A brilliant chat with Angela Mudge who is surely one of our most incredible athletes. Her list of achievements as a Hill, Mountain and Skyrunner is extraordinary - she has won the Scottish Hill Running Championships several times, as well as the Women's World Mountain Running Trophy, the World Masters Mountain Running Championships and the Buff Skyrunner World Series - but that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Angela views running and races as a series of tough challenges but with the added benefit of incredible views. Not for her endless laps pounding head down around a track of a track, no chance! Her backdrop is mountains, hills and fells. She has literally run her way around the world, and it is difficult not to be inspired when you hear all that she gains from her sport and the people in it.
Preferring to take her tent and camp on course she takes her training seriously and has great tips for anyone wanting to be successful in this tough, physical sport - whether you are simply plotting your path to a park run or to a serious challenge like the Mont Blanc Sky Race. Today Angela is still competing although more for enjoyment than glory, as well as training the next young cohort of Scottish mountain runners.
She nearly paid a heavy price for all those miles on the clock though when a run downhill left her with a painfully locked knee, and it took a while to get the final diagnosis of an osteochondral lesion. This could have been career-threatening but with typical understated tenacity, she had surgery with Prof Mackay and declined to ask how her own recovery would go. She relied more on her own instincts and the help of her incredible physio to rehab and although it took several months of hard work, to her surgeon's delight she returned to her best.
We chat over this injury - what it is, how it occurs, symptoms to look out for, why it can be so serious and what treatments are available.
Angela also talks us through other common running injuries and the importance of getting the right kit to tackle each terrain. A fascinating episode with an incredible athlete.
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