Footwear technician Tom’s Race to the Stones blog – Part 1

I am a Run Technician here at Profeet Sports Lab. My academic background is a degree in Sports Science with a particular interest in Biomechanics, I am also a personal trainer and therefore have a sound understanding of how the body works under extreme stresses; whether this be running a PB 5km or continually running for 10+ hours. While this theoretical knowledge is all well and good, I thought it was time to practice what I preach and put myself into such a situation again. My other reason for entering was to prove to myself I haven’t completely lost all my fitness and sporting prowess since having to withdraw from sport due to a back injury.

This brings me back to a little bit more history about my sporting background. For over 10 years I was a national standard rower with the intention of trying to race in smaller international regattas as part of my university squad. The university I had chosen to go to was one of the leading programmes in Europe and in recent years has elevated higher and has university crews competing with Olympic level crews. As part of the squad I would generally be training between 20-30 hours a week whether this be water, gym or weight sessions and therefore during this time was easily at peak fitness; unfortunately upon returning for my second year I was quickly noticing a twinge was appearing in my back which I had always been aware of but was manageable had started getting worse, in an effort to keep up with training I took a few sessions off in the hope it would ease out; all was looking good as I went to race at the British Rowing Championships, but during my first race I was very aware something wasn’t right and subsequently the tension on my back an glute had been pushed slightly too far to the point I was unable to extend through my hip and forced me to retire from rowing. This was back in 2016, and since I have played about in the gym a little but thought I hadn’t pushed myself to my limit for a very long time so decided it was time to change that! More about my training will follow over the coming weeks.