Injury

Damn. I just heard that Frodeno is out of Kona with a stress fracture to his hip. That sucks big time, he was in such amazing form, dominating races all season. After the disappointment of Kona last year I am guessing he was itching for a chance of retribution and regaining his World Championship crown. Not to be. From winning the World Championship in an absolutely stunning performance to getting a season ending injury that has got to be unbelievably frustrating. 

I am coaching a few athletes who are struggling with injury at the moment and it is always a hard thing, particularly when a race is on the line. I am not sure I ever figured out the trick to coping with injury or illness and to be honest I am not sure there is a trick to it. Injuries have a funny way of getting into your head. Sometimes when you have a bad injury all you can think about is the injury and how it is stopping you train. You can get to a point where you can never see the end of the injury and it feels like you are going to be injured for ever. That can be a very depressing and frustrating place to be. 

I think I found the best way to cope with injury was to not think about 'what if' or 'what am I missing' and instead focus on the moment and what I needed to do to get better. That was sometimes hard when 'what am I missing' was a race that I had spent months training for, but usually by staying in the moment I found the injury less frustrating. There are always dark moments obviously, particularly when the injury is fresh, but focusing on getting better usually helped me maintain a more positive mindset, looking forward rather than dwelling on what might have been. 

In the end no injury I know of was ever made better by worry and stress. Focusing on the rehab and recovery usually helped reduce that stress and worry. Listening to the medical advice and following it diligently, resting when I was supposed to rest, training when and how I was allowed, it all gave me a structure to concentrate on that would help me build to recovery. This structure would stop me wallowing in the doubt and self pity that so commonly comes with injuries. 

Of course there were still moments when an injury would feel like it would go forever and I would never get back to the sport I loved, but I also knew that if I persevered then I would eventually put the injury behind me. During an injury I would remind myself that in 12 months the injury would be a distance memory and I would be back in the middle of training and racing. This was cold comfort during an injury, but it was a good way to remind myself that no injury lasts forever and all that I needed to do was keep up my rehab as directed and I would come out the other side. 

I suspect Frodeno is probably a frustrated and disappointed person right now. However, he is also a very experienced athlete and I suspect he knows that not racing is the right thing to do. I am sure he is in for some low moments over the next 3 months as this stress fracture heals, however, I also suspect we will see him back, ready to take on the world and amaze us all again.