Post injury mental health...

[Ti Designs]

Four weeks ago I was out working on speedwork with a rider of mine when she got her front wheel into a pothole (our state flower) and crashed, breaking her colarbone. Needless to say, I felt bad. She had her cat 2 upgrade points, racing for a regional team but looking forward to racing with the pros. In a second the end of the season vanished with a harsh cracking sound.

It's a six week injury, the x-rays at 3 weeks shows good position and calcification, she has the green light to get back on the trainer, and I've given her a pedal stroke program to get her back into it. I'm not worried about her fitness. I'm worried about this weekend - the Green Mountain stage race, which was her target for most of the season. How do you put so much effort into something and then sit around like it's nothing?

[palincss]

Four weeks ago I was out working on speedwork with a rider of mine when she got her front wheel into a pothole (our state flower) and crashed, breaking her colarbone. Needless to say, I felt bad. She had her cat 2 upgrade points, racing for a regional team but looking forward to racing with the pros. In a second the end of the season vanished with a harsh cracking sound.

It's a six week injury, the x-rays at 3 weeks shows good position and calcification, she has the green light to get back on the trainer, and I've given her a pedal stroke program to get her back into it. I'm not worried about her fitness. I'm worried about this weekend - the Green Mountain stage race, which was her target for most of the season. How do you put so much effort into something and then sit around like it's nothing?


"There's that lovely bit in Godfather Two, where Hyman Roth knows Michael Corleone has authorised the murder of Moe Green, and he says to Michael, 'Moe Green was like a son to me and when he died, I didn't complain; this is the life we've chosen.' "
--http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/04/19/bohos119.xml

[67-59]

Tough situation.

A few years back, I faced a somewhat similar scenario. I was a pretty serious marathon runner, and gearing up for the Big Sur Marathon out in California. Given the distance, most marathoners target just a couple of races each year, so it wouldn't be too unlike this rider's case, where she had circled this date in advance. Unfortunately, years of (over)training caught up with me, and I injured my lower back. It soon became pretty clear that I couldn't go to Big Sur, and I eventually learned that I had run my last marathon.

I don't have a magic bullet for getting her through, but my kids were great in helping me put this into perspective. ("You know, daddy, some people will never run a marathon as fast as you have.") Maybe as her coach/teammate, you could fill the role of helping her remember that there will always be another race...and that the unexpected rest might help her come back even stronger next season. I suspect you may have already done some of that, but a little reinforcement couldn't hurt.

And to show that sad stories sometimes do have happy endings...my running injury eventually got me into cycling. Before, a bike was something that I'd use to ride around the block with my kids, but not much more. Now, I spend hour after hour on my Kirk, and my back is just fine. :banana:

[Tom]

Start drawing up plans for the next peak, knowing that this one isn't there. Look ahead and right on past this weekend. How old is this person? If she's young, point out that adding a little bit to her racing career at this end when she shouldn't will take away a big bit at the other end.

There's always Fitchburg, eh?

[MarleyMon]

How sad. Injury is a part of athletics, at times.

I thought of the Olympic gymnast from the Indy area (Chelsie Memmel?), who was injured in the warm-ups.
Imagine being THAT close to your goal and having to sit it out.
She was on the team, at the event, and could not compete.

Maybe get her into a cross race when that season starts?

[sloji]

Define the goal and make the clear intention of getting there. If the intention is weak or the goal not defined it's easy to lose heart but when the goal is clear obstacles take on less meaning, like getting tackled in a football game...so what, we're still going to get the touchdown!

On a personal note at 37 I faced a severe spinal injury and loss of strength on my right side. I went from doing sets of 20 overhand pullups to not being able to lift 5lbs. No more wrestling, running...what's left? I started at the gym on the gravitron and did what I could...and worked up to 10% of my body weight and then 15% and then 20% and month by month I supplemented the partial loss of tricep building other areas...slow and steady with my goal in mind I made it back to the 20.

Sometimes the setbacks let us know how much something means to us.

[Viper]

Injuries and down time should make an athlete p*ssed off, frustrated and most importantly, hungry. At Cat 2, this athlete has talent, she'll soon have her health and in the meantime, give her Rocky III, The Empire Strikes Back and The West Wing season one (Episode 'Let Bartlet be Bartlet' especially) to watch. Tombstone is another movie that would help motivate any injured athlete, "It's not revenge he's (or she) after, it's a reckoning" said Doc Holiday of Wyatt Earp. Post-collarbone healing, she'll have her day of reckoning.

Remind her of Yamamota's 1942, "A military man can scarcely pride himself on having 'smitten a sleeping enemy'; it is more a matter of shame, simply, for the one smitten. I would rather you made your appraisal after seeing what the enemy does, since it is certain that, angered and outraged, he will soon launch a determined counterattack."

I'll miss the sea, but a person needs new experiences, they draw something deep inside, allowing him to grow. Without change, something sleeps inside us and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIPg4_qVO7k






.

[dekindy]

I would think anyone talented and strong enough to qualify CAT 2 and considering turning pro would be up to the mental challenge. I may be wrong, but it sounds like you are more worried about it than she is. What has she said about it?

Anybody that cycles very much knows there are two kinds of riders, those that have went down and those that are going to go down. The only question is when and how hard. She should know that.

If she has much difficulty dealing with this relatively minor (in the scheme of things) setback, then I would doubt her chances of being a successful pro. Things are going to get more difficult for her, not easier, as she progresses through the ranks, so this may be a good test of her mental toughness.

You might remind her of a famous cyclist that missed two years because of a gunshot wound and then came back to win his second and third Tours or the other famous rider that missed two years of competition because of life threatening cancer and came back to win his first Tour and set the all time record for victories and consecutive victories at 7. Remember the scene in "Dodgeball" when Peter ran into Lance at the airport. It is all perspective.

[slowgoing]

How do you put so much effort into something and then sit around like it's nothing?

She won't be sitting around like it's nothing. This is a big event that may change her, and maybe for the better. There are all kinds of lessons here, and not just related to cycling.

[keno]

this could be a time during which both she and you may learn much about her. Comes to mind the expression: "Adversity doesn't build character...it reveals it."

keno

[thejen12]

So she doesn't focus on the pothole and her injury, remind her that it could have been anything keeping her out of the race this week. She could have gotten the flu, could have been hit by a car, or taken out by another rider on a training ride. She could have had a family emergency, could have tripped and fallen, could have had her car break down on the way to the race.... There will always be other races, she shouldn't get too hung up on just one race - life is just too unpredictable. Time to refocus on Plan B.

Best of luck to her in her recovery!

Jenn

[dvancleve]

Just saw it last week, good stuff :^)

Doug


I'll miss the sea, but a person needs new experiences, they draw something deep inside, allowing him to grow. Without change, something sleeps inside us and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken...

[david]

How do you put so much effort into something and then sit around like it's nothing?

it's not nothing. it's a missed opportunity. which should be a great way to learn how never to take any opportunity for granted. i wish i knew that years ago.

[Fixed]

bitter setbacks make the victory sweeter imho
cheers

[Ti Designs]

Sometimes it just feels like nothing is going my way. A second rider of mine crashed at the Green Mountain stage race, breaking their colarbone as well. He was doing well in the masters field, even got some KOM points (not to bad for a first year racer in that field!), but then there was the crash. I can't shut the thoughts out of my head - is there anything else I could have done to prevent these things? Last week we were out working on contact. It was a full contact game of bumper bikes out there. The crash happend because of some sand, there is sand on one of the corners coming down from Prospect hill, I could have shown him the fast line, even with the sand there... No, that would probably mean he would have the broken colarbone 3 weeks sooner. There are just some things you can't train for, racing sorts that all out in a hurry. My winter program will include tumbling and cyclocross or mountain biking...

[david]

it's nice to hear a coach display such empathy for his athletes. you obviously care a ton.
when my kids go through a setback, it's tempting to show them all the care and empathy i feel.
but it's also important to teach them resilience by not making too big a deal out of things.
your athletes might be looking to you for signs that everything will be fine and all of this is just par for the course.

[aLexis]

You could tell her the story of the Katheryn Curi, who currently leads the GMSR. She won the Geelong World Cup in February, in what looked to be an awesome start to the season. Then she broke her collarbone a week later.
Your athlete will have many more opportunities, sorry this wasn't the one.

http://www.velonews.com/article/73413/ecstacy-to-agony-a-conversation-with-katheryn

[Fixed]

Sometimes it just feels like nothing is going my way. A second rider of mine crashed at the Green Mountain stage race, breaking their colarbone as well. He was doing well in the masters field, even got some KOM points (not to bad for a first year racer in that field!), but then there was the crash. I can't shut the thoughts out of my head - is there anything else I could have done to prevent these things? Last week we were out working on contact. It was a full contact game of bumper bikes out there. The crash happend because of some sand, there is sand on one of the corners coming down from Prospect hill, I could have shown him the fast line, even with the sand there... No, that would probably mean he would have the broken colarbone 3 weeks sooner. There are just some things you can't train for, racing sorts that all out in a hurry. My winter program will include tumbling and cyclocross or mountain biking...
bring a broom
imho
cheers