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There will always be ups and down in life and sport. My best year of running was 2009 with PRs in every event from the 800 to half marathon and a 6th place finish at worlds in the 10,000 meters. That year was one of the magical years you dream about. Every time I stepped on the track I felt strong, powerful, and confident. However, the fall of 2009 started the current two year struggle with injuries. In this journal, I am just outlining the series of events of the last two years. I hope it does not come across as a pity party, but as a way to shed the events and start anew. I am writing this while I take a forced rest of 5 days to recover from the recent Achilles surgery.

In the fall of 2009 I had a hip injury and a sore foot. The hip flexors were strained near the bone and required rest. Then I injured my Achilles from too much speed work in my spikes. I got through the 2010 Nationals and the PRE meet before I had surgery on the right Achilles in August of 2010. (I have a terrible memory but Andrew and I canceled our 10th anniversary trip for the surgery so that is a way I will always remember when it happened.) The Achilles took a long time to heal. I was not able to run for over 12 weeks. However, we came back too fast and I strained the soleus in my right calf in February of 2011. My heart and lungs were ready to go from cross training but the legs were not able to keep up. The calf strain was a pretty minor injury that was not going to take long to heal.

The trails here in Beaverton and Portland get soft and slippery in the winter. The trails were aggravating the calf strain and Achilles so I switched to running on more roads to give the lower legs more stability. However, that led to a stress reaction in the third metatarsal in the right foot. With that injury, I missed most of the 2011 spring. I was only able to run for 35 days outside before the 2011 USA Nationals. I ended up 6th place this year in the 10,000 meters at Nationals. Four years ago I would have been really happy with that place at nationals. However, coming from 6th at Worlds it was hard. But you have to start somewhere coming back from injury.

After Nationals this year, I was ready to put all my injuries behind me and have a great summer of training and racing. I thought I would finally get my European racing season and get to return to some of my favorite road races. But, yet again, the injury bug bit my lower legs. I ended up with my left Achilles bugging me. This Achilles was different than the one last year. This time I started each run pain free but within ten minutes I had a burning sensation across the Achilles. I wrote in my last blog about the therapies I tried to fix it. I had given the doctors and therapists a deadline of October 15th before we made a decision on surgery to fix it. I knew if I waited past October 15th, I wouldn’t have time to rehab and get in enough training to race this spring and get a qualifying time. I don’t want to go into the Olympic Trials without a time. I did that once and even though the result was amazing, I would rather have the qualifying time this year.

The Achilles has been getting worse, so Dr. Amol Saxena did the surgery on Monday, October 10th. I will do a lot better job rehabbing and coming back from this Achilles surgery. This surgery was also not as invasive as the first one. This was more of a clean-up of the sheath.

Along with the change in rehab for this Achilles surgery, I will also make a coaching change. Alberto and I decided to part ways this summer after the National meet. We both had different ideas on the reasons for the injuries and the rehab process. I truly appreciate all that Alberto did to help me with my career.

He has taught me so many things about myself, training and running. Before I joined Nike and was coached by Alberto, I thought I was training hard. He taught me how to work hard and what it took at this level of racing. He also taught me that running had to be my job. Naps and recovery had to be scheduled like meetings I could not miss. I had to take care of the body and get regular massage. It was also the first time I did not work part-time jobs. He was great at knowing my limits and helping me push them to the edge.

However, sometimes in life, what is good at one phase in your life is not the best option for the next. I will return to being coached by my husband, Andrew Begley. He coached me for 6 years before I joined Alberto and Nike. He will coach me through the Olympic Trials so that I don’t make too many changes at once. After, the Olympic trials we will reassess and decide where to take my career. I know that 2013 will be my last year on the track. The intensity of track work increases the risk of injury and I want to extend my career on the roads. I would like to get back to the roads and eventually move up the marathon if my low mileage and cross training plan with allow for a good marathon career.

Right now the focus is on healing the Achilles and I am on day 3 post surgery. The focus will be on getting healthy and balanced. The string of lower leg injuries made me get a head to toe analysis of my strengths and weaknesses. I am working on my imbalances and weaknesses to minimize my injuries when I return to running. That is my #1 goal right now. The next two goals are loving to run and running 31:40 to qualify for the trials. I believe that a happy runner is a healthy and fast runner.

Again, THANKS to Alberto and the Oregon Project Family for all the love and support over the last 4.5 years.

Time to heal!