What a roller coaster of emotion I have gone through over the past year... Finally I feel like I'm on the way up again after some solid performances at the Australian swimming trials despite a tough run, and am finally back on the national team.
It all started in January 2009, when I had my fourth hip operation, which came on the back of a 3 month holiday after the Beijing Olympics, hardly a way to start a preparation!
From there I battled to get fit and make the world championship team; the trials were just 6 weeks away, a very quick turn around!
Pushing myself that hard to be fit so quickly led to me getting run down to almost a chronic fatigue like state which saw me eventually pull out if the world championship team a week before the meet started.
I came back to Australia and spent some time recovering and also managed to win Celebrity Master Chef for a bit if fun!
Just when I thought I was about to finally get some hard training done at a high altitude training camp in Arizona, I was struck down again.
Just 4 days into the camp I got appendicitis! I was in the hospital and being operated on within the hour!
Once again I pushed myself too hard and was back in the water training after 4 days. I finished off the training camp in pain and spent 2 weeks racing in Europe which saw the pain get worse and almost unbearable.
Upon returning home to Sydney I went to get a second opinion on my appendix wound...
Wouldn't you believe it?! It turns out I tore my transverse abdominal muscle, which is a very deep muscle in the stomach, quite hard to hurt apparently!
So once again I was "treading water" so to speak, and had an injection in my stomach and ordered to take it easy until Christmas.
After spending a relaxing time in Perth with my family for Christmas I was ready to forget the horrible year I'd had and I finally was ready to get back into hard training..... Or so I thought.
The very first session back in Sydney I tore a ligament in my hip and also managed to tear some cartilage again. So for the fifth time I was going under the knife to fix problems in my hip, and just 2 months out from Commonwealth Games trials..
To be honest it was the hardest time in my swimming career. I mean, how much bad luck can I get?! I have got used to always being injured over the years but this was just ridiculous!
I am very lucky to have the support of my family, my coach (Grant Stoelwinder), my sponsors and my friends who always believed in me.
I spent 4 weeks with my legs strapped together doing one lap at a time in the swimming pool. A very frustrating way to do things, and often ended up shivering from being cold after 2 hours in the water.
It was now a month out from the Commonwealth Games trials and I was ready to start kicking again. After spending so much time only using my arms, when I started kicking again it felt like I was learning to swim again!
But that didn't last for long, after 2 weeks I ruptured the capsule in my hip and once again had my legs strapped together doing a lap at a time. With only 2 weeks until trials, I really though I was out for the count. In a last ditch effort I had a cortisone in my hip to try and settle down the inflammation and had a weekend off to give it every chance of recovering.
It turns out that the injection didn't really help. With only a few days left I decided to try and push through the pain. I kicked and trained normally, and it was great to be swimming properly for a change despite the pain. I decided that I would give myself until the day of the meet to make a decision on whether I would swim or not... I had a hard decision on my hands; do I risk making my hip worse and maybe go down the track of the previous year? Or do I miss the trials and end up spending 2 years without a major competition?
After weighing up my options my coach and I decide to push through the pain. It's what I’ve always done and I wanted to show I wasn't afraid of going into a meet under prepared.
It turns out it was a great decision! I won the 100 freestyle in 48.52 seconds, the fastest time in the world post the "super suits" by .60 of a second; Earning my spot on the Pan Pacific championship team and also the Commonwealth Games team.
It was my fourth consecutive title.
Sitting here writing this and reliving the amount of disappointment I have had over the past year, I can honestly say that this is one of the proudest moments in my swimming career.
I have proven to myself that I am strong mentally, nothing can break my spirits. Despite all the injuries and bad times that I have been through, I have come out the other side as motivated and passionate about swimming as I have ever been.
Watch this space; I am determined to get back to the top. And it isn't a matter of "if" it will happen.... It's only a matter of "when"
But for now, 4 days off! And I’m taking my dad fishing!
Sorry for the long blog but I thought that would set the scene for my future blogs!
Until then!
Eamon
