Ain’t found a way to kill me yet

I’ve been injured for three and half weeks now.  It still seems kind of unreal to me as I’ve, practically, never been injured before and this is pretty much the worst time an injury like this could hit me.  Four years ago I wasn’t in a position to make the Olympic team.  This year I am.  I hit Olympic B standards in the 5000m and 10 000m in 2007 and my 2008 campaign started out better than any other year, hands down.  To say that I am frustrated is an understatement.

Approaching Monday I didn’t even attempt to run for the 10 days prior, compared to the first 12 days of the injury where I kept trying to run every two or three days.  I finally realized that this nerve problem was pretty serious and wasn’t going away anytime soon.  In those 10 days off I took a couple days of complete rest and cross-trained the other days.  I made good progress with my slump tests, more mobility in my legs and back and was feeling pretty good except for the lack of power in my left calf.  When I went to run it didn’t quite feel right and nine minutes in I had to pull the plug. My calf just started cramping again and if I was to continue running I’m sure I would have strained it again.  (And the last time I strained it I couldn’t even walk properly for five days).  Monday afternoon was the lowest point for me throughout this ordeal because I really thought I’d be able to run for 20 minutes and when I couldn’t I started doubting and questioning a lot of the things that have kept me going for the past few weeks.

I went to the pool after my attempted run and was going to finish up with my planned pool running workout.  I just didn’t feel like doing the prescribed workout and just pool ran instead.  Later that night I realized that if I don’t give this everything I have then I’ll regret it.  And I won’t regret cross-training (unless of course a long and complete rest is what I need, but with the time line I’m working with, that isn’t an option).  As it stands, Plan B is to just keep on Given’r.

“Give’r. You just go out and you give’r. You keep on working hard.”
“Is that a plan?”
“Yeah that’s a plan right there.”

Being back in Guelph has been great for getting the medical attention that I need.  The medical team here (Dr. Mountjoy, Brenda Scott-Thomas, Marcel Meresz, Lance Dawson, Dr. Marco Lozej) has really stepped up and I cannot thank them enough.  I’m also seeing Dr. Scappaticci in Mississauga for acupuncture and ART.  Dr. Brian Stewart has helped me tremendously too.

My next step is to see a Neurologist to get a handle on why I cannot recruit my calf muscles.

Thanks to everyone for their kind words of encouragement and advice, it’s been much appreciated.

Big news for Speed River.  New Balance is now the official sponsor of the club and will be helping out the team with gear and travel.  Press release here.

Finally I’m not really having fun relaying all this crappy news but, I figure that since people are coming back here for updates that I should let you all know what’s going on.  So I’m just warning you now that there might not be an update for a little while.

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