Stress Fracture – The last thing I needed right now!

I suppose it had to happen. If you ask Anna she’ll tell you that I always have something wrong with me before a race and it would seem as though the size /importance of the race is directly proportional to the severity of the injury.

I haven’t done too badly this year, but I had shin splints before the European Qualifying race last weekend and hadn’t been running properly for about a six weeks due to a torn MCL ligament. Quite a big race and a fairly bad injury. My biggest race so far this year though was Big Cow. It was my first qualifying race ever and a qualifier for the World Champisonships. All seemed fine until the day before when I ended up in casualty! I wasn’t too bad for Bristol, but there wasn’t any pressure for that race as I had already qualified – Although I’m sure there must have been soething wrong with me in the last few days before the race. It is after all just the way I roll!

We’re now 4 weeks out from the ITU Age-Group Triathlon World Championship in Auckland, New Zealand. I’m supposed to be competing for Team-GB. I still haven’t been able to run for a while as I developed shin splints after coming back from the MCL ligament tear, although my leg was fine in last weekends race, but because of it Anna persuaded me to get it checked out at the doctors.

The GP had a bit of a poke around and said that she thought it was probably a soft-tissue injury but that I should get it X-Rayed just in case. So, off I went to casualty. The X-Ray came back with some ‘concerning fuzzy bits’ (I assume that isn’t a technical term) on my Fibula. The consultant said it looked like multiple stress fractures to my fibula but he couldn’t really tell if they were old injuries that had healed, old injuries that had never healed, new injuries that had healed or new injuries that were getting worse. He has therefore arranged for me to have an MRI scan to check it out properly. Hopefully I’ll be able to have that before I leave for New Zealand, but in the meantime I’m not to run (still).

See, the biggest race of the year is approaching, I haven’t been running for 8 weeks and I’m not allowed to run now. My running isn’t going to be great come Auckland.

Oh well, that’s all part of it I suppose. Avoiding and coping with injury is just one of the things an ‘athlete’ has to get right. It might be the one thing albeit a very big one that I’ve got wrong this year. I suppose I need to reset my aims and objectives for the World Championships. Time and position won’t be important now, it’s just a case of getting there in one piece so that I can actually take part. Make sure I enjoy the experience and learn from it. Then it’ll be a case of getting fully healed before starting all over again ready for next year and the European Championships in June.

 

4 Responses

  1. Avatar forComment Author mum says:

    podium place would be good! but to have you healthy far more iportant Al. x

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.

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