Injury Update

I was looking at the calendar this morning and it hardly seems possible that it has been less than four weeks since the date of my injury in France. Time seems to have passed much more slowly but overall, the picture is not bleak.

The journey home from the site of the injury was fairly arduous with too much walking and movement imposed on a leg that was in no condition to be going anywhere. However, once home, I was at least able to rest more and apply the other usual treatments of ice, compression and ibuprofen.

As one does, I struggled not imagine the worst but overall, I tried to remain positive and focus on doing the right things towards recovery.

I was convinced of two things. Firstly, that the injury was a bad achilles strain or at very worst a minor tear. Secondly, that it clearly was not a full rupture. The unusual thing was that although it was agony to walk on, it was not painful to the touch, and I could squeeze my achilles quite hard without undue pain.

I broke the habits of a lifetime and by some miracle, actually got an appointment with a GP. Yes, one of those mystical events when you are both in the same room at the same time. OK, it was a locum, but a doctor nonetheless. After some tentative poking and deployment of the Thompson test, the doctor declared that my achilles tendon was not ruptured. No shit!

The experience was about as illuminating as a birthday cake candle, but I did get a physio appointment out of it. That turned out to be a single, ten-minute meeting in which I told the physio what was wrong with my leg and he agreed.

So, having paid lip service to the medical profession, it was back to recovery. Walking slowly improved although it is only in the last three to four days that I can finally walk on all gradients and at normal speed, without noticeable pain or without having to favour the right side.

I have visited my sports therapist and she had an interesting take on things. She is not convinced it is my achilles tendon at all. She thinks that the injury was to my soleus muscle, the pain therefore manifesting at the join with the achilles at the base of my rear ankle. The good news is that the recovery process and rehabilitation looks the same regardless and the strengthening exercises are pretty much identical. In some respects, a muscle injury is preferable as when properly healed, all should be OK thereafter.

My sports therapist thinks I might be able to phase in some light running in about a week. Personally, I think nearer to two based on how the injury site feels when I specifically load it. However, the latter is literally improving on a daily basis. I am already able to do an hour on the stairmaster in addition to all lower body resistance training with the exception of weighted calf stuff. Now that walking is fairly normal, I will continue to blitz all of those and do some inclined walking on the treadmill as well.

From my calf injury last year, I think I will know when I have achieved sufficient load-bearing capability to think about building some short bouts of running into my treadmill work. I believe I will be in that position in about two weeks.

Given that I had resigned myself to an eight-week recovery, things are actually going pretty well but I have no intention of blowing that progress with impatience. I am looking out on bright sunny days and snow free hills with envy. However, there are still great months ahead if I stay on track right now.

All of that taken into account, where I am I with events etc?

I withdrew from the Highland Ultra almost as soon as I returned from France. It was never going to happen. BTU would not let me defer, although in fairness their T&Cs are fairly clear. Therefore, a chunk of cash lost once again and now that the event is only a day or so away, it looks like the weather will be excellent as well.

I am disappointed I won’t get to participate. I believe I could have done well. The strange thing is that I have taken my failure to complete the Canal Du Midi trip less well. I am thoroughly gutted that I didn’t get to finish it as I believe the remaining days would have been even better than the half of the route that I did complete. Not just that. It was my own idea, plan and route which I think made it all the more significant.

I won’t return to it though. I believe in chalking these things up to experience and moving on to something different. However, it is something that will bother me for some time to come.

I may or may not be on track for the Full Tilt Ultra on 30 May.

I am fairly sure I will be running consistently by then. However, will I have the confidence or conditioning to do a 58km ultra? I don’t know the answer to that question and probably won’t until the week or so before. It can be a fairly last-minute decision, and I will also investigate the possibility of dropping down to the shorter distance race as an alternative.

More than anything, I want to get back out onto the Scottish hills and to enjoy the fantastic spring conditions before the curse of the midge resumes in about four weeks’ time.

In wider news, those who follow these things will be aware of the acquisition of Dragon’s Back and Northern Traverse by Ultra X. Good news for those races. They are not acquiring either the Cape Wrath Ultra or Skyline Scotland. However, I have seen very strong hints from a couple of sources that suggest there my be a different buyer for Skyline. Some suggest UTMB and I would not be surprised, although I am not sure how I would feel about that, even if I got a chance to recover my entry and compete.

The various race distances and location would be ideally suited to UTMB and the addition of a flagship race in Scotland to add to only two others in the UK (Snowdonia and Arc of Attrition) must be very appealing. I have seen some people suggest that this type of ‘skyrace’ isn’t really UTMB’s thing but I disagree,

Firstly, only one of the Skyline race formats is technical enough to fall into a level of difficulty normally associated with sky races. Secondly (and perhaps more worrying), UTMB might just alter the race routes to water them down for general consumption, and mass participation. Not unlike Snowdonia then, I hear you cry.

Anyway, I will watch with interest.

That’s enough for now, I think. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I will be back running with business as usual on the site resuming soon thereafter.