achy hippy back & ankle issue!

Why was I visiting a chiropractor? During December I was doing my usual annual marcothon, this is a challenge of running 5km or 30mins everyday of December it was the sixth year in a row I had been doing this, I still considered myself an ultra-runner having kept up my training for the cape wrath ultra, I had taken my foot of the gas a wee bit due to the lock down stuff but I was still fit and finding the daily runs as easy and enjoyable as always, I had been listening to Shane Bengazies book the forgotten art of running in November the month previous, this fascinating audiobook I listened to mostly on the running machine whilst listening to this unbeknown to me (well the outcome anyway obviously I knew I was making changes to my style) listening and changing small bits while running, I had started to change my running style! I then got muscle aches in places I hadn’t before and wanted to change back but I couldn’t remember how I originally ran, the muscle pains this new running style caused, was making me walk like a cripple! not sure the correct word to use for having to walk crouched over in pain from muscle ache? cripple seems a harsh word as this was just muscle growth, I knew this pain well rom my body building days its just lactic acid killing old muscle and growing new stronger muscle, waking for a pee in the middle of my sleep I would walk to the bathroom all crouched unable to stretch my calves or back, slightly changing my running style I do not think is related to what happened to the back? but you never know,

On boxing day, I was hung over as it had been a good Christmas day! When I started to prepare dinner, I bent over to pick a pot out of the bottom drawer and bosch what was that Mmm ouch base of back pain! A stretch and shake didn’t fix it I went upstairs where I have one of those roller ball electric massage thingies? And proper went to town on all areas of the small of the back trying to alleviate the pain, nothing I done seemed to help after around 45minuits of massaging with feet in the air pillows all ways nothing stopped the pain, I gave up and thought I will just need get on with it and continue to cook, but I cancelled my daily run in hindsight maybe I shouldn’t have six years was a great achievement now screwed due to one bit of back pain, plus a hangover which of course was psychologically looking for any excuse not to don trainers, now I often think back to that day and wonder if I had done maybe even just one thing different would it have stopped what that back ache became? I lazed the next couple of days chatting with Cammy it was great to have him home staying with me, stretched out on the couch no exercise no stretching just rests, then I went to Aberdeen two days before flying off to work on Shetland, basically locked up in the hotel room for two days the roads were icy walking on icy paths was sore on my back, for the first time ever in my life I had a sore back! , once on Shetland I was nightshift so went straight to bed lying down was painful I spent a while with my legs up against the wall and snatched a little sleep before work

This was the last days of 2020 I was nightshift for New Year’s Eve 21, I had not taken any painkillers since 2008, which even then I had only taken on hospital advice due to major surgery, I still haven’t taken any painkillers but if I had any that first morning in my accommodation, I would have taken them! The pain in my lower back was excruciating when lying down in bed I tried all sorts of different positions nothing was working, the only time the pain went was when I was standing up or walking around, we had drinks in the morning for new years that was a pain killer and I slept! but the next day all went back as it was before even slightly worse as I was losing muscle strength in my left leg when walking, I mentioned to young tommy T at work he gave me the name of a chiropractor in lerwick, I emailed the practice, but it was the weekend of the festive season in the middle of a pandemic I sent them that email as the pain when lying in bed in the mornings was unbearable, looking back I should have put a flat mat on the floor to sleep on it was maybe a soft mattress (I will now never know), that was the Saturday morning, they emailed back on the Monday by which time I was coping and just got on with it, no need for a drive to lerwick be like iron josh Naylor (heroic record breaking fell runner who has a bad back)kenjo and just get on with it, it will come good was my mantra, from then on and over the next three weeks I stopped exercising thinking I would rest it, this was definitely a mistake I should have done extra stretching probably with bands and foam rolling maybe some light weightlifting,

You would think this was bad enough for someone who up until Christmas day 2020 was an ultra-runner but now in the first few days of 2021 was in constant pain and couldn’t run a mile never mind more than a marathon, but naw there was mair to come my left foot/ankle WTF !! I was falling over while out walking as it just started to fail me? I was trying to correct my walking by taking big steps like an astronaut on the moon, concentrating on my movement as at that time I was thinking possible brain issue? same height and stride both legs and feet, but the left ankle wanted to turn my foot in! this is so hard to explain and I kept hoping if I ignored it, I would soon be able to get back to exercising walking cycling stretching, then it would stop and I could get back to running? I was totally flummoxed as to what was happening to my left-hand side from my hip to my toes it was all to pot, muscular wise I felt my left ass cheek had a bit surgically removed and it no longer works As I have already said I have a good pain threshold I wasn’t really in pain when moving (this came later), off course I did get pain if I went to pull or stretch the aforementioned area! I was just sliding slowly into someone who could previously run whole mountain ranges alone, to someone who should perhaps be accompanied on a wee hill walk as this left ankle had me falling at least once every day, especially once I got slightly weary, the worry was that the ankle was going to break, or worse I was going to fall in front of a moving car, when cycling I found it hard to get off my bike standing on that side and would sometimes fall,

On the eighth day of February (remembering this all started on boxing day) I decided I could no longer just still keep trying to just ignore it, I couldn’t run and I couldn’t trust my left side going down hills, I had told nobody about this for obvious reasons (I was out marching hills and cycling in shit weather), i had a long think and a talk with myself coming to the sad conclusion, I would have to postpone the cape wrath ultra for a year, as there is no way I can even train with this left ankle issue which at that time I reckoned probably stemmed from the psoas muscle back issue I sometimes get if I sit at a desk to long, unless I was seeing the first signs of something sinister like Parkinson’s/motor neuron or such like! Normally I can explain muscle issues for what they are but this ankle seems almost psychological it doesn’t want to do its share of the work! I had done nothing about it as I was out on an adventure trying to do every trig point on Shetland, some days I get angry at the ankle it seems to be getting slightly better I only go over on it once I am weary but I still haven’t tried running as my perception of what my foot should do and what it does do are two different things! When at it its worst I was even going over on my ankle in my sleep BIZARE The ankle has gotten a lot better this last week but the left hip has got worse this is why I was coming back from yell and attending a chiropractor,