Injuries......

As the title of the post suggests, my first injury has struck (first injury of the group?). I've been somewhat injury prone since about the age of 20 in other sports - mainly football - and it now seems that it is not just contact sports that cause me problems!

I've had a sore achilles for the last 3 or so weeks, however it only ever bothered me when I was pushing hard up steep hills - even then it wasn't particularly noticeable. It wasn't getting any worse so me being me, I put it down to just a few aches and pains that comes with extra training. It all seemed relatively fine until the beginning of this week, culminating in a spinning class on Monday evening that was less than comfortable!

Although it's self diagnosed, I have all of the symptoms of achilles tendonitis (or one of the many variants of the same thing that has come up in my research). I spent a lot of Monday evening looking up recovery techniques, recovery periods and symptoms and the unfortunate conclusion I've drawn is that complete rest, RICE, massage and gradual re-introduction to cycling are the only things I can do. Although I'm absolutely gutted that i've picked up the injury, I'm hoping (nay praying) that i've caught it early enough to make a decent recovery in time for the L2P. From what I gather, recovery is very much down to the individual and obviously the severity of the injury, however having done all of the above and more (not walking in bare feet, buying heel inserts for my shoes etc) for the last 2 days I must say it is feeling much, much better - that isn't me being mr.denial either. I should probably get myself to a sports injuries clinic, however a lot of past experience has taught me that I'll be paying for someone to tell me something I already know.

Regardless of any of the above, I am absolutely determined to make it to the start line in London so keep your fingers crossed I can shake the injury!