So what's the gameplan

So last time I spoke I was really down because the hip was regressing and based on the timing it meant the XC season was done. Well it still is done, and I've told the coaches that yes I'm shutting myself down for the season. For me this was a huge thing to do, and as weird as it sounds this was a big step in my career. Its the first time that I've been real with myself, and honest. In the past, with injuries I've spend weeks on end in denial, and bargaining with myself to keep running in some way. But I vow to you guys now so that it is out there "I will not start running until pain is completely gone." When I say completely, I don't mean when it's 90%, it needs to be 100% or I will not run. I'm changing my philosophy from a percentage of how I feel to a binary system, it's either 1, 100% healthy, or 0 which represents 1-99% and I don''t run. I have abandoned the therapy from the PTs in the Sports Med clinic, and the manual therapist that I had been seeing. Why? I realized something, I am a PT student. I have a huge advantage because not only do I know what needs to be done, but I also know my own body better than any PT or other therapist does. I know what I need, who cares about this ultrasound, laser therapy, and deep tissue work. All I need is strength training. Listen the fibres are were torn people, and its been more than 2.5 weeks since the injury. Inflammation is mostly over so you can stop focusing your treatment on it. Collagen has invaded the area and build a tie between the majority of the fibres. I'm in the sub-acute phase so their is no need to keep treating me as if I'm in the acute phase. It's time to do strength training to stress the area. The body reacts by quickly laying down wacks of collagen in a mesh-like formation. This makes the area weak and not functional. What needs to be done is work the muscle so that the collagen goes from being in a random formation to being in a stacked pattern parallel to the line of tension. So I've been hitting the gym hard, then harder, then even harder the last few days. I'm doing full hip flexion with a tense therabands.Sure the first time I did like it hit like a (insert phrase here), but afterward a little better, than yesterday a little better, than today 5 sets of 15 reps hip flexion and you guess it a little better. Now when I say better I don't mean I'm planning on running tomorrow or the day after, it's still far from better, and remember it's either 1 or 0, there is no in-between. But now that I'm taking over the course of this rehab, I feel recovery is possible. Why? Well its pretty simple, I'm the smartest therapist out there - just joking, but not really. I will get better, and who knows maybe with my new rehab maybe I'll run the final two road races of the Niagara-Hamilton Subaru Running Series - a 7k and 5 mile race so that I could double as the champion at the end of the season like last ear and get another sweet prize. The first race will be a long-shot, but anything is possible now that I'm in charge and hitting weights hard, plus the pushups o man the pushups- 250 today after a long and fast swim workout (1000m, 200, 200, 100, 200, 200, 100, 50, 50, 100, 50, 50, 100, 50, 50, 100, 50, 50, 100, 50, 50, 100, 200, 200, 100, 200, 200, 100, 1000m), and about three trillion ab exercises, the 8-pack is on its way.

Setbacks

So just a quick short post after a long core workout and a real long swim. It's looking more and more like the 2014 cross country season will never be. There are seven spots to be filled for the team to compete in the championship races - the OUAs (Ontario Championships) and the CIS (Canadian Champs), and one more race left in the non-championship season at Queens where the OUAs will be held to essentially prove yourself to the coaches that you deserve a spot in that top-7. After getting some seriously painful and deep to the bone manual therapy, bruising the muscle from the outside-in to try to stimulate some tissue healing, I felt like I would be able to start running on Monday and maybe get one good speed session before Queens. I was planning on then making the trip to Queens with essentially no training, and run like I had nothing to lose, which I don't. I would run up at the front with the fastest runners in the country from Guelph, and just try to hold on as long as I could. If I blew up then so be it, but in the process I would show the coaches that with two weeks of actual training before the OUAs I would be able to run with the top-guns in the sport. Monday came, and it's amazing how sometimes optimism can be such a dangerous thing. I woke up and my hip was actually the worst it had been in the last 3 days. Just tried a few quicker steps on my walk over to school, not a chance running was going to happen. The leg was bad, the limp was back. Maybe tomorrow I thought, maybe just an easy run. Woke up, nope. Not better. Limped over to campus, and was back in the water, for yet another swim, 16 days in a row of swimming, no kicking, no progress in the leg. It's looking more and more like the season is over, and the injury may be much worse than I anticipated. Maybe it will be another week, maybe another 4. Regardless, I'm 99.9% sure Queens is not happening, and therefore OUAs, and CIS in Newfoundland is not happening. Right now I really need something to put on the calendar. I need something to look ahead to, to give me a plan, or a purpose. Right now, I don't have any direction to training. Quite frankly, I don't know why I'm still training. What am I staying in shape for, why am I waking up at 6 to go to the pool and swim 200 lengths at a time. As much as I enjoy swimming, it's a constant reminder of the fact that I'm not running. I actually thought last night, maybe on December 20th I can run the Lookout Mountain 50 Mile race just to give me something to think and train towards, cause at the moment I'm stuck, spinning my tires in the present.

Core Workout without any hip flexors

Sorry for garbage quality was off the camera on my computer.