Tuesday 12 July 2016 10:43, UK
A broken foot. You're out for three months. It would break the minds and hearts of most human beings.
Mark English, though, is used to grafting, on and off the track. Ireland's rising 800m star, a medical student in Dublin, suffered a bad injury in March and his Rio dreams were wobbling, despite having already run the qualifying time.
Here are the thoughts of the Sky Academy Sports Scholar on how he fought back to fitness and what he'll be up to over the next few weeks before heading to his first Olympics...
Relief is probably the sweetest feeling I've experienced as an athlete. I was lucky enough to experience it again when I won my fourth National 800m title recently in Santry, Dublin.
Essentially I had spent six weeks in a boot and wasn't able to run a step for three whole months. It started when I fractured my foot before the World Indoors at the start of March.
It was a huge disappointment for me because I had raced well all indoor season, beating a world indoor champion and Olympic bronze medallist from London. But of course, injury will strike all athletes sooner or later, and so then I just had to turn my focus solely on getting better for Rio.
The rehab involved using an anti-gravity treadmill to allow my foot to gradually return to the impact of full weight bearing running. What happens is you wear skin tight shorts that has a zip attached. You then stand on the treadmill, zip yourself into an air tight chamber, and allow it to fill up with air.
You can then adjust the body weight to whatever your needs require. So I started running at 60 per cent body weight and then ramped that up by five per cent every three to four days, depending on how my foot felt. So I trained on it for two days, and took a day off, and that's how it went for the next 26 days.
By the time I reached about 75-80 per cent, I was able to start doing proper sessions on it. On my off days, I did bike sessions that were aerobic, anaerobic or a mixture of both work-outs. My coach Steve Magness sent me on a list of them and I would pick and choose which ones to do.
For the aerobic sessions, there were a lot of work-outs done at tempo pace, or just faster than it. The anaerobic sessions looked dead easy on paper but they were an excellent way to feel that burn in the legs again! It reminded my body of the pain in the last 100m of an 800m race.
As strangely enjoyable as they were, I was counting the days until I could get back running. I was told by the surgeon that I'd be able to put full force through the foot again at the start of June.
That's all I needed to hear. Every day was a countdown until that day and I immediately set about aiming for our National Championships on June 24/25.
During that period, I had the pleasure of meeting and training with my coach in London. I did three work-outs there and they allowed me to find that race pace rhythm again. I remember my Sky Academy Mentor Darren Campbell tell me about the importance of rhythm before.
He said that when he pulled his hamstring before the Olympics, it was all about maintaining fitness through various means and then finding a racing rhythm again on the track when the injury had subsided. So when I did 12 x 150m at race pace, feeling fresh, I knew I was ready.
When I discussed the race with my coach, the plan was to run relaxed until 600m and then turn on the jets over the last 200m. I knew my good friend Declan Murray was in great shape and I'd have to run the right race to beat him. So it was a huge relief to round the final bend in third place knowing I had all my speed reserve left, and to use it to come away with the title.
I've been very lucky to have a great team around me expediting the rehab process over the past few months. I want to thank all the medical staff at Athletics Ireland, Sport Ireland, Cappagh Orthopaedic hospital, and many more who helped diagnose and treat this injury.
Looking ahead, I plan to race in Belgium, Budapest and London this month. I'm looking forward to them a lot. I love going back to the Anniversary Games in London - the track where I set my personal best of 1:44.84. It's something that will be all the more enjoyable with the relief that I'm now running pain free.
And then there's that other event in Brazil. Representing the tricolour of Ireland on this stage is something I've dreamed about since getting into the sport.
Ever since watching Sonia O'Sullivan winning her Olympic medal in Sydney (2000) back in primary school, I've always tuned into it and hoped that one day I'd be there competing on that stage. In five weeks, I plan on realising that dream.
WHAT'S COMING UP FOR OUR SCHOLARS
1-10 JULY: Quillan Isidore, Euro Championships, Verona, Italy
