The start of 2023 was spent cross training and recovering from the repeat of my ankle injury that initially flared up in 2021. After completing Percy Pud at the start of December 2022, my right ankle completely seized up, leaving me unable to run and causing a lot of pain even while walking.
The first few weeks I spent in active recovery, walking the dog as much as I could, and also swapping my daily runs to a spin on the bike in the garage.
I also started to go out on the road bike again (despite it being bloody cold!), and at the end of January, upgraded my old Carrera bike to a shiny new Cannondale
As January progressed, my physio requested that I go for an MRI scan on the ankle, to find out exactly what was wrong with it, as it wasn’t responding to treatment.
It took a few weeks to get an MRI, at which point, I was still not able to run more than a few KM at a time, so had continued to cross train.
A few more weeks passed, and I got the results of the MRI back, which basically diagnosed a swelling of the sheath around the posterior tibial tendon. The condition of the tendon itself was fine, so the outcome was favourable. I was advised to continue with physiotherapy, and work on building strength and stability.
I was then able to start running again, deciding to attempt my first parkrun of the year, and make sure that I took it steady. The run went well, with minimal discomfort, so I was then able to continue building the weekly distance back up.
