Follow Lake Region HS sprint/jump star Kate Hall as she blogs about her junior indoor season & the quest to be the best. Hall is one of the top long jumpers/short sprinters in the US. She has won every individual state meet event she has competed in. Kate is the current Maine indoor state record holder in the long jump (19-2), 55m(7.07) , 60m (7.76) & 200m (24.81). She won the New England title in the 55m last winter, and added the 100m title outdoors. She finished 4th in the 100m dash at New Balance Nationals in 2013.
Hey guys!
Things have been a little difficult the past couple of weeks. I went from being ready to go and more excited than ever for New England’s, to injured and very, very disappointed.
Last Monday I had an interview at USM and I was going to do my normal practice routine, so the reporters could follow me around and just get a feel for what I did. Two days previous to this, I was practicing and felt some tightness in my hip flexor, but only when I was doing block starts. Once I had started my normal running I felt fine and just assumed it had loosened up as my workout went on. On Monday, when I had started doing a couple block starts again, I felt that tightness return in my hip flexor. My second block start that I had done, I exploded out and felt fine, but as I was slowing down, I felt it tighten up really quickly and I immediately knew something was wrong. I was exposed to enough injuries in middle school to know that it was more than just tight. The first thought that entered my mind immediately after what happened was that I NEEDED to be okay for New England’s...I needed to. Following that desperate thought was another thought that I needed to text my trainer, not stretch because my hip flexor felt overstretched, ice, and take an anti-inflammatory.
Throughout all of this, I have realized how truly thankful I am for having such a caring, kind, and dedicated trainer. Chris immediately responded to my text about my hip by asking all kinds of questions about what happened, where it hurt exactly, and what I could do to help it before seeing him the next day. Chris did a lot of research that night about what the problem may be, and when I came in the next day, he was spot on. My right glute wasn’t as strong as we had thought and my left hip flexor was compensating for it, causing rotation and instability. A lot of stress was being put on my hip flexor, and as time went on, it kept getting worse until I injured it last Monday. Come to find out, this rotation that I’ve been experiencing because of my hip flexor has caused me to rotate when I long jump, and have some pretty rough landings. Chris has been working on strengthening my right glute, and doing a lot of stretches on my adductors and hamstrings. Also, Chris discovered that that my left lung wasn’t doing the amount of breathing that it should have been and that my right lung was compensating for it, which was throwing things off as well. All of these little things that Chris found have been affecting my hip in some way, and the past week I have been working every day with Chris to correct them.
Not going to New England’s was one of the hardest things that I’ve had to go through, although every day my hip is making progress and I finally get to run in a day or two. I’ve gotten so much encouragement and kind words from everyone in regards to my injury and not running at New England’s at that means the world to me. The past couple of days I’ve been in the best mood because not only is my hip getting better, but there’s a great chance that it’s also going to help me get faster and stronger in the long run. I will be more stable, stronger, and able to get through more range of motion when I run and jump. I went through a couple of my normal warmups on Tuesday and they felt better than ever.
This has showed me that everything really does happen for a reason, and in the end maybe injuring my hip flexor was a blessing in disguise. I’ve never been more excited to run next week at Nationals considering all that has happened, and I am beyond grateful for the encouragement from everyone once again.
I hope everyone had an amazing indoor season, and for those of you who will be competing at Nationals, best of luck and I will see you there!
Kate
