Brodie's Journey Overcoming 6 years of Tendinopathy

: On today's episode, my journey of overcoming six years of tendinopathy. Welcome to the podcast helping you overcome your proximal hamstring tendinopathy. This podcast is designed to help you understand this condition, learn the most effective evidence-based treatments and of course, bust the widespread misconceptions. My name is Brodie Sharp. I'm an online physiotherapist, recreational athlete. creator of the Run Smarter series and a chronic proximal hamstring tendinopathy battler. Whether you are an athlete or not, this podcast will educate and empower you in taking the right steps to overcome this horrible condition. So let's give you the right knowledge along with practical takeaways in today's lesson. This is going to be another episode from the Run Smarter podcast. I actually, it's been a while that was released in, I've got my notes here, the 3rd of July last year. So I decided to share my journey. I had this pesant serenis tendinopathy, which I'll talk about. I don't know how it got to six years. It just, I guess the symptoms weren't bad enough for me to pay attention to it or notice it or. It just seemed like all of a sudden I had it for several years and decided to do something about it and share my journey. So it isn't a proximal hamstring tendinopathy that I'm talking about, but it has very similar processes, close similarities to the rehab of proximal hamstring tendinopathy. I will share my experiences because I have had PhD in the past and I think next episode I'll, I have recorded a past episode on what I have learned. from PHT, so I'll do that. But this episode in particular is quite detailed into a bit of insight into my thought process and my decision making process throughout that recovery. And I don't wanna give too much away because I talk about it all in the episode, but I can say that to this present day, because at the time of recording and sharing my journey, it had been maybe a couple of days after my reaching my goal. But to this present day, I haven't had that tendinopathy come back, which has been astounding. I've, I've been truly amazed. And yeah, so you're going to learn a lot pretty much like when I'm telling this story, perhaps apply this to you undergoing your own PHT rehab, especially if you're a runner, but if you have any other athletic endeavors, um, if you want to return back to cycling or swimming or sports. It's still the same guidelines, it's still the same decision making process. And so I hope you enjoy and let's dive into this episode. I am going to talk through my journey of the past three, three to four months. I thought I would document my attempts at getting rid of a certain tendinopathy that I have and then share it with you guys. And it does have inbuilt within this journey. a lot of lessons that anyone can apply, especially those who have a tendinopathy that they're trying to manage or overcome, particularly a chronic tendinopathy. And yeah, I'm super excited just to share, share my journey. So my injuries in the past, I don't really talk about myself a whole lot and my running history. I am mainly a recreational runner, but in the past I've had a lot of say calf issues. I've had a lot of hamstring issues. I've had some plantar fasciitis, which I've talked about a little bit, which wasn't really from running, but have managed quite a couple of years of high hamstring tendinopathy, managed to overcome that. Had some calf strains when I first started running, had a hip flexor strain when I first started running, and most of my injuries have been fairly under control except this one very, very persistent pes anserinus tendinopathy. which it's been so long, I can't even remember how I did manage to, um, how it managed to become overused and develop into a tendinopathy. I do know, well, for those who aren't aware, your pes anserinus is, uh, a complex that makes up of three different tendons consisting of your hamstring, your adductor and this sartorius muscle. And it's essentially like in the, uh, inside of your knee. kind of where your hamstring attaches onto. So if you were to think of the back of the knee and the inside of the knee, it's kind of in between that. And you can feel it, it's on the outside and both of my pesant serenis on the left and the right side tend to subluxate. I'm not too sure if they subluxate while I am running, but if I was to activate that tendon and put my knee through a certain range of movement, the tendon itself actually flicks out of position across to the other side of the bone and then will relocate when I bend my knee again. And so that might be indicating, or it might be a factor as to why this tendon has become irritated, but it does subluxate on the other side and that hasn't had an issue at all. bit of information but um yeah so it has been irritated for about six years i'm not too sure how it came that way i was running half marathons and i was doing triathlons and i was building up um my mileage quite well but this tendon would always be um on the back of my mind it wouldn't really hurt while i was running it wouldn't really hurt afterwards it didn't bother me that much but i could tell once i was to activate that tendon that it'd be sore and wanted to just get rid of it once and for all. And so, uh, I decided to use, or I tried to take advantage of this lockdown situation that we did have. So here in Melbourne, um, probably around start of March, mid March, we went into lockdown and I decided to take that opportunity to really, really focus on. building up my running mileage, but overcome this tendinopathy. And it was just coming off the back of a triathlon season. And at that stage, because there was a lot of fast work, there was short to distances, but, um, was quite fast. That peasant Serenis tendon in particular was quite irritated. And, um, the last triathlon of the season actually got canceled. So it was due to COVID. So. It was really just off the back of triathlon season. And describing the irritability at that stage, I would say that my tendon would get flared up the next day if I was to run more than maybe two or three K at maybe a five minute pace. So not a lot of mileage at all. And it would flare up the following day. Might be flared up for a couple of days and then settle back down. And then it was back to baseline symptoms. During the run I could probably sense it. I could probably notice it Not pain while I was running, but I can tell it definitely wasn't Equal to the opposite side. I didn't have that much confidence Or I guess the brain just had the awareness that it was there without pain if that makes sense And then afterwards it'd be okay once I cooled down it'd be okay But it was the next day which it was particularly flared up, which is pretty consistent of a chronic tendon. So I started my mission. I wanted to not only build up my mileage, I wanted to get rid of this once and for all. I wanted to really get good control of this tendon pain. So what I do first, first I laid down some expectations. I kind of, with my knowledge of how chronic tendons behave, I did expect that throughout this journey, there would be some minor flare ups. Tendons tend to I have just sometimes random flare ups that settle back down and it's not a smooth journey. You don't just slowly get better, get better, get better. There are a couple of hiccups, there are a couple of speed humps. So while aware of that and had the expectations of that happening moving forward, I knew that it wouldn't be 100% pain free. I knew that as I built up my mileage, I was okay dealing with a little bit of pain the following day, knowing that it is a chronic tendon. or chronic tendinopathy and sometimes it's a little bit safe or sometimes the body is still telling you it's safe even if it is flared up the next day but it's not increasing in pain. So I had a really good gauge of the next day when the tendon was flared up. Was that my usual flare up baseline or was it more exacerbated? And I made sure to lay down the expectations of it will be sore the next day but make sure it's only at that baseline. flare up and not a massive excessive amount. And so lay down that expectation. It won't be pain free. It's a chronic tendon. Pain is okay for these tendons as long as it's only a baseline and doesn't get exacerbated. The other expectation is patience. I knew that it would be quite a long time. I knew that it wouldn't be four weeks, six weeks of just doing the right thing. I knew that it wouldn't be two months. I set myself a three month goal. and that was a very, very patient goal and just expected the rollercoaster. I expected that sometimes these time frames might fluctuate, sometimes I might get quite lucky and progress quite quickly, other times it might take a lot of patience and a lot of really diligent micro steps in the right direction and so laid down all those expectations. Then I came up with a couple of steps before I started. So step one, I needed to create a running program and I used the Nike Run app. Pretty much I've done that in the past and it's really helped me. If you aren't familiar, you can download a program on the Nike Run app. And before you design it, it asks for information about you. So it will say, okay, what is your or how frequent do you want to run? What is your 10k PB or your 5k PB if you know it. What else does it ask? What is your current running mileage? What's your current frequency? And yeah, just way tight, that kind of stuff, and just gathers that information about you before it designs the program. And when it is designed the program, it asks, okay, where do you wanna build up to? And how frequently do you want to run within the week? And so plotted all that and how long until your goal? And so I put down three months and I want to progress to 15k. So I was at, I was managing maybe two or three Ks. Wanted to build that up to 15. Once I knew I got to 15, uh, I would have so much confidence in myself. If I was to run 15k without any pain, I would almost consider myself, um, I would almost consider turning a massive corner and abolishing this tendon pain. So I said that as a goal. So that was step one. Step one was creating the program. Step two, I wanted to lay down some considerations for when I was running and what my isometrics, what my level of isometrics would be. So when I was running, I'd make sure that I was starting off at a really slow speed. Pretty much knowing that because this pesanthorius is connected to the hamstring, the faster you run, the more your hamstrings kick in. So make sure that I start off really slow, make sure I do some isometrics before, sometimes during, and definitely after. And knowing myself in the past with say patella, tendons, playing basketball, I respond to isometrics really well. And there is a certain type of isometric that I use for this If you can imagine someone doing like a tricep dip on a bench and their legs are out straight and they've got their arms on the bench, that kind of position, just putting one leg out straight, so the affected side, and just slowly straightening and bending my knee and activating my hamstring as I do that is a really slow, controlled exercise for that tendon just to really engage or pre-activate that tendon. And as I do that, the pain would diminish. and so I would increase the speed or I'd increase the amount of strenuous load to that tendon and so I'd do the exact same position but do it from the floor instead of the bench and it's kind of hard to explain but this is how I would load up the tendon because it would pre-activate the tendon and pain would actually diminish and so if I was to do that before a run and sometimes if I were to do it during a run and then after the run it would stabilize back to baseline symptoms really quickly. And so I knew that I had to do that, especially in the initial stages while the tendon was quite flared up and while the tendon was, I'd say, a little bit reactive. So that was step two. Step three was for me to consider how I was running and consider my gait and my running pattern technique, that kind of thing. I knew that in the past, a wider step width helped with this type of tendon pain. so I would adopt that. I would actually lower my cadence because I know that if you increase your cadence it's more efficient, it's better for the body, it's better for technique, but it does increase your hip flexes and it does increase your hamstring demand and I run naturally with quite a high cadence. I run it probably close to 180. So I pegged that back to about 165, 168, something like that, which is still within a really, really nice zone of cadence, but just slowing it down a little bit just to try and allow the muscles and the hamstrings just to not work as hard. So that was a decision that I made in myself. And also lighter shoes. So I always run, or most of my runs are with really, really light shoes, around about 150 grams. And so, I made sure that especially when I was starting out that I'd wear those light shoes just because it would help the tendon, it helped the hamstrings and so made those choices. The fourth step was strengthening. So aside from the isometrics that I do before, during and after, I'd also developed some sort of strengthening program and so I'd do that once or twice a week and that would involve like in the early stages some theraband hamstring curls. and also a couple of like squats and a couple of deadlifts and just some really light exercises that worked the hamstrings. So I decided to implement that once or twice a week. And so there were my four steps and then started my journey. So week one, this is what we got into. I have this written down one second. Okay, so for the first few weeks, I didn't actually start the running program itself, that Nike run up. I actually just started doing say 2k runs. just on and off here and there, and then just established what my hamstring tendon would feel like afterwards. So it would literally be like jog for one minute, walk for one minute, jog for one minute, walk for one minute, on and off for two Ks and that was it. And then I was done, did my loading hamstring exercises, did my isometrics, and then just had a wait and see what it was like the next day. And once I was capable of doing 3K, I started that run program. and you know how I explained before that it wants you to have it's a goal, has a duration but also asks how often you want to run per week. So I decided it gives you the option of 2 to 3 times a week or 4 to 5 times a week and I wanted about 3 or about 4 but decided to go the greater amount and just have really where my starting point would be. And so I started at four to five times a week and after two weeks, I obviously, it obviously wasn't agreeing with me. The tendon, my tendon itself was particularly flared up and it was staying elevated slightly above baseline. So quickly made the decision that four to five times a week wasn't happy, it actually needed more recovery time. So I observed it over 24 hours, made the decision. there was still, there was more pain during the run. And so I took a step back looking at my symptoms over the week, over the last week or two, and then made the decision to start all over again. And so that actually took discipline and mentally I could have gone into this like negative mindset of maybe this isn't for me. Maybe I should just do some cycling. Maybe I should, you know, maybe, um, I'm always going to have this. Maybe I should just increase my mileage anyway. and just put up with the tendon pain because I've done that in the past. I've ran half marathons, I've ran full marathons with this. That could easily be my decision, but no, it took discipline, it took a bit of a mindset. I said no, my goal is to abolish this hamstring tendon pain, so let's re-evaluate. Let's go back to the drawing board and let's start all over again. So that took a bit of courage and it definitely took a bit of discipline. And so started the program all over again, reset it, opened up the Nike run up again, said plugged in my coordinates, plugged in my info and started at two to three times a week and even pegged back the numbers. So starting at two to three K's with a four K long run. That was the numbers that we set it at. But when it asked for me to do my long run within the week, if it was four or five K's, I knew that wasn't, that was gonna flare up my tendon. So what I did was during the week, if it asked for the shorter runs, so it asked for the two, the two K runs or the K and a half run, I'd do that. But when it got to the Sunday for my long run, I would, instead of doing a five K long run, I'd do a 40 minute bike ride. And then straight off the bike, I would do a two K run, something like that, and combine the two. So that's where You kind of have to be a bit creative and use the power of cross training, which is one of those universal principles that we learn about. And yeah, just yeah, got creative would be the best way to describe it. And I had to do that for quite a few weeks. Every time there was a long run, I'd just combine the two activities. I'd do my bike ride, then I'd do a shorter run, and that combination would equal my long run, you could say. I was also confident with that because in the past I knew that bike rides didn't flare up the tendon at all and I could do all the bike riding in the world and it wouldn't flare it up. So that helped throughout the week as well. It helped break up the week if I was only doing two or three runs per week. Maybe two or three times a week as well I was doing bike riding. So that was keeping me fit and keeping me healthy and keeping me mentally in check as well. I also learned to implement intervals. Even if I was to go for a 2k run or a 3k run, I was running or jogging for 800 meters and then walking for 200 meters and I'd just repeat that. Or if I was doing a 4k run, I would run 1k and then stop and just shake it out for two minutes. I'd do some isometrics and then I'd do my next k. I was really, really breaking up those segments, doing my isometrics if I needed to and just giving my tendon a break, giving my body time to recover. and found that if I did that and was really patient with that, the next day my hamstring was well under control. And so I followed that discipline as the weeks went on. And so symptoms afterwards, um, in the most, for the most case, I was happy with a little bit of soreness the next day, cause I laid down those expectations. Um, but it started to establish that my, my tendon the next day would, uh, be maybe a two out of 10 discomfort. and would last for maybe half the day, and then I was pain-free by the next day. And that was a really good sign for me. If that happened, that meant that what I did the day before was a really good dosage. And so I realized I could establish what my hamstring was coping with, and then could slowly build up from there. On the nutrition side, I do know that sugar is quite bad for you, obviously. It is a bit of an inflammatory. I actually went three weeks, no sugar. this is a bit of an experiment. And I do like to challenge myself with these health goals anyway. So I probably would have gone three weeks, no sugar, even if I wasn't trying to do this tendon mission. But did realize that three weeks of no sugar, my resting heart rate was quite low and my body was recovering quite quickly with this aura ring that I have overnight. It measures my body metrics and measures my sleep and my recovery metrics. So what my heart rate's doing where my heart rate gets to its lowest throughout the night, what my heart rate variability is, and gives me a readiness score the next day and realized that my readiness score was, um, quite high, which is really, really good. Uh, but then realized after my three weeks of no sugar went back onto sugar and my heart rate was definitely increased. My resting heart rate had increased. Uh, definitely my heart rate overnight. And that's still. fluctuating here and there. I'm still trying to get that under control, but it was a good experiment when it came to eating no sugar. So I continued this whole process and got to about week, well let's talk about week five to nine. So we're looking into the second month of me doing this. And it's probably, this is probably the second month into me starting all over again. So we're probably looking at, I don't know, maybe two months in already. and symptoms started to stabilize and I started responding really well to speed. Uh, I was doing my long runs on the weekends, usually the Sunday. And during the week I was doing my strength work and I was doing a little bit of speed work and realized that through like just really gradual progressions that a short, faster run was actually quite good for the hamstring. It was more the long distance sort of stuff where it was most likely to Be sore the next day. you'll have access to all current and future modules that I create. Sign up through my link in the show notes, then download the Run Smarter app, and you'll instantly have unlimited access to all the course resources on any device. And to say thanks for being a podcast listener, I want to give you a VIP offer. There will be a link in the show notes in every episode that will provide you 50% off the course price. Just click on the link and it will automatically apply your 50% discount. I did recall and I did write down in my journal, I did have one flare up and it was during a 5k ramp up and I was, when I was talking about responding well to speed work, I was mainly doing like 2, 3, 4k repeats and then I tried a 5k ramp up and there was a flare up above baseline so I'm like, okay, it's flared up here. I substituted out. three runs the next week for only two runs and replaced it with more cycling and then it settled down relatively quickly. So even though there was a flare up, I made sure not to completely rest it because as we know from our universal principles, rest not always best. If we completely rest it, it ends up getting weaker. But I managed to continue running. I did the two runs the following week instead of three, but just did a lot more cycling. And I can assure you that those two runs that I did... was well within my capabilities that I knew I was capable of and it would have been a slow, shorter run, but yes, did do more cycling because I know that doesn't flare up the tendon at all and then it returned relatively quickly. So that was kind of a little hiccup along the journey and I knew that this was to be expected. So yeah, I was quite happy that I could negotiate that and that flare up would only last for one week then I was back on track. My long runs were increasing about 1k every single week. So for some people that can be very, um, gradual, it requires a lot of patients. Uh, so I was going, I was starting my long K, my long run was about 4k. Then went to five, six, seven, eight. So in about a month, my long run turned into 8k. Um, so it was probably at the end of the second month. Um, if we include my. initial attempts that flared up and I had to start all over again were probably two and a half months in and My long run is probably around 8k So very gradual but got to week 10 and probably week 10 was when I started to turn a real corner and My long runs were getting Longer obviously and my calves were starting to get a bit more doms because I was doing those longer runs in light shoes with less support and so knowing that when it comes to lighter shoes, what happens is the demand, the muscle demand, everything below the knee increases. So your calves, your achilles, your plantar fascia, your feet, ankles, everything below the knee. Yeah, the muscle demand is quite high. And so when I started doing these 8k runs, 9k runs, 10k runs and beyond, my calves were starting to get a bit sore, get a bit of doms. And so started doing one or two runs a week in more supportive shoes. And they were a little bit, a bit heavier, but my symptoms start to stabilize. So I want to trial some heavier shoes anyway, and that could give my calves a rest. And so made that decision. And the next week I started noticing some hamstring soreness. Um, so I think it was the week after implementing the heavier shoes. Uh, it was just. delayed onset muscle soreness and it was just in the muscle belly, but the hamstrings were definitely sore. It was, I could recall it was the next day after doing a strength workout, but I didn't necessarily work the legs and it was in both sides. So, um, I probably did something within that workout unintentionally working the hamstrings because I remember doing a few different exercises that I wasn't used to, but for some strange reason, yeah, my hamstrings were sore the next day. Tried analysing as best I could. couldn't identify anything but then the following day with this hamstring soreness I decided to try four lots of 1k runs so I'd run for a k have a rest and repeat so that was going to be my workout but by the second k I realized that my left hamstring was starting to tighten up and that tightness would gradually build up and so I only got two k's in stopped, walked home, made the decision, made the call, okay, my body probably isn't responding well to this and decided, yeah, to hike back. So that was another, I would say, smart decision. Then a couple of days later, I just, my long run would be 10Ks. So I hadn't done 10Ks in such a long time. I was excited to do it. My legs were feeling good. I hadn't really tested out the The left was fine, but then as I got into the running I could notice my right hamstring. And the right hamstring was okay, I would say it was about a 1 or a 2 out of 10 pain. It could just notice it there, but decided just to see how it would go. So within 4 or 5 Ks in, it was still staying at a 2, so I would consider that, okay, let me just continue pushing on. Then from the k's, maybe 6 to 10, I swapped to doing intervals because it crept up from a 2 out of 10 to a 3, didn't really want to push it. So made the decision to stop and walk every k for about 200 meters, 300 meters, and my hamstring only just got up to a 3 out of 10. And I knew that if I was to, oh, my best estimates would be... If I was to push on and continue doing it without any breaks, that three would turn into a four or five and maybe, um, a bit of increase in soreness the next day. So that was another smart decision that I made. It healed relatively quickly and it seems like the, the doms itself overcame within a day or two, and then I returned back to an easy 5k run, taking breaks every 1k. Just. throughout the next week I'm talking about. So made sure that I really got back into it gradually, didn't rest, kept bike riding every few days. Then yeah, did my five K's breaking up into one K's and felt good. And so then I was back to doing, I felt like I was capable of doing my long runs. Then I think it was the next weekend. when I was due for a long run, we actually went out the night before because bars started opening again. So it was my first night out with some mates, having some beers. And that night, that was a Saturday night. So worked out my sleep metrics, you know, haven't drank beers, haven't drank many beers for a long time. And then waking up the Sunday morning, looking at my Auraring and Realizing, okay, I hadn't had a lot of sleep. I probably had about four hours of sleep. My heart rate was super elevated throughout the night and my readiness score was just super low on my aura ring and decided, made the decision to rest that day and do my long run on the Monday. And that was actually a really tough decision for me because I was, I felt great. I was ready to jump back into it and. Like physically I was a little bit tired, but. Yeah, just made the decision. Okay. Maybe today's not the day. Let me do my long run the next day. And you know what? I did 11 Ks that next day and I felt great. Hamstrings, not a worry. Um, my fitness, my level of fitness, not a worry. Such a nice day. I felt really, really good. I felt rejuvenated and it was a massive step forward. So I hope you can understand or appreciate these like little smart decisions or these decisions to. deviate from the plan as I'm responding to my body and as I'm listening to my body and making kind of rational decisions you could say. Okay so week 12 and beyond, so we're looking at maybe three months and beyond. My long runs were about 9, 10 Ks and I actually really turned a corner. I was responding really, really well to the long runs. I actually wasn't flaring up much the next day. And up until that point, I had my usual baseline flare ups. I'd flare up for half a day and that would be it. But this really, really turned a corner. I jumped into 9Ks, 10Ks, and the next day I was hardly feeling anything. I was doing my isometrics when I first woke up. There'd be a little bit of pain, but then the isometrics later on that day. I'd feel no pain. And so that was a huge, huge relief for me. And it was a huge corner that I turned. And in my runs, I started not feeling the need to take these breaks, these micro breaks of walking for 200 meters or just stopping every K. And my body just was responding really well. So I was doing more consecutive Ks and running longer without breaks. And I was still avoiding consecutive days when I was running. Just giving, even though I felt really great, just giving my tendon the next day to recover, even if the next day was a bike ride. So my usual routine would be say, run, bike, run, strength session, and then rest. That would kind of be what four or five days would look like. And, yes, I was still avoiding consecutive days. I was still pushing my intervals. I was getting faster. I was doing... repeats of 1k under 4 minute pace. So that's really pushing it for me. And I was increasing my strength sessions. I was doing things like wall balls. So I've got an 8 kilo wall ball that I use. It's kind of like a crossfit exercise, but do that out the backyard. And I would combine that with some running. Sometimes I do 25 wall balls, go for a 1k run, 25 wall balls, 1k run and just do repeats of that. So I was feeling really strong. My hamstrings were getting somewhat sore the next day after those strength sessions. So I was hitting a really nice sweet spot. And I also bought new shoes. I tried to find the correct shoe that was really designed for me. I didn't have a brand in mind, but what I did know was I wanted something light that offered a bit more relief for my Achilles and calf. because as I was explaining before, most of my running would be in these really light, less supportive flimsy kind of shoes, but the longer runs that I would do, my calves would get quite sore and the demand for the calves is quite high. So I would swap out and use my more supportive shoes, but they're very heavy. And so I wanted something that offered the support that had a bit of a heel drop of around like five to 10 mil to give my Achilles, give my calf a rest. wanted a shoe that was lighter than the alternative that I had and I think those were about 250 grams so if you can compare to the 150 or I Actually think the ones I wore running in were about 100 grams. So just super light, but Yeah, so the ones that I bought were 150 grams and they offered a heel lift. So the heel drop was around 6 mil and really helped me and so that was a really good shoe that I was after and started doing a bit more running in that knowing that I didn't want to do any long runs just yet in those new shoes because that would be an acute change but yeah just slowly introduced that. Now that my long runs were getting beyond 10k's I actually got to 11k's and decided to scrap the Nike Run app and started doing it on my own just following the same structure. And instead of doing 1K every week or increasing my long run by 1K, now I'm up to these higher numbers, I can start jumping 2Ks. So I did 11K, went totally fine, I was so, so happy, did 13Ks the following week, and again felt really good, maybe a slight pain doing my isometrics for the first attempt the next day, but then totally alleviated after that. And by the next week, I was ready for my 15k long run, my 15k goal. This is like three and a half, four months, almost approaching four months down the track of this incredible journey. And I was ready for my 15k run. I decided to do it 10 days later. So I did my 13k run on the Sunday and then decided just to, um, do a couple more interval sessions, a couple more lighter sessions and do my 15k. 10 days later, so it was the Wednesday the following week. And this was at the time of recording, two days ago. And so slipped on my light tissues and decided to just listen to my body in regards to pace. I went super, super slow and went out for a really, really nice run. Super, super patient. And I was just feeling great. 5k's in, 8k's in, 10k's in, I was feeling like I could do this for 2-3 hours, so really, really light but just loving every moment of it. I did decide to walk during a hill. I didn't want to be the one to say, okay I went for a 15k run and did a massive hill. It was actually a different route than what I'm used to, which incorporated a massive hill. So I decided to walk up that hill. knowing that my calves aren't usually the best or the demand for my calves is super, super high in these shoes. So mixed with hills, the demand for the Achilles and the calf will go through the roof. So just made the sensible decision just to walk up that. And it took maybe five, eight minutes to walk up that entire hill. It was quite a large one. And yeah, then just jogged from then on out. And apart from that, I pretty much ran 10 Ks consecutively. then walked up the hill and then ran 5k's consecutively. So I was linking in all these and not taking the breaks that I was at the very start of this journey and felt great. Like the next day I didn't have any pain. It was phenomenal. My calves were maybe a little bit sore, my hips and upper hamstrings maybe a little bit sore but regarding the hamstring tendinopathy, totally gone. I couldn't believe it. And it was... After such a journey, it just made me feel so, so happy that making these smart decisions, all the patience that it took to see the results was truly astounding. So I thought to kind of summarize, I would write down some of these, the major lessons that I learnt and that you could take away as well. And the first one I put down was just being patient. So I started with the three month goal, which actually probably took about four. But expected that patience and demanded the patience for myself. I started at an embarrassingly slow distance speed, taking breaks, doing my isometrics like I wasn't competing against anyone. I was competing against myself and making sure that I was diligent, making sure I was disciplined, making sure that I was doing the right things. So start off really slow, taking breaks like I don't know too many runners that would start off a run plan as conservative as what I did, but knew that this is what it took to really overcome it. It was a lot of trial and error, a lot of self-reflection and really being objective and just studying the course, being really rational with the choices that I was making and that does come with a lot of self-reflection. So that'd be the third tip I had. The fourth one I have written down is it took ages to get from say 3k to 6k. That took a lot of patience. It probably didn't illustrate as much throughout this journey in this episode, but regarding like how irritable the tendon was, just that ramp up, just that time period to get from 3 to 6k for my long run, it was just a up and down, up and down, up and down, and it would just, um, yeah, it'd be a real test. But getting, once I negotiated up to 6k, getting from 6K to 10K was so much easier that the tendon started stabilizing a lot more and becoming more predictable and so it got easier and then from 11 to 15K was just a breeze and so it really took, if we talk about that downward spiral in those 10 principles, the further down that spiral you are the harder it is to work back up but the further you work your way back up that spiral the easier it is to really get out of it. And so... I definitely experienced that throughout this journey. The other tip I read down was the power of interval running. So taking breaks every K, taking breaks every 800 meters and walking 200 meters. That really, really worked well for me and really my tendon really responded well to that. The other one, the power of like pre-activation exercises and isometrics really, really worked for me. So isometrics before, sometimes isometrics during. and then isometrics afterward would calm down the tendon and help it to the next day. And I was doing say one set of ten for these isometrics, but I was doing it every two or three hours because I know that dosage responded well for me, but a dosage would vary from tendon to tendon, from person to person, but it can be really effective if implemented well. The other thing I wrote down was it was okay with a bit of pain the next day. I allowed that expectations. I knew that it was a chronic tendon. There will be pain the next day, but just making sure that there was no significant flare up. Um, and then the second last thing I have written down staying positive, like I could easily spiral into negative emotion as soon as I'd have a flare up, as soon as there would be an unpredictable flare up, as soon as I'd have to run from six K go back down to four K. up to 5k back down to 4k as soon as I would have some doms or some muscle soreness, some calf soreness, like all this sort of stuff. You can really, really easily take a hold of you negatively. And I just kept keeping positive. I deliberately told myself, I'm blessed to be out here. Some people can't walk at all. Some people can't run the amount that you're doing right now. You're doing a great thing. You're disciplined. You're strong. Your tendon's strong. responding well, keep going. Just that self-talk really does help. And lastly, this is a big one so if you have to take one thing away from this, this is what has really helped me. Think to yourself, if I do this run today and get injured, will I know that it was a stupid decision? And when I'd plan this run, I would plan to do say interval sessions and do five lots of 1k runs and increasing the pace time to time and so I would forecast okay if I was to do that workout right now and the next day if I was to be injured would I tell myself yeah that was a stupid decision or would I tell myself uh that was well within my capabilities I'm not too sure why I'm irritated or why I have this injury symptom but I know it's not a significant I know a lot of runners that get injured and say, yes, I know, like that was a big jump for me. And they're used to doing 10 K runs and then all of a sudden they do a 25 K run and the next day they're, um, they've got whatever injury and they're like, yep, I know I made the stupid decision. So I made the choice to try and forecast and keep asking myself this question. If I did this run today and then I'm injured the next day, would I tell myself, yeah, that was a stupid decision? And if I wouldn't. then I'd go ahead and do that workout. And so keep forecasting, keep telling yourself that. We are done. I've written down those dot points. And so I hope you enjoyed this journey. I hope you took a lot out of it. I know that making these smart decisions, this is like the philosophy of the podcast, is being educated and being patient, taking these steps, making smarter decisions for you to become a better runner. For me next, I'm gonna continue. building I'm not going to continue building my long runs I'm going to start doing consecutive days I'm going to start building up my overall weekly mileage without increasing my long run and yeah like I said going to start introducing consecutive days. I know I'm not totally out of the woods yet I know I do expect that there might be a flare up here and there but I will keep a really structured running program I'll continue building up my strength. But I hope this has helped you with your own journey. I hope these lessons have helped you and hopefully inspired you to take the same direction yourself. There we have it. I'm not too sure why I decided to chime in at the end of this episode because I was, like always, going to do some key takeaways, but I pretty much summarized it at the end of the episode. So a lot of those key takeaways really do apply to PhD recovery. The one thing I might add though is when I was talking about reducing my cadence to help the distal part of the hamstring behind the knee. It's probably not recommended for PHT to reduce the cadence because it might contribute to overstriding, which we don't want, which we've learned from past episodes. So if you're confused about that, it's just pretty much my attempts to reduce the demands on the hamstring at the other end behind the knee rather than high up in the hamstring. So pretty much disregard that and disregard that change. but still might be said for lighter shoes and those other shoe changes that I mentioned. That's all for me today. I will start adding in an episode, probably next episode, what I have learned from me having proximal hamstring tendinopathy. I've had it several times in my running journey and triathlon journey, and I'll share my key takeaways and what's really helped me in my recovery. So we'll catch you next time. Thanks once again for listening and taking control of your rehab. If you are a runner and love learning through the podcast format, then go ahead and check out the Run Smarter podcast, hosted by me. I'll include the link along with all the other links mentioned today in the show notes. So open up your device, click on the show description, and all the links will be there waiting for you. Congratulations on paving your way forward towards an empowering, pain-free future, and remember... Knowledge is power.