But my start is hesitated, I don’t feel I am in the right position to accelerate, but that will come too.

That therapy week I did (as charlie recommended) seemed to help, I guess last week I was still down from the massage… And yesterday I got this huge bounce back in tonus, with loose muscles this time, and it feels great.

Will make sure it stays that way…