Thursday 6 December 2012

Housemaids knee

Photograph Quiz:
Photo no 121:- I know I like to have my little tease with you Blog and I will give you some answers to all those intelligent quiz questions I have set you over the last two years if you are interested. But this one is a quiz with no answer, or at least, I don’t know the answer and I want your help to find it. First, the bit I know. Who is the Godiva athlete in the photo? And now the bit I don’t know. When was it taken (I guess during the war) and WHERE was it taken? And WHAT was the race. (I have ideas about this … look at the sequence of numbers being worn, look at the kit, look at how many are in the race) I promise to give you my theories next week, unless you crack it before then, Blog.
Dear Blog,
                  Since Sunday I have been trying to send to you a Christmas card but, as E.P. sang on his E.P., the letter keeps coming back! I feel I have to blame Ossie and his Tuesday Bugit cuts. I will try to solve my problermo and get it through to you as it is quite amusing … Believe it or not, I received it in error from Finland about four years ago. OK so I am drivelling …. All I will say is that you will understand if I crack the mail issue, if I don’t, you won’t!!
               My knee now allows me to walk … slowly …. with a limp. Considering how serious it was at first, I am quite pleased with the progress made. Here is a tip for you Blog, not one that anyone will approve of, but one I feel has a great deal of merit. Injuries in athletics …what to do about them? The usual recourse is to either medical assistance, or these days, to a ‘physio’. I use inverted commas because, the ‘physio’ is usually the term used by athletes to refer to a sports masseur, many of whom have no direct experience of athletics!!! Let me declare an interest before I continue. I have a qualification in Sports Massage; I also have a qualification in Sports Injuries. Blog, I kid you not, I am being serious with a capital ‘S’. I also have a coaching qualification. [So I too have a few badges on my arm, but they have been there that long that they are now tatty and fades beyond recognition!!]. I also feel qualified, therefore to criticise in this area. Qualifications apart, what I have found most useful over many years with athletic injuries is quite simple. I now digress for a moment. Many moons ago, I was lucky enough to be accepted at the Pink Panther University to do a few sums; I found myself in possession of a bursary and grant. Coming from my social background, for the first time in my 18 years on Earth, I was free to dispose of many quids just as I felt. I could buy books … not sum books, but books I felt I had to read. One of my friends at said higher education institute was studying something to do with psychology cum physiology cum whatever. Some of this involved references to current work being done in different parts of the world. One paper I purchased from the long list of references she had been given was about work done by some Doctor (Medic plus PhD) in America who was also interested in track athletics. (Digression fading) His work had been lambasted by peer group review, but I felt it had some merit and have used his ideas ever since whenever I have ben injured … as now. Put simply, what you must do for rehabilitation, is to work the injury within the range of pain to excess, thereby forcing the body to over compensate (Selye’s Stress Adaptation Syndrome again! cf my previous letters to you!). By excess, I do mean excess. All day, every day. (Digression gone) I don’t know, but reading between the lines, it must be similar to the approach adopted by Paula Radcliffe before Beijing? All day, every day, to excess, exercise within the limits of any feeling of pain. Next time you are injured Blog, try it. Especially if it is a repeat injury, compare recovery times. Nothing to lose. Not even quids! And don’t forget that you heard it first here, Blog!!
I will write you tomorrow Blog about Leveson and the newspapers. If this letter doesn’t come back!!
                                        Colin

No comments:

Post a Comment