I have been pretty silent on my blog for nearly six weeks now. I found out that I tore the ligament that attaches to the sesamoid bone on the bottom of my left foot that many weeks ago. The initial investigations showed that I had a fracture through the sesamoid bone but a later bone scan showed the fracture was inactive. These conflicting results confused not only me but the doctors as well. I had been telling people it was fractured and now I have to tell those same people it is not fractured. What is going on?? All I know is that is was painful to the touch.

The only people who liked the news were the media. It was a bigger story that I could have imagined. I hardly get any press or new coverage but when you get injured I guess there is something to talk about. Injury media is better than no media, right! The Globe and Mail ran two stories on the progression of my injury and that story floated though several other media outlets.

My injury, if it was a tear or acute tendonitis, must have stemmed from an uphill classic intensity session while training in California. The boots I was using were old, soft and destined to the garbage before I knew I was injured. The softness of the boot let my foot flex past a healthy point and with thirty minutes of uphill repetition, my foot packed it in. The pain did not set in for another two days so it was hard to place what had happened at the time. As stubborn as I am and before the diagnosis, I decided that I could train through the pain and as long as I didn’t bend my foot it would come right. That wasn’t the smartest thing I have ever done. A few days later my Dad (an orthopedic surgeon) flew out to Canmore to check on my foot and he was very displeased and concerned that I had been training on it. That is when I went to get the x-ray and eventual bone scan. The results were clear and I was told I would be on crutches and in an air cast for six weeks. No too happy!

So how the hell could I train and stay in shape for the fast approaching World Cup season. I was bummed, worried and even a little depressed. This was not the way I saw the Olympic season starting out. With the past two days of doctors and tests I was tired of the grim news and just wanted to get back on the horse. I had enough people tell me that training would be a challenge for the next four to six weeks. Bring it on. Ironically most of my current and former coaches thought it was perhaps a good thing. In their eyes I could gain some needed rest before the most important season of my career. Inge Braten (coach of nine Olympic gold medals and our current team coach) told me, ‘You need to have a good injury to have a great season!’. Inge is perhaps one of the most positive men that I have met through my racing career. His advice put a smile on my face but didn’t hide the reality that I was looking at over five weeks until I could ski again.

My weekly training included pool running, double poling on two different machines, core, and cycling with an air cast on. I could write a book on pool running and the awkwardness about it. After getting over the initial embarrassment of actually working hard while being stationary in a lap lane it was not so bad. I did some serious workouts in the pool that nearly drowned me. The highlight was an intensity session including 20×15seconds, 10×30seconds, 5×45seconds, 4×6min, 3×45seonds, 5×30seconds, and 10×15seconds. That was a hard morning, nearly 2hrs in total of intervals. The lap swimmers must have thought I lost my mind. I guess if you look over at a head bobbing in the water, frothing at the mouth with pain, in need of oxygen, all while tethered to the wall by a bungy, you would think the same. My other new best friend was the roller board machine used to mimic double poling. I spent hours on that thing eventually doing 5×6 minute (90 pulls) intervals on the third setting up. Pre injury my hardest workout on the roller board was 5×25 pulls on the second setting and I thought that was good! I was actually able to hit high lactate values on the pullies and felt like the incredible hulk I was so pumped from the effort.

To make a long blog short…I was able to work on weaknesses while I was forced to be non-weight bearing on my left foot. Pool running has been used extensively by runners and other elite athletes alike to maintain high levels of fitness. Many found that they could stay at or near to peak physical shape by running in the pool. It is hard on the mind but so is racing. If you can’t beat your mind then who can you beat?

Currently I am en route to Finland for my first World Cup. Our travel has been delayed but that is for another blog. It looks like I will get in the day before the race at best. I might be running to make my start. I have been on skis for two weeks now and my foot is gaining strength. I don’t expect to perform near to my best this weekend but I am itching to get out there and race again. My only hope is that my foot is strong enough to stave of another setback.

I delayed my World Cup start by one week and it is now time to meet up with the rest of the squad. I have been racing with the National team for close to a decade now and the staff and athletes have become a family away from home.

Summing up my racing perspective…

‘I like it, I love it, I want some more of it…’

-Tim McGraw