Eilish McColgan is eyeing the London Diamond League on July 23 as her return to action after undergoing further treatment on the knee injury that ruled her out of last month’s London Marathon.
But the Commonwealth champion over 10,000m admits any additional setback could impact her plans for August’s World Championships in Budapest. The Scottish star, 32, had an injection earlier this week to relieve an impingement in the joint’s fat pad after it began to affect “every waking second” and she is hoping to resume jogging this weekend.
She told Mirror Sport: “I had an injection into the knee, which is something I’ve never done before but all the doctors and physios have recommended. It’s a very stubborn injury. They said this was the best way to settle it down. This weekend I’ll start jogging again and I’ll try to build it up from there.
“I hope to be there for the world championships but if I didn’t take this route and continue to try to grind and grind on the way we had been, even mentally, I couldn’t have kept it up. Having to constantly ice it, massage it and put Voltarol gel on it and take ibuprofen all day, stretching it.
“Every waking second of the day was thinking about the knee. When I could walk I could feel it, driving, everything. I was on eggshells trying not to aggravate it again. If I continued the way I’d been I’d have neither been mentally nor physically ready for the world championships.
“I’ve had a bit of a reset with regards the injection. We’re taking three days off completely and I’ll start cross-training, into a couple of easy runs hopefully this weekend. I still have plenty of time to get ready for Budapest but I need it to be smooth sailing from now until then.
“The plan is I can hopefully be ready for London Diamond League. That’s a pretty realistic goal to aim towards right now. That’s what I’m aiming towards in my mind. Then on to Budapest before switching back to the roads for autumn and winter.”
McColgan was speaking as part of a campaign for Bionsen deodorant around the most common causes of stress for British people. And she opened up around the two-pronged attack of running being a reliever and cause of stress - because athletes do not have the financial security of professionals in other sports.
“Injuries are by far the biggest stressor for an athlete,” she said. “Running isn’t the end of the world, there are people with a lot bigger problems right now, but this is how I release stress. But if you’re injured you can’t do what you want to do. That becomes very challenging.
“There’s also the financial pressure too. Ultimately it’s a job. It’s different to other sports. If a footballer gets injured they still have their salary. But athletes get paid by competing in races and prize money. You can’t earn money when injured but you also can’t do what’s a stress relief for you.”
McColgan withdrew from the London marathon 48 hours before she was set to make a highly-anticipated debut over 26.2 miles. Separately, she was engulfed in a row with race organisers regarding a sponsorship logo on her vest and admitted at the time that many tears were shed around the decision to pull out.
She had also been slated to run the event last year only for issues with her blood sugar spiking during training runs to halt those plans. Testing has since shown that she had a reaction to energy gels similar to a diabetic but has now found a balance that works.
But she insists that the expectation she can eventually topple Paula Radcliffe’s 20-year-old British record of 2:15:25 does not weigh heavily. McColgan has already smashed the national 10,000m and half marathon records this year and said that, once the injury comes good, there will be “particular” focus on improving her time in the former.
“I try to use it as more of a positive,” she said of bettering Radcliffe’s former world record. “I try not to get caught up in what people think or expect. It’s almost a privilege that people think I’m capable of doing that. It’s a kind thing to say.
“I suppose there’s a natural progression that if you break a record in 10k and then half marathon, naturally thoughts turn to the marathon. It’s not quite as simple as that. It’s not the easy progression people think it is. I try not to get too bogged down in other people’s opinions and thoughts.
“I rely heavily on my mum, dad and partner Michael [Rimmer, a former European medallist over 800m]. What they see day to day is what I build confidence from. I’m not the most confident person in the world so I take confidence from their feedback.
“I try my best to not let other people’s opinions penetrate my life. It’s very nice that people think I’ve got the capability of breaking Paula’s record, that’s far out with anything I believed I was positive of. I’m becoming a little more positive and encouraged by doing that one day but if someone had asked me a year ago about the 10k and half marathon records I’d have said absolutely no chance.”
A marathon bow later this year remains in McColgan’s sights but she is reluctant to commit to a particular race and will explore a number of options later this year. “The autumn is a realistic time frame,” she added. “I don’t want to pinpoint one like London and find I have to change to another one. In the autumn there are several to choose from. There’s one a week from September to December.
“I’m trying not to get too focused on if it has to be Berlin, it has to be Chicago, it has to be New York. When I’m ready, I’ll be ready. I know from training I’m ready to run quick and I know I can run a really good marathon but it’s about getting to the start line. That’s one of the hardest things. There were four or five of us from the UK who didn’t make London last year. The marathon is a beast, a different challenge.”
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