SONDRA’S COMEBACK TOUR DE FORCE! – PART ONE
We wanted to highlight one of our most beloved members at the Cove, Sondra Ailinger. She is a warrior of the 7 AM class and has inspired us all with not just her athletic prowess but her dogged determination. We could talk endlessly about her athletic accomplishments inside the Cove. Instead, we wanted to focus on her victories outside of the gym, coming back from a difficult injury to compete and kill it at the Chicago Marathon.
Getting better at “CrossFit” certainly feels great, but sometimes we lose sight of the reason we do this demanding and life-changing training regimen. Our belief at the Cove is that we train this way to have the ability and confidence to do any physical activity that we desire. Life is going to throw plenty of challenges at us and this is how we prepare to meet them.
Sondra has always been an athlete of sorts, but she’s mostly dabbled at various things along the way (softball, weight lifting, volleyball, Tae Bo, Insanity, P90X3, Ninja Gym, …), always looking for a new challenge. Nothing ever really stuck until these last couple of decades. In her 40’s, she found running when she trained for her first 5k to mark her 40th birthday; that turned into a string of 5K’s, 10K’s, half marathons, and now three full marathons. As she approached 50, she took on the challenge of working up to her first strict pull-up. Since then we have all witnessed her knocking out thousands of those! And, of course, she and Kevin found CrossFit together, which is an endless world of challenges that inspire and humble us all.
Sondra’s favorite funny tagline to inspire her to keep trying new, hard things was, “Aging is for Idiots!” But the reality is, if we’re lucky enough to keep living, aging happens to all of us; it presents new challenges to continually adapt and overcome. In early 2021, Sondra began experiencing nerve symptoms from a structural defect in her lower back. It has likely been there since childhood, but only now made itself known as typical natural processes resulted in less space between her vertebra and compression of her nerves. The preferred answer was PT to increase deep core strength and uncompress the nerve … but until that happened, activities that could aggravate the condition had to be shelved. A return to running and Crossfit was a cautious hope but not a guarantee. Kevin had just undergone back surgery himself for a more severe acute injury, and was in the beginning of his recovery stage. So, running and CrossFit took a step back; recovery through PT was Job #1, and Sondra and Kevin tackled it together. They were both going to do what was necessary to get this part of their lives back. Thus began their comeback; and as things progressed positively, Sondra decided she would not only run again but run another marathon and finish healthy.
At the Cove, we are firm believers in the power of physical therapy, and the biggest key to recovery is not the therapist but the athlete. A PT will give you exercises to do, but it comes down to the athlete to consistently and thoughtfully do their recovery with the belief that they will get better. Dr. Colin VanWerkoven was (and still is!) the PT-wizard for both Sondra and Kevin; the exercises he prescribed became their WOD for a few months until they were cleared to begin attending classes with modifications again. Even now, to keep moving well and symptoms at bay, PT is the accessory work they consistently do after class.
While PT helped restore her physical integrity, to get back to running a marathon, Sondra had to change her approach to running, to make it as easy as possible on her body. We all assume that running is a natural movement, and in some sense it is, but to do it at a high level and for long distances, technique is important. Every mile you run is about 1500 steps, with a tremendous amount of force on the body (impact forces between 1.5 and 5 times body weight). Minimizing that force means actively holding yourself up, reducing contact time with the ground, and keeping the motions efficient and in the correct planes, with the correct timing. Relearning how to run at age 54 is not easy, after a lifetime of basically “just doing it”, but it’s just another challenge.
CrossFit provided the tools Sondra needed to meet the challenge. Strength days became important for building not only leg strength and power, but core strength and control to support her body and keep her back healthy. She also needed to continue to build her aerobic capacity while minimizing mileage; classes supported that as well without the impact of running. Taking 2 classes per week and a third focused strength session in addition to 2-3 days of running (not more than 9 miles at a time) gave her all the training she needed. As a bonus, her CrossFit training wasn’t a solitary pursuit. Kevin was there to support and inspire her. His recovery and patient, dogged pursuit of his own goals (he is putting up great squat and bench numbers these days!) was a continual example for Sondra. Sondra will gush, “He is so patient, he shows up, does the work, stuff happens, but he doesn’t worry about it.”
Getting ready to take on the Chicago Marathon healthy took over a year of intentional effort … and then suddenly, it was time to go! It’s an event attended by over 1.6 million people, watching over 47,000 runners! Think about that for a second when you think of going to a basketball or football game.
