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Friday morning brought a conundrum, what time to leave home to get down to Selly Oak in South Brum for a 10am appointment. With the M5/M6 junction in the way, rush hour and an immovable timeslot I decided to play it safe at left home at 7.30….. In the end it took only 50 mins but I got a prime free parking place outside and an early coffee from the WRVS shop.

Id not taken any painkillers and was starting to struggle by the time I got to the waiting room though everybody else there seemed to be in a far worst state, sticks and walking frames in abundance. I then had to fill in a long ‘pain’ questionnaire; Was it affecting my sleep? could I wash myself or get out of bed? could I pick up heavy weights? sit in a chair for long periods? Walk for various distances, did it affect my social life? and finally an assessment of how it was affecting my sex life! What everybody else in the waiting room thought of that last one would have been interesting. They were all multiple choice, including the sex life question!

 

So into see Dr Brown. To sum up nearly 40 mins, where we talked about everything from my treatment options to the latest thinking on bare foot running, I am going to have a Intra Spinal Cortisone injection in the next few weeks. This should give the healing process the kick start it needs as long as I am careful and he hopes to have me back out on the Chase riding a few weeks after that. He is also hopeful that that will be enough and is not looking at a surgery option at present – phew!

 

Well its now been 6 months since I last rode properly. The new racing season has started and I am missing it big style. I was meant to be in Denmark this weekend at the MTBO training camp!

I’ve finally had my consultant appointment come through with the Birmingham Royal Orthopaedic Hospital for the 14th May so not long to wait now. I had another physio appointment today. Essentially I have plateaued in my recovery and am just making sure it doesn’t get any worse and am keeping the pain away as much as possible. Although the disc is much better he thinks the facet joint will not mend without some form of direct treatment and thinks they will probably want to inject it, which should then let it heal if I behave and don’t over do it.

In the mean time he has given me a ‘backlife 2002’ to try for a couple of weeks. Apparently its normally used to relieve pain for arthritis sufferers. Its like a combination between a food mixer and 70s weight loss machine!

It reduced the family to giggles earlier when I first showed them so its worth it just for the comedy value.

I have also finally turned 40. This year was meant to be the culmination of 3 years training where I was to go after a medal at the World Masters. I was also going to learn how to unicycle, so those have been put on hold. In the old days mid life crisis involved buying a sports car. Now it seems to be the thing to get a posh road bike and be a MAMIL. So I am going with the old trend, not being able to cycle I have decided to get the other long resident of our garage out and on the road. The tax disc shows the last time I had it out was 2002 !

Not really normal fare for my blog but… Holly had a creepy crawly birthday party last night. 7 friends stroked cockroaches, giant millipedes and a tarantula, held owls and snakes and generally screamed alot, as girls do.

Scary how the Boa felt just at home with his camouflage on our lounge carpet !

contact animal antics for your own party !

About to disappear off to try and go skiing with the family next week an article cropped up that caught my eye.

Snow crop circles in the Alps. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2104755/Crop-circles-Alpine-style-Artist-creates-incredible-impression-giant-patterns-snow.html

Lots of amazing geometric patterns in the snow. Then I noticed the artists name: Simon Beck. His dad christened me and I orienteered with him throughout the 80s.   Small World !

more on his facebook group at www.facebook.com/snowart8848

 

Well I’ve had the result of my MRI scan and its not good….

 “The report identifies a small intraforaminal disc protrusion on the right which appears to be compromising the exiting L4 nerve root. This would explain your symptoms and the lumbo-sacral instability”

Looking back I think have had something going on in my lower back for sometime and that Russian jump just finished me off. I wouldn’t be surprised that the original cause was the Wiggle 6 Enduro in May when I finished after nearly 7 hours in the saddle of jarring racing on concrete-like surfaces with a very sore back. Even my feet hurt from the pounding I got that day.

I’ve also had lower back ache when riding my rigid singlespeed on Follow the Dog and Monkey Trail!

Treatment options at the moment are continued rest and icing (as I overdid it over the weekend organizing the event on Saturday) before starting a course of traction (being stretched to relieve the pressure on the disc). If this isn’t successful, apparently I could have an injection into the spine but it would need orthopedic evaluation and assessment which I would have to pay for or get onto a very long NHS waiting list (8 months+).

So unfortunately it looks like my plans for 2012 and a medal at the World Masters have been scuppered. I’ve had 3 months off training so far and even if the traction works I will have to be very conservative with my training for several months until I get the all-clear.

So not all bad as at least there are treatments available, but I think my days of lightweight, racey, hard-tail mountain bikes might be over. Time to buy a sofa bike?

One bit of advice – don’t jump off 3 metre walls!

 

 

Its not often I rant on my blog, but it’s time for one: Why, oh why, do we have a 10 person short list for the BBC sports personality 2011 that does not include a woman? Why, why, why are there 3 golfers in the line up?!

Decided by a ‘panel’ of sports editors the short list is (in alphabetical order): Mark Cavendish (cycling), Darren Clarke (golf), Alastair Cook (cricket), Luke Donald (golf), Mo Farah (athletics), Dai Greene (athletics), Amir Khan (boxing), Rory McIlroy (golf), Andy Murray (tennis), Andrew Strauss (cricket).

I thought I would look into how they were selected. The BBC website shows the sports editors publications and how they voted http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/sports_personality/15895642.stm

Zoo, Nuts…… no wonder there are no women, I don’t see any female targeted publications in the list.

Obviously a panel needs to contain a spread of publications from all spectrums, and most magazines concentrate on one particular sport so are excluded. It is good to see a regional spread but one that produces no female finalists does nothing to encourage ½ of the UK population into sport, or give them a role model they can associate with.

I also think that one sport should have no more than 2 places in the final for two reasons. With 3 golfers in the final list the ‘golfing vote’ will be split meaning that it is likely none of them will win however well deserved, and with ½ of the finalists being from just two sports (athletics and golf) it does restrict the public vote and disengages even more those viewers who are interested in more minority sports.

Time to look at the selection policy for 2012 I think.

No prizes for guessing who my vote goes to – good luck Cav.

Rant over.

 

 

 

I’m feeling a little worried about comments made about me on the Heston Blumenthals “Mission Impossible – HMS Turbulent” diet reworking thing on the telly tonight. So far we’ve heard about

  ‘…weaning the sailors off their love of Stodge’

and

 ‘…they have a love of fatty Stodge’

Finally he admitted he was

‘trying to break the sub-marriners love affair with Stodge’

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/hestons-mission-impossible/episode-guide/series-1/episode-4