Autumn came with injury....

Since the summer it’s been touch and go with training load. I never managed to go on my second summer training camp due to my shoulder being too sore and not being able to lift my arm all the way above my head (I still can’t quite but almost!). At the end of august I was diagnosed with a 6 months old stress fracture on my second right rib, with the CT scan showing it was cracked 2/3 across. Not the best of news, but the positives had to be focused on. It was the best possible timing as I will be back to paddling just after the start of winter training. In order to do this

I’ve worked closely with my psychologist on choosing to focus a day at a time on doing the best I can to recover.

Four weeks ago I replicated some sort of paddling!!! I managed 5 minutes on the kayak ergo, closely watched by my physio and coach. Since then I’ve been back on the flat twice and I am slowly building up strength, and will be on the white water in January hopefully. With a stress fracture to this area I have to focus on keepingmy shoulder blade down and to have my shoulder in neutral. When the shoulder is hurt it goes into protection mode and over the last few weeks I’ve been working on reactivating the muscles around the shoulder, to bring it back into the neutral position.

I am being well looked after and my progress is going really well(physio’s words), but we are aiming on keeping the loads short and frequent so as not too flare the muscles up. I see the doctor once a week, the physio 2-3 times a week.

I’m not going to lie in the fact that I have found it really tough, but my coach has been great in ensuring me that there is a great support team behind me and I will be in the best possible shape for selection in 2015. I trust this and have the desire to give it my best shot. I’m itching to get back on the water fully but know it’s best to recover in

the right steps, fully fit, so another injury is less likely.