Well here we go again, time to “Bring Toe To The Line!! Just my way of saying its race time. I’m off to the Masters National Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I aways smile when I say Albuquerque because it reminds me of the old Bugs Bunny cartoons as a kid.
Last season my blog was entitled “The Comeback Chronicles” due to the fact that I took a 11 year hiatus from competing. This year I’m calling this blog the “Payback Chronicles”. (I’ll explain in the next blog). If you want to revisit my adventures from last season you can check out the Comeback Chronicles here.
So to set the stage, I had rotator cuff surgery in July, I tore it racing at the World Indoor Championships last April while running the 60m. What I thought was a strain was a full tear and so I got the surgery done at the end of July. I had a great surgeon, (Dr Damon Jon Ng). We spoke weeks later after the surgery and he told me a little story. The day of my surgery they wheeled me in, I was drugged up, out cold and their getting ready to open me up and his assistant says in surprise…”hey that’s Aaron, he trained me over 15 years ago when I was high school baseball player, he helped me get a scholarship”and so he proceeded to tell them about his experiences at Gamespeed while their operating on my shoulder. Good thing I didn’t work him too hard. Small world.
Anyway, back to today, got the surgery, I’m told rehab takes about a year to get to 100%. I’m like that ain’t gonna work. Nationals for 2026 are in six months. So, I said I got work to do. According to my calculations I had 40 days to get in shape to race. I say 40 because I would only have access to a running track about two times a week over the next three months. So the task was to rehab the shoulder, stay healthy, get in race shape all within 40 training sessions. Ok if that’s what it is, that’s what it is. So I rehabbed the shoulder daily, sometimes twice a day, I tried to stay fit lifting, biking and core exercises. When you got a torn rotator everyday is leg day. But like I tell my athletes, there’s always work to be done if your willing to find it!
Man, initially it was painfully slow, especially the lack of sleep. However, once the momentum was established I improved exponentially as time progressed. In three months I was cleared to start running on the track, first jogging, then striding and finally sprinting by December. My initial recovery period was cut to three months and now at six months I’m probably 95%, I’m no “Wolverine” (Marvel Comics) but my doctors are impressed.
I think the biggest factor in getting ready was not my shoulder but dealing with this terrible weather that we’ve had out here. We’ve had a run for probably eight weeks of 30-40° weather. For a SoCal boy like me anything under 70 is cold, my body does not like it and for sprinting it sucks. Trying to get up to speed and get sharp is extremely difficult. So its taken a toll on my preparation timeline, something I was not counting on. I guess we’ll see what comes out.
So whether I’m ready or not I’m hopping on that plane and as Bugs Bunny would say, “making a right at Albuquerque”.
I’ve got some scores to settle…..stay tuned.
Up Next: Plus Ones & Teflon
