Here we go again, it is time to shed a few pounds, increase my fitness and all that malarky. Another birthday has rolled around and I feel compelled to reduce my fitness age, and extend my chances of being around a little bit longer.
This time around the starting place is a little better, my weight is already in a fairly decent place, and my fitness is a medium too. There is however a bit of an issue with my physical condition in regards to injuries. The age old rotator cuff injury is back with vengeance, and I have an issue with the heel of my left foot too.
First up, lets check in on the body issues. My heel issue starts with my achilles, and seems to travel into my calf, and under my foot through to my plantar facia. After a few trips to to the doctors and physio it has been determined that I have calcifications around the heel where the tendons join at each end. This causes irritation and inflammation in the tendon, and in turn causes stiffness and pain when walking.
The solution for this other than physio and anti inflammatories is some form of ultrasonic treatment on the area to break up the calcifications and hopefully reduce the inflammation. I am really hoping this is successful as I am really missing my longer runs, which I don’t seem to be able to do right now. 4 miles is as much as I have managed in probably the last year. The days of 10 mile runs are gone for now.
The lack of running has its pros and cons. I have always found that running helps with the weight management, and is also good for my head. Especially at work, starting each tour with is a run is my thing to get prepared. On the flip side, not having muscle soreness post run is really nice, and my cycling benefits by having fresher legs.
My take-away from this situation is mentally I miss running, but physically day to day I feel fresher for not running. But maybe that is something to do with the heel issue, and once that is sorted I will be able to get to running without too much soreness. We shall see, I am not going to put too much hope on the whole treatment thing. I am not getting any younger, and know that at this age sometimes things just break or give up working right.
Then there is my shoulder… Since my early 20’s and the days of excessive weight training at the gym, my shoulders have been problematic. Now at 53 my rotator cuffs are playing up again. Over the years I have had flare ups but they usually pass with a little rest and physio. This time however is somewhat different, so I went to the doctors.
After a quick consult my GP suggested some physio, which has been helpful but definitely not solved the issue. Because of this he has referred me back to the doctor for pain management, and the hospital for an ultrasound to see what is happening in there. Once that is known it will determine the next course of action. At the moment that looks like cortisone injections, longer term physio, and possible pain management. We shall see.
So that is the wrap up for my physical ailments for the time being.
Obviously with all this going on I get in my own head quite easily, but I am doing my best to keep the stupid thoughts at bay. The past month I have managed a lot more time on the bikes, which has really made me happy. Over the winter I couldn’t really run more than once a week, and with the foot pain I didn’t get much cycling done, so I was not too happy with myself.
This in turn led to slightly poor eating choices, and subsequently I felt I was going to be gaining weight. Much to my surprise this week when I finally dared to get on the scales, I discovered I am actually in a really good place (all things considered). So with regards to weight, I don’t actually have as much work to do as I thought I would.
For food, I am trying Simmer out. Prepared meals delivered once a week to the door. Adding some spice (literally) to my diet, as well as some colour and veggies which are probably much needed. I have found that over the years my ability to keep doing my own meal prep has dwindled and I only last a few weeks before packing it in, and making poor choices again.
So far Simmer has been pretty nice, most of the meals have really surprised me, especially for someone who tends to eat bland foods 99% of the time. It is early days, and I have to say occasionally I am not in the mood for rich flavoured foods, so it is hard to eat. But that is a me thing not a meal thing. At the introductory price I would absolutely recommend the meals. They don’t quite look like they do in the ads, but they taste as good as they look in the ads, if that makes sense.
I am hoping that with a combination of cleaner eating, a bit of weight loss and some successful treatment of my heel and shoulder, I will be in a better place come the height of the summer, and able to get back into some physical conditioning and feel a little better within.
Whatever happens I will definitely be doing some decent cycling. Last was poor for miles, and this year I really want to get back to a good few thousand miles, and some nice locations to ride too. Driving then cycling is the key. Going further afield and riding roads I have not been to before, rather than sticking with the same loops I do. As much as I enjoy them, I also love finding new roads. I just need to get some distance back in my legs first.
Right, I am gonna leave it there for now as my brain is fuzzy lol, but then it is 4am!
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