The Year in Review

As I look back on my 2011 season, I must admit that I am happy for it to be over. This year was a huge learning experience for me and an even bigger test of my mettle. I have had one other major injury in my career, but that was a stress fracture in May of 2007. While it was scary to be sidelined for 3 months only a year before the 2008 Olympics, the timing was such that I just shut down my season and could focus on the long and steady build to Beijing.

This year was a different scenario. My achilles strain happened in the Fall, at the very beginning of my base training. Having dealt with my stress fracture, I thought I had everything under control. I did all my treatment and at first it seemed easy to be patient...after all, there were still 10 months until Worlds. As the months slipped away, however, panic slowly set in. That’s when I learned a new lesson: Tendon injuries are a different beast. While a bone injury has a pretty standard recovery time (as long as you don’t re-injure yourself), tendons are hard to predict. In the course of this year, I hurt both my right and left achilles, and both behaved differently. If someone asked me to write a protocol of what I did to recover, I honestly couldn’t. I tried everything and talked to everyone: Swimming, biking, Alter-G, massage, chiropractic, acupuncture, shockwave, orthotics. Each helped to a differing degree but none was the answer. I think of a stress fracture like cooking with a recipe. Achilles tendon rehab is like looking through the remnants of the fridge and then asking the pot what it prefers before adding it.

In reading this, I am a bit surprised by my own tone. I know I sound like a whiner and I promise that’s not who I am, but I think my reflection on this past year reminds me just how unsettled I became. Nevertheless, in every negative there are positive, and finding them IS who I am.

As much as I hated underperforming (by 2008-2010 standards) in every race this season, I am still extremely proud of the fact that I made the World team off of 2.5 months of training, got the 1500m Olympic A Standard, and made the World Semi-Final with only 4 months of training in my legs. (Side Note: When I say 2.5 and 4 months, I am not being dramatic. Initially I tried biking as a form of cross-training, but with my particular achilles injury, biking only aggravated the problem so I had to stop. I swam a little and used Alter-G as a recovery method once I was healthy enough to run on the ground, but otherwise I spent a lot of time scratching my head.)

So, given all this, had you presented this years performance as an option to me in early April, when I was struggling to run 20 minutes at a time, I would have be ecstatic. Yet, as every perfectionist and high achiever knows, once we have some success, we want more. I’d be remiss if I didn’t give thanks for the biggest thing I gained from this past year, which is a greater awareness and appreciation for the support I have around me. Prior to 2011, I had gotten to the point where I thought I could take care of most things myself, not from arrogance, but more from not wanting to impose on those around me. Being a pro-athlete, I feel selfish enough already, and I often try to just go about my business without bothering too many people. When I was sidelined for 8 months, I had no choice. I felt like I was floundering and I even questioned why I continued in such a emotionally draining profession. I was forced to reach out to others and what I found is that when I did, I often realized that they had been standing right next to me the entire time. In a “what have you done for me lately” job where you are revalued after every performance, it was comforting to know that my core support (family, boyfriend, coach, teammates, friends) would love me regardless. While that may seem obvious to an outside observer, for me it was extremely touching.

So now, while I type this blog post as I let my sunscreen dry before heading to the beautiful beaches of Playa del Carmen, I am excited to let all the stress and disappointment of 2011 melt away so that I can start up training next week with a renewed body, mind, and spirit. London 2012, here I come.