Hamstring fix?

First the good news:

Three easy miles in 27:01 at the North St Paul Community Center this noon. Trying to get past a sore Achilles, which has been acting up at about the three-mile mark, there was no pain at all so I stopped there. Splits 9:02, 8:59, 9:00. I’ll wait two days and then run four miles, then two more days and run five, you get the picture. I’m hoping that will get me past the problem. Meantime lots of easy stretching and some alternating ice and heat. But it’s so HARD to be good - I just want to go out and RUN! Sunshine says I’m hard to live with in times like these.

Second, more good news:

I may have figured out a way to stop a recurring hamstring problem. One source calls it the “Standing Leg Curl.” After completing a run, I stand with my hands holding onto something for balance, lift one foot up and back keeping the thigh pointing toward the floor, bending the knee back as far as I can, then back down again. I do this fifty times for each foot.

If I do this regularly, after every run, my hamstring problems seem to go away. If I forget for a while, then I start to feel pain in the hamstring again. I believe that a physical trainer would say that the foot should be weighted (there are ankle weights for this) and that the curls should be slow with a pause at the top, but I do them quickly without weights and do seem to get a considerable benefit anyway. I incorporate these curls right into the post-run stretches. For me and my particular injury, it works.

For what it’s worth.