It all went wrong. But that's ok.

I have not written here in a long while, simply because I did not have too much to say.

- Late Spring, early summer was busy with work and heavy training - so there was not much to write.

- Summer brought about injury and frustration, and I didn`t want to write.

I had been on a hiking expedition when I began to notice the aching pang in my heel. I have had Plantar Fasciitis before, so I instantly recognised it, but it was not so bad at the time. Besides, I had 40km of training to do on the Saturday of that week, and a back to back run the day after…so I needed to not let it bother me.

The 40km training I probably shouldn’t have done.

It`s a boring story to prattle on about how annoying and frustrating the pain became, so I won`t.

One thing I have discovered is that it is better to just “get on with” whatever the predicament turns out to be, rather than dwell on it or try and fight it. I went to the specialist already knowing racing was a bad idea - so I had shed the tears of frustration beforehand. I just need to get rid of the darn pain - and a change in plans was the best course of action.

I am extremely grateful to friends and family for their advice and support, including lending me a bike, as well as words of encouragement (and giving me golf balls, more about that later…) and I have my kept mind and body active. My aim is actually to get a bit stronger - I have become aware of some of my muscle weaknesses and it is a wake up call to now deal with them. I`m learning that I can`t really push as hard as I endeavour to without the back up, so I`m working on getting some muscle groups a bit stronger.

I have just entered a 60km race for October in the Swiss mountains which is my recovery goal now and my motivation for Autumn.I am looking forward to building up to that.

Meanwhile, I have created a little video about some of the home remedies I have given a bit of a go for PF. Not revolutionary, but a couple of things that have helped or been recommended.

To anyone facing setbacks, injury or otherwise - this idea helped me: An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backwards

Have a great rest of the week.