Injured

I moved to Nottingham to join the GB short track speed skating team in June.  At training camp in August I had a fall.  A 'nothing' fall; I was more worried that I had hit my head and concussed myself again than anything else.  Turns out my brain was fine but something in my leg not so much.  I kept training thinking it would heal up and it got worse.  By September I was off the ice and I've been off and on all season.

For a full time athlete I don't know if there is anything more frustrating than being injured.  Suddenly I wasn't able to do what I had moved across the world to do, I wasn't able to do my job.  I love skating but sitting on a spin bike at the side of the rink to keep my fitness up?  Yeah, that I don't love so much.  Being injured is boring, it's depressing, and it's isolating.  I can go days in which I barely talk to another member of the team and then I go home and make these sweeping statements about how motivated I am on social media (because fake it 'til you make it right?).  Weirdly enough being injured is motivating for me.  I think it's just stubbornness but as soon as someone tells me that I can't skate I want to do everything I can to get back on the ice.

I've never had a season like this, never had a season where I wasn't able to train fully for so long; so whenever I went to race I always felt like I was a step behind.  How was I supposed to race better than I ever had if I was training less than I had in years?

On the plus side I'm now in a unique position (for me) where now at the end of the season instead of feeling run-down and tired and in desperate need of a break I'm in a headspace where I can and want to keep training so that hopefully I can be strong and ready to go for next season.

in my injured natural habitat: on the bike
tights: Lululemon