No, I have not taken up ballet!

This is the answer for those at the office witnessing my new found routine of balancing on one leg doing 10 squats once an hour and wondering what on earth I am up to.

For those who are not aware I have hyper mobile knee caps.  This means that my knee caps do not stay in track as I move my leg, and in fact my right knee cap moves completely out of line each time I move my leg.  The movement of my right knee cap causes rubbing on all the other parts in my knee so it pretty much gives me constant pain whenever I do anything which involves moving.

You may therefore think that my planned cycle to Paris is completely bonkers, however riding my bike has vastly improved the muscles which control the knee cap so in spite of the initial excruciating pain I was experiencing back in February when training began I am now feeling less discomfort both during and after rides.  I went and saw the doctor about the excruciating pain back in March and finally saw a physiotherapist last week and he has given me an exercise to do to specifically target an area of muscle to further reduce the knee caps movement so I am quite hopeful for the potential outcome.

If the cycling and prescribed exercises work to rid me of this pain it will be the long awaited miracle for me as I have lived with the constant ache pretty much constantly since I was 14. 

The pain first arrived when I was heavily into skateboarding as a teenager.  I use to be out skating somewhere or another all the time if it was dry from around 13 years old until around 16 years old when I stopped because of the pain it as causing in my knee.

Me at my second home (1989ish)

I always kept my board and would have a couple rides at a local skatepark or out with my wife’s younger brothers, particularly around March as the dry concrete and warm sunshine instinctively draws me to want to skate.  One such time in 2002 at Harrow Skate Park (which had been like a second home for me as a teenager) I came across a couple of other old time skaters as well as a few guys I had really looked up to when I was a teenager, and turned out had never stopped skating.  That day was the beginning of my nine year reunited obsession with skateboarding.   

One of the best days of my life (2007)

Those nine years have been the best of my life so far; I made some fantastic friends and did things I never thought I could accomplish.  I have skated at some of the best parks in the world (Northern California, Florida, South Carolina, France, Spain, Australia) and it was after my last skate trip with my friends to Florida in March 2011when I decided I had to stop.  I twisted my bad knee on day 2 of the week we had out there and the pain prevented me from enjoying the rest of the trip or be able to do anything properly involving my legs for about a month after.  I did attempt to ride my board on a local ramp last summer but the tricks I like to do instantly brought pain to my knee so I have basically substituted my skateboarding with cycling.