Tough Road Back!

This year of training was quite possibly the most difficult of my career. You take two years off, the issues with my body, and add to that a full time job (as a middle school PE & Health teacher) and you have a season of training that will have you questioning why you train.

The shortened version of my daily schedule looks like this.

6:15 am Wake Up
6:30am Out the door to Basehor-Linwood Middle School (Great place to be!)
7:00am Arrive at School
7:05am On a Physical Education Day - Set up gym for Lesson, Health Day - Prep for Lesson
7:50am 1st HOUR starts
2:55pm 8th HOUR ends
3:00pm Clean up classroom or Gym
3:15 - 3:30 Leave for Home
4:00pm - Let Dogs out, Grab a Snack
4:15pm - Off to my workout
4:30pm - Warm-Up
4:50pm - Start Throwing portion of workout
5:30-6:00pm - Head to weightroom
7:00pm - Head to Sauna or Home, if I am tired.
Bed time ranges, this year, between 7:30pm and 10:00pm. It really depended on the night, stress the workout, etc

Repeat day 2 and day 3 no workout. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat. There were a lot of nights this year, that I got to 4:15 and off to practice didn't happen due to fatigue. This kind of schedule isn't ideal for being a great teacher, a great athlete or a great husband. And that is why I struggled with desire to continue to do track.

In February this year, I nearly quit! I was continuing to have issues with both of my knees, I had bulged a disc in my low back and trying to get back into throwing shape was not happening. I felt like I was getting farther and farther away from my goal, returning to the World Championships and Olympics. I sat down with my wife and discussed my options. I could quit right now (Feb) and just walk away or I could wait until May and give myself a chance to see if I can still throw competitively. I really wanted to just stop, but I didn't train for 6 months to not see how I would do in a competition. I decided to make my decision on May 1st. The reason I did this, was to give myself a chance to do at least one meet, Kansas Relays.

April came around and I was still having issues with injuries. I had only throw a few times in between mid-March and Kansas Relays. About a week out from KU Relays, I was able to start throwing again. My first good practice in two and a half years came three days before Kansas Relays. Maybe I'm back?

I decided to rock the pink and the blue one more time. For those of you who don't know what the "pink and blues" are, they are the best uniform in NCAA athletics. Many people question why an athlete would want to wear fuschia. However, there have been many great NCAA and Olympic athletes that have worn them. To drop a couple of them, Bill Mills (Olympic Gold - 1960 10,000m) and Al Oerter (4x Olympic Gold Medalist - Discus). Why wouldn't you want to wear something that one of the greatest throwers of all-time wore? I wore, because of the pride in KU that I have and maybe there was a little magic let in that old Jersey.

My Series of throws was unreal! My first competitive throw in Two years was 79.31m! Insane! That is good enough for "B" Standard for the world championship. The rest of the day looked like this...
79.31m, 81.96m, 74.41m 75.60m 78.31m FOUL

That's right 81.96m. That was 4cm off of qualifying for the world championships (if it was after May 19th - opening of qualification period for Athletics Canada).

So, basically, I had to continue throwing. How could I quit, when I had just thrown my best opening throw in my career. Later in this season, I won my 9th Canadian Championship and decided to compete in Canada the remainder of the summer. I competed in the 1st Annual National Track League in Canada. To shorten this blog, I competed in 5 Meets (in two and a half weeks), the last won being the best.

Canadian Nationals - 77.46m
Edmonton - Cancelled because of rain
Vancouver - 79.51m
Victoria - 73.78m
Halifax - 79.43m

Toronto - 84.81m Canadian National Record!!!

Actually, I though Toronto would be the last meet of my career. I needed to throw 79.50m or better to qualify for the world championships in Korea. If I didn't do that I was finished and could begin my coaching career. I was mentally ready to be finished and I told myself that it is ok if I am done. Just when you think there isn't a hope and you just don't care, you find something in you that blows your mind. My third throw flew and I knew it was good, but didn't know how good. 84.81m!!! Canadian National Record! World Qualifier! #8 World Ranking. And more than enough reason for me to believe that I can be one of the top javelin throwers in the world at the world championships and Olympics

There were many times this year that I wanted to quit. There are even times now, I question why I am still doing this, but the simple answer is that I love this sport and I don't feel like I have accomplished all that I am capable of.

Welcome Back!

Wasn't really sure what to name this new entry, but I thought that "Welcome Back!" is fitting after being off for two seasons. Those who are close to me, know and understand why I was forced to take two competitive years off. And that is where I will re-start my blogging. Sorry, but this first one may be long, it's been over two years since I last posted.

The 2008 Olympics were successful, but I tore my left Patella tendon 3 days before qualifying (not complete and in-fact probably really small). That wasn't the only thing going wrong with me that year. I had chipped cartilage in my right knee in May before qualifying. This didn't make throwing a javelin easier. The big issue was my heart!

After the Olympics, I also accepted a teaching position at Basehor- Linwood Middle school as there Boys Health & P.E. teacher (more on this in another post). I also got married in November of 2008 to my now wife. Everything was great, except my body which felt like it was falling apart. Now, back to the heart.

You might say, "YOUR HEART!?!?!?" How does an Olympian have issues with there heart. I said the same thing, but at the time, there was a lot of publicity about a few NFL football players dropping dead at training camps that summer. So you might ask, how I figured out that I had a problem.

Well, one of my good friends in Kansas (Chris Dunback) asked me to play recreation basketball in Eudora, KS (10 minutes from where I live in Lawrence, KS). I thought it would be a great way to get back into shape after taking 2 months off after Beijing. One of the first games, we were playing a zone defence and I was in the middle of it. I felt tired and my heart was beating really fast, I felt completely out of breath and next thing I know is that I can't see anything. My field of vision narrowed and completely went black. I ducked my head and went out of the game under the basket. Everyone asked me what was wrong and all I could tell them was that I couldn't see!

I sat down on the bench and took some time to catch my breath. My friends wife said that I looked really pale. And I felt like it. I caught my breath and my heart rate decreased. At this point, I thought it would be a good time to get checked out by a doctor.

I asked the KU (University of Kansas) athletic trainers who they use for cardiovascular screenings. I guessed that would be a good place to start. The recommended Cardiovascular Consultants in Lawrence, KS. I called and set up an appointment.

Upon seeing my doctor, he said that it sounded like I may have Artial Flutter. For the next month, he hooked me up to a heart monitor to record what my heart was doing when I was having symptoms. The doctor said that I should not lift anything heavier than 10 lbs or do anything too strenuous. I told him that I am a world class javelin thrower trying to prepare for the next world championships (2009 - Berlin). That being said, I was only getting symptoms when I was active. So my doctor said I could do everything normal until I get 1 recording.

After wearing this monitor for a month, we found out that I have Atrial Flutter and possibly atrial fibrilation (Which my father was diagnosed with the winter of '08). On the follow up visit, I just wanted to know what the treatment was. After talking to my doctor for 30mintues, he held his hand above his head and said "Doc, it hurts when I do this." Basically, he was telling me to not do what hurts. All I really wanted to know was, is there medicine or surgery to fix it. When i aksed he directed me to an EP (Electrical Physiologist) in Kansas City, Dr. Ramza.

Best doc ever. He dumb down all the technical information (even thought I didn't need it). What they needed to do was a surgery called an ablation. Basically, they had to go into my femoral artery in my hip, travel up to my right atrium and cauterize (Burn with a laser) a nerve.

I had the surgery in October of 2010. The next day in the hospital, the nurses had me walk every half hour to get ready to go home. While walking down the hallway with my wife, I passed out completely! Hope I am fixed. It was great for a week, but got 100 times worse the second week. At this point I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without my heart racing and having to bend over and rest. There were times teaching, that I was concerned I might pass out. I re-visited my doctor in KC and he told me that they treat it conservatively to not do too much damage. I thought, what a good idea, but I want to be fixed. Schedule ablation #2. And what a great New Years 2011 it was. Heart Surgery and laying in a bed (hope I don't pass out again - I didn't).

Once the heart was fixed I could go back to training for throwing a stick and get ready for the World Championships in Korea. More on training to Qualify for the 2011 Worlds, next time.