Middle Pack

Yesterday I got my MRI results back on my ankle and it doesn’t sound healthy. In some ways I am glad that they saw something there as if they didn’t I was back to square one, however I was hoping for a little less than I got…..

Marked tenosynovitis and tendinopathy of the peroneal tendons with reactive bone marrow oedema and spurring of the peroneal tubercles. Similare changes are seen over the lateral malleolus. The lateral tendons are intact although the ATFL is thickened suggestive of chronic injury

Well that doesn’t sound good?

The medial tendons and ligaments are unremarkable

hmmm unremarkable ligaments?

Then we get towards the front of my foot / ankle

There is beaking of the talus and osteophyte formation at the anterior margin of the tibial plafond with chrondroimalacia of the articular cartilage and subchondral bone marrow oedema consistent with degenerative change. In addition, at the lateral talar dome there is an area of chrondroimalacia with underlying subchondral bony change suggestive of an old osteochondral injury. Degenerative changes seen at the calcaneocuboid joint with chondromalacia and bone marrow oedema in the cuboid.

Now in all honesty I am not sure what most of this means. It seems that although the tendons are intact they are rubbing against bone spurs therefore being irritated. There may also be signs of early stage arthritis in my ankle, however this is all based on my scientific googling of the various words.  I could be miles off target.

This means fell running is parked for the foreseeable future, in fact running full stop I am continuing to put on hold so the bike will get even more abuse in months to come.

So the next step is being referred on to an orthapedic specialist which means being put on another list whilst I wait to find out what is going to happen.  In the meantime I will be getting my MRI results on a disc as the nosey person in me wants to see what is going on.  So as soon as they arrive I will get them up there for all to see.

Just swapped a few bike bits and got myself a new bike! Said goodbye to a pompino and and old Peugeot and replaced it with a Condor Italia-X cyclo-cross bike.

Condor Italia-X

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Decided I loved the pompino but I wanted gears and this appeared on gumtree.com so thought I would just try my luck with both my old bike and the Pompino for a straight swap. It seemed to hit a note as the guy already owned a Bob Jackson and an Orange and liked Yorkshire frames and fixed / singlespeed.

Have I done the right thing?

I have got to admit I am not sure who got the better deal? He seemed happy with it all and I seem to have got a great bargain out of it? I am already missing the pompino though and its only been gone an hour?

Anyway only just got it and took it for a ride round the block. Big test will come tomorrow when I get a decent ride in.

I have neglected writing my blog for a while now as in some ways nothing has happened worthy of writing about.  In other ways there has been a lot going on.

Since the FRA relays, I have all but stopped running. I had a poor performance at Tour of Pendle which was a painful experience with my foot and a reasonable run at the Calderdale relays, albeit painful the next day.  I then made the consious decision to stop running training and try for a rest. All apart from the Open Adventure series, which I was determined to register a score with, having not managed to do 3 out of 5 events before (more of that later).

I have been going to Carnegie Sports Injury clinic and really resting, following physio advice and hoping to get to the bottom of the issue once and for all. Unfortunately they were also unable to do much, although they did make some progress in loosening the ankle joint and removing a fair bit of swelling. They did however write a letter for my doctor to recommend that I have a MRI scan.

I am now awaiting an MRI scan on the 19th April and will return to the physio once I get the results of the scan. I have never had an MRI and am a bit unsure of what they will find? I am hoping they find something, but hoping it is not too serious? If anyone has had one please do let me know the procedure? What they found and how it was treated?

It doesn’t mean I have been totally resting. Regular bike rides have kept me entertained on a weekend and the evenings and I did manage 3 Open adventure races. They will be a separate post so keep coming back.

So what next?

To be honest I don’t know? The blog has usually been centered around races but that will make thin reading so the focus may need to change.

I know one area I will keep developing is the maps page and I have only really played around with things but would like to get a load more bike and running routes up there for people. If anyone has got any gpx or kml files of races, or bike routes they would like to send me please do let me know. You can drop me a line using the Online form or leave a comment

Be good to know what people think of the redesign? Not fully finished but I think it is getting there. I know there are a few things wrong in Internet Explorer and these will be fixed but you should use a secure and faster browser such as firefox anyway.

Hoping this is the start of a blog resurgence but we will have to wait and see?

Not really much going on for me. Training is slow, but at least I have started running a bit of milage. So instead I am putting out a few things I have been reading this week.

The biggest thing for me that I have read recently is that Steve Birkinshaw is attemping the Lakes 24hr record. The current record set in 1997 by Mark Hartnell is huge challenge that takes in the Bob Graham 42 tops plus another 35 lumps bumps and tops. Steve hopes to at least add one more to this round.

The date set is May 23rd.  If anyone at the moment is able to do it at the moment then it is Steve, with fast times in the big 3 rounds and winner of the Lakeland 100 not to mention multiple elite mountain marathon winner. Good luck with that one Steve and the offer of help is there (if I am fit enough to be of use).

Next is the Virgin Global Row. Madness! Thats the only way to describe an attempt by Ollie Hicks to row round the antarctic.

Maximum respect to this guy, he is obviously built from a different mould! His previous adventure being the youngest person to row across the Atlantic.

The adventurer is expecting this solo row to take up to nearly 2 years! Ollie set off in early January yet due to the seas and the wind has spent the majority of the last 6 weeks rowing forwards then getting blown back therefore making hardly any ground at all.

I am hooked on his blog entries just to see if he has managed to actually get anywhere.

The other thing that has caught my eye is watching the new look Saab Salomon Adventure Racing team website take shape. An eyepopping display of UK talent all pooled into one group of racers. A list that includes Robb Jebb, Angela Mudge, Rob Hope, Natalie White, Ricky Lightfoot, Tom Owens etc etc. The strength and depth is amazing. These will be one to watch this year in both running and adventure racing.

Loads of cool stuff already happening this year and people plans for 09 are already taking shape. I reckon this year is going to be a good one for a fair few people.

A sneak preview to some of the google mapping  I have added to the site.

Maps page

It is not all finished yet and I will probably play around with the size of the map, add images, and change the layout of the page. I wanted to initially just get some things up there on the site as this will give me a bit of a kick start to keep moving with this.