Papworth To Geneva, 2nd Attempt

     So as most people will know by now I had to cut the bike tour short due to knee trouble. Just incase you dont know what I am on about head over to my previous blog posts (Rumours Of My Return, Part 1 & 2)  and read about it!

So I am back in england and still have a little under 1000 miles to cover...

The Injury

     I have now had the pleasure of two french doctors, one english doctor and a physio (english if it matters) taking a look at my right knee, and this is what I have found out. I have managed to cause a little bit of damage to a tendon in my knee but it should heal up fine with a bit of rest, the interesting thing is why it happened. When the muscles of your Quadricep pull your kneecap upwards they're meant to pull at it evenly so that it runs along this little groove in the knee. However in my Quads my Vastus Lateralis (see the picture above) are a lot stronger than my Vastus Medialis which means every time the muscles contract my knee cap is being pulled to the side a bit and so is not running smoothly in the little groove. This muscle imbalance is caused by the fact that when you cycling you dont fully straighten your leg, and it is in that last 20 Degrees of the movement that the Vastus Medialis gets fully exercised. Despite augmenting my training with other exercises that should have evened out this imbalance the problem still cropped up. In day to day life I dont use my legs enough for this problem to show up, but cycling 70+ miles every day is a bit different so eventually this caused to much strain in my knee, resulting in some painful micro tears in my tendon and hurting my knee joint in the process.
     The good news is that as I didnt keep going with it I have not cause any permanent damage! The even better news is that this is something I can stop from happening again by doing a few exercises to strengthen my Vastus Medialis. Once its up to strength my quads should be more balanced and the knee should run smoothly and not pull to the side, so no more tendon trouble. I will have to keep these exercises up for the fore-seeable future, especially whilst on the bike tour, but thats a small price to pay I think.

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The New Plan

     So, as I should be good as new in no time and as yet have not cycled the 2240km I promised I feel obliged to give the bike tour another bash. Over the course of the week I was away I managed a grand total of 396 miles, which leaves me a little under 1000 miles to do. As a result of my session with the physio I now feel that I should be able to cover this distance, whereas before I was unsure if my knee would handle it or not. Therefore I have decided the best course of action would be to get a train down to Reims (which is where I finished attempt 1) and carry on the tour from there. So this is roughly what I will be doing.

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     I am working away from home from the 7th July through to August 15th; whilst away I plan to stay fit by running every day and doing some bodyweight exercises (press-up, pulls-up, sit ups, bodyweight squads, etc.), as well as the exercises the physio showed me to balance out my Quads. Once I get back home I plan to take a week to prep everything I need for the trip and then head off to france again. I will then catch the train to Reims on August 22nd. For the first week at least I plan to take it very easy, aim for 50 miles a day for 3 days, and a rest day every 4th day. After a week I will decide how I feel and maybe up the mileage a bit after that. As I going to be taking it easy I have absolutely no idea how long it is going to take me, but hopefully il be back by the mid September.

     Obviously breaking up the bike tour in to two parts was not my initial intent, and I definitely would have preferred to of not suffered and injury and done the whole thing in one go. Once injured I kept going as long as I possibly could with the pain. I promise you the 3 days I carried on with the damaged knee were hell whilst I was cycling, which I hope is obvious from the fact that my average pace dropped from around 80 miles a day down to somewhere around 20 once injured. However despite my most sincere efforts I appreciate that this new plan might not be what any of you sponsored me to do. If anyone does have a problem with this please do let me know (you can get in touch with me on my Contact page) and I will do my best to get your money back for you. I definitely wont think any less of you, so please dont be afraid to get in touch.

Fundraising
     Over the past few months I have been overwhelmed with the huge generousity of my friends, family, and people I dont even know. To date we have raised a massive £6432.50 (with another £500.71 of gift ontop of that!). Half of that has come from individual donations for which I am massively thankful, however I would just like to say a big thank you to two charitable funds that have also made huge donations that are definitely worthy of a mention.
     First up is Potton Consolidated Charity who have donated £1000 to the fundraising effort. This huge donation is amazing enough, but on top of this they have also agreed to add Papworth Hospital to their list of charities that receive regular donations. This means that starting in January, every year Papworth Hospital will receive another donation from Potton Consolidated Charity (as to how much I dont know, but any amount is amazing).
     Secondly is The Mrs F B Laurence Charitable Trust who have made an astounding donation of £2000, which is obviously greatly appreciated. Thank you!

     So once again I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone that has donated, both individuals and charitable funds.

Final Notes

     So that is about it, you now know what I will be up and how I plan on finishing the last 1000 miles. As I will be away from home working I wont be posting anything new on here untill mid August, so be sure to check back then to hear the latest on my knee rehab. Just as a little reminder for those of you (pretty much everyone) that have failed to noticed, I was making an attempt at running a little competiton. The gist of it being that you had to guess what my final mileage would be when I finish. The winner would get some sort of small prize that im gunna buy in Geneva. If that sounds interesting to you head over to the Competition Page and make a guess! If you have any questions about anything it would be great to hear from you so please do get in touch with me through my Contact Page.

Cheers,
             Jamie x

Please consider supporting my challenge and donate to Papworth Hospital Charity, even if it is just £1  (I promise this amount is entirely acceptable and really appreciated!), it all adds  up and can dramatically change someone’s life for the better!