TraceysTrek

For the past three or four weeks, I’ve been suffering with terrible pain in my left rhomboid, between my shoulder blade and spine. It’s been getting progressively worse, to the point where even putting my hands on the steering wheel is painful — never mind changing gears.

I could feel it during the Medal Ceremonies at Glasgow 2026 too. Holding a tray of medals for prolonged periods probably didn’t do me any favours.

I suspect this all goes back to an injury I sustained early during my walk, when I had a really heavy fall and badly hurt my shoulder. It was excruciatingly painful for several months afterwards, but when you’re walking around the coast of Britain every day, there isn’t exactly much opportunity to stop and get proper treatment.

So I carried on.

Over the past few weeks I’ve tried stretching and using a solid massage ball on the trigger points, but nothing seemed to make much difference. Eventually the pain forced me to take action.

I booked myself in for a

Tailored 90-Minute Sports Massage.

‘A comprehensive, full-body or multi-area treatment allowing time to properly assess, treat, and restore. This longer session is perfect for deeper work, complex or recurring issues, or when your body needs extra attention. The additional time allows for more thorough treatment without rushing, leading to longer-lasting results.

Best for: chronic tension, full-body work, deeper recovery.’

It sounded ideal and today was the day.

Fraser was absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately, being brilliant at sports massage also seems to involve an uncanny ability to find every single painful spot in your body.

He started on my troublesome shoulder and immediately began finding trigger points. Lots of them.

As I lay face down on the table with my head in the support, I was rather glad Fraser couldn’t see my face. It was screwed up into all sorts of expressions as he worked his fingers into one painful spot after another.

After spending quite some time working on both shoulders and my spine — which apparently was also rather stiff — he moved on to my calves.

Surely they couldn’t be as bad?

Oh yes they could.

There were plenty more trigger points hiding there. Apparently my soleus was extremely tight, along with muscles around the outside and front of my lower legs.

Then I happened to mention the foot pain I’d experienced for months during my walk.

“Would you like me to work on your feet?”

Of course I said yes.

I’m obviously a glutton for punishment.

Fraser later described my feet as being like bricks, because the soft tissues were so solid. Considering what those feet carried me through over 5,108 miles, perhaps that’s not entirely surprising.

Fortunately my hamstrings weren’t too problematic.

My gluteus medius muscles, however, were another story. Boy, did they take an absolute pasting.

And then, just when I thought the ordeal must surely be coming to an end, Fraser went back to my shoulders.

By this point they were already feeling rather battered, but apparently my supraspinatus and teres minor hadn’t received enough attention yet.

More pummelling followed.

Eventually — after what seemed like a lifetime — the 90 minutes were over.

Fraser actually apologised because he hadn’t had time to get to my quadriceps!

I think I may be a complete walking wreck physically.

In fact, it’s a wonder I can walk at all.

Déjà Vu

There was something strangely familiar about today’s experience. Afterwards, I remembered something I’d written in my blog on 18 August last year, almost exactly a year ago:

“Janette and Vince are massage therapists. After Janette returned from the gym she gave me the best massage ever. I could feel every trigger point being tweaked. Mainly my feet, calves and my sore shoulder. Janette said she could have spent three days solid on me as there was so much going on!”

Nearly a year later, it seems there is still plenty going on.

Perhaps after everything I put my body through during those 365 days of walking, I shouldn’t really be surprised. For a whole year the priority was simply to get up each morning and keep moving forward. There wasn’t much opportunity for recovery, rehabilitation or dealing properly with injuries.

Now, perhaps, my body is finally demanding a little attention.

It’s only 9pm and I’m already in bed.

I’m absolutely exhausted.

After 90 minutes of being prodded, pressed, stretched and pummelled, there’s only one question left…

I wonder how I’m going to feel in the morning?