Have I mentioned my dodgy ankle? For a long time now (months) it's been a bit of a pain, literally.
When I get up in the morning I can't weightbear properly as I get pain deep in the joint towards the outside of my ankle. It usually settles after a bit of stumping around and when it goes, it goes completely. It's an "all or nothing" affair with no in between stage.
My physio had a good look at my ankle the other day but it was in a painless phase and there was nothing to be found on examination. He suggested some mobilisation techniques that might be worth trying in the morning but they didn't seem to do anything.
This morning however, I gave it a jolly good wrench around, particularly forced inversion and there was a satisfying "clunk" from my ankle and lo and behold, I could weightbear on it! Fingers crossed I've found the magic manipulation that will allow me to walk painlessly again.
With a 95 mile walk planned starting on Wednesday this discovery (if that's what it is) couldn't have come at a better time. What's wrong with it I just don't know. Probably a damaged tendon sheath or some small ligament that supposed to be holding one of the bones of my ankle in the right place. Perhaps if I avoid ever walking on it in pain it can start to heal properly.
Barefootwise, not doing anything at the moment. Still rather aware of my metatarsal but I think that's just increased awareness rather than any significant change in my foot. Hopefully get back to some more barefoot experimentation after my WHW walk.
Can't wait to get started now. Just working on the psyching up now as I've done b*gger all physical preparation for walking 24 miles a day. I mean, how hard can it be? ;-)
I think the hardest part will be having to choose between waiting for the WHW racers to come in on Saturday night or heading for my bed. My wife and I aren't entirely in accord on this issue. ;-)
Monday 15 June 2009
Clunk click...
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2 comments:
Hi Tim
Good luck on your walk. 25 miles a day on flat ground should take you around 7 hours but on hills that might expand to 10 or more hours so should definitely be doable.
Regarding your ankle i have had a similar experience on the bike believe it or not. Very occasionally I'd go to start riding and this pain in my ankle would appear that would severly limit hwo much force I can put through it, instinctively I put the foot in a slightly different position pressed down, felt a clunk and then no more pain. I think it's got to do with if the bones in your feet have locked in an abnormal position for some reason the body realises if you put force through them like that you'll do yourself an injury so it does what it can to stop you doing that.
I thunk running barefoot should help the problem as it will increase your foot's fleixibility.
I haven't started running barefoot yet as I have 2 races in the next 4 weeks so dont want to try anything new until afterwards.
Will be very interesting to see how long it takes to make noticeable changes in the foot structure. I've had very flat feet for as long as I can remember so will be keen to see if I can do something about this.
Enjoy your walk
Cheers Andy. I did the "ankle wobble" again this morning and got another "clunk" and again it seemed okay to weightbear on so it's looking like there's some sort of alignment problem.
What I want to know is, how the heck does it get itself out of alignment when I'm sleeping? Malicious fairies?
Good luck with your own barefoot experiments. I think the only advice I can offer is to not rush things. I dived in at the deep end (as is my wont) and have had to cut back.
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