With 100 days to go until the Rio Olympic Games, Marathoner Jess Trengove is not worried about a foot injury which sidelined her this month.
Trengove suffered a stress fracture in her left foot which is similar to the injury she had before the 2014 Commonwealth Games. However, it hasn’t stopped heading her off to America today for final preparations.
“I’ll be itching to go when I get there,” Trengove said.
“While it’s unfortunate to have an injury you also learn a lot and they make you so hungry to run again, so motivation definitely won’t be an issue for the next few months.
“I’ll just be grateful to be able to run and certainly won’t be taking it for granted.
“I’ve had to work closely with the doctor, podiatrist and physio to firstly determine what factors contributed to it and then how to let it heal – and it’s all on track so I’m really happy about that.”
“For Glasgow I had a shorter time-frame to work with and I felt terrible when I first started but you progress quite quickly,” she said.
“You just have to set yourself small goals and not be too overwhelmed in the first sessions when they don’t feel anything like what you’d like them to be.”
“I was more worried when we didn’t have the diagnosis because it was really uncomfortable. I was trying to imagine getting through the training to be better than ever at Rio and I was finding that really hard.”
“So once we had a clear cut diagnosis to work to it was actually almost a relief because I knew we had enough time for it to heal.”
“Mentally I’m feeling fresher than ever. I wouldn’t normally take time off running this close to a major championship but I’m sure there will be positives to come out of the experience.”
“Olympic year comes with added motivation and expectation and there is a fine line between doing enough and doing too much.”
If selected for Rio, this will be her second Olympics, after debuting in London.
Her coach Adam Didyk said all marathon runners faced various challenges.
“This is just one of those situations. It will require us to be creative in our approach and be sure that we are still ticking all the preparation boxes,” Didyk said.
“Four years of preparation has gone into this Olympics which allows us to be resilient when issues occur and we are confident that Jess can be competing at her best in Rio. “
In between training, Trengove is still doing some work as a physio and as a running ambassador in schools and in corporate settings but with a much better work/training balance.
“It does feel quite different, I can really visualise what it’s going to be like and I’ve been able to prepare myself better for the hype of the Olympics,” she said.
“I got pretty hard pressed for time and stressed out in the lead up to London because I was trying to juggle a lot of work hours with training and media and everything else – but I have a manager who helps me with that now and it makes a huge difference.
“And I just know a lot more people in the athletics world.
“I’ve been working closely with the South Australian Sports Institute since 2012 so I now work with a dietitian, a strength-and-conditioning coach, sport psychology is available, I’m getting regular massages, and I didn’t have any of that before London.
“The support network has been incredibly beneficial.”
