Unfortunately for me my weekend involved a lot of sport, but of the armchair spectator version than actual racing itself. I should have been racing at London in the women’s elite race on Sunday morning, but things started to go wrong on Friday. I went out for what should have been a 30-minute easy run with a few pick-ups in. This has become a tried and trusted session for me just a few days out from races: I pull on the runners, plug in my iPod and have a blast, usually putting in a series of pick-ups around my local park thinking about what the upcoming race has in store and visualising how it could all pan out.

The session had gone well, my legs were feeling surprisingly good post-Antwerp and I was really excited about what Sunday might hold for me, especially after running so well last week. But I was just a few hundred yards from home when I turned my right ankle over and, although I tried to carry on running, I knew from the immediate weakness that something wasn’t quite right. Sure enough, my physio took a look and advised me I would be far better off resting rather than racing. For the next few hours I tussled with the “Shall I or shan’t I?” debate, annoying Ozzer immensely as I tried to decide what the best move was. I think, as with most decisions, you know what you should do, but you don’t want to do it - i.e. I knew I shouldn’t race and risk making a niggle a full-blown injury, but the thought of not racing London was a depressing and frustrating one!

So instead, I’ve been watching the Olympics with my right ankle wrapped in an ice compression bandage, but haven’t been too down in the dumps because I have been continually telling myself it’s all about the ‘bigger picture’. I spent the winter of 2006 (my winter of discontent!) unable to run for four-six months because I failed to listen to my body earlier in the season. The result? A torn plantar fascia. I came back from that a stronger athlete, but there is no way on Earth I am having another winter of discontent in 08/09. I’ve had a great season this year with European and World medals plus pro prize money to show for it. I want to build on all of that this winter so that I come out the other side of it stronger and fitter than ever before. There you go - fighting talk!

Perhaps sometimes it takes a slight setback to force you to take a step back and see things from another perspective.

I hope all of you who raced London this weekend had great races and, if it was your first time, you’ve picked up the tri bug good and proper…

Until next time, happy training.
Cheers
EK

PS A few people have asked me why I didn’t include my Antwerp result in my last bloggle entry - apologies, I didn’t realise I omitted it! I finished sixth in the women’s pro race in 4:22, just seven seconds off 5th and picked up my first slice of pro prize money ;-)

This entry was posted on Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Emma-Kate Lidbury, Athlete Diaries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.