KickAss Squad
Triathlete and KickAss Women Daniela Kleiser reports back
Dani • 24. January 2022 • 2 Min.
I’m getting back to you after a while. I’m sure you’re wondering how I’ve been using my time since the World Championships. First of all, I took a break from the season and concentrated on the things I usually don’t get to do: Meeting friends, relaxing, cooking, baking and doing other sports. Unfortunately, I had to go back to work on the side, which doesn’t quite make it feel like a triathlon offseason.
A puppy shakes up the daily routine
After 4 weeks, I slowly resumed training and got back into my training rhythm very well. On 17.11. I got my little puppy, Malou, from Hamburg and I can tell you: I don’t want to imagine it without her anymore.
Surely such a puppy also brings with it that you sleep little and everything is partly more complicated and stressful. I felt like a young mom with an infant. Inconveniently, it got me exactly because of that. During a run with snow and slippery conditions, I was so lost in thought that it nearly pulled my legs off! Result: The sacroiliac joint shifted and wedged, the muscles around it completely stiffened and eventually became inflamed.
Forced break from training
The diagnosis means for me: break! At least in swimming and running, because to perform movements with pain is usually not really useful. For the time being I went to my physiotherapist, who could tell me quite quickly that it was a purely muscular thing. But since you hear and read about things everywhere, I also went to my trusted orthopedist and had a bony injury ruled out. For me, this was psychologically necessary because I couldn’t pinpoint the pain.
How can the injury heal:
- Rest given
- Light cycling to maintain fitness
- Physiotherapy
- Be patient
You can imagine, point 4 was the very hardest. There I had to sometimes really pull myself together. But the patience was worth it and shortly after Christmas I could start with the first short runs.
The next brake was not long in coming
Shortly after New Year’s Eve, a gastrointestinal virus really knocked me down. The next setback and another mental low. I thought to myself: It can’t get any worse than this. This situation demanded a lot from me and I often had to pull myself together not to lose my motivation. Thanks to Malou, however, I went for a walk outside every day, the fresh air and the moderate exercise did me a lot of good.
After 5 days it was so far good, at least I felt like eating normal food again and I was no longer tired and limp. Training was out of the question, since the gastrointestinal virus caused some kilos to fall. For me not good and therefore only times again the one or other kilogram to gain.
Meanwhile, everything is back on track and I can finally, after what feels like an eternity, start training again.
Hopefully this time without another incident