Early Season Injuries

Hey guys, sorry about the lack of posts this week, I've been brainstorming different things that I would like to write about. I'll be putting up a weekend preview either Thursday or Friday night. It's Rush week on campus so I've been really busy trying to get all my work done to attend those events.

I got inspiration during an extremely boring and pompous lecture in one of my classes today to discuss early season injuries. I've seen this happen many times to teammates, friends, and competitors in the high school and college level. Currently my Captain Charlie Kline is out with a stress fracture and is one of the other reasons I was thinking about such a topic. This may be a long post, so let me begin.

       Cross Country in my mind is the longest and toughest season in sports. Even if you combine the track seasons into one, XC is still far more brutal and taxing and I'll discuss why. XC doesn't start in early to mid-August when training camp starts, it begins just weeks after the last spring track meet. The first two months of this season are long distance runs in the hottest conditions of the year and most of them will be by oneself. With no school schedule to follow or specific practice times, it is easy to miss a day or two or weeks or months of training during this crucial period and instead just play video games and relax. I've been guilty of all the above charges during my running career. Either way, whether you know it or not, your season has begun and it's late May to early June. Often times runners finish the spring season really hungry to roll in XC, but racing doesn't begin for just about 3 months. Being able to contain and control that drive for success is a tough balance to find. The struggle I went through at the beginning of my summer with this process I'm watching happen now with our Javelin throwers who are starting up practice again in preparation to throw bombs in April. During track season you have workouts to get this competitive stress out, while doing workouts during these early weeks in XC can be detrimental to ones success on the trails in November.
          Often times these early season high millage or even over training people get injured or just an unfortunate event occurs that causes an injury during the summer months or in training camp in August. After putting in work during the summer or if you're just started to get into the grove of training and sustaining an injury is one of the most frustrating occurrences in sports. I've been there which is why I'm writing this post... because things can and usually do, work out in the end.
            If you put in a bunch of solid training before the injury this will make it much easier to come back, because even if it seems like it, the base that has been created doesn't completely go away, it never does. If you didn't put in work that's ok as well, because this injury will give you time to get stronger. The key to recovering from early season injuries, especially stress fractures which puts people out for months, is to SLOWLY come back. Getting cleared to bike, swim, or just generally work out for the first time after taking time off due to injury is always exhilarating and you just want to get to work right away. I've done this and after just a couple days you realize that you're in more pain and need to take another couple of weeks off, delaying the process.
           I've watched counless teammates put in great work whille injured and once they begin running again they PR and do absolutely amazing. Lets look at some examples. I hope this helps any of you who are injured feel just a little bit better about your situation, because being injured makes you hungrier and when you get back to training you will appreciate the sport even more.

Case Study #1: Ryan Gil, North Allegheny
I was not with Gil everyday at practice to watch him recover from his stress fracture that he sustained in August during his senior year, but I've heard many stories and I followed it as closely as I could. If I mess up any of the facts feel free to correct me :)
Gil went to NXN his sophomore year as a part of NA's squad and during his junior year he made it to Footlocker Nations after placing 3rd in the state meet. Gil had high hopes going into his senior year and he wanted the Gold. After getting what seemed like a season ending injury Gil didn't let his dreams of becoming a state champion die. Once he was cleared to pool run and bike he did so for about 8 weeks when he could finally start putting slow miles on his legs. He came back to racing in Mid-October and went on to finish 4th in the WPIAL's to the North Hill's Trio of Hebda, Silenieks, and Kush who all would go on to place in the top 15 at FL regionals (Hebda going to Nationals) so these are no slouches. Gil could have given up again or attemped to settle for a state medal or top 10 finish as he would be seeing other big guns like Chris Campbell (future FL finalist) and Wade Endress (Future NXN qualifier and Mile Indoor State Record Holder) but instead Gil went out with the top pack and made a decisive move with 1k to go and didn't look back as Hebda, Cambell, and Endress tried to chase him down on the final stretch, they would be two seconds short. Gil did not end up making it back to FL nationals, but he did capture another state title indoors in the 3000m.

Case Study #2: Jack Felt, Council Rock North
Jack Felt is one of the most intense guys I've ever met on the track, let alone train with on a daily basis. Felt was on his way to a fantastic season with a huge Mile PR of 4:29 indoors along with sub 2 clocking's on relays throughout the season. He had only run sub 2 twice his junior year (1:59). At the state meet he planned to double with the Mile and then 800m leg of CRN's DMR, but in his first even of the day his foot cracked in two places leaving his with a massive stress fracture and the inability to race in the DMR. Felt was not a man to be detered though as he worked his butt off in the pool and weight room for 10 weeks. He had to watch the first dual meet of the season from the sidelines. Instead of getting disappointed or discouraged this only fueled his fire. He came back and was slowly integrated back into running. He was frustrated at first running about 2:05 in the 800 as he wanted to break 2 once again in high school. Slowly but surely his times came down and at the last invitational he got sub 2 and qualified for districts once again. Felt went on to run 1:57 at districts, just missing the final, but finished off his season on a high note.

Case Study #3: Stephen Sroka, Muhlenberg College (Sophomore)
The only way I can describe Sroka is willpower. I don't think I've met a man with more will to succeed than him in my life. Last year he was plagued by a horrible stress fracture in the first meet of winter that caused him to be unable to work out for 2 weeks and then he was only able to take things lightly for pool work for another 2 weeks after that... Sroka isn't a man to take things lightly. Once he was able to fully push his body in the pool, on the bike, and in the weight room he got right down to business. He was doing 2 a day workouts just crushing the water, acting as if there was no resistance at all. When he was finally able to run again and participate in workouts by late March, he was ready to roll. He didn't seem to be getting the results he wanted in practice, but this wouldn't deter him mentally as he ran 4:14 for 1500m in his first race of the season. Sroka's high school PR is 4:28 for 1600m, so he was on the right track after just two weeks of running. His goal was to break 4:10 and you bet he did it. He finished the season with a PR of 4:09 and almost ran an 800 PR with a 2:03 in 95 degree weather.

Remember guys, whether it comes to runner or in life, don't even give up on your dreams and goals if you really want them. Injuries could be seen as an obstacle, but the more you overcome the more you can succeed.

That's all for now Folks!

--ForrestCRN

P.S. Remember Vinny Todaro? He got a stress fracture during winter and ran massive PR's of 4:13 and 9:13 in spring and placed 3rd in the 3200 at the state meet. :) Hold your heads up and Keep working hard!