After the stress reaction in his right tibia, Andreas Almgren now hopes that he will be able to start running training in the middle or end of September. He has been pain-free for some time, but in order not to take any risks, alternative training applies, including long cycling sessions. Almgren talks about the changes for next season.
– Historically, it has been the tougher sessions that have caused me injury problems. This year maybe we took it to the extreme, to be careful on that front. There weren’t very many preparatory sessions on the track, says Andreas Almgren to SVT Sport.
– So there will be a longer period of learning, to run a little more with spiked shoes at controlled speeds, so that when I stand on the starting line again on the track, I will be better prepared to withstand that load, says Almgren.
Fewer competitions
The plan is also that the competition schedule will look different.
It was a tough week at the end of May and beginning of June this year, with two Diamond League competitions and a big maths exam in the space of six days.
– The long runs are much more taxing on the body than I have dared to admit before. I guess I still have a bit of the mindset of an eight-hundred-meter runner, says the 29-year-old, who ran the middle distance earlier in his career.
– I have to be more careful that I really recover, so that I don’t become naive and push too hard. Except for championships, I can’t run two races at very short notice again, he continues.
Almgren is already qualified in the 10,000 meters for the WC in Japan next year, which means that he does not need to feel any stress on that point.
– I don’t want to risk missing more championships in the future like this, so I will compete less than I normally do.