Forums >Health and Nutrition>Hamstring Tendon tear... what are the chances I can be ready to run a 10 miler by October?
6 weeks ago I had a horse riding accident that resulted in me tearing my hamstring tendon where it connects to my sit bone. It is a 3 cm tear.
At this point my Dr has me on a "take it easy and lets see how things feel" program as he didnt want to jump to surgery.
Prior to my accident I was at about 15 miles per week on the treadmill and was planning on ramping up through the spring and summer to be ready for a fall 10 miler race. I had finished a half in December and have done this 10 miler the last several years.
Based on any prior experiences will it even be possible to be long running by October? I have never dealt with a tendon tear so honestly don't even really know what to expect moving forward. I still have pain in my leg and certain movements I just can not do (like walking fast and sitting on harder surfaces).
Are you working with a physical therapist? I don’t know what your chances are, but I do know they are a lot better if you work with a good PT.
oh yuck! Hamstring stuff is miserable. It sounds like you are through the initial injury and now you can think about rehab. I have had chronic hamstring issues for the past several years and something i am doing differently now is instead of working with a PT (good to a point) I train with a personal trainer (not just some average gym guy, but solid knows his stuff certified kind of guy) my goal is to make my hammy so strong nothing can ever happen to it again. its awful and painful and a lot of work. I started simply with glute bridges and glute bridge holds (two legs and then advanced to single leg) supermans, hamstring curls (machine), lunges and squats. now i'm doing all kinds of stuff like nordic hamstring curls, RDL's (double and single leg) and lots of other things. I do know that it takes a long time. like.... a really long time. so be patient with it!!!
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Yeah, agree you should be with a good PT. As mentioned a ton of core and glute work is important going forward. I know all about proximal hamstring tendon pain and tearing. Dealt with it 7 years. You certainly do not want to rush back. However, if tendon is still attached to bone, I have to believe this should be totally healed at 12 weeks easily which does not mean there will not be soreness. If extra conservative, you still could get back to running by July and give you enough time to do your race ( without a time goal preferrably). In the meantime you should be active. If no pain, I see no reason you can't be doing elliptical by now or soon and stepper soon. Obviously, the bike may need to wait because of tear location. Stay aerobically fit and active. Doing nothing at 6 weeks out is counter productive. Much of the healing has taken place.
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I had a 3 cm tear where my hamstring meets the seat bone too. I continued to run and ride with it torn for about a year and a half. This was BEFORE the MRI showing the tear. I did ton's of PT and massage and graston therapy, but never stopped my activities. After the diagnosis of the tear, I opted for PRP (platelet rich plasma) injections. It was terribly painful and truly laid me up for about 6 weeks. BUT - the good news is, after that, I was able to resume all my activities fairly quickly. I continued PT, cross frictional massage, and graston. Within 3 months I was back running distances up to 12 miles. Speed work still hurt, and it's been 10 months since the PRP injections and I'm just now starting to add speed back in. PRP was in July. So within a few months I was back running gnarly trails too - and I ran all winter in deep snow, ice, etc. Still no speed work until a month ago (and gradually).
I finally just hopped back on a horse too a few weeks ago and it felt good! So if you are careful, do strengthening PT, and don't worry about speed work, I think for sure you'll be running 10 miles by October! Best wishes - hamstrings are tricky! And yes - sitting - OUCH! Thus, riding horse and using that seat bone, ouch. Also - noting that I was running 30 to 35 miles a week before I opted to lay myself up with the PRP injections. Did not run for an entire 6 weeks. I also recommend deep tissue massage and graston if needed. And those excercises Christirei recommends.
Thanks everyone for your input! I will be going back to the Dr on May 14th and I am guessing at that time he would be wanting me to start with a PT. Thankfully my place of employment has a PT come in twice a week that I can work with making it very convenient!
As far as activity I am on my feet moving around a good portion of the day for work but I haven't been doing any movements that cause pain but was told to not do any running or horse riding until I go back for a check-up. I haven't tried to run or anything but even trying to walk faster causes some discomfort. I have been doing some looking online and various exercises to help with strengthening but I am just unsure of what I could start doing now so I have been just waiting until my next appointment and meeting with a PT.
I would not be worried about a time specific for the 10 miler but since I had already signed up prior to my accident I just was not sure if it would even be a possibility- I have been giving my non running husband a hard time that he would have to start running so that we could transfer the registration over to him (which he is not on board with that )
Thanks for the reply! I had read some about the injections but was not sure how effective it would be. Shortly after I tore mine we got 12 inches of snow dumped and it was hard walking through it with my leg the way it was just to go feed the horse... thankfully spring is finally here! I am having a hard time mentally with the no riding as show season is starting but I do want to get this thing healed so fully understand I need to do what I need to do- I can work through pain but I just dont want to make it take longer to heal!
Happy for you that things worked out and you are back running and riding!
I had a 3 cm tear where my hamstring meets the seat bone too. I continued to run and ride with it torn for about a year and a half. This was BEFORE the MRI showing the tear. I did ton's of PT and massage and graston therapy, but never stopped my activities. After the diagnosis of the tear, I opted for PRP (platelet rich plasma) injections. It was terribly painful and truly laid me up for about 6 weeks. BUT - the good news is, after that, I was able to resume all my activities fairly quickly. I continued PT, cross frictional massage, and graston. Within 3 months I was back running distances up to 12 miles. Speed work still hurt, and it's been 10 months since the PRP injections and I'm just now starting to add speed back in. PRP was in July. So within a few months I was back running gnarly trails too - and I ran all winter in deep snow, ice, etc. Still no speed work until a month ago (and gradually). I finally just hopped back on a horse too a few weeks ago and it felt good! So if you are careful, do strengthening PT, and don't worry about speed work, I think for sure you'll be running 10 miles by October! Best wishes - hamstrings are tricky! And yes - sitting - OUCH! Thus, riding horse and using that seat bone, ouch. Also - noting that I was running 30 to 35 miles a week before I opted to lay myself up with the PRP injections. Did not run for an entire 6 weeks. I also recommend deep tissue massage and graston if needed. And those excercises Christirei recommends.
Be careful as you are recovering. I have had a quite minor tear in my hamstring several years ago and it took me about 16 months to recover. The problem was that I didn't give it a long enough time for it to recover and remend. I took about 2 months pretty much off (Early March to late April) and then we were in racing season and I ran too many races which did not retear the hamstring but it put too much stress on the hamstring and it didn't recover until mid summer of the following year.. Be slow and be careful, especially with the horse.
Are you hoping to run the Twin City Ten Mile? I am thinking about that one also.
not bad for mile 25
Just jumping in because I ran that race a few years ago (2015), and it was probably my best race ever. Could have been because it's a good race, or because I was in shape. Probably a combination.
Be careful as you are recovering. I have had a quite minor tear in my hamstring several years ago and it took me about 16 months to recover. The problem was that I didn't give it a long enough time for it to recover and remend. I took about 2 months pretty much off (Early March to late April) and then we were in racing season and I ran too many races which did not retear the hamstring but it put too much stress on the hamstring and it didn't recover until mid summer of the following year.. Be slow and be careful, especially with the horse. Are you hoping to run the Twin City Ten Mile? I am thinking about that one also.
This is what I am afraid of doing with things just not healing.. I have an appointment with the Dr on Monday so hopefully I can get some clarification what what is to come. Some days I feel stiffness through my hamstring and other days it is a bad pinching/heavy feeling and I tend to walk with a bit of a hitch. I have not ridden at all since the incident and have been behaving per the drs orders.... which is hard. I have started to come to the realization that it may be more in-hand classes this summer.
I had signed up for the TC loony a couple months before my accident so I am technically signed up for the ten mile already. With this injury I am pretty sure I will be transferring the 5K and 10K to a family member/s (they thankfully allow a transfer of individual races for a fee) but was hoping to still do the ten mile as I really love the race and course but we will have to see how it goes. It is a walker friendly race as well (just move out of the way for the cyclists and lead marathoners) but 10 miles is still a lot of strain.
MN HGirl - just checking in to see how your recovery is going and how the hamstring is healing (and if you're going bonkers not doing anything!)