Sometimes things are beyond our control.

However sometimes they are and the fact that I have an injury that I could have avoided really makes me feel stupid.

If you look at the photo above you will see that my left leg is swollen.

It started on Tuesday evening. A full two weeks after completing the mf1200.

I was at work, not doing anything particularly strenuous when the left quad started to cramp. I tried to stretch it out be it just kept getting tighter and tighter.

It went from perfectly normal to 10 out of 10 pain in 5 minutes. For any of you that have ever had a cramp you know that it doesn’t last long and that you just have to wait it out.

That’s what I was hoping for but 60 min later it was still locked. I massaged it and it started to release but not fully. I tried to stretch it out as much as possible but I didn’t have much range.

Finally, after four hours, the cramp subsided. Thank god that was over.

The next day, Wednesday, I was feeling much better. Just a bit stiff but well on the mend.

That was until near the end of my shift at work. I cramped again worse than ever but this time nothing would shift it.

This never happened to me before.

I didn’t get any sleep that night with the pain and my leg was starting to swell up.

I didn’t know what was happening to me so I rang the doctor on call and, because I wasn’t able to walk on it, he told me to go to A&E. The last thing I wanted to hear.

So up I went, leg still in a spasm, to A&E.

To cut a long story short I’m on all sorts of drugs to help with the pain and to help relax my muscle. I felt much better that night and I was still hopeful that I would be feeling good by the weekend.

That was until I seen a physio the next day, Friday.

He was surprised at the amount of fluid built up around my knee. He also found that I had pulled some tendons and damaged my quadriceps.

Then came the news that I didn’t want to hear.

“You will be off the bike for 6-8 weeks”

I’m so pissed off. Not because I have an injury. That’s part of sports. I’m pissed because I could have completely avoided all of this if I had of looked after myself.

I never did what I knew I should do after every ride. Stretch.

Make sure you stretch

We’ve all been told the importance of stretching but how many of us really do it. I didn’t. I always though there wouldn’t be any real benefit.

Oh, how I was wrong.

To say that I have learned my lesson would be an understatement.

I now have to postpone my RRTY attempt as I wont be fit to cycle for the next 2 month. It now looks like the mf1200 was too much for me when, in fact, it was the lack of stretching that got me.

From here on, I’ll be stretching once a day even if I’m not exercising that day. I am also going to visit my physio once a month to try to stop issues before they happen.

And finally, I’m going to look into yoga. I’ve heard this is ment to be a game changer when it coming to gaining core strength and becoming more limber.

My body is not getting any younger and with the extra miles I’m intending on doing a suppose it was inevitable that something like this would happen.

It’s time to get clever about my training.

I also have to find more time. Perhaps with more training the mf1200 wouldn’t have been as hard on my body.

I’ve been thinking of ways of getting more time to get out on my bike. Theres one big thing that I need to get rid of if I am to continue these crazy cycles in the future. And that’s work.

I spent over 40hrs a week at work. If I could find a way to replace my income then I would have all the time in he world for training and family life.

I have already a few ideas, one of which I’m working on. I’ll have a lot more time to work on this now. More on this in the future.