AN INJURY JOURNAL by Dan Borrey

Journal Complete - August 12, 1998 EDITORS NOTE: On August 10, only seven months after his third Achilles tendon surgery, 53 year old, Dan Borrey, wins the pole vault in the Nike World Masters Games, the recognized world championships or "Olympics" for 25 masters sports. CONGRATULATIONS DAN!

It's hard to keep 86 year old Carol Johnston down, shown here in the November 1997 issue of National Geographic. A many time world record holder, this Southern California resident is untouchable in his event.

Like our friend Carol, Dan Borrey has paid the price as well with three Achilles tendon surgeries. What has made Dan successful as an athlete, 1995 world champion and current world record holder in the pole vault for men aged 50, has also made him a success in business in the document imaging industry. He may be reached through www.visionshape.com or by email at Dan@visionshape.com. What follows is his story of the painful recovery from his recent surgery and his plans to compete again before year end. Please bookmark this site as it will be updated often. I Have a Pole Vaulter Disease For those who do not like broken English, I am sorry, my mother tongue is French and I know you will notice in these pages. For the last 35 years I have been suffering from my Achilles' tendon. When I was 28 they put my right foot in a cast to keep me from injuring it all the time. It is the right "gather" foot, I almost wrote, of course! I quit vaulting at the age of 30 and started again at the age of 45. Had a few so-so years until I started being coached by Doug Sparks, my coach, mentor and friend, not necessarily in that order. From my 4.20m (13'9") at age 45 I went to 4.60m (15' 1 1/4") at age 49, with a first place at the world championship of the old farts, and a 4.50m (14'9") age 50 world record. After that I was convinced I was 20 again (my college record was 4.50m) and  I worked harder, ran more, lifted more, got on bigger poles, shooting for the mythical 5m at age 50. Well something broke and it was my Achilles'. Oh, it did not break loose completely and immediately but at the start of the '96 season, as I felt like a race horse, I felt a more than usual pain after the competition (understand that it was always somewhat painful). A bit of rest but of course not enough and I was ready for the Spring meets. First jump and it popped, and I mean popped, you could hear it in the stands. But it was on the lower outside portion of the heel, not quite the Achilles' itself.  Not enough rest and first serious practice, pain all over the place. By July, it was obvious it would not heal. So Doctor Almquist and Cummings performed their (first surgery) on my foot. They opened on the inside of my right foot, saw a nice tear, fixed it, cleaned up my tendon from miles of scar tissue and closed it. I did mention that the pain had started on the right side, but hey, I am no doctor. By December, I was not improving, so Cummings went back in and shaved a bit of bone on both sides of the heel which was now diagnosed as a hatched son of a gun. I was told at the time that there was only a 50/50 chance that it would work but we were in a year of world championship and the expected recovery of this "small" surgery was 3 months, while the big one was 6. I went for the small one and was  vaulting at the 4.20 level by June. Packed my poles with Doug and went to the world championship in South Africa to find out that Burlington Air Express had lost our poles and that we had to rely on the local stuff. I am a chicken and I cannot vault well on a new pole of another brand and wrong for both my weight and grip so I scratched. Nice $5,000 investment down the drain. The good news is that they found the poles in Germany in September and that after threatening to sue them, Burlington gave me a $2500 check to soothe my feelings. But full with revenge, I ran like a maniac at my first practice back in the States and bang the darned thing popped again, same place outside right on the heel. It is pretty painful as many of us know. So back to Doctor Needle for a few cortisone shots (I skipped the other ones as obvious to all of you). By December, I am starting to look fairly good, on small poles, learned some new tricks from Doug and … of course it breaks again. Now I sit down with the Doctors, because I want to know what is wrong with me. Two surgeries and it still pops all the time. It took a while to get a convincing explanation and I got it in bits and pieces from three doctors and a co-sufferer Brooks Morris from the famous Morris dynasty of vaulters. My so-called hatched bone is irritating constantly my tendon, so that is where  the constant pain comes from. Then you shoot some medication in it and it heals but it sticks to the protruding hatched bone. You feel good and start running faster and then you gather a good time and pop, it goes again. So I am convinced and I get the third surgery on January 7, 1998. Two days later, I agree with Doug, that it may be interesting to write a recovery diary for those who are faced with the same problem. Now remember I am 52, so it will take longer and there are things that I cannot do that other younger vaulters may be capable of doing. We will publish on a regular basis this diary, I will tell you how it feels, what I am doing and what progress I make, not because I am an egocentric but because I think it may help others. Just for the record, I am 5.11 185 pounds, with 15% body fat. I am fairly fast for an old fart but I have not timed myself recently. However I will from now on. First the surgery, outpatient but complete anesthesia. No big deal, they put me under at 7AM and I came back at 9.30 AM.  I remember nothing, not even putting my clothes back on. But by 11 I was home. The pain started around 2PM. In comparison with the two other surgeries, I would say it was significantly more painful.   But I am a tough macho man? So I did not take any pain pills until bed time. Slept like a log till 2AM but then could not find the pills and did not want to wake up the wife so I suffered for 6 hours. Second day, I feel better but weak, a lot weaker that the other surgeries (I went back to work the next day the other time), I worked a bit from my home computer but I don't think I did anything intelligent. Third day a lot better, worked a full day, pain is down, no medication, ready to rock and roll. So much for now, we will discuss with Doug how often we should update this but I commit to once a week. The current plan is: I am in a cast for 2 weeks, then if everything is well I can start hopping on the foot and it is uphill from there Two weeks in a cast, a time for planning. Lets consider this as the first week of our rehabilitation. The  pain is mainly gone from the foot. Ironically, the real pain is coming from my knee. Probably due to the heavy cast and the position of my leg as I am trying to catch up on my email and internet work. You need to know I am not a Saint, I work hard, I eat and I drink without special precautions. My European heritage taught me to drink wine every night with my meals, and I eat a good home cooked dinner almost everyday. Otherwise we go to a restaurant and have a full dinner there. I am not big on fast food, pizza, burgers etc.. which I only have very occasionally. So the first thing I will have to do is to cut on the food. As I will be burning a lot less calories and coming out of the holiday season, I will need to cut the intake by 20% for a while. As soon as I come out of the cast, I will go back on the scale and see where I am, but I already know the answer. I am however a vitamin freak and have my A-Z and calcium/potassium on a daily basis. In 1995, my biggest year (4.60) I worked out almost daily, lifted 2-3 times a week, ran hard with weight jacket or pants twice a week, vaulted twice a week and did running and walking pole drills almost daily. My first surgery in early 96 cut my vaulting and running dramatically. Prior to my last surgery, my workout schedule was as follows (with a little bit of variation on actual days depending on work and social requirements). Sunday Usually a session at the gym, about one hour. I only use machines as I can no longer use barbells since I broke my C6- C7 disc a few years ago (tryingto do back flips again!!!). I do sets of 10-8-6 with increasing weight  to lift roughly 70-80-90% of recent maximum and I usually do 8-10 different movements. Monday Tends to be a rest day, for several reasons, first because Saturday and Sunday are fairly big days, but also because I like to watch Monday night football. So I mainly go out with my dog, jog a bit and carry a cut pole (about 4-5 feet) to do my plant drills, walking and jogging. I am big on these drills that teach me an optimal plant. Actually I always carry that cut pole with me to do these drills and to chase away the occasional Coyote. I spent a lot of time on the ranch of Don Hood the former coach of Abilene Christian University who taught me to plant correctly that way: start, curl, press, over and over. Tuesday I go to the gym where I work out 45 minutes and if my foot permits I do a couple of racket ball games with my son. I do legs and back stretches between each series. Wednesday Thursday Usually are the days I run. I warm up with pole drills, walk and jog, Three steps plant simulation. Depending on how my foot was doing, I did 10 runs with and 10 runs without my cut poles. All uphill about 15%. Run about 60 yards, counting steps with stretching between each run. Friday Is always a light day either because we are going out, have guest or I am so bloody tired from the week at work that I do not feel like doing much, so I go out for 1/2 hour and do some plant drills and light jogging Saturday is the day I vault. Before my Achilles problems I used to vault twice a week, but since the injury, every work out was rather painful and the pain would not disappear for several days preventing a second vault session. So, nothing mysterious and very sophisticated. Pretty much the same I did in 95 but a lot less because of the constant pain and irritation. My first objective is of course to get back to that level which I hope to achieve in 3-4 months, then move back into a harder schedule (assuming I can do it) to be in decent shape by July/August for national and international meets. As it is important to set goals, here we are: End January walk briskly, 1 session of lifting End of February 60% speed run on grass, back to 2 sessions of lifting End of March some pole drills and 60% speed run End of April  short pole runs- training pole vaults End of May  full pole run- get on a 155-160 light 14.6 feet pole End of June resume full work out schedule and start compete July-August target back in the 14.6 range using 15 feet and 170 poles OK, so much for day-dreaming, now Monday,  first day back on the job, No more TV and  Couch Potatoes athletics. Of course I need a driver, thanks God I got married ten or fifteen years ago. Now of course, don't expect me on time.  Eventually I get there by 9.15 AM. How are you, does it hurt, why didn't you stay home (I am the boss). My office is on the second floor and there is no elevator. Going up is a no brainer,  I mastered that Thursday. It is going down the tough part. The trick is to place the crutches down first then  the foot with the cast. And of course, never lean forward or you are dead meat. A lot easier than pole vaulting which took me 25 years, when you think of it. My wife drops me off without ceremony, because it is cleaning day, so I hop on my crutches in the office. We have a temp at the switchboard. She happens to be african-american, Am I politically correct, or what? Anyway, I tell here that for a week, she will have to bring my coffee in my office. I can see in her eyes that she hesitates between sexual harassment suit and discrimination. She never brought my coffee, so I guess she decided to take it as a joke. No matter what, I put in  a full day of work, had no pain worse mentioning, could not believe the company was still there with my two days of absence, I guess I need to do this again. By the end of the day, I feel some optimism coming back, I can put my foot down and I know I will be able to throw the crutches away soon (not in the garbage can, you never know, I got a lot of mileage of these ones, third time and actually these were given to my wife in 1988 when she broke her foot in Chicago.) Tuesday is good to me, I now walk with a single crutch. The biggest problem is to scratch under the cast. I used an old wooden spoon which works great. I do remember however that after my first surgery they gave me a spray can with a very long tip that I could insert between cast and skin and worked great. How could I forget this??? Had a few e-mails from Doug, it helps to know someone cares, last couple of times, I stayed away from the track while I could not vault, this time, I will go there next Saturday,  I will take my VCR camera and play coach. I think my mind must stay there, I need to feel the hit of the take off, if not in my body, at least in my mind. Comes to think of it, there are four things I need to maintain: Speed, strength, technique and guts… We will write more about that as we suffer through this recovery. My life is a long boring sequences of hops. I thought that after a few days (as I did before) I could throw these crutches back in the garage, but apparently, Cummings (the surgeon) gave some secret instructions to my wife and I am not supposed to walk on the cast. So I drag myself from chair to couch to bath to bed. I am seriously considering replacing the crutch with my cut-off pole, just to feel human again. I am totally bored to death, cannot drive a car, cannot walk my dog, cannot..my wife, well I could but… If I can find someone to drive me, I will go to the gym Sunday, I have to maintain my most important asset (besides my good look), my strength. As older athletes have probably noticed, strength is lost faster than anything else. It is my experience that 2 weeks will set me back 10-15%.  I will keep it simple.  Shoulder, Pectoral, Abdominal, biceps, triceps. It may be obvious to most, but as we set goals, we also have to record our progress. With weights, it is mandatory, if one wants to progress at all. So equipped with a simple chart, name of the exercise vertically and the date horizontally, in first column I write my current maximum (in pencil as I am an optimist) and then three lines per week for my three sets 70-80-90% When I feel comfortable with 6 reps at 90% , I continue until I hit the wall and that is my new max for that exercise. The exact weight is probably of no value, because these exercise machines are all set differently anyway. What is important to me is the relative values to previous weeks and maximum (on the same machine). With one session per week, I am loosing ground, two sessions I can maintain my maximum and if I want to make rapid progress I need three one hour session a week. I don't particularly have a "lifting" season as I try to do two sessions throughout the year unless I am trying to catch up. As we have the privilege in California to vault all year long, we have to be strong all year long. I am believer that you cannot be a vaulter unless you are strong, preferably very strong, but then I started my career on aluminum poles. I do get a lot of my speed from strength exercises also, as I am not an elegant 200 m runner but rather an explosive 40 m sprinter. So squats, calf and quads exercise with heavy loads are part of my normal routines. (of course, not now). Well, my son was good enough to drive the old man to the gym, to make things better, he brought along a good looking girl. He introduced her as my wife to get a free pass. And it worked!!!! I had a fair session, as expected 15% off my normal stuff and pretty exhausted at the end. But it was good to feel alive. Tuesday, morning the cast comes off. I am rather anxious as everyone around me has an opinion on how long it will take to heal. Most are betting that I am due for a new cast. Bull! They cut the tape and tataaa!!, out came my foot. Now it looks like I fought third world war all by myself, there are more scars on this foot than on the entire Iraqi army. The last one is a big, and I mean a big son of a gun. So they take an X-ray and show me the before and after (we are trying to scan this for your delight). They really did cut a big chunk of the heel bone, but it is pretty obvious that the tendon now cannot rub against the bone. Good job, it seems. OK, I put my foot down, no pain. I walk cautiously, no pain. Looks good Mama, last recommendations from the doctor and we are on our way. I can walk, then walk briskly in a week, then slow jog in two weeks, no reason to worry but go slow. Hey, at my age, we are slow anyway. First thing at home, on the scale, alleluia, I lost five pounds, most of it muscle mass, but who cares. Recovery phase, here we come. Well, at least I am walking….. This is going to be a bad week, all my friends are in Reno having a great time pole vaulting at the Spirit meet,  and I am stuck here trying to limp along. The first week out of a cast is not to bad. Just the pleasure of walking is something to cherish. There are three things I have accomplished this week: -Two sessions at the gym, with reasonable weights -One Km walk daily, progressively putting more weight of the right foot and with longer steps every day - And Leg stretching. I can say that my foot is not hampering my weight lifting efforts, truthfully except for squats and calf, I can pretty much do everything. So no excuses, 2-3 sessions a week will be called for. One interesting discovery (which the surgeon had expected), is the significant change in mobility (for lack of a better term) of my ankle. Actually, I always had a little more difficulty stretching the right leg compared to my take-off leg and was always subject to hamstring irritations. Two days out of the cast and I can stretch my right further than my left without any sort of pain!!!! Amazing and possibly a good sign. Slow 50 year old walk is no problem, it would be OK if my dog was a poodle or something like that. But he is a combination of a male Doberman and the mother of Clinton'dog, so strolling is not his idea of fun. Anyway, walking reasonably fast is still painful. The scary part is that the pain comes exactly from the spot where it used to pop (outside where the nerve is). I sure hope they did not solve the wrong problem again. A good way to exercise my legs without putting too much pressure on the foot is to ride my mountain bike. I started a daily dose of it which will help maintain leg strength. Overall, it seems that it will be no problem to meet and even slightly exceed my objective (walk briskly and one weight lifting session per week). I am again taking my cut pole with me to practice my simulated plants, of course I have a slight limp, but I can pretend I am simulating the right leg gather!! I found out that tread-mill walking was easier than regular walking. The effort on the foot is significantly less as the machine does some of the work for you. Also, there is less anxiety. I did a mile Sunday starting at 1.5 miles per hour and ending at 2.5 miles per hour. I could unroll my foot completely and thus increase motion.  The next day, I could immediately feel the benefit of that, I have less apprehension to put the foot down and roll over it, so I did my plant/walk drill with a lot less limping and at a pretty reasonable pace. Don't tell anyone, I even did a little bit of flat foot jogging, nothing much but as I walked 30 yards in one direction, I started to kind of jog coming back. The trick is to stay just inside the pain threshold. I am satisfied with my progress as we are ending the three weeks period after surgery. The scar is almost gone, that is amazing. You would never believe what it looked like a week ago. If they can guarantee that if I fix my face, I may even do that. The boys are back from Reno, the good news is that nobody managed to beat the world record of the old farts indoor (the outdoor 14' 9 1/4" is mine). Since I have been injured every indoor season since I turned 50, I never had a chance at that record which is pretty low (13' 7") . So, may be next year!!! Bubba (Doug) sent me an email saying that there were 600+ vaulters in Reno, wow!!.  This is becoming the Mecca of pole vaulters, soon we will all turn toward Reno 4 times a day  and pray for our record jump. Tuesday is usually a big day, as I tend to rest on Monday,  so I made a point of trying to reach my normal weights in most movements (except the legs of course). I got close and did a good series of quads and hamstrings. No squats yet though. I did start with a 15 minutes treadmill session and ended at 3 mph. However I think I am paying for it the next day. Wednesday I have some business meetings, so I want to wear shoes, until now I have been wearing my Nikes in the office. Maybe it was my Tuesday session, may be it was the shoes, but I am hurting today.  I just walked half a mile trying to minimize the limp and went home. Good time for some Ultra-sound. Yes, I have one of these machines at home, I bought it from Doug when he was still poor and needed money (or was he just being nice with me). Anyway, I found that you can save $100 of therapist cost by doing it yourself at home.  It does help in many "minor" injuries. As nobody could ever tell me the exact values to use, I have used 10 minutes with the power on 7 or 8.  Who knows what that means, but it feels good. As days are going by, I am getting more and more convinced that even though they have improved the situation, there is no significant improvement of "the spot" where all my trouble is coming from. Most of the pain from the surgery is gone, I am still somewhat restricted if I want to walk without limping, but I noticed that the same spot still flares up and is painful exactly as it was before and that scares me. This week I have managed to squeeze three weight sessions and I am close to my normal weight sessions. I have also resumed most of my leg exercises, although somewhat below my normal weights. (about 20% less) Today is actually the end of the first month. Saturday's our vaulting day, but the weather has been miserable most of the week. This morning however, (as we all know there is a special God in heaven for pole vaulters), we managed to have some sunshine. The pit was however completely flooded, and we had to use a garbage can to remove the water that had accumulated in the middle. I spent most of my time, coaching another 50 year old vaulter Wayne Lambert who will soon be a candidate to beat my record. (only pole vaulters are stupid enough to coach their direct competitors.) I did some light jogging (once around the track),  about 20 walk-plant on the track and a few drills with the pole. Not much but a little more than last time. We are just one full month after surgery, one fourth of the time to recovery, 25% and I am wondering about the other 75%, I still feel at the bottom of the hill. Logically, I should feel better 1% every day. Of course how do you judge what one percent of a good foot is? Look, Ma, no limp. The week-end was pretty good to me, I could do some jogging and had a good session at the gym. It seems that I can pretty much walk without a noticeable limp. But Monday is my first post-cast appointment with the surgeon. He looked very pleased with the way my foot looks and with my progress. I expressed my concerns that I still feel the same pain and at the very same place where I injured myself so many times. He seems to believe that it is normal and that there nothing else to do but wait. He gave me the example of Mary Decker, who had the surgery and was still in pain 3 months later because she rushed her recovery. I am not completely convinced but what can I do?? Rest and be patient, he says. Anyway this week will be wasted. I am traveling Wednesday through Saturday. I won't even be able to go to the gym of the Hotel as I am flying each evening. Friday, I have a computer show and I have to stand for several hours wearing shoes, then rush to the airport, hurry through corridors and terminals. At the end of the day, my foot is in worse shape than after any of my workouts, even the scar has an ugly purple look. What a wasted week, I certainly have not progressed by 5%. I am going back to sneakers. Well, a bit of rest was a good idea, the rain helped. No practice at the track on Saturday, normal lift session on Sunday, but not much to talk about the beginning of the week, we are now at the end of week 6. I need some way of measuring progress. The treadmill, that is it! Before my normal session at the gym, 15 minutes of treadmill, I am still walking, mind you, but faster. This time I walk from 2 miles per hour and finish the walk at 3.5 miles per hour. Next day a little sore but it seems that most of the pain is coming from where it should come from "the surgery area" not "my spot", maybe that is progress. After a good warm-up, I tried some runs, well at least it started to look like running. I managed to run and put the tip on my foot down first! Now that is progress! The weather has managed to improve (for one day) and it just happened to be Saturday, so we all gathered at the track. I have not seem so many people for a while. I am glad I am going there even if I cannot jump, it keeps me in the mood. I repeated my successes of the Friday. I had a dozen light runs on the track carrying a pole, tip of the foot first, still a little bit flat footed as I do not quite resist coming down on the foot, but it does look like running. I also got off the ground a few times, did some practice drills with a very very low grip, just jump and hang there, very, very carefully and slowly. That felt good and for the rest of the day, I shared my pole vaulting science with my friends by filming them and advising on posture, plant, press up, drive through and all the things I don't do when I vault. (my claim to fame is getting up-side down). 10 days before the end of February, I need to remind myself of my goal: "End of February 60% speed run on grass, back to 2 sessions of lifting" I have done the 2 weight lifting sessions for almost a month. The 60% speed runs may have been overly optimistic, I see now that I am a long way from 60%. If I have to write it again, I should use 40%. On the other hand, I am and I will do some pole drills by the end of the month. After closing week 6, I still had to go and walk my dog. You should know I hate to walk, especially brisk walk which makes you look silly. So following a good morning session and relatively low pain afterwards, I decided to try a "normal" jog, low speed and cautious, but I took my usual road (up and down hill) and did a couple of kilometers (1.5 miles). The good news is that even though it was a little painful, it did not get worse at the end. As usual, uphill is more painful. I think I am skipping walking soon. I do not expect to be able to do a lot this week, as I am preparing for a legal deposition Friday and several of my evenings will be blocked. I feel I can start running a little faster, 15 runs 30 yards each and progressive acceleration on Monday. Tuesday I need to test my self, so I push myself a bit with the weights, try a couple of maximum. I finish my session with my treadmill speed test. 10 minute walk increasing speed from 2 to 3.5 miles per hour then switch to jogging for 5 minutes between 3 and 3.8 miles per hour. It seems obvious now that this is not going to be a progressive 5% a week type curve. We will see at the end. Another session of short run on Wednesday and then the next two days wasted because of work. I just heard that Brooks Morris who had the heel surgery last year and was doing so well, is hurt again, apparently now, he now needs to do the surgery on the other foot, I think these doctors got it made with us pole vaulters, I mean between this guy and me we already went 4 times through surgery and will have 5 soon??? They must love pole vaulters. I feel good on Saturday, finally the sun is shinning after several weeks of rain. Everyone is pumped up, Wayne Lambert does very well and clears a bar at 13.6 very easily (he is 52). I feel like a pole vaulter again, I did a complete set of pole drills, pop-up's from 50 feet and including our secret drill (if it is secret, I ain't telling you) which I mastered almost perfectly from the second jump. Mind you, I am not bending poles but a low 11 feet grip, jump, rock back and pull up. This is a major step, I ran and jumped about 20 times and also hit some hurdles and did some pre-jumps. No serious pain to report. I am a little sore for my daily walk but nothing really bad. It is good to be back!!! Sunday, as usual, gym and now my little treadmill test. Although I am a little sore, from vaulting, I tested myself at 4 mph walking and 4.2 mph jogging. (I know these numbers sound ridiculous, my wife is walking next to me and is very careful not to exceed these numbers). Tuesday, I did another test and walked at 4.2 and jogged at 4.5 mph. These little tests are done over a 15 minutes period, as I am not trying to build resistance or burn calories (it is only about 100 calories, the machine told me). The decision to stop at a certain speed is a function of the degree of pain and the experience of past surgeries, I guess. A certain type of pain is telling me that it is time to quit. I have no way to explain, but I know the kind of pain that is good because it extends your limits, it is usually a "broad" type of pain that is difficult to localize, you can only locate it within a 5 inches wide circle. You know that it is the kind of pain you have to overcome per the "no pain, no gain" motto. Then there is the sharp pinch that you know is not good, because it is clearly coming from a very specific area and you know you are going too far and you should slow down. I guess experience is knowing exactly how far you can go with the good pain and avoid the bad pain. (I am sure the doctors will say, that you should not experience pain or something like that, but there is no rehabilitation without pain). We are very close to our two months milestone, actually it is going to be this week-end. I think I can try and bend my training pole running carefully from 50 feet this Saturday. I still have one running practice and a weight session before that, so we will see. If I have to bend a pole Saturday, no matter how small it is. I need to be able to accelerate to the box, so I will need to test myself a bit. Wednesday, I decided to increase the speed of my runs and finish with an acceleration. I did pretty good with a dozen runs, but when I finished I knew I had done one too many. Thursday then, I went to the gym and rested the foot, did mainly upper body, quads and hamstrings, no calf, no squats. I managed to score 4 maximums (I relate to my maximums within the last 12 months), so strength is back. Saturday, I am a bit nervous, I know I want to go back on a small pole, I also know that it is way too early. It is two months exactly since I had the surgery and only a month and a half in rehab. But my treadmills workouts tell me that I can go to certain point. I called Doug for help and as usual, despite the fact that he will be finished with his workout when I get there, he accepts to coach me. After a short warm-up (we have a beautiful spring day), I hit a few hurdles with a big pole, then do a few pop-up drills and I am ready. I get my small 13 ft training pole. I use a Altius 13D which is probably equivalent to a 14ft 145. I am scared to death, but Doug feels confident so I am not going to disappoint him. Take a 11.6 ft hand grip, a short 72 steps run and go. Miracle, I am on a pole, I do not fall outside the pit or back on the track, it bends and I end at other end of the pit. Now that is a confidence booster, understand I am practically jogging to the box. Next time I run a bit, but I am clearly under, the next three/four jumps I keep moving my step back until I get to 74 feet. Then I hit a good one. Doug gets a cross bar and put it up at 10 1/2 feet, I am not sure I want to do this, I am controlling my run, very relaxed, nice roll, should I push it. You cannot say no to Doug, so here I come. Nice clearance, no problema. I am surprised, everything comes back, plant is fair, rock back good and I get some kick out of that little pole. Get my grip up a bit and start a nice series of jumps that end me at 12 feet. I am not even trying to clear the bar, we concentrate on technique. Man, it feels good to be human again. Of course, we skipped almost two months of rehab here, since I was planning on training pole jumps by April end, but I guess that I can do these jumps with limited speed, so why not? TWO MONTH PROGRESS REPORT From the Coach's Perspective Dan is a very hard worker and expects a lot from himself. He is a former world champion and current world record holder for age 50 at 14' 9 1/4" (4.50m) He seems to have more confidence in this surgery because, even though he still has pain, he has much improved mobility. In the past Dan has just stayed completely away from the event and our training facility at UC Irvine. This time he has come out quite often and sometimes brings his video camera and, of course, his advice. As psychological therapy is as important as physical therapy, I have seen a better and more realistic attitude from Dan, which is really quite surprising considering this is his third surgery. Why continue? Like all older people, we are stubborn. The result is not as important as the journey as we daily strive for impossible immortality. The scary part is that even though many of us have been training at very high levels for months, Dan will soon blow past us. He is truly a young man in a 52 year old body. Though I vaulted 18'1" in 1978, I'm happy to clear 14' at age 44 while Dan cleared a lifetime best of 15' 1 1/4" (4.60m) at age 49! It is an incredible result and a privilege to have assisted in his development, a road which will continue for many years to come. - Doug Sparks - Ouch, that hurts! I knew I was going to pay the price for Saturday, because even if it does not hurt too much when the Adrenaline is running wild through your veins, there is always a pay-back time the next day. So my Sunday workout was limited to a long walk. I did not even go to the gym, jumping on the first excuse my wife gave me. Monday, I am still in mild pain, so I just took my huge 210 Nordic pole (I of course do not jump on this monster, I use it for drills), and did some practice plants, bending poles against the wall and a few of the other drills we all do when we cannot run. Partial recovery on Tuesday for my gym session and to punish myself for the previous days laziness, I did a major squats workout. Finally, by Wednesday I am recovering and I can run again, so a good 10 runs speed workout with the last few up-hill. Truthfully, I am paying the price for these few up-hill, I am limping a bit on my way to the gym the next day. As it is my treadmill test day, I am a bit worried, but things went OK, I walked from 3.5 mph to 4.5 mph for 10 minutes and jogged at 4.0 to 5.0 mph for 5 minutes. I am at the point where I cannot really walk a lot faster without starting to look like these race walkers and that will make me look pretty weird in front of all these young girls in tank-tops. Now, they are really confusing me! My gym club was taken over by Spectrum (a competitor) and they replaced practically every machine. Some of them, I have no clue how to use. None of my target weights have any value on these machines, so I will have to test every movement over again. By Saturday (2 months and 1 week from surgery) I am still in a little bit of pain but that is not going to stop me. My plan is to get to the top of my training pole (13D, nothing to do with the size of my bra), put a bar up and pick it up from where I left last week. Started with a few hurdle plants but focused on pre-jump. Then some plant and turn drills. I am ready, I take my training pole and run from 75 feet. Second jump, bang I break my pole. Now this little guy has been with me for over 5 years, it is like loosing a member of the family. It really broke funny, I was already completely vertical, trying to pull my hands to my chin before turning as Doug told me last week and it broke less than a foot from the bottom, the funny part is that the new end replaced the broken one at the bottom of the box and I practically completed the vault, just dropping a foot in the middle of the vault, strange!!! Now what?, I really did not feel like moving to a bigger pole yet but then it is 10 AM and I drove 20 miles to get here. Ok, I take the next training pole up, which is a 14D (probably equivalent to a 14-160), asked my good friend Wayne to give me a giant tap and go…I had to chop like a maniac to get in the box, then Wayne threw me to the other side of the pit, well I least I am in. On the next few jumps I keep on moving my step back, 76, 77 then 78, Woaw!, that is 4 feet further than last week. In the meantime, Wayne has adjusted his tapping technique to light and I take a few good jumps, that looked like real vaults. I cannot resist putting a bar up, although I am getting a little sore, I ask for 12, run and sky it. Turn around and look at the standards, they are on 12.6, now that is exciting. Only 8 more feet and Bubka is history. (or 2.4 for my own world record). Good day, mama! (of course, I would never tell my mother that I am vaulting after two months, but then she is not connected to the Internet.) I was expecting the same thing I had last week, a good three days of pain before being able of doing some serious stuff. However Sunday was good to me, I had a long uphill walk with my wife and favorite dog (or is that the other way around?). My gym session was so-so, as I struggled through the new machines trying to figure where to start and where to end. I mastered a few and know where I am but it is still not clear for a few other. Monday, I wear real shoes instead of sneakers, not because I have a meeting but because I think I can survive a day in shoes, and I do. I feel a bit aggressive at the end of the day and hit the mother of all poles (the Nordic 210) like there is no to-morrow. I feel good, the rest of my body hurts more that my foot, so that is a good sign. I need to clarify that I do swallow 2 Advil before vaulting practice and 2 aspirins before any other work-out. I also tape this stupid foot so tight, it cannot complain while I do my thing. Tuesday, I cannot go to the gym, so I will run. Now last week after vaulting on Saturday, I could not run until Wednesday, but this time, I feel pretty good, so I go back for the first time to my normal uphill training ground. I ran 12 x 50 yards uphill, 6 with and 6 without pole. I believe it is time to review my plan. Here is the original plan: End of March some pole drills and 60% speed run End of April short pole runs- training pole vaults End of May full pole run- get on a 155-160 light 14.6 feet pole End of June resume full work out schedule and start compete July-August target back in the 14.6 range using 15 feet and 170 poles As we know, we are not end of March and we have achieved the end of April target. I venture to say that by the end of the third complete month after surgery I will be at the End of May target: i.e jumping on small poles and with a full run. So here is our new plan: End of March : jump on real poles 14-150 or better/target 13.6 height End of April : jump of medium poles 14.6 155/160/ target 14.0 End of May: back on full schedule I am going to the gym on Wednesday, as I will not be able to work out Thursday. I have a really good session both upper and lower body. I did my weekly treadmill test and walked 8 minutes from 3.5 mph to 5mph and ran 7 minutes from 4.0 mph to 5.5 mph. Friday, I did not want to run much so I had a workout with my big 210 Plant/press up drill, pole carries etc… Saturday, vaulting day. There is only two of us there. Wayne is getting ready for the master indoor championship which he has a good chance to win and a shot at the world indoor record of 13.7 (age 50). Bad habits are learned very quickly, I have been jogging to the box without much acceleration for the last three weeks and I had to spend most of my time trying to change that. First I could not find a pole. I was looking for some 14 ft poles 150 and up, But could not find anything, so I went back to my broken 13ft (now a 12 ft) and did some jumps on that, I managed to clear an elastic at 13.3 ft which is not bad on a 12 ft stick. Finally Wayne found at the bottom of our pole crate a 15 155. I was not exactly what I wanted but it felt soft enough to give it a shot, so holding 13.6 I took a few jumps on that "real" pole with a tap and cleared 13.6 very easily. It is kind of weird as it seems I have virtually achieved the milestone I set at the beginning of this weekly section for the end of April! The foot is a little more painful than last week, but I did run pretty well, and did manage to accelerate to the box towards the end of the session. Icing will take care of that. If I can find a series of 15 160 to 170, I think I will stick to the 15 ft. because I remember last year when I had to transition from the 14ft to the 15ft, I wasted almost two weeks. Next week, not much track and field, I am going to ski for three days, that should do my legs and ankles some good. Not too shabby after 10 weeks. More Important Milestones: Of course there is not much to report except that there was 2 feet of fresh snow that came down on Mammoth Mountain while I was there which made my task a lot more difficult. But I did manage to ski on a few black and blues in over a foot of new powder. I felt my legs to be very weak in comparison with the last time I did this but that could simply be caused by aging. What did disturb me though is that I felt that my right leg (where I had the surgery) was a lot weaker and that making turns in powder was a lot more difficult to the left than the right (as you need to load the valley ski). Anyway I survived without damages. I rested Friday, hoping to jump on Saturday. There was however a meet at UC Irvine where I normally vault. Most of the Master guys (Doug and Wayne) were out of town for the Nationals Indoor in Boston. The weather was dreadful, wind blowing in all directions and hard rain coming down on occasions. I thus did a few drills before the meet and a few jumps on a light pole between the woman and man vaulting. The rest of my workout was dedicated to placing and holding the bar up against gale wind. This week I have a plan: first I will have my first game of racket ball, Second I will have my first "second weekly session". Weather and foot permits, I will jump a second time this week. But first, we have to go to the gym on Monday. As I skipped my treadmill test last week, this one should be significant. It did turn out pretty good as I walked to 5 mph then ran between 5 and 7mph, for the first time I got tired before the pain slowed me down. Then I had my first racket ball game in quite a while. Not only did I manage a full game but I managed to beat my son for the first time in 2 years. True, may be he took it easy with the old man, but at 10-10, I know he did not want to loose but never caught up with me and we finished at 15-11. The weather does not seem to improve so our chances of vaulting Wednesday do not look too good. I will be stand-by, in case the weather clears up. But to avoid wasting a day, I will run Tuesday. I feel surprisingly good despite my racket ball yesterday. So I decided to go for another important milestone. I took my weight vest and ran a dozen of uphill. Feels pretty good, a little sore but nothing that an ultra-sound session will not cure. I had decided to try for a second vault session this week, so Thursday was perfect as it did not rain for a change. I had some good vaults with and without taps on a 15 155. Actually that pole is too small and I had to hold it fairly low. I may want to try some 14 or 14.6 poles anyway. I had some rhythm problem. My acceleration to the box was erratic and several times I did not take off. Truthfully, the last time I jumped my steps was on 80 and this time I had to move back to 85 feet with the same number of steps. I may be overdoing it a bit, as I get to maximum speed to quickly. The good jumps I had were all slower pace at the beginning and sharp acceleration. I think when I start to fast, my brain is still telling me that I should not accelerate at the end (assuming pole vaulters have brain which still needs to be verified). No significant pain on Friday, and a good weight session to close this excellent week. We are not going to jump Saturday as there is a meet Sunday, where I intend to try my first post surgery appearance, almost 3 months to the day after they cut me up. There is no Miracle I had convinced myself that strength and a certain degree was enough to get me to a reasonable height. I had forgotten that I had not seen a real bar since August. (did everything with a bungee) . There was no excuse, the weather was good, a bit of tail wind, I had a pole I could work with (a 14 165). I did most of my warm-up on my 85 steps until Doug told me to move back to my normal meet run of 95 steps. This was good advice but after a few attempts I felt I was quickly loosing steam. I did clear some bars, but these jumps looked like a beginner hold to the pole to safe his life. I started very low at 10 feet and ended at 11.6. I have never been very good with low bars as I have the feeling I am coming immediately on the bar and I react by pulling. After the meet I continued vaulting and did a few decent vaults. Overall, the biggest problem was in my last three steps, as I realized I was slowing down to avoid hitting my "gather" step at excessive speed ( not a good idea, of course) As you can expect I was not very happy with myself. I went home, took a short siesta, did some writing, then by 5pm, time to run my dog, I was on a mission. I knew what was wrong, no acceleration to the box (fear of the plant), no jump/penetration and a serious attack of bar anxiety. I decided to put on my weight jacket and to do some jump on a log drill, as I call it (short run and jump on a foot high block). To punish myself I made it harder and did it with weights on my back. The mere fact I could do this after vaulting three hours before is a very, very good sign, since even before the surgeries, after vaulting a full day of rest minimum was required. Back home, I was still mad so I took my big 210 and my big sliding box (normally 25 pounds but wet as it was, probably 30) and I did a dozen of sliding box drill, until my wife told me I was nuts and she brought me back inside. Monday, back to the gym, a good session of upper body, and some heavy leg work. After that, two very disputed games of racket ball with my son, this time he gave all he had and edged me 15-13. Tuesday, I had forgotten to change my office watch and ended up working till 7.30, so I skipped my work-out (except the dog walk of course). Wednesday is my second vaulting practice this week, it also happens to be the end of the third month after my surgery. I had the good surprise to find Doug Sparks sitting next to the pit waiting for us to show up. I could not find the small 14 165 I used Sunday and I had to go back to the 15-155. It took me a while to find my step as I kept moving back. Eventually we settled for 95 feet which is my competition step with spikes (I am running in my flats) I then I a good series of vaults first without bar then bungee. We started the bungee at 13 feet and I went over it by a foot (with tap), we then moved to 14 which I cleared decently, then 14.6 which I cleared so-so. Finally we moved the bungee to 15 ft and I took a bigger pole (15-160), surprisingly I blew through the pole (but with a serious tap). All around a good day, my run seems close to be back, some decent acceleration to the box, we are not there yet but it is coming back. THREE MONTH PROGRESS REPORT From the Coach's Perspective Contrary to Dan's title of this entry - YES THERE ARE MIRACLES! When you are able to compete in a meet less than three months after Achilles surgery, something is going very right. Besides the fact that he did compete, I was not as impressed with his performance as I was how he handled the lesson he learned from it; even if you are on a small pole YOU MUST ATTACK! Speed nor power is enough, there must be both. And boy did I see that Wednesday in practice. It is now obvious that our former World Champion and current age 50 World Record holder is in fact ready to dominate again soon. Sure he will have some timing and mental/confidence issues, but fortunately, those are two of Dan's biggest assets. - Doug Sparks - Frustration then big milestone, Physically, I can consider that I am OK now, I am not at maximum strength or speed but I have enough of both to get myself over a bar. So I will no longer bother the reader with my run and strength sessions. My schedule is now twice a week vaulting, two or three a week lifting/racquet ball, once or twice running and/or hitting the sliding box and a day of rest. It is just a matter of time to get to my maximum potential. We are now 3 ½ months past surgery and what I am doing on the runway is getting to be the most important thing of my workouts. I have been struggling a few times trying to find a pole that meets my current expectations, first on a 15/155, back on a 14/165 then again on the 155 with a couple of attempts on a 165. I feel a certain degree of frustration as I just cannot seem to get the right tempo to the box. I remember writing that I needed to maintain strength, speed and guts. Well although I had no major problem with the first two, it seems I left my courage in the operating room. Saturday, there was an all-comers meet in Long Beach. There was an unbelievable number of participants, so I did not feel like showing my short-comings and I decided to warm-up then help officiate. I was vaulting on the 15/155 and even though I was getting on the pole, I could not talk myself into turning up. It has been like that for almost two weeks, almost there but no cigar. Wednesday 22nd Secretaries Day, good day to sneak out of the office because I forgot the flowers. Wayne and I went vaulting late afternoon. The weather was not too good as a storm started to blow in from the ocean as we got there, but we did have a tail/side wind. You have got to attack!!! Says the coach, and he is obviously right, but how do you get your mind to do it when it melts like ice cream as soon as you get close to the box. I have done quite a bit of big sliding box in the last few days and I am a lot more comfortable hitting a seemingly unmovable object, so some of my guts are coming back. I know that I should have no problem bending a 155, even jogging to the box, so why is it a problem? I started my work out doing pop-ups with that 155 on a low grip, then moved the grip up until it started to bend a little, then I started to do some real plants with a very low grip of about 11 ½ - 12 feet on that 15 feet pole running from 65 feet. This forced me to accelerate to the box like a maniac. I got a few complete vaults that way and it helped my confidence. I moved on the 160 and blew through that pole a couple of times. Time to move to the real stuff. We have a 15/170 cut to 14' 3". Now that was a big jump so I requested a mega tap and ended up on the other side of the pit. After that I did about 15 jumps on that pole, all with small to medium taps, with and without bungees. Things are looking up. I felt I had a great day, made progress and reached a significant mental milestone. I am betting I will be on that pole on my own before the end of the month. I still need to work on driving through. It does look like I am just hanging there waiting for the tap man to get me in, so we will have to fix that. From the pain stand-point, I believe it does not limit my running capabilities. I think is still keeps me from a serious gather step as I is still painful, or at least my mind things it will be. I can however go through a 30 jumps session with major pain, walk back without major limp and be capable the next day to workout again. And that has not happen to me for over two years. Another Important Week I had set a target of jumping on 14.6 - 160 poles for the month of April Last week I was doing that and slightly better as I jumped on 14.3 (cut 15 ft) 170. I do realize that most intelligent vaulter use the flex but I have yet to figure that one out so I will stick to the length/weight measure. Wednesday, now our normal second day of vaulting, I felt pretty good, the weather was perfect, nice tail wind and fairly warm temperature. Polevaulter paradise. I completely abandoned the 155 and started immediately on one of our Altius training pole (14 C and 14 D as they called them.) I had some good jumps with short runs then had a complete session on the 15 -170 cut with some fair clearance at 14 ft. I thus decided to move to a bigger pole for the last few jumps and got fairly well on the 15-175 (also cut to 14.3) As there was another meet at UCI on Saturday, I decided to go to the gym Thursday and Friday. On Friday, I realized I still had some limits, I tried to do some heavy calves, and that was not such a great , idea. Saturday, as I was helping with the polevault (putting the bar up and getting up and down from the pit), I was in pain. After a few hours, I really had it and went home for a Jacuzzi and some ultrasound. My foot had an unpleasant purple look. By Sunday however, the pain was pretty much gone and I was ready for a good session. We got there early, as Doug has promised to come (and we all know he is an early bird), but he got there fairly late, probably exhausted by the 18' 2" of protoge' Boyra Celentano the day before. We hit some hurdles for a while then did a few drills, kind of waiting for the coach. Then I started on the 14D training pole and had a few good penetrations (except exactly when Doug showed up). It seems to be coming back slowly but surely, at least half of my jumps have a decent degree of penetration. I did only one jump on the 14.3 -170 and moved immediately to the 14-3 175 and did most of my workout on that pole. Excellent clearance at 4m10, then some good stuff at 4.30. I then decided to move pole again, the cut pole series ends with the 175 so I moved to a real 15-170 with a 14.6 grip. I got on that pole immediately and had a couple of good jumps at 4m40 (about 14.5) I think that pole may be my first meet pole soon. Now of course, this is still with taps but as I feel more comfortable with bigger poles, I will be able to go on my own on smaller poles. I need to get more out of the 15-170 though. I know that my vaults are a little sloppy as I am concentrating on the bottom and I have pretty much ignored the top. I am just happy to fly up there, somewhere, without worrying too much about what it looks like. I had set a revised target for end of April; Full runs on 14,6 poles 155/160 and I am doing full runs on 15 -170, so something is going right. There are a least two meets in May, so that is my next milestone, end the month with a real 13,6 or 14 footer in a meet. In the mean time, next week will get us to our 4 month after surgery anniversary. There is still a long season ahead of us with 2 meets in May, two in June, two in July, the Nationals early August, the Nike world game mid August, possibly the European championship in Italy in September and then my two favorite closing meets in Berkeley and Santa Barbara, so plenty of opportunities to get my body over a bar at 4.51 (14.9 1/2) which would of course be a new WR for the old farts over 50. Of course that is pretty ambitious coming out from 2 years of limping along and three surgeries but ……. 4 Months Today….. Today is exactly four months after my surgery, so an assessment of progress is called for. This week was a very good week, I jumped hard last Sunday, on Monday my foot was well enough to go out in the hills and do 20 up-hills with my weight vest on, on Tuesday, I went to the gym and had a heavy one hour session, then on Wednesday, we vaulted again and Thursday I ran again 20 times uphills with my heavy pants plus a dozen sliding boxes. I was getting a bit lazy and depended too much on the nice and comfortable taps I was getting, still lacking acceleration to the box, knee drive and penetration. In addition, Doug tells me (yes sir, he is here a second time this week), that I am not stopping the pole with my right arm at the plant. So, today will be a tap-less day. I started with short runs 70 feet with the Altius 14C cut and did a good dozen on that training pole with a couple of excellent jumps (only a couple, I admit but on my own). I then moved to the 15-170. So far all my vaults on that pole had been with a tap. So it did take me 4-5 jumps to get really into the pit. But finally I started to dominate the pole and did some good stuff without taps. Saturday, we have a meet in Long Beach, so this is my first serious test. The plan is to start on the 14-3 170 and move on from there. (always have a plan, says Doug). Just 4 months, it feels like a lifetime. 120 days ago, they opened my foot and cut an inch of the heel bone. The doctors predicted a long rehab, at least 6 months and they are probably right. I am still a couple of months away from complete rehabilitation. Whether I would have been better off resting for 3 full months then start training, I will never know. I choose to start immediately because I know that at my age, a day lost can never be recovered and a day of training lost is even worse. Where do we stand to-day? Pain: I would be lying to say that the pain is gone. However, I can state without doubt that I have less pain today than at any time during the last two years. I can also state that I can today train hard two days in a row (jump-run or vice versa) which I have not been able to do during the last five years. I can walk without limping after a work out, I am sore but it does not keep me from working out the next day. Ultrasound the same day, and two Advils the next work-out day and I am back on the track. The last two weeks have shown constant improvements, the fact that I trained 5 days in a row this week, vaulting twice, running twice and lifting once and we are only Thursday, tells it all. There are things I still cannot do well. I recall last week when I tried to do some 300 pounds calf exercises and what it did to me. I know that I still have trouble gathering before my last step, but generally speaking I am almost pain free (relative to the recent years). Strength: Although I have not lost a lot of strength, I now realize that the fact that I stopped vaulting in competition the last two years, I had stopped pushing myself in the weight room. I am strong, but not strong enough to blow through a 180 pole. Speed: I also realize that I have not run seriously for two years and I lost my perception of speed. I feel reasonably fast but I noticed that I am not pounding the ground as hard as I use to and that my knees are a lot lower than they used to. Also I know I am not accelerating to the box Guts: This is what I feared the most. And it happened. The reason I went back to the track early was to keep my mind with the vault, to be able to get back on a pole without problem. Bull… it did not happen, I am a gutless pathetic pole rider. (this is of course all relative). I am a million miles away from a perfect plant, mainly because my mind refuses to run into a wall, how stupid!!! Technique: You can do it in your mind a billion times, nothing beats the real thing. Doing it on a small pole as I did for almost two years is fine, it does not help you on a big stick. A lot more work in that department will be needed. Conclusion: I am now convinced that I am cured, I will probably suffer for the rest of my life when I abuse my Achille's but it will not pop as it used to. I thus recommend the surgery for athletes with hatched heel bone and constant irritation, the benefits outweigh the pain and wasted time. I also believe that starting progressively and almost immediately (and of course suffer) allows to reduce the recovery time significantly, but one must make sure to stay below the "bad" pain threshold I also realize that what I feared the most, is what happened, being afraid and holding back, which of course has a terrible effect on the quality of the vault. I think this is setting me back at least a month. How does one resolve that problem I do not know of course, but the combination of pain and lack of guts, should be resolved through some sort of upper body drills that does not harm the foot. Finally, as far as I am concerned, I feel I am capable of getting back close to where I was before these two wasted years. I will thus continue to set ambitious goals. Here is for the next month A real meet 13-6 to 14.0 One my own on a 15 175 With taps on a 180 Maintain two vault, two run and two lift sessions throughout the month Setbacks…then recovery A couple of meets planned in May. First meet in Long Beach is a disaster. After a couple of pretty decent warm-ups, I felt a pinch behind my left knee. I hope I am not coming down with a Doug Sparks knee disease, as most of the members of our small pole vaulter community now call anything that happens behind the knee. It is a good time to rest as the whole of next week; I will not be able to work out having one of these major Trade shows to attend. Thursday, however I did have a good workout and ran up-hills with my heavy pants a dozen times. However Friday we had a lot of work dismounting the booth, plus some social event the evening. I was so tired Saturday that I skipped practice. Sunday, I thought better to just go for a very long jog and went in the hills and ran for an hour. My calves were very sore as I had not done that for a long time (actually probably more than 2 years), but my foot was OK. Monday, or should I say Black Monday, I was going to run my dog and as I stepped out of the house, I started jogging and had a sharp pain…you know where, both sides of my foot, the usual. I sat down and was ready to cry. After a few minutes the pain receded somewhat and I could walk more or less normally. The next day my foot was sore as it was several months ago. What happened I have no clue, as since they cut the bone, there should be no reason for any sort of adhesion. Although it certainly felt that way, figure it out?? It was bad enough to make me skip practice Tuesday and Wednesday, except some short walks. By Thursday, it felt better and I went to the gym. I tried some racquetball afterwards and it was not such a good idea. Saturday, there is a meet in Irvine, I cannot miss this, and it is the only meet on our own turf. Master News paper had reported the meet was Sunday. I did not have a very good night sleep, did have a few drinks but as I thought the meet was Sunday, I did not worry. However, at 8AM Wayne called me to get me to the track, the meet was starting at noon. I dragged myself there, full of Advils. I did not feel too bad; the foot was not acting up too much. During our warm-up however, my left calf started to cramp really bad. I rubbed it, massaged it, pinched it and kicked it and after one hour, it was more or less OK but somewhat painful. I did vault but I shouldn't have. My run was OK but my mind was on my calf wondering if it was going to tear. It did not but I scratched three times at 12.6 Sunday, I still feel the pain in the calf but something like if I had run a marathon, so it will go away soon. Boy, we are not aging gracefully. More of the same And that is not the end, I barely have the time to get rid of the knee and the cramp that Memorial day weekend, I managed to hurt myself in the groin while doing some starting block starts. Not much but enough to keep me off the track for a few days. It seems that every time I get to full speed, something breaks. I am going to have to be a little more careful from now on, my strength and speed is back but the rest of the body does not seem ready yet. This Thursday and every Thursday of the summer, there will be an all comers meet at Orange Coast College for jumping events. (great place to vault and always good wind) This week, there is an unofficial opening and almost twenty vaulters showed up, girls, guys, semi-retired champs and one old fart. We all vaulted from short runs (I ran from 67 feet) on small poles (my small blue training pole). I got good results and built some good confidence. Doug got me started at 9 feet then in increments of 6 inches all the way to 12.6 A lot of fun and a great confidence builder. I jumped again Saturday with Wayne. I started again from short runs on the small training pole then move to a 14 155 - I had a great workout, probably got 30 jumps in from 70 feet. Cleared bars at 12, 12.6 and 13ft Then did some bungies at 14, 14.6 and 15 holding 13' on a small pole Felt great, no major pain to report. 5 Months after surgery Well for the first time I did not meet my objectives. I was planning on 13-13.6 in a meet and also to vault on bigger poles. It did not happen. I did not manage to go over a bar at the two meets I went to and I was plagued with 3 small injuries. One thing is sure, it happened all three times during warm-up, so I have decided to warm up more progressively and longer. (I never warm-up a lot and prefer to get it from pole drills). Although I stretch a lot, I may have missed a few places, so I will expand my stretching exercises to cover more places of my old body. Lets do again the monthly summary: Pain: The level of pain has dropped pretty dramatically, and whatever pain there is, is usually gone the next day (except the little accident earlier in the month caused probably by a little adhesion, to what, who knows?) What does bug me a bit is that, I never had any problem with my left foot (take-off) and now I feel some pain at the exact same spot where it used to hurt me on the other side, nothing big but troublesome. What scares me is that several vaulters who got the surgery have or had the same problem with Brook Morris a worse case scenario having a second surgery on the other foot. (but isn't Brook always a worse case scenario) Speed: Although I have recovered quite a bit of speed, I seem to injure myself as soon as I push it too hard. So more stretching and warm-up is called for. I am now capable of running in spikes instead of flats and that contributes to a better last three steps. I have significantly improved my penetration by working from short distance. It is obvious that my knees are higher and that I am starting to pound the ground as I use too. Strength: Has never been the problem, may be even too much strength for my own good and not enough relaxation. I will just maintain the same level by going twice to the gym and avoid heavy lifting the day before vaulting. (I remember that I did some heavy weight lifting twice before these small injuries) Technique: Partially because of injuries but also because I needed to get away from taps, I went back to smaller poles. My last three steps and acceleration to the box have improved dramatically. Most of my jumps show a decent degree of penetration especially the last two practices. I need to start to concentrate more on technique as I can start to worry less about just getting off the ground Guts: The problem is fixed. Again by going back to smaller poles and short runs and still penetrating decently, I have built a fair degree of confidence. Of course I am not holding very high (13 ft), but with improved speed and penetration, I feel I am ready again for the next step. What is next, Well we are entering the sixth month, as the doctors indicated, it is what it takes to get back. The fact that we will have a small friendly, no pressure meet every Thursday is great. A lot of positive peer pressure with a group of friends and polevaulters. I am planning to move up 6 inches per week. I am targeting 14 feet at the end of the month. There is also a meet at Occidental for the very old farts (minimum 50) where I always make a great impression on the old ladies comparing me to their senile husbands and I am not using Viagra yet… FOUR MONTHS - MY TURN AGAIN From the Coach's Perspective I sympathize with Dan's torment in regard to his "lack of guts". The pole vault, besides being an all or nothing effort, is a contact sport, much like football. The more you hit the pole with all of your power, the better you get at it. In Dan's effort to "just vault" and not risk injury, he got just that - JUST VAULTING. Now if you, like Dan, are a world class athlete, person, and businessman, that simply wont cut it. Rest easy my friends, a solution is at hand. We will have Dan start AND end each practice totally on his own and only allow him to jump with taps as he begins to fatigue during the middle of the practice. Here's the good news - My perspective and plan for Dan has nothing to do with his past injury. That means he's back! - Doug Sparks - FINAL ENTRY? - June 29, 1998 Look, Ma, no pain, but… One thing is sure, as doctors had predicted, it would take about six months for the pain to disappear. For once, their prediction seems correct. As we approach the 6 months milestone, I can hardly complain about my left foot. My run has been improving every week and I am back to my bulldozer run, hitting the ground hard and fast (relatively of course) approach to the box. Two things have been bugging me, from the medical standpoint, first, my right Achille's is getting worst. I am at the point of probably having to talk to the doctors again to see what can be done. (anyone reading this and having a suggestion is welcome). The pain is still mild compared to what I was experiencing with the other foot, but as I wrote before, during my 40 some years of track and field and rugby career, I never experienced any pain there. So there is some issue of balance or leg length or something that needs to be corrected. The second problem is with my groin, it keeps bugging me and limits my running practice to once a week and I would prefer twice. But overall, things are moving along. If I were not so busy with my job, I would also be a happier pole vaulter. I missed a couple of Thursday meet/practice, so I did not have many chance to achieve my objectives. For the last two work-outs, I have been using a 14-175 15.0 flex which is now marginally getting too small. I am getting close to the end of this Journal, as I was planning to carry-on for 6 months, and I still have to achieve the 14 ft objective. I think I am now pretty close. Saturday, June 28, 1998, we had a nice open meet in Long Beach. I started at 12.6, then 13.0, then 13.6 and made all on first jumps. Fell apart at 14 ft for various reasons but I should be able to do this, even on a small 14ft/175 holding 13.4. Next step is to get on a longer and bigger pole, and also improve some of the technical details of my rock-back and shoot-pull-turn and fly away as coach Don Hood calls it in his training video. ( a very good video for beginners and masters who are trying to re-discover vaulting). No more meets until the end of my six months, as the next meet is July 11th, but there are many opportunities in the next two months to get back to higher grounds… Southern Cal regional, Western Regional, Nationals, Nike Game and European Championship. World Record, here we come. FINAL ENTRY & THANKS - July 5, 1998 Actually, this was supposed to be the last one until Dan won USA Track & Field Nationals and the Nike World Masters Games. Please read on. Six months from surgery, it is time to wrap it up. From now on I can simply report that my foot is as well as it will get, not 100% perfect but better than it has been in the last 20 years. There no pain while running and vaulting and the next day pain is so minor that it does not prevent me from exercising so all is fine. I am still concerned about my other foot and I have not seen the doctor yet (I will I promised my wife) but that is another story. The last two-three weeks have been great, I have started to move through poles and handgrips without taps (haven't had a tap in three weeks). This week was probably my best vaulting week in two years. I went through (and blew through) every poles I could get my hands on. My speed has improved dramatically, my knees are up, my acceleration to the box although not 100% is getting very good (all relative of course). It is just a matter of opportunities now to get back to where I was or close. I feel that things are improving every time I jump as I control my pole more and more and can do the right things on the top. Although I have not cleared the 14 ft I had targeted for this month (did 13.6) and did not get on a 15-180 on my own, it seems that it is a matter of days and opportunities. The delay is probably due to the small injuries that have plagued my month of May and early June. As final comments, I believe I have done the right thing, start working out immediatly, never abandon the track even when I could only be a spectator, set goals and match them or exceed them and write this Journal. I have to thank my friends for supporting me, Wayne Lambert for patiently giving me taps when I could barely get up on a 13ft pole, Doug Sparks for providing his technical support and publishing this piece on his web site. I also need to thank the surgeon for doing it, although it took three times to fix, cutting the bone was the right solution. I do hope that people who encounter the same problems will have a chance to read it and get hope and direction from it. and I conclude by saying: speed is back strength is back guts are back technique is almost back Thanks to everybody, we made it!! Concluding Remarks I was not planning on adding comments to my last piece. I felt the story was completed, I had gone over the medical problems and I was back on track to do what I enjoy: pole-vaulting. But thanks to hard work and all the support I got from my friends, I managed in the last two weeks to win both the US National championship in my age group (50+) and World Masters Championship. Although I am very happy and proud, I need to put this in perspective. First the Nationals took place in Maine and 90 % of the serious master vaulters are in California. Not exactly geographically desirable. We had a major head wind, I thus decided to start low (12 feet), again to place this in its correct perspective, I was the only vaulter left at that height, I jumped 3.65 m (12 feet), then 3.85 then 4m (13.2) and pretty much quit at the next height. When I cleared 12 feet and thus won, I asked the officials if they minded turning the pit in the other direction since the 40 year old guys were next anyway. Guess what, not only did they refuse, but they did turn the pit as soon as I was finished!! The world championship or Nike games was a little more challenging. The participants were however a little better than usual and we started at 10 feet which is considered high in 50+ masters pole vaulting. Conditions were reasonably good. I started cautiously again at 12 feet while my most challenging competitor decided to wait until 13. I had good jumps at 3.65 , 3.85, 3.95 and there were only three vaulters left at that height. >Larry McIntyre, an excellent vaulter and indoor world record holder from Texas, started at 3.95 and missed three times. I went on by myself to 4.15 (13' 7 1/4") and at 4.30 (14' 1 1/4") where I made a few technical mistakes and that was it. Don't take me wrong, I am happy and proud, but 4.15 is not giving me an erection. I feel very good now, I have no significant pain to report and I am very close to where I was at the beginning of my best season in 1995. Of course my goal is to get back to my own world record level (4.50) and even though I am 3 years older, I believe that improved technique will get me there. Only three more meets this year to reach this goal is a serious challenge, but I will do my best to get as close as I can. The final conclusion relates to my four objectives: strength, speed, technique and guts. Today, I know there is one that I forgot about: Confidence, which is the sum of all the four other ones, a pole vaulter who is not convinced that he can do it, will not do it. My last month is evidence to that. Now I know I can do, and I know I will. Congratulations Dan from all of us who knew you would be back; EVEN WHEN YOU DIDN'T!  Visionshape, 45ppm scanners from $2,995!!! http://www.visionshape.com Dan Borrey Visionshape 1434 West Taft Orange, CA 92865 714 282 2668 X105 714 282 2673 Dan@visionshape.com