knee

May 13, 2018

First Run Back

Its been a long time – over two months (4th March) – since I last ran. My tooth, then my knee, have taken their toll.

Yesterday afternoon, I set out rather gingerly to see if I could run again. It felt slow, it was slow, but my knee held up. I ran 5K (down to the levels and back) in just over 25 mins, averaging about 5:04 per Km. The endorphins that kicked in on my return reminded me why I do it.

Its now the following morning – I am “aware” of my knee, it doesn’t hurt but I can feel it, although not necessarily in the place it hurt when I damaged it. Off spinning this morning. Will continue to monitor the knee, but hopefully I can begin the build up to proper running again.

May 6, 2018

Little white box of happiness

Pic of the week 6/5/18

Perhaps not the most artistic of photos but the little white box pictured above has bought unbridled joy this week. I have even caught myself giving it a loving caress on the odd occasion this week.

We had a new boiler fitted on Tuesday. A Logic + 30W, cost £16000 installed, and once again we have hot water on tap. Bliss.

Our wonderful plumber/heating engineer (Kes Tidball) will come back in a month or so and fit zone valves so that the kitchen underfloor heating and the rest of the house are in desperate zones, and can be controlled separately – that will be worth the extra cost to have that done, too.

A couple of bonus pics this week.

The week started cold and wet, but has ended hot and sunny. Wonderful.

Other news: the knee continues to improve, I can walk normally, am tempted to run, but a tentative plod left me in doubt, so no running yet, still just spinning and swimming.

April 29, 2018

Where did that go?

Pic of the week 29/4/18

Well, where did that week go?

It seems like only moments that I was sat here writing last week’s blog post.

So this week, I have gone back to school, the weather has gone from hot, hot, hot to chuffing cold, my knee has made a slow improvement – still not full working order yet, but now walking with a “just” a limp and not the full Herr Flick (as I was described by a colleague on Monday.) Went spinning on Friday and today – great to do some exercise and also felt good for the knee , “loosening” it up. It also felt a lot better after yoga on Wednesday. Have a physio appointment on Tuesday.

Boiler gave up the ghost on Friday evening, now producing no hot water, no matter what you do. Have a man coming on Tuesday to install and fit a new boiler.

In fact, now I think of it, Tuesday should be an important day, the start of a new era: new boiler, new mortgage (Yorkshire bank offset) and new me (I hope!) after the physio sorts out my knee.

April 22, 2018

Maximum Jeff

Pic of the week 22/4/18

I had plenty to write about today, but (probably I’ve got plenty to write about because I’ve been busy) today’s post will be reduced to a series of bullet points for brevity.

What a difference a ~~day~~ five years makes! Same T-shirt, two different me’s. The first picture was taken in the summer of 2013, the right hand shot yesterday. Becky & I went to see “The Band” at the Bristol Hippodrome and the pic was taken after lunch, en-route to the show, which included my favourite line:
“You are looking at maximum Jeff.” Show was great, but it did continue the tendency to stereotype “Jeff’s” as middle aged, boring, old men. Couldn’t be further from the truth!
As this post is, in part, dedicated to my vanity, it is only appropriate that I record my first “waxing” – on Thursday I had my back done, not as painful as I feared!
The weather has, at last, been fantastic. From Tuesday we’ve had wall to wall sunshine and, apparently, the hottest April day since the ’70s. After the cold wet Spring we’ve had, the good weather was long overdue.
Garden notes: planted up some lobelia, geraniums, hostas. Gave everywhere a good tidy. Over seeded the (barren looking) lawn.
Boiler – on Friday the boiler annoyingly started playing up, only giving hot water intermittently. Can trick it into action (turn hot tap on, turn boiler off and then on) and it will (usually) stabilise and maintain hot water. But a pain. My money is on the PCB …
My knee continues to improve, but still not able to walk normally. A lot less painful than it was and I have been able to swim on Friday and today. Not sure if I’ve just forgotten how to walk!
Back to school tomorrow, holidays are over. Still, the summer term is always the best (and the shortest. Are the two related, I wonder?)

April 15, 2018

Broken

Pic of the week 15/4/18

I’m in pain. Again. Not the tooth this time, but my knee, my right knee which I thought had pretty much got better took a big hit on Friday.

I did a tournament at Kingweston on Friday – good standard, a mix of U15 academy & district FA sides – I ref-ed four 35 min games and lined another. By the end of it my knee was hurting. So much so that I cancelled that night’s spinning.

It’s now Sunday afternoon, and it still hurts. Cancelled yesterday & today’s games (middles) and tomorrows line at Glastonbury U18. My season is over.

The last month has been a painful one – first my tooth, and then my knee. I need to remember that I am only just shy of fifty years and my body can’t take the hammering it once used to. This weekend I’ve realised that, and come to some conclusions. I can’t do everything. I’ve really enjoyed referee-ing this last week, but I’m really not enjoying the pain and enforced idleness that is the result.

Straight lines – I need to stick to straight lines. That means running, swimming and spinning. My body can cope with that, its the twisting and turning (football, referee-ing) that imparts those loads. Not sure when I shall start to run again. Hope to be able to spin on Tuesday, but will cancel if the knee doesn’t feel right, and swim this week. Running the Glastonbury 10K may now be in doubt.

In other news, weather has been rubbish, but yesterday the sun came out & I found my spot at the bottom of the garden. More rain today, but it is forecast to heat up next week. Here’s hoping …

April 16, 2016

Running Free!

It was with a slight sense of trepidation, but my knee has not been hurting of late, so I hit the streets today for my first run for 2 months.

On the whole, the knee felt fine, although I was conscious that I was monitoring it all the time. At about the 2K point I felt a twinge so looped round the B&Q roundabout and headed for home – figuring that 4K would be a good outing and I didn’t want to risk a relapse.

I hit 4K near Strode pool, so kept going for a bit longer to make it a 5Km run. Ended up with a time of 25.11 for the 5Km – not too bad given how long its been, but it wasn’t a walk in the park.

10 hours later, knee is still holding up, no pain, which is good. Good to be back on the road again – reckon I’ll look at running a 5k a week for the next six weeks or so.

February 18, 2016

Ouch!

I’ve decided to hang up my running shoes for a while.

I went for a run last Saturday and Sunday and, whilst I enjoyed them and the post run buzz as the endorphins kicked in, my knee has been hurting ever since. So I think I need to give it a good length of time to rest and recover and have made the decision to not now run until at least the start of the Easter hols (beginning Friday 26th March). So even if it my knee feels 100%, I shan’t run before then, to give it plenty of time to recover. (And if its still not feeling 100% by then, I won’t run.)

I’ll still do some refereeing and I’ll still do plenty of swimming – probably do a bit more swimming to compensate – but the road running is put on hold. I think that it is the impact of foot on road that is causing the problems, so hopefully by not running on the road it will make a full recovery.

February 7, 2016

Getting Better

Knee is getting much better, but still not 100%

Back running, but only on the flat. Walked down to Strode before starting. Was “aware” of my knee, but it didn’t hurt. Feels fine now, post run.

Ran 6K in 30 mins – not bad. Bright and breezy – made the out bound leg easy, but running back into the wind was tough. Heavy rain yesterday, river had burst it’s banks and flooded fields, which glistened in the sunlight, the tor standing proud in the distance.

January 24, 2016

Back on the road again

When I injured my knee on 3rd of Jan, I think I did it quite a bit of damage. It hurt a lot, for some time, and for the last week of the hols I did no exercise and walked with a definite limp.

As time went on, it slowly improved – I found that it tended to feel better after swimming and I was able to referee a couple of football games, although on the first Thursday back at school it hurt like hell, a combination, I think, of refereeing the day before followed by going up and down stairs whilst on duty in Walton.

Anyway, its been getting better so I thought I would hit the road today and go for a shortish run.

Nearly turned back as soon as I got down the hill – it hurt – but the pain eased and I ran to the B&Q roundabout and back. Glad I ran, the knee hurt at times, although feels fine know. The real indicator will be how it feels later today.

The run itself wasn’t easy, either. Amazing how quickly your fitness drops off.

But at least I’m back in the saddle ….

January 3, 2016

In completing my 100K holiday challenge yesterday I seem to have knackered my knee.

I was about 5.5K into the run, just turning right off the levels lane when I “felt” my knee go a bit. Kept on running, without too much problem, but as the day wore on it got more and more sore and immobile.

Now (next day) I have my strapping on – it is fine when in a comfy position, but hurts when I walk. No run today!

It is the left knee, hurts on the inner face. Feels particularly knobbly and hurts a bit to the touch.

Hoping a few days rest soon sees it right.