Calf Update

Hey, I am finally glad to be off injury reserve!

I was due to race in Monaco on Tuesday, but while in Monaco, I saw down with Brooks and my manager Daniel and they thought it best that I just wait to race. I had to agree with them. I was right on the cusp of recovery, so it was unwise to push anything this early. Brooks felt that there would be nothing gained by trying to rush the recovery and start racing. I have six races lined up beginning in late August so he felt that that is more than enough of an opportunity to have a successful season.

I don't want to return to the track and start running slow and start loosing races to people that I feel I have no business loosing to. So I headed back to the States and I have a solid month to get uninterrupted training in. I can get back on my feet and get the confidence back that the calf can respond to whatever demands I place upon it and regain my form.

When it comes to these type of situations, I feel that I need to be very smart about it. To me, my reputation for the product that I place on the track everytime I step on it, is more important to me, than trying to nickel and dime myself through meets trying to pick up a check. Nickle and dime individuals get nickle and dime results, that's a statement that I always make. I feel as long as you've got a reputation for having a great showing of yourself, you will be able to cash far more checks in the long run. I worked hard for that reputation and I'm not going to give it away easily, you know people have very short memories when it comes to this sport.

Anyway, Daniel had me pick up another first in my life, I had never been on a helicopter, so he put me on a helicopter to the airport. I took the seven minute flight to the airport instead of the 40 minute drive. It was amazing, I was just hoping we wouldn't go down in the sea!!

Sorry....

Sorry for leaving you guys hanging for so long, I think this might be a record for length between posts, but a lot of things have been developing over the past week plus.

Right now I am in Germany getting treatments from a world renowned doctor for my calf. I had great training sessions going, but I still didn't feel like I was where I wanted to be, so I flew over this past weekend to get checked out in advance of the London Grand Prix competition which was suppose to be my European opener.

Let me rewind a bit, I got an MRI on my calf as well as other doppler screens earlier and all of the tests came back negative for a tear/pull etc. So we just went the normal treatment route and it was getting better, but like I said earlier, it wasn't feeling like it should to me. So once I arrived in Germany, the doctors did an ultrasound screen of my calf and it was clear as day that I indeed did have a tear in my calf when I did it some five/six weeks ago. It was about 2 inches in size. But during that whole time I took about 10 days off and was still training like normal. The doctor said that training on it was a good thing because it promotes healing in the area and it wasn't like I was overdoing it. I was also getting regular treatment, so it is healing fine.

I planned on flying out of here Thursday to go to London, but he wants me to play it safe and stay here for treatment throughout the entire week. He has cleared me to race in Monaco a week from today, but he wanted to monitor my progress and not rush anything so he has advised me to sit out the London meet, which is not a big deal to me. I just want to make sure that I am totally back before I step foot out competitively.

It's pretty cool here as well, I've been training in the Olympic Stadium which is a very nice facility, plus there are several track athletes here as well, so we just kick it all day and get treatments. It is amazing to me how thorough the doctors are here, it's no wonder everybody comes out here when they get hurt. You better believe where I will be if I ever get hurt like this again! (Let me knock on wood! LOL)

If anything else develops you will know! Keep on praying for me...

Happy Birthday Shout Out

Wishing one of my very best friends, Lance Gross, a happy birthday. Although we already did it big on the birthday weekend, you'll be on your own today out in L.A. LOL! Hold it down. Make sure you send some twitter updates on what's going down tonight.

Injury Update

It's been a while since I last posted, stating that I couldn't compete at the nationals. I thought that not being able to compete was going to be difficult for me, but it turned out that other people were more disappointed in that fact than I was, to me, it wasn't really that big of a deal. I realize that things will never go your way in this sport 100% of the time.

My feelings towards not being able to be on that starting line were shaped by my accomplishments from last season. If last season wasn't as successful as it was, then I probably would have been way more disappointed that I couldn't compete. It was endorsement contracts, meets and a lot of other things riding on last year, but with the success of last season, I have security and I can still attend any other competition that I want to go to. I am an individual who spends more time thankful for what I do have and can do, than thinking about what it is I don't have or can't do.

As far as the calf injury goes, it's at about 85%. I am back out sprinting and doing starts over hurdles with no discomfort, so things are still pointing to a go out in London in a couple of weeks. Being injured and not being able to do what I did without thinking, has really made me miss running. It takes that old football adage "Play every play like it's your last" and puts it in to a real life situation for myself. I am enjoying every day that I go out to the track and can get back to doing what I do best.

On other fronts, my training partners have been trickling out of the country one by one for their respective competitions over in Europe. I hope that they go out there and represent themselves in a good fashion and set themselves up for future success. It's about to get to the point where it is going to be just Brooks and myself out there and I'm not looking forward to that! LOL.

Sobe Fit Magazine is coming out to practice on Thursday for a photo shoot. Brooks let me know that at practice yesterday and I was getting some grief from Kenia, Novellene and Korene for some odd reason. We will see how that goes.