Follow
Greely senior Matt Woolverton this winter as he talks about his
struggles with injuries, and his battle to overcome them for one healthy
season
I’m at a weird crossroads again (as always) I’m nervous about
giving my all and just hoping the hamstring won’t give out on me but at
the same point I’m wasting my time if I’m not giving it the effort that I
should. I’m taking careful precautions in order to ensure that I don’t
make similar mistakes. One of which is deciding to bench myself
should the pain start to come. That’s something I hate doing but at
times it can be necessary for the prolonging of my season. I was
stupid last year during indoor when I decided to keep running through
the practice with the pain. I honestly didn’t know what it was because I
had never had hamstring pain before and I didn’t think much of it.
However, it became a problem I haven’t really been able to shake for
close to a year now. In fact it will be a year the wednesday before New
Years. One year since the injury and I’m still having problems with it.
There has to be a problem somewhere. I think I’m just a little too
eager to get back to running each time and that causes problems.
Cross country was also brutal for me, I probably shouldn’t have ran in
either of those races. I’m happy I did don’t get me wrong but they did
cause me a lot of time trying to get back into things.
I’m currently swamped with track, college, school work, all of this
has been taking my time from me. It’s been difficult to focus on track
one hundred percent which is what I want to be able to do most. I’m
looking forward to the middle of the season when everything calms
down. I want to be able to be proud of my season whether that’s a PR,
a strong set of races, or just getting through the season in one piece. I
haven’t been happy with my seasons for a while now and that’s a goal
I think is reasonable.
The fear of an injury is getting to me. I’ll be blatantly honest
about that, everyday I start practice in fear that the hamstring will give
out on me and my track career will be over. With the understanding
that running in college is actually a realistic/potential goal for me I
can’t afford to be making some of the decisions I have made in the
past. Staying healthy is one of the most important things to me right
now and I can’t risk anything. Any pain and I ease off, that’s all I’m
allowing myself at this point.
I’ve also noticed recently that I am totally a hypocrite. Over the
last couple weeks people have been getting hurt. I wouldn’t be
surprised if I’ve told each one of those people in the course of the last
couple weeks to be smart with their injuries. I’ve told them that coming
back early isn’t worth it. I understand when people want to come back
early, I respect it almost. That being said it is thoughtless. Coming
back from an injury too soon is easily one of the worst decisions I think
a young athlete can make. It just causes more problems. That being
said I am (as any of you who have read my posts before know) fairly
set on coming back early and making rash decisions with injuries no
matter the consequence.
I talked about it above but I feel the need to reiterate it. I
obtained the worst injury of my track career. This hamstring is totally
going to become my achilles heel. I’m counting down the days until
the hamstring ends up getting the trifecta. Let’s just hope I can get
some races in prior.
Saturday is the official start of my season. I’m beyond excited. I
wish you all the best of luck and I look forward to seeing you all there.
