Change of Direction

Ok so its 5pm and i have just finshed training for the day. Meanwhile a bunch of my friends are in Lisses, which should be really cool with the people who are there, im looking forward to see the pics and video footage when they get back. Bit gutted i'm not with them, but I had the privilige of training there last year, and I am keeping myself busy anyway.
With the knee, definately getting much better, doing rehab everyday and going to the gym to strengthen the legs. BUT, I have developed what i think to be Osgood Schlatters in the course of half a day, which has really put me out of any impact what so ever, it twinges going up and down 2 feet, so i am really resting that, pretty pissed about it because thats two knee injurys, fractured tibia and strained ligaments all on the same leg, whilst the left is so damn good. Well what can you do but work with what you have, so I am trying to get much stronger legs and body, but now, also really trying to get my cardiovascular fitness a lot higher.
Marathon Des Sables.

Something which has really caught my imagination (before i saw jack osbourne try it) to do is an extreme endurance foot race called the "Marathon des Sables". This is a marathon in the Sahara desert in the summer which lasts 6 days, totalling 240 km, or 5.5 marathons. Its meant to be "the toughest foot race on earth" with temperatures reaching 60 degrees c. Thats rediculous. Most people who do it have toe nails drop off, wrecked feet with bad blisters and some people have even died doing it.

A lot of people have to be put on drips from dehydration. Throughout the whole race you must carry your own food, water, sleeping bag and supplies. So thats about 10kg on top of the sand dunes, heat and sand storms. Anyway, I thought it would be amazing for me if i did it, and i would really love to, and being diabetic would make it all a better achievement for me, but also much harder. 2007/2008 are all full, so i will either try and enter 2009 or 2010. Would also like to try an Iron man trialthlon at some point, probably before im guessing but yeah, thats what im thinking about at the moment.

>>Marathon Info<<

But thats a good while off, so i am concentrating on getting strong legs and a decent level of fitness.
Training at the moment is such:

Monday, Friday: Leg rehab, lower body, cardio
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday: Stretching, Leg rehab, Upper body, core
Wednesday: Leg rehab, lower body, cardio, basic gymnastic
Sunday: Leg rehab, Basic gymnastic

Eg) Today I Rowed 3km, cycled 20km, swam 2k and did leg press, leg extension/curl/adduction/abduction, glutes on resistance machines, and leg rehabilitation exercises.
So thats my direction at the moment, I have had to put parkour on the side for a while, but the strengthening exercises i used to do im still practicing regularly each week such as muscle ups, balance, dips etc.

Knee problem

I have for a while had a very slight niggling of my right knee which i have always suspected to be mild jumpers knee. However, after the 10k it worsened somewhat and for the past month i have been doing very very little impact training and more conditioning and balance, but after thinking it felt better, decided to do more technique practice and go to the gym to train flips. The next day it hurt a bit, and I decided enough is enough, even if its not THAT painful its obviously not good for me, so I went to a physiotherapist the next day to get it checked out, and BOY do i have more crap than i thought wrong with my leg. So after the fracture in china, I have apparently weakened all the ligaments, and something which is new to me, is that even the freakin ACL is damaged slightly! So she said there is more 'joint play' (the knee can move around more than it should) because the ligaments are not keeping it fixed in place, unlike my other knee which i love so much, i wanna clone it and get rid of the right one! But yeah, so those will never heal being ligaments and that they have little or no blood supply, so im stuck with slightly dodgy ligaments. Okay, and on top of that, I overpronate (which i already new), and that turns the knee in slightly, my right glute is weaker than the other and my right ankle is slightly more inflexible which also turns the knee in! I was pretty suprised to hear all this, you think your in ok shape then you get told this, but she says its only because of the nature of what we do, if i was an average person it wouldnt matter at all. So, she a bunch of glute exercises to do, some ankle stretching and said basically i gotta just get strong legs to compensate for the ligament damage. So now i am at the gym every two days, and doing the exercises every day, along with balance and a lot of general conditioning. Im training just as hard, but i have just shifted the angle of how i train, so there is a lot of low impact and a lot of strengthening over the next few months. So yeah, in about 3/4 weeks im gonna go back and we will see what she has to say then.
At the moment i am at risk of osteo-arthritis if i dont get on top of the problem, so please this just shows how fragile our bodies really are in this activity and everyone must keep themselves very strong and do a LOT of basic work! Look after your bodies everyone!