Trengove recovering from foot injury 100 days from Rio

MARATHON star Jess Trengove says she is not panicking about a foot injury which has sidelined her this month as she flies to the US today to continue her preparation for the Rio Olympics.

Jessica Trengove ... no panic over injury. Picture: Sarah Reed.

MARATHON star Jess Trengove says she is not panicking about a foot injury which has sidelined her this month as she flies to the US today to continue her preparation for the Rio Olympics.

Souith Australia’s Trengove, 28, has suffered bone stress in her left foot which is very similar to the injury she had in her right foot before the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

She noticed discomfort after a training camp at Falls Creek in January and missed the half-marathon world championships in Cadiff in March as a precaution.

After a few weeks off she today flies to Flagstaff, Arizona, to continue her marathon preparation at a month-long altitude camp.

The injury has meant lots of cross training, including cycling, boxing and swimming, to maintain her cardiovascular fitness and muscle conditioning before getting back on her feet.

“I’ll be itching to go when I get there,” Trengove said.

“While it’s unfortunate to have an injury you also learn a lot and they make you so hungry to run again, so motivation definitely won’t be an issue for the next few months.

“I’ll just be grateful to be able to run and certainly won’t be taking it for granted.

“I’ve had to work closely with the doctor, podiatrist and physio to firstly determine what factors contributed to it and then how to let it heal - and it’s all on track so I’m really happy about that.”

With today marking 100 days to the Rio Olympics in August, Trengove was on Tuesday still waiting on official confirmation of whether she was in the team for the Games, but all going well she says that’s plenty of time to prepare for race day on August 21.

“For Glasgow I had a shorter time-frame to work with and I felt terrible when I first started but you progress quite quickly,” she said.

“You just have to set yourself small goals and not be too overwhelmed in the first sessions when they don’t feel anything like what you’d like them to be.

Jess Trengove wins bronze in the marathon at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. Picture: Adam Head

“I was more worried when we didn’t have the diagnosis because it was really uncomfortable. I was trying to imagine getting through the training to be better than ever at Rio and I was finding that really hard.

“So once we had a clear cut diagnosis to work to it was actually almost a relief because I knew we had enough time for it to heal.

“Mentally I’m feeling fresher than ever. I wouldn’t normally take time off running this close to a major championship but I’m sure there will be positives to come out of the experience.

“Olympic year comes with added motivation and expectation and there is a fine line between doing enough and doing too much.”

While her foot injury is not anywhere near as severe as that suffered by brother Jack who plays AFL football with Melbourne and missed the best part of two years with a navicular fracture, she has drawn inspiration from his positive attitude towards his recovery.

“His positive attitude and belief has really put things into perspective for me now with injury, I think ‘well Jack got through a fracture that was really nasty and this is just a little blip in the big scheme of things’,” she said.

Rio, if selected, will be Trengove’s second Olympics after she debuted in London, finishing 39th.

Two years later she won a bronze medal with a stunning performance at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and last year won the Melbourne Marathon in personal best time of 2hrs 27mins 45secs.

This time around she feels much better prepared for both the hype of the Olympics and the demands of the 42.195km event.

Her coach Adam Didyk said all marathon runners faced various challenges.

“This is just one of those situations. It will require us to be creative in our approach and be sure that we are still ticking all the preparation boxes,” Didyk said.

“Four years of preparation has gone into this Olympics which allows us to be resilient when issues occur and we are confident that Jess can be competing at her best in Rio. “

In between training, Trengove is still doing some work as a physio and as a running ambassador in schools and in corporate settings but with a much better work/training balance.

“It does feel quite different, I can really visualise what it’s going to be like and I’ve been able to prepare myself better for the hype of the Olympics,” she said.

“I got pretty hard pressed for time and stressed out in the lead up to London because I was trying to juggle a lot of work hours with training and media and everything else - but I have a manager who helps me with that now and it makes a huge difference.

“And I just know a lot more people in the athletics world.

“I’ve been working closely with the South Australian Sports Institute since 2012 so I now work with a dietitian, a strength-and-conditioning coach, sport psychology is available, I’m getting regular massages, and I didn’t have any of that before London.

“The support network has been incredibly beneficial.”

Trengove says her Olympic dream began as a school kid in Naracoorte in South Australia’s South-East.

“I loved watching the Olympic Games on TV and dreamt of being an Olympian,” Trengove said.

“I just wanted to go to the Olympics in whatever capacity and we were fortunate to go as a family in Sydney in 2000.

“We had a swimming pool in our backyard and I asked for an alarm clock for my birthday in the hope that I would become the next Susie O’Neill.

“I watched someone being interviewed and they said they got up before 6am every morning and trained, so I thought if I got an alarm clock and did the same I could be an Olympian. I think I lasted a couple of days before I realised I didn’t move so well through the water.”

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Originally published as Trengove recovering from foot injury 100 days from Rio