Not good

Well, it’s after 8am and I’m about 5km from where I slept last night. It’s going to be hot today, so important that I get moving quickly and get some distance in while it is still cool. The problem is, I’m sore.

Yesterday was a great day. I lost some time to roadwork and the like, but I was finally starting to feel good on the bike and ride at the level I know I can. Today I was super motivated to have a solid day and make up a lot of time. But now I’ve got a problem with my Achilles. Not really sure what. Just that it clicks as I bend my ankle, at the point between the top and bottom of my pedal stroke,  and that it hurts each time it does it. It doesn’t hurt too much, but it very much feels like something that will get worse if I ignore it rather than better. 

I don’t know a great deal about ankles (although I do pretty much have a physio degree – I got drunk with two final year students once and they told me the 17 word summary of all they had learnt and I still remember it now) but I’m pretty sure something has swollen up just enough to stretch something else out of line going over it. I expect that if whatever it is keeps being stretched it will react by swelling up which will stretch it more and on and on until it all crashes down in a heap. I don’t want that.

I’ve developed a cunning plan though, involving cake and drugs. I’ve taken some anti-inflammatory drugs, and right now I’m reclining with my leg up in the air and eating cake while I wait for the drugs to work. I don’t know if it will solve the problem, but right now I’m enjoying it. I made a video while I sat here (actually, at the first place I sat for cake – I shifted to see if my Achilles was feeling better or if the next place had better cakes) and you can see it at https://youtu.be/CfOFcXs15B4. Sorry about the truck noise.

I might grab another piece of cake now then try riding and see how it goes – if it’s no good I’ll put step 3 of the plan into action!

Rowan 

3 Replies to “Not good”

  1. Not good indeed, I was wondering why you’d stopped. Hope the cake fixes the problem, otherwise you will have to decide whether to cripple yourself for life ot withdraw gracefully knowing that, but for health issues, you would have easily achieved your 12 day target (now that there are fewer mountains ahead and according to your mother’s calculations). Good luck!

  2. Hope the drugs & cake cure works, this sounds indeed like a very cunning plan. Also, I don’t dareally to think what step 3 might be, I hope it doesn’t involve an axe…

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