Its 5 or 6 weeks since my last post and that’s mainly down to
other stuff that’s been happening (changing job and holiday) and an absence of
any step progress in my recovery. Just after my last post, I did a 110km
sportive (Tour de Kilkenny) which was a good test of my cycling. It was a
lashing rain all through and it was fairly hilly but I did it in a little over
4 hours so I was fairly happy enough with that. I was then on holiday for a
week and did a good bit of walking and had a good bit of time on the sand so
plenty of opportunity to balance on one foot on the soft sand.
I’m kind of sick of physio at this stage but I’m still doing it. However,
the single leg heel raises don’t seem to be improving no matter what I do. My
balancing is reasonably good and everything else seems fine – so its just
lacking strength.
So I was back to the physio about 3 weeks ago and he had a good
look at it and my heel raises and balancing. He got me walking on my tip toes
(which was hard) and on my heels (which was easy). He then got me up on the treadmill
and started me jogging. It felt sore when running but the gait felt ok and it
didn’t feel like I was dropping a lot on my bad foot. He told me to continue to
jog and to build up the time slowly i.e. 1 min extra each session.
I have been doing this and it always hurts starting out and feels
really awkward and then over time it starts to feel better and smoother. I
tried to run first thing in the morning a few weeks back and I just couldn’t –
I ended up running 20m then walking then running another 20m then walking again
and then just giving up as it was too sore. So it needs to get limbered up
before I can run and this takes time. If I cycle before I run then it feels
much better.
The weekend before last there was a mini triathlon to celebrate my
clubs 10th anniversary (Go Trilogy). I was running 10min the week
running up to it and the run was only 3km so I decided to go for it. Had a good
swim and bike and I was able to run fairly solidly albeit slowly for the full
3km. I felt fine afterward but the ankle was swollen. Racing this year was
something I hadn't expected to be doing so was delighted to get back into it
and really enjoyed the cycle part where I was able to race properly (albeit
slower than normal).
I had a sports massage last Friday (Hi Claire!) just on my
Achilles and calf trying to break down the remaining scar tissue. I felt great
the next day and I went for a run the following evening and it felt super.
I’m not back to the physio for another 3 weeks and I’m not sure
how much more he’s going to give me. I’m going to get a sports massage every
couple of weeks to try to get it back to normal and continue to run every
second night to try to build up strength. Still a good bit to go! |
| Back in action with a slow jog |
