February 2013

This month I’m very happy to report that I officially feel like I am back on the up after the operation! There is still a lot of hard work to be done but it has begun. I officially started my 400m training – it has been a huge shock to my body! I knew it was going to be harder than training for the shorter sprints but I underestimated it. It takes a totally new level of mental strength and determination to get through the sessions. I am very lucky to have an amazing coach and training group, especially Matt my 400m training partner, to help me get used to the new training. It has highlighted how important it is to have a strong coach and training partners.

This month I have completed a 3 week block of very hard training; including distances I have never run before like 500m!! I was in greater shock to find out I had more than one per session plus several 200m! This has included getting back into racing. I have done three local pre season races. The first competition, I did the 60m just to ease myself back into racing. It felt amazing to be back!! Although it is frustrating to be behind people that I used to be ahead of – but this I have to make positive and use it as motivation. In the second competition I did the 60m again followed by my first 300m. I had never run a competitive 300m before so had little idea of how a race pace 300m was actually going to feel – the last 80m were incredibly long! At the end and for about 30 minutes after I was seeing double! I was beaten into 2nd place by just 0.03 of a second. I was pushing sooo hard but my legs just couldn’t go that bit faster. I took the experience of the 300m and put it to good use in the next competition – I knocked 1 second off my time from the week before and won. I was determined that no one was going to beat me this time!

At the start of the month I had a few days off uni after exams, which were very quickly filled by various jobs that I had been putting off doing during exams. They passed far too quickly! Uni is now back to normal, but this semester I have more lectures which is creating an extra challenge to balance things. Due to my lecture schedule I have what I have now nick-named “Crazy Wednesdays”. I need to have started my training session at 8am at the track, then I go straight to uni for a lecture 10 – 11 then stop off at home to eat. By 2 I’m in the gym for a weights session then back to uni for another lecture from 5 – 7. I must say it is a challenge to stay awake during that lecture!!

Of course as it was February there was Valentine’s Day too. My boyfriend has a tough job being patient with all my training and uni commitments. A prime example was Valentine’s itself. It was on a Thursday, I had uni during the day and training in the evening so I popped over to his in the evening for a brief while. He suggested we went out on Friday to celebrate but as I had a competition on the Saturday I couldn’t so we had to wait until Saturday evening. When we finally got round to celebrating it was lovely to spend some quality time together.

The weather was very cold at the start of the month but I’m happy to say in the last week it has started to warm up. In the sun it’s quite hot but as soon as you go in the shade its cold and the wind is cold too. Of course, the evenings are still cold once the sun has set. I have managed to find a spare couple of hours to make the most of the sun out and about with friends. We had a lovely picnic for one friend’s birthday.

January 2013

Well this month has been a pretty boring one I’m afraid. I spent most of it finishing off the university assignments and revising ready for my exams which were at the end of the month. I only had 5 exams which wasn’t too bad along with 3 assignments to finish off. To help me out during the exam period, my Mum came over for a week to take over running the house and cooking which allowed me to still train. It was great to spend some time with Mum in between exams. Despite Mum’s superpowers, on a couple of training days the revision won and I had to miss a few sessions. I had one very interesting revision session when we had a 4 hour power cut – it involved studying with my torch and by candle light - the candle was also a good source of heat!

Training this month was very much focused around exams, but it has increased from last month and I am back into doing track sessions. It feels great to be back doing “proper” sessions - I can’t wait to get back to competing!! But as I keep being told – one step at a time! I’m glad to say my ankles seem to be holding up – they have been a little bit sore at times as I was warned, but nothing major. I have to wear custom made long compression socks to help prevent pooling of fluid in my ankles.

December 2012

This month I was given the go ahead to increase my training another step! Still only straight lines but now quicker and also much more. I’m now on the track 4 times a week. I was also granted permission to start some weights again. It has been over 14 months since I last did some decent weights. Of course I have had to start from basics and light but I have already improved a lot over these few weeks. After the first squat session back I couldn’t walk properly for 3 days due to my sore muscles. Walking up and down the stairs and getting up and down from the sofa was very interesting. Though it did provide my friends with some entertainment!

University has been very busy again: writing up all the assignments from the field trips – the down side to them! But it’s a great way of getting to see the island. The majority of our assignments are group work so it takes a little extra time and co-ordination to get organised to meet up etc.

I headed back to England for Christmas and New Year. I had a lovely time: my friend from the Ukraine came over to stay with us for Christmas. I hadn’t seen her for over 10 years – so we had A LOT of catching up to do!! We did all the traditional things for them so they could experience a “proper English Christmas”. We had a fantastic time!! Once they had left it was down to the usual routine of seeing all my various support team back in England and I started studying for my exams too as they were very close to the start of term. It was good to be back and spend some time with family and friends as it had been a while since I had been able to.

The best Christmas present was going to see the surgeon for my post operation check-up and being given the all clear to start back into full training. I will still feel a bit of pain every now and again but it’s nothing to worry about and he also said that my ankles will continue to improve over the next 6 months so that’s good. Bring on the 400m training!!

November 2012

I’m very happy to report that the next chapter of my ankle rehab has begun! I have now started running at last!!! Only in straight lines and not very fast but it’s running!! It felt soo funny the first session back – like I had almost forgotten how to run! But just in case I needed reminding why I had gone through with the whole operation thing (which I didn’t really) it reminded me how good it felt and how much I have missed it!! Now the trick is not to rush things and listen to my ankles. I have been running 4 times a week. There have been some days when my ankles haven’t been so good so I have had to take a couple of days off and went back into the pool. I have been in even closer contact with my physio – emailing him every morning with a report from the day before and on certain days, morning, afternoon and evening text message updates. I now feel that things really are progressing in the right direction. The aim now is to have me back into full training shape for the start of January.

University has actually been much busier than I expected. This month we have had at least one field trip per week. Some have been very interesting, and others not so much! But they do provide a means of seeing parts of the island that I would never normally see. We went on one to Popeye’s Village (yes – the set where they filmed the original Popeye film!) with a group of Italian geographers. They are doing current research about the movement of a particular rock body. This was very interesting; in fact I was so interested they have invited me to go back with them the next time they come to take measurements. I’m looking forward to it already and to see what they have managed to establish since.

The last week I have been sick with a chest infection which slowed me down a bit and meant I had to take a break off training. Perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise as it gives my ankles a little rest.

October 2012

Uni has begun again – second year here I come! I don’t have as many scheduled lectures as last year but we have more assignments so I guess it balances out. For me it is much better as it’s easier to manipulate writing assignments around training rather than training around lectures! I was ready to start back and I am enjoying things so far – 3months is a very long time for a break! I must remember to get organised next year and book a break away, even if just for a few days.

I’m still working hard on my ankle rehab. Things are progressing just slower than I (my physio and coach too) would like! I am currently on a programme of an easy day followed by a hard day with the weekends as double easy days. On an easy day I just have to do my mobility work, calf stretches and strengthening 3 times a day. On a hard day I have to go to the sand for 30min to do a mixture of walking, high knees and slow jogging, do 18min on the bike and also do a 25min mixture of walking exercises and a tiny bit of slow jogging at the track.

Due to my lectures I am having to get up very early some days to fit everything in: at the moment it’s quite common I leave the house at 7am and don’t get back to 7pm. I have to pack my boot full of different bags for the different activitiesand changes of clothes: it looks like I’m going on holiday! I ll be very glad to get all the hours back in my day once I can stop doing all this rehab.

I am still training hard at my circuits and core sessions. Though I have to admit I am totally fed up of doing them now! There is one helping factor though, unfortunately my training partner is also in rehab for an ankle injury (not the same as mine!) so we can keep each other company. Without her I think I would have gone totally insane. It makes the session seem less tedious if you have someone to talk to and catch up on all the gossip with. Though my coach is a little concerned about the amount of chatting we are doing and warned us that once we start back into full training there won’t be time to gossip heee.

My Mum and Dad came over to visit for a couple of weeks in their half term holidays. I didn’t see much of them due to my dashing around everywhere though I was very grateful for all the jobs they did for me around the house. Especially to my mum for doing all the cooking – so when I got back in I could just focus on studying and not having to cook too. It was also nice to have some company on the long drives to the sand!

September 2012

This month hasn’t been a very exciting one to be honest. It has been full of rehab and not much else! My rehab is progressing as expected (even if slower than I want it to!). I am still doing the sets of exercises I was doing last month but increased the number. I am now doing 5 minutes of work on the bike too every other day. I have also started some work in the sand. When I say work in the sand I mean slow walking – I started with 5 minutes at the start of the month and now I have reached 10 minutes. The last few days of the month I stepped it up to doing 2 minutes of “Nanna Jogging” in the middle of the walk, keeping the total time to 10 minutes. “Nanna Jogging” is very, very slow jogging in which if I was racing a nanna she would win!!! This was how my physio described at what speed I was allowed to go at. The worst part about the sand work is I have to drive up to the other end of the island and back every day which is about a 1hr30min round trip – that’s without school traffic! My car is just eating through the petrol – I always seem to be filling up at the moment! Plus, I can’t stay at the beach and swim etc as that would be too much work in the sand. So my ankles are definitely heading in the right direction but it’s a slow process that needs yet even more patience. It’s very frustrating especially when I see my training group running round – but they are a great support to me.

Preseason training has begun but as you can imagine I am very limited in what I can do as I can’t do any lower body work. I am doing lots of circuits and gym work to focus on building up my upper body. I am also back in the pool 3 times a week trying to build up some CV fitness. I lost a lot with all the time off with my ankles so we have taken things back down to the basics. It isn’t the most exciting training but it has to be done and I’m happy just to be back doing something!

My coach and a couple of members of my training group have been working hard to start organising sports days for the local communities. We did one this month where we closed the main road and had a variety of different activities for both adults and children. I’m happy to say it was a success and we are looking forward to doing more. My training group ran the day with a few experts where needed i.e. for the baseball!

We had some freak storms this month too with really heavy rain. Storms were forecast but no-one expected them to be as severe as they were. It caused a lot of damage to buildings and cars, many cars were washed away and deposited in very strange and awkward places! The track was totally submerged up to the height of the steeple chase barriers and the high jump mats washed to the opposite side. It has been closed most of the month to restore it to how it should be and clean it of all the mud that was left behind. So the training we have been doing has been at a different track at the other end of the island (the opposite end to the beach!) which has added to my fuel consumption!

August 2012

All I can say is thank goodness for the Olympics!!! This operation has just highlighted the point that I am really not good at sitting still –especially with my feet up! I really don’t know how I would have stayed sane during the last few weeks without the Olympics!! A very well timed operation. I must say thanks to all my friends and neighbours who came to visit me and let me go and sit on their sofa for a change of scene! Especially as both my parents were away after my op. As I had both ankles done I was given some crutches but I was very slow on them and couldn’t go very far. So when my Mum took me out I had to hire wheel chairs and motorised scooters. I must admit it was fun whizzing round town although it took a while for me to get good at steering: though by the end I was a pro!

I saw the surgeon a week after the operation and he was very pleased with how the operation went. He did less than he had expected to do and said I’ll be back to my normal self very soon. He reckons I’ll be back into full training by mid-October as long as I do all the rehab. I flew back to Malta with my Mum. Going through the airport I had a wheel chair too which turned out to be really handy as it meant I could skip all the queues which happened to be very big!! Although my chair didn’t have working breaks so at one point I was freewheeling down the ramp into the plane until the guy noticed and looked at me as I was calling him.

Since being back I have been working very hard with my physios on my rehab programme. I have just been doing exercises to get the range of movement back and to start to build up some strength. They are very repetitive and boring but they have to be done so I have been really good at not complaining and just getting on with it. I have been doing up to 4 hours a day. The next step will be walking in the sand. My Dad also flew out for the rest of the month. It was great to have my parents around to help me get around – especially as I haven’t been able to drive the car yet. They did a very good job I must say! It has been very frustrating though as I expected to be more mobile on my return so I had made lots of plans with friends that had to be cancelled as I’m not allowed to go anywhere with uneven ground or stand up for long periods. So I have been restricted to swimming at the waterpolo club with my parents and BBQs. I managed to do 4 BBQs in a row – I was sure I was going to wake up looking like a sausage!!