So much for regular updates; it’s been almost a year and it’s interesting reading back. Where now? I did my 50k in May; did rather more cycling a heavy rental hybrid around Jersey in August, so the cycling is definitely back. Fitness generally has been somewhat compromised by over-commitment in volunteering at the theatre (three or four rehearsals a week, plus all of the organisation, and then the tech week and the two weeks of pre-run/run all take a toll, particularly when you do three productions in under twelve months. Because, yes, that’s a great idea).

The rogue iron readings eventually turned out – after a certain amount of medical attention – to be autoimmune gastritis/pernicious anaemia. My immune system is eating my stomach, in other words. This is … unhelpful. And leads to lack of absorption of things like iron and B12. So, not celiac, although some experimentation has annoyingly shown that I function better without gluten – there is some evidence that gluten protein interacts unhelpfully with autoimmune issues, apparently. I had hoped that was all influencer garbage or similar but, no, apparently not. Even if it is placebo, my joints ache less. I’ll take that. Although I’d prefer to take it with toast; Warburton’s GF sourdough-esque bread is tolerable, thankfully.

The follow on from that was another scan which gave me a temporary close-up and personal experience of the NHS cancer pathway; not cancer, thankfully, but it is unnerving when the NHS becomes efficient. A minor op sorted out the not-cancer that did show up (nothing serious, just something that was better tidied up). The follow on from that was an apparent problem with my thyroid, that has been quietly not working properly for thirty years but quite happy with thyroxine. The problem was eventually found to be the biotin in the B12 supplement that I was taking (it messes up thyroid test results, not the thyroid itself – re-testing after being off the supplement for a few days showed all normal; or as normal as it gets for me).

This year has been a bit like medical whack-a-mole. So … yeah, theatre and more medical. What a year.

The knee is 99%, I’d say: full functionality is all there, but some muscle imbalances remain – I need to work on that, and the theatre and other medical stuff all got in the way. Plantar issues now also don’t help! No knee roblems walking, or with stairs, or cycling … and best of all, it doesn’t hurt when I try to sleep.

Planning to reset from January: presently in a hard work stretch, so I’m at the gym when I can but not stressing about it. I’m aiming for a 200k in October …