Holy Tennis Ball, Batman!

So, I've had this recurring problem over the last few long run/walks with very tight hamstrings.  Not being the sort of person who freaks out over the littlest twinge or ache, I just figured at first that it was a symptom of, you know, pushing my body to do a freakin' marathon.  I figured it would get better over time.  For a few weeks it didn't feel like it was really getting worse, and it really only bothered me on the really long distances.  And during my 18-miler I realized that my hamstring would relax when I ran but would tighten back up once I started walking.  Well, if walking fast.  It probably should have dawned on me that there could be something not right with my walking stride, but it didn't. 

Anyway, after yesterday's go, I was left with another really tight hamstring.  It hurt to move certain ways.  I've always been pretty flexible, but I could barely bend over and touch the floor.  I stretched.  A lot.  And then I went to the internet to see what else I could do, because by that time I'd finally connected my hamstring tightness and lack of hip flexibility to my slow walking pace yesterday morning.  The last time I tried to go for speed, I was walking well over 4mph, and yesterday I couldn't seem to get to 4 at all, let alone beyond.  That's not the effect of a few missed workouts.  That's something wrong.

So I found some stuff on the internet suggesting sitting on a tennis ball to kind of roll out the knots and tension in the hamstrings.  And although we've never actually gone out to play tennis, we do own rackets and a can of balls.  So I sat on a tennis ball last night, and it seemed to help a little.

When I woke up this morning, I could tell a difference.  It still hurt.  Actually, it hurt worse.  Like you feel when you've had a really deep tissue massage to relieve some really knotted up muscles, and afterwords you feel like somebody's beaten you up?  Yeah, like that.  And by this afternoon I was having little muscle spasms in my hamstrings that hurt like a bitch.  I was still unable to bend over and touch the floor.

So I came home and sat on the tennis ball some more.  After a while, I remembered that my sister had a ton of balms and rubs for sore muscles, and got up to ask if I could use some.  I got up, walked a couple of steps, and miraculously the tension in that entire side of my body suddenly unwound.  I could touch the floor.  Of course, now my back, hip, shoulder, and neck are kind of sore now because apparently my hamstring problems have caused all sorts of other tension and imbalance. But it's absolutely better than it was earlier!

I was more worried by my pace yesterday than I even wanted to admit to myself, but I'm feeling more confident now.  I'm going to nurse my hamstring back to 100% and pay closer attention to it so I'm not derailed on race day with a hamstring injury.  Maybe some pre-race massages are in order.

Yay for tennis balls!