I had some good news from my recent webinar with the crew and participants for the run in June. The longest day is shorter than I thought! 40 miles rather than 44. That will make a huge difference. That made me smile. Also, I'm not sure whether this is good news or not, but with all the mileage I'm doing, everything else but my knee hurts! How to prevent injuries and treat anything that does occur has been part of my learning. With this in mind, a while ago I had a chat with Chris Finill (thanks for the introduction Graham). Google 'The 3000 mile men' and watch on youtube. 'Wow' is all I could say. He got me to read James Shapiro - Meditations from the Breakdown Lane: Running Across America - the book that inspired Chris to run across USA in 2011. 3100 miles in just under 80 days. Not that this is Chris's only achievement. He is no ordinary runner. He's the Guinness World Record holder for consecutive sub 3 ho...
And, with a squelch, we're off (again)! Back on a (cough) slightly delayed and amended plan.
The knee has been set free. The troublesome flap of torn meniscus has been successfully nibbled off. If only I'd had a crystal ball at the start... Three months standard conservative treatment (which turned into four) of allowing the tear to sort itself out didn't work. This conservative approach for tears like mine often results in what they call auto-amputation, meaning no need for surgery and all the complications that surgery can bring both in the short and long term. However, surgery has now worked. So far.
Yay 😊.
I walked out of the hospital following arthroscopy and partial meniscectomy that morning without needing to use the crutches they gave me, and managed a gentle half loop parkrun walk four days later, and a low resistence flat 40 minute cycle ride a further three days after that. Regular knee exercises pre- and post-surgery have helped.
So, with just over 10 months to go, it's rehab, building back base fitness, and increasing distance up to christmas, followed by event specific prep through to the end of May with plenty of back to back runs and some multi-day adventures. All with a heavy dose of patience and TOFU PASTA (see my last post). Hopefully the cycling and strength work I've been managing to do over the summer will hold me in good stead. I've been talking to various people in the know. We think it's still possible to make the start line for a succesful LEJOG during June 2025. It'll be tight but I'm going to give it a damn good go. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, and all that.
My promise: No more mention of knees. And plenty of mention of progress and milestones reached.
Oh, and the 'squelch'? No one told me that for two days after the surgery, every time I flexed my knee, it would squelch like one of those squidgy tomato sauce bottles.
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