6 months since the last update… so did we miss anything?

I guess if you leave out my sister’s visit to Australia including a weekend in Sydney, New Years Eve weekend in Anglesea, a day of boating in the bay, trip to Tasmania plus a Bruiny Island Cruise which made it to the top100 greatest trips in the World, watching Australian Open; taking our Dutch running friends Marije&Imo a weekend to Moggs Creek, changing to a new gym coach & training in the VIS, a super amazing U2 concert, lodging a 200page permanent Aussie visa application, Andrew moving to a new job and therefore filling weekends with house hunting and finally my grandmother turning 90, which I made a video for, shot all over Melbourne…nah, didn’t miss anything really.

But wait, did I just mention between the lines I get to make use of the VIS facilities? Yesh! For all non-Aussies, VIS=Victorian Institute of Sport and their gym/pool/ice bath/testing facilities are located at Olympic Park, right next to the Tan and the track I usually train at. Having an ice bath available next to the track is one of those things you don’t appreciate enough until it suddenly disappears. Before being in the VIS I used to go to a service station to get a bag of ice and make an ice bath at home on a regular basis… let’s say…way too many times for something I don’t consider my hobby. Things started to get scary one day when I just walked in, paid, got my change, walked out to get the bag of ice from an outside freezer and woke up from my automatic-pilot-state when I realized I never mentioned I was there to get a bag of ice. Thankfully, soon after it got to this stage the VIS jumped in.

Although ice baths play an important role in my life as an athlete because of the ongoing love-hate (and back to love) relationship I have with them this is not even my favorite aspect of the training facilities. The best thing is being around elite athletes on a daily basis, not necessarily the ones of the skinny distance runner breed, but anything from swimmers, rowers and wheelchair basketball players to tennis players, footballers and archers. Quite interesting to find similarities across different sports in training, injuries, periodization or just life as an athlete.

Lots to learn there, also from some of the worlds greatest athletes. Though one of my many talents is to not recognize these superstars. This caused me to ask Novan Djokovic the day before he was about to play the quarter final at the Aussie Open, whether he was in Melbourne to play tennis. Once he told me his name and I responded I vaguely recognized him, he returned the question after which I managed to make him feel embarrassed (for 2 whole seconds at least) by pretending I was in disbelief about him not knowing my name. After asking multiple Olympic swimming champio n Leisel Jones, what sport she does…I wonder who is going to be the next victim of my colorless future of celebrity spotting :)

I realized that my celebrity spotting skills were not the only gym-activities with some room for improvement. By December my body was finally ready to switch from a (p)rehab program to more of a gym program, but without the guidance from the right people I felt like the program I followed lacked direction. I knew something had to change to knock those lower leg issues I am all too familiar with, for once and for all on the head. Unfortunately Santa didn’t give me the new pair of lower legs I put on my wish list, but he did give me Jamie Oliver’s 30 minute meals cook book. Obviously a sign to get in touch with his fourth cousin, Jeremy Oliver who is an exercise scientist involved in many other athlete’s strength and conditioning programs here in Melbourne (OK, I possibly maybe very much likely made up the 4^th cousin part, but he really is an exercise scientist :)).

The main goal is to make my body much stronger and more rigid, so I will be able to handle the load of training and racing a full track season and not having to worry about breaking down when wearing my spikes. The first time Jeremy mentioned this I gave him a bit of a nervous laugh. Apparently thinking about spikes should bring along waves of happiness and excitement about fast times on the track, not the fear of breaking down again.. oh little did I know.

The philosophy behind my new gym program is that improving general strength and my upper legs will take some load of my lower legs I wasn’t able to deal with in the past. Although my (stick insect like:)) calves are definitely still a weakness I need to focus on as well, my lower leg and foot problems could have been caused by a combination of weaknesses, starting much higher up in the chain. There is no quick fix for that, but a gym program focusing on the long term, Jeremy’s constant guidance and lots of patience should bring along huge differences and hopefully a stable base to build my training on in the years to come. I definitely feel like he was the last missing link in a perfect set up here in Australia.

Another addition to the team is a new Aussie podiatrist, Jason Agosta. I only had a new pair of orthotics made in the Netherlands back in August, but got them checked out here in Australia when I suddenly started developing achilles problems in February. First I had some minor changes made to the old pair, but soon realized that’s like trying to finish someone else’s painting. What also made it hard is that the people who are most familiar with my biomechanics live in Australia, while my podiatrist was in Holland. My physio Bart is a key component in all communication about monitoring my training load because he knows all about my injury history, biomechanics and helped me back on track by constructing walk/jog programs several times. To have Scrivo (coach), Bart (physio), Jeremy (weight coach) and Darren (masseur) all communicate with each other and with me, while my podiatrist is the only one out of the loop just didn’t make sense.

So orthotics give support and support gives protection form getting injured, obviously that m eans more support is less injuries, more orthotic is more support is winning! How come that didn’t work out for me? I have quite the collection of 6 pairs of orthotics from 3 different continents. Black, white, leather, foam, high arch, deep heel cup, plantar groove, spikes width… it’s exhibition worthy. Any podiatrist in any part of the world would tell me the same thing; arch support. But Jason’s philosophy is to let nature take control. Why give your feet so much support that they fall asleep to then wake them up in the harshest way possible by putting on your spikes in summer without conditioning them first. So those balancing exercises don’t really compare to conditioning your feet every step of the way while running? Wow, it’s almost so simple that you overlook it. Changing to a more natural approach doesn’t mean I’m suddenly running around in Nike Frees, but the orthotics Jason made me control my movement more from the back of the arch while the muscles in my forefoot keep firing every step of the way. It feels so good to have a lighter insole in my shoe and I like the theory behind it as well. Now only time will learn whether this is part of the solution to a healthy me.

And time is what I’ve given myself. Lots of time. Having my achilles problems, getting new orthotics, starting a new gym routine…it just screamed out; clean slate! So I’ve taken time off and built back up slowly with another of Bart’s walk jog programs, to finally this week get back to 35-minute continuous runs. I’ve been at this point of the running progression so many times, but never with my body being this strong and with this amount of support backing me up. Spending 3-4 hours a day in the gym; doing some serious lifting, aquajog and bike sessions, crosstraining and core sessions definitely paid off. Although I will still have to get my body conditioned to a full running load, fitness-wise I feel like I’m starting back where I left off in January after that solid three-month training block.

If you made it all the way through this update hoping to find out when I’m going to race, then I will have to disappoint you. For now there are no racing plans on the agenda, but I will simply focus on getting in some solid training while getting used to the new set up. Yes, I will come back to Europe in June and yes I will race, but I’ll have to wait for my body to tell me when & where.

Ps. OK here a small reward for making it through.. my grandmother’s 90^th birthday message (in Dutch), enjoy!