Tag: stress fracture

17 Questions for 2017: Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt

Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt (r) and Stuart Harden outside of Halifax, Nova Scotia, this fall. (Courtesy photo)

Welcome to “17 Questions for 2017”, where we are catching up with American and Canadian national-team members before the beginning of the winter season.

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Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt ended last season on a high note: Canada’s 2015 World Championships team member won the sprint qualifier and placed second in the final at Canadian National Championships. The 24-year-old member of Cross Country Canada’s U25 Team had to take a pause this summer, however, after suffering a stress fracture in her foot.

“I first felt pain in my feet three years ago, and was diagnosed with sesamoiditis (which is just a fancy word for inflammation of the sesamoid bone),” Bouffard-Nesbitt explained in an email. “I was told at the time and again over the three years that followed that the only thing I could do about it was try and manage the pain and avoid things that really hurt it, so I stopped running. It kept getting worse until last winter when at times I couldn’t put any weight on it.

“Then I sought the help of a specialist who told me I had stress reactions,” she continued. “The stress reactions are what made my healing time so long. According to X-rays, the bone is completely healed from the stress fracture in my right sesamoid, but I’m still dealing with pain. I’ve been told that what I have to watch out for is acheyness post-skiing. If I can limit that, then I won’t be further damaging my foot. It’s dry much up and down, but I’m really trying to keep the acheing to a minimum. And I’m just skiing through any pain or soreness I have when skiing.”

Bouffard-Nesbitt returned to rollerskiing this fall and has already raced in Canmore, finishing second in both the Frozen Thunder skate sprint qualifier and the Alberta Cup 6.3 k interval-start classic race.

1. Biggest change in your life in the last five or so months since the ski season ended?

The disbanding of the Bad Panda Love Shack, BPLS, i.e. losing two of my roomies to Saskatchewan and Halifax, and then having to move houses.

2. Biggest change in your training?

Bouffard-Nesbitt on her first rollerski of the year, when the leaves on the aspens were already turning gold. (Courtesy photo)

I was on crutches this summer and it really affected my training. I didn’t do any weight bearing training for 3 months (just swimming, spinning, and upper body strength.) It’s maybe the longest I’ve ever gone without being on snow (end of March until October) or doing anything ski specific for that matter.

3. Major areas of improvement you’ve seen so far?

Upper body strength! There are always gains to be made in times of adversity and positives to come out of otherwise crappy situations. I’ve always wanted to get stronger, and the swimming really helped towards achieving my summer goal of getting “jacked” shoulders.

4. Whom you’ve been working closest with this offseason (coaches or training partners)?

Because of my injury I hardly spent any time around my team. I would definitely say I worked closest with my support team who played an important role in my healing — my strength coach Shelley, massage therapists Jodi and Scott, my osteo Shayne and my physio Sarah. I’m really grateful for how much they helped me through the summer.

5. Best trip in the last five months (and why)?

I recently came back from spending a week in Halifax visiting my boyfriend at The University of King’s College! It was the best. We watched a Halifax Mooseheads game (You just can’t stop the Moose!).

6. Favorite cross-training?

Running/ hiking up mountains, for sure.

7. Favorite non-athletic activity or pastime this summer?

Brainstorming sessions and talking big ideas with the big boss, Peter [Collins, CEO at Buff Canada/Green Extreme Outdoor]. We’ve had lots of meetings discussing things like the biggest problems we think our country is facing in terms of consumerism and sustainability. All centred around preserving the environment. All of these sessions also had the goal of coming up with some new business ideas that woulc hopefully provide some solutions to the problems.

8. Song that was your jam this summer?

Canada’s Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt (52) racing at the Ski Tour Canada last March.

September by Earth Wind and Fire. It was actually the first song I danced to after I finally got rid of my crutches (which was right at the end of August). It was fitting, and I love that song so much. It was one of the best solo kitchen boogie down’s ever.

9. All-time favorite race moment?

There are a few that share the top spot, but I’ll go with – the utter chaos that was the first 3 km of the Montreal Ski Tour Canada mass start race. The combination of the snow conditions, the crashes and pile ups and the downhills…I was just dodging people left and right, having the time of my life. I live for that!

10. First thing you pack in your bag when you leave for Europe?

My race day essentials, starting with my race suit.

11. Venue/event you’re most excited to visit this season?

My race schedule is not set in stone, so I’m not totally sure where I’ll be heading. For starters, I’m looking forward to racing in Soldier Hollow – also know as the venue where Canadian LEGEND Beckie Scott won Canada’s first ever xc Olympic medal. I should probably ask her for some tips before I leave.

12. Who will win the World Cup title this year?

“I spent a day at the Viking canoe/kayak club near my hometown, where I used to coach kids as a summer job.” (Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt courtesy photo)

No one can know such things. I’d love to see some North Americans in the top spots in both the men’s and women’s competitions. If you want to know which Norwegian I’m rooting for (other than Marit), it’s Heidi Weng. I’d very much like to be friends with her.

13. Biggest sacrifice you feel you’ve made choosing this career path?

Everyday I’m grateful that I am living every ski bum’s dream.

14. If you could change one thing about your sport, what would it be?

I would raise the minimum permissible race temperature from -20C to -15C to better protect athletes’ lungs from unnecessary damage. And, to add to what’s already been said by many fellow racers, I would place a really strong moral compass in every athlete to keep them from doping or cheating.

15. What did you have for breakfast this morning?

Oatmeal, red fife (shout out to Vigilante Rising) and a smoothie.

16. In 5 years, I’ll be ____?

At the top of my game. People will be speculating if I’ll retire as the greatest, most famous, most winningest female skier that Morin-Heights, QC has ever produced.

17. In 50 years, I’ll be ____?

In search of snow, probably back to wearing therapeutic shoes again because my feet will be so achey for so many reasons.

Canadian Olivia Bouffard-Nesbit of the Alberta World Cup Academy races to a ninth-place finish during the women’s 20 k freestyle mass start at 2016 U.S. National Championships in Houghton, Michigan. (Photo: Christopher Schmidt)

December 8, 2016
Randall Keeps Head Up, Hammer Down While Healing Stress Fracture

Kikkan Randall getting some help from two Ski & Snowboard Club Vail juniors to hold the hefty Crystal Globe, which she won as the World Cup sprint champion last season. (Courtesy photo)

When Kikkan Randall talks about being injured, her tone matches the description of any other day: the sun is shining; life is good.

For more than two months, the 29-year-old U.S. Ski Team (USST) veteran has been healing a stress reaction in her right foot by wearing a walking boot outside of training. An MRI five weeks ago revealed she needed to dial back her workout efforts to 50 percent and stay away from certain activities, such as skiing and running.

As if that wasn’t hard enough for a nordic skier, let alone the defending World Cup sprint champion, Randall discovered last Wednesday that she wasn’t completely in the clear. Follow-up imaging with Dr. Tom Clanton at The Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colo., revealed that her stress reaction – a weakening of the bone in her foot – had become a stress fracture. The good news was it was already healing.

One day before the start of the final USST dryland camp in Park City, Utah, Randall spoke on the phone Monday about her injury and plan of attack for the season ahead. She had just finished a 2 ½-hour mountain bike ride in Park City with her husband, Jeff Ellis, and said she was enjoying spending some extra time with him.

Meanwhile she aimed to stay patient with about six and a half weeks to go until the World Cup opener Nov. 24 in Gällivare, Sweden. Last week, doctors estimated it would be eight or nine weeks before she could resume race-pace intensity.

“That puts me right about when the race season is supposed to start,” Randall said. “I’m hoping I’ll be in at least a good enough place to be able to compete in those races. I don’t know what kind of shape I’m going to be in because I won’t be able to do full-on intervals for a while still, maybe four or five weeks from now, so I’m going to have to change my goals a little bit.”

***

FasterSkier: What kind of goals do you have at this point?

Kikkan Randall: Those first races will have to be to build back up and get in shape, and hopefully be in a good place by Tour de Ski. … Tour de Ski was one of the big goals and I think that’s still a good possibility to go there and perform well. It’ll be fun to see the World Cup races in Sochi (Jan. 1-3) and maybe have some good performances there, but really probably the biggest goal of the season is focused around World Championships and using the second half of the season to test things out and figure out what works well. That’ll give me something to work on next year.

FS: What are you specifically aiming for at World Championships (Feb. 20-March 3 in Val di Fiemme, Italy)?

KR: I’d like to make the final in the classic sprint. I’d like to have our team fight for a medal in the team sprint. I think we can put together a relay, the 4-by-5 k in the top six. This will be the first championships where I’m almost more excited about the team goals than my own. I mean, I obviously want to race well myself, but I’m excited about what we can do as a team. That’ll give me some extra motivation in rehabbing this foot injury, too, knowing that I really want to be there and competing with the team in February.

FS: How did you react to discovering your stress fracture last week?

KR: I think overall it was a positive visit. They did see some new bone growth in the area where the fracture is so they felt that was a good sign, and I can gradually start building back into training, but it’s going to be a pretty gradual process. With skiing, it’s quite challenging because we have so many things to reintroduce – skating, classic, running, strength training – so it’s still going to take me many weeks to build back in, but at least we saw some progress.

That helps knowing just by reducing my training and taking the impact off my foot that it was able to heal, so that makes me feel good going forward. If I behave myself and gradually reintroduce things, then I’ll be in a good place by the time we race. It’s still hard because five weeks of it was an easy target to focus on, and it would’ve been nice to put my five weeks in and jump back in to be being totally normal, but I know that if I continue to be a little bit patient, the season is long. Even if I’m not racing quite as well as I want to the first period, the biggest races are still in the second half of the season. So I’m just kind of focusing on that and focusing on what I can do and using this as a time to work on some of my weakness, and hopefully we’ll all be laughing about this in a few months.

FS: Who are some of your biggest supporters?

KR: Everybody, really, has been incredibly supportive. It was [U.S. women’s coach] Matt Whitcomb that kind of finally sat down with me at the end of the Swedish camp and said, ‘You know, look, this is obviously an issue that’s not going away; as hard as it is to slow down, let’s deal with it now so that you’re good to go by the season.’ So I credit him a lot with getting me to finally do something about it. When I came back to Anchorage, [Alaska Pacific University coach] Erik [Flora] was really supportive, and Jeff and my parents, and then my teammates keep checking in on me and pumping me up and stuff. I’m really lucky to have so many good supportive people around.

FS: How’s your Achilles injury in your left foot?

KR: That’s actually gotten a lot better. That’s the one thing I could work on over the last five weeks because all the PT I was doing was primarily to heal that up. It’s feeling really good, and I think slowly reintroducing running and skiing back in is going to be really good for that injury to make sure it’s totally healed, too.

FS: What’s your training plan moving forward?

KR: I got the clearance to return to normal volume so that’ll be good, and then I can start adding in a little classic striding to begin with. While I’m down here in Park City, I’m going to take advantage of the AlterG [anti-gravity] treadmill they have here to start reintroducing running and combine that with pool running to help build the running back in. If that all goes well, in maybe three weeks I can start adding in a little bit of skating and then a little bit of classic intensity. If all that goes well, I can start doing a little skate intensity and a little running intensity.

FS: You anticipated not being able to do the USST testing at the Center of Excellence (COE) this week. Will you be able to join the team for any workouts?

KR: I’ll be able to join them a few sessions this week because classic skiing, I can, for sure, double pole and I can add in a little striding. I’ll be at the strength center at the same time, but then a few of the workouts will be on my own.

FS: Do you still have to wear the walking boot?

KR: I put two solid months into the walking boot and luckily they said I can actually stop wearing it unless I feel like my foot needs a rest. I did wear it [Sunday] at Fast and Female because I knew that once I got around everyone jumping and playing and dancing, I’d want to do it too, and they said absolutely no jumping until probably after the Tour de Ski so, I put the boot on so I wouldn’t be tempted.

FS: How was the Fast and Female event in Park City?

KR: We had a blast as usual. Those events are almost four hours long and there’s a lot of energy going around so you definitely feel a little worn out by the end of the day, but it’s totally worth it. The girls, you can just tell, they’re having so much fun. They’re like sponges soaking up every word the ambassadors say so you can tell we’re making a big difference.

We had, I think, 75 girls age nine to 19 and then about 30 ambassadors. Between the parents and everybody, we had probably 120 people there, which I think is a pretty significant size.

FS: We’ve seen photos of you and the kids holding your Crystal Globe. Do you bring that everywhere?

KR: With the [U.S.] Ski Team, this is kind of the last interface before the season starts so they asked me to bring it down so we could do some photos and things. I pulled it out when we went over to the Ski Club Vail and it worked out to have it at Fast and Female [Sunday]. It’s not the easiest thing to just haul around, but it is really fun to share with everybody. … I’d say it’s about 20 pounds probably in the box that it comes in. It’s kind of an awkward size; you have to hold it off your hip a little bit.

It is definitely covered in fingerprints right now because when I was at home [in Anchorage, Alaska] I was doing a bunch of visits to elementary schools, and I was letting the kids all rub the Globe on their way out of the gym and then everybody got to touch it [Sunday]. It’s going to need a good Windex cleaning in a little bit.

FS: When will you leave Park City (with the rest of APU, which isn’t going to the USST camp in Canmore, Alberta)?

KR: Next Thursday I’m headed back to Alaska and hopefully we’ll be able to get on snow pretty soon after.

FS: What else have you been up to since arriving in Utah?

KR: We went to a friend’s wedding this weekend [in Sundance]. (Former APU/U.S. World Cup team member Katie Ronsse married Justin Libby).

It was a great time. Sundance is beautiful and it was really fun because I haven’t seen Katie in a while. She’s going to PT school in Salt Lake now. It was a great wedding, good time, and it was so nice of them to plan it conveniently around the training camp.

October 9, 2012
More trouble for Steira

NORWAY – Achilles pain has mared Kristin Stoermer Steira for a long time this spring, and forced her to skip her plans to race the 5,000 meter event at the European Championships in Barcelona (SPA). However, after she bagged her plans for the championships, she discovered her injury was more serious than she initially thought. Steira was recently diagnosed with a stress fracture in her heel, and will have to use crutches for the next couple of weeks. She won’t be able to do any load-bearing activities for at least four weeks.

“After two rounds of cortisone injections that didn’t help and cross-training, which also didn’t help, we found the stress fracture,” Steira notes on her home page. “It’s pretty depressing to say the least. But I have to deal with reality and train in whatever way I can.”

Kristin Störmer Steira is a skate specialist who also performs well in double pursuit events. She’s been tagged the “eternal fourth” after just missing the podium several times at some of the big championships. However, at the 2009 World Championships in Liberec (CZE), she skied into a silver medal, and at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, she skied the third leg for the Norwegian relay team that hauled home the gold.

Steira is also an accomplished track and field athlete, and has been a staple among the top Norwegian distance runners for a long time. Steira is also the Norwegian trail running champion.

From www.langd.se July 11, 2010, by Kjell Erik Kristiansen. Translated by Inge Scheve.

July 13, 2010