May review – Disaster Strikes

May in review in tatters

So April was tough and I was glad to see the back of it. As May arrived I was full of hope and optimism and I had a great first week. I went on a 9.5 mile walk, finding a trail close to home that I’d never done before that took me through some amazing places …I didn’t see a soul.

And then it all collapsed like a house of cards.

So I have mentioned in the past that my knee had been giving me some niggles. Well in the last week of May my knee decided that enough was enough. I literally can’t put any weight on it at all.

It’s all my own fault.

All pain – no gain…

My knee has been niggling for a while and, like an idiot, I chose to ignore it.

I’m not sure why I thought it would just ‘get better’, but it didn’t. I walked it to the point of failure.

For at least the last 100 miles I’d been getting quite sore, although not on every walk – which is probably why I got lulled into thinking it was a passing phase.

I think this is realted to an old injury I had. My friends and I were semi-regular hikers heading into the Brecons or down to Dartmoor almost every other month. I suddenly developed the pain there and found it almost impossible to walk downhill when it flared up. My friends used to laugh (in an encouraging kind of way) when I used to have to shuffle down every hill sideways to alleviate the agony.

Multiple trips to my GP, X-Rays and even MRI scans revealed nothing. Ultimately my Dr. just shrugged, obviously it was something that only happened while I was walking and aside from taking him with me on a hike there was nothing more I could reasonably do – so I left it, and over time I forgot about it (I also started walking less). Anyway, here we are again although this time I have made it worse.

So, as a result my May mileage is now lower than ever.