My Return After the Injury
Before the injury
Before the injury I was in very good shape. I had big dreams for the year ahead and I couldn't wait to race. Unfortunately, the knee problem had been bothering me for quite some time, and at some point I had to make the decision to have surgery.
My knee had an instability caused by older injuries, among them the ACL rupture I had about six years ago. After Lavaredo, where I ran my best 50 km performance up to then, it started to bother me more, mostly after long runs.
When my doctor finally told me I needed surgery and would have to stay away from running in the mountains for about six months, it was really hard to take in.
I had so many dreams for the year, and suddenly everything stopped.
I started thinking about a lot of things. Will I get back to where I was? Will I be able to run again without pain? Will I be able to race at the same level?
The surgery included a cartilage transplant and extra-articular support. I knew I had a long road ahead of me.
The first weeks
The first weeks were the hardest psychologically. I was constantly in bed, and suddenly I couldn't do what I was used to doing every day: training.
It was even harder because it was my first year with adidas. Even so, I had a very good team around me. My coach, the adidas psychologist and everyone beside me helped me a lot.
Most importantly, I never felt pressure from anyone. That made the recovery much easier.
Finding a goal again
Very quickly I realized I had to find something I could do and try to get better at it.
Just five days after the surgery I started arm ergometer work. I did at least one hour every day. It may have had nothing to do with the running I did before, but it gave me a goal and, above all, the strength to keep going.
In the first month I started swimming.
There I set a new goal: since I could swim, I wanted to become a better swimmer.
That was very important to me.
Instead of constantly thinking about what I couldn't do, I had something I could improve at.
After that I started strength work with BFR, and at around two months the bike came back. That's when I started to feel even more that I was returning to sport.
I could do many hours of training, work on intensities and significantly improve my fitness. It was much closer to what I knew and loved.
Step by step, I felt I was getting closer to running again.
Small goals
Throughout the rehabilitation I tried not to think only about the final goal.
I set small goals.
First it was swimming. Then strength. Then the bike. And finally running.
I remember that around the second month, when I had started swimming really well by my own standards, I felt like a real athlete again.
That was very important for my state of mind.
I think that for an elite athlete, an injury doesn't only stop the training. For a while it also takes away a piece of your daily life and your identity.
That's why I believe it's so important to always have a small goal in front of you.
My first run
At 4.5 months came the moment I had been waiting for more than any other.
The first run.
It was only one minute.
One minute of running after all those months.
And yet I felt like I was flying among the clouds.
I felt freedom and joy. It was a feeling I had forgotten could be so intense.
To someone it may seem unbelievable to be so happy about one minute of running. For me, at that moment, it was something huge.
The good news was that I wasn't starting from zero. I had built very good fitness over the previous months through swimming, strength and, above all, the bike.
Now I'm continuing the way I approached the whole rehabilitation: small, steady steps.
I still have two important steps ahead of me. Long runs and downhills.
For me these are the last two big checkpoints. If I can bring them back into my training without any problem, I believe I will have left behind the biggest fear as well.
What the injury taught me
Before the injury I thought rehabilitation was mostly a matter of physical work.
Now I know it isn't only that.
It's also a matter of psychological management.
The biggest mistake an athlete can make is to rush back. No matter how much you want to run again, you have to respect your body and give it the time it needs.
I've learned this over all my years as an athlete. Improvement doesn't come in a day. It comes through small steps and a lot of patience.
The exact same thing applies to rehabilitation.
I now see rehabilitation as a different form of training.
If you approach it smartly and methodically, it can become more than a waiting period. It can become a period that makes you better and stronger.
Looking ahead
Now that I'm in my sixth month and have started running again, I'm much more optimistic.
I know I still have a way to go, but now I can see the goal again.
I've also learned to respect my body more. To listen to it and not take anything for granted.
If I could say something to an athlete who is at the start of a difficult rehabilitation, I would tell them not to despair.
See rehabilitation as training.
Set small goals and enjoy every small improvement.
Because when you stop thinking only about how far you are from the final goal and start appreciating every small step, everything looks different.
The exact same thing happens in an ultra race.
If in a 170 km race you think from the start that you still have 170 km to run, it's very easy to get discouraged. But if you think only about the next aid station, which may be 10 km away, suddenly the goal becomes much closer and manageable.
And when you get there, you set the next one.
That's more or less how I approached my rehabilitation.
I wasn't thinking about the six months ahead of me. I was thinking about the next step. First the ergometer, then swimming, then strength, the bike and finally the first minute of running.
And in the end, just like in an ultra race, you don't need to see the whole route from the start.
You just need to get to the next aid station.
Translated from the Greek. Originally published in Running Stories (Greek), by Nikos Savvakis.