Laurien Hoos – 7 kampster

The last couple of weeks have been very tough for me. I started my recovery program on 10 November. They said I couldn’t train for 5 weeks, but along the way we decided to take more time and to start training only when the strength levels in my quadriceps were the same in both legs. I also had to be pain free before starting to train again.

I followed a slow build up with strength sessions and stability exercises. The 6th week I started to do little two legged jumps (I used to do this in the pool, where the impact of landing is limited).
Last week I also started little hops (one legged jumps). I was a bit scares it would hurt me, but fortunately I didn’t feel any pain (for the last three years i always felt ‘something’ in my knee)

When I started I did a test in a Cybex machine (a machine that tests the strength of your quadriceps and hamstrings). My left leg was 20% weaker than my right leg. However, my left hamstring was considerably stronger (it basically compensated my quad).

The last three months I have been working very hard and the results is a big improvement on my test results. Not only do I not have a strength difference anymore, but both my legs are also stronger than before, too.

It means that I am ready to move on to the next phase of the recovery program. After having a wonderful Chrismas, first with Rudy’s family and then some days with mine, and after a lovely New Years Eve in Paris, I did my first running test yesterday.

Part of the test was to see what the level of my physical fitness was, and part of it to see if my tendon would handle it. My tendon was fine, I felt no pain during the exercise, nor afterwards. The bad news is that my fitness is not too good , which, in my opinion, is not a miracle as I only trained for four weeks since Beijing.

The last for weeks I will only go to Corbie three mornings a week (I used to go three complete days) and I can start jogging again. We also agreed that I will do my concentric strength sessions myself and I’ll do the eccentric stuff in Corbie (the eccentric exercises are necessary to make the tendon ‘impact-ready’).

It might take a while before I will be able to perform in a heptathlon, because little hops are not even close to a high jump take of, but I’m heading for the right direction.

Last year I made a decision: I will not take a year off to let my knee heal, I will try to make it to the Olympics. Even though I had some physical problems, I still managed to qualify for the Games and in Holland that is hard work as they have a strict policy.
I felt fit enough to start the heptathlon as my knee hadn’t bothered me for while.
My heptathlon started with a pb. I ran the 100m hurdles in 13.52. At the high jump I jumped 1.65 which is a good result considering I was jumping of the other side.
I wasn;t really happy with my shot put, but with 14.98 I did well in the ranking. And the 200 was OK considering i was running in lane 1.

After day 1 I was pretty tired. Because o fmy knee injury I couldn’t do my whole winter programm, and then, heptathlon is hard work. After my fould in the long jump I couldn’t get the right feeling back. In the last throw in the javelin i wanted to block hard, but instead my knee gave in. back in the comined events rest room, I did some tests with the doctor and the physio. But because i couldn’t control my knee anymore, they said I couldn’t run. It was a painful decision, but it’s part of the game.

What to do now? I’m gonna have a break to empty my head. After that I will go through medical examination to see what is wrong and what needs to be done.
how long will this take? I have no idea, but I will only start training again after I am fully recovered.
Did I loose the gamble? I did gamble, but didn’t loose completely, as I made it to the Games.

I would like to say thanks to everybody who helped me through this year. Joe, Jean Paul, Hans, Lloyd, Marita, Rick, Arnaud, Dad and Mum, Rudy, my family, Jean and Alta. And I would lik eto say thanks to Amiens UC for letting me train in their facilities.

A couple of days ago we arrived in the Olympic Village. At that moment it rained so hard we could hardly get to the appartment (so much water on the roads). Signing in went really quickly and after that we went to the appartments. The appartments have a living room, three double bed rooms and two single bed rooms. I share a room with Jolanda (my fellow heptathlete). Gregory Sedoc, Marcel van der Westen, Rutger Smith and Eugene Martineau are also in my appartment. Epke Zonderland and his coach (gymnastic) are the only non athletes in here.
The village is very nice. I have the feeling i am staying in a new build estate in a fancy quarter of a big town (which is basically the case). The food is good and public transportation is well taken care off.
Yesterday I went to the stadium, although we couldn’t get in. I trained at the warm up track and walked through the tunnel to the stadium.
Even though I couldn’t get in, it was quite impressive from the outside.

Well these were my first impressions. The next days I rest, rest and rest. Competition starts on friday.

I’m in Fukuoka for several days now and I’m just doing fine. I get used to the heath and humidity and training is going really well. The atmosphere in the team is good and everybody is looking forward to travel to Beijing. BUT, first I have to do my last training sessions.
At the moment training is going really well. Of course, some training sessions don’t go as good as I want (they call it the 3rd day dip), but in general I’m getting in good shape.
Tomorrow (thursday) I’m free from training and I will get some time to rest and maybe do some shopping in the shopping center next to the hotel.
I train twice a day, but only one event per session. And the quality is high, so not a lot of quantity. For example, I tested a flying 200 this evening and that went very well. A couple of days ago I equelled my pb in cleans, and I was never so strong so close to competition.
Hopefully I can transfer these results, with the help of some adrenaline, into good performances at the Games.
BUT, first things first…. the last training sessions and lots of rest.