Although my back was a little sore after the previous weekends rides with the kids, I had had a week resting and decided that the forests of the Surrey Hills were too good to miss. During the days I had to sit back and watch the orienteering events, taking photos. It was great to see the new influx of Walton Chasers Juniors doing so well. In the evenings I managed to get out for two 40 minute rides, one with the kids, one with 2 friends. We were staying at the excellent Holmbury Youth Hostel so we could ride from the door straight into some of the best mountain biking the South East has to offer.
We found some excellent singletracks cascading down from the trig point on top of Holmbury Hill itself, a fantastic viewpoint, which soon dropped steeply down some rooty technical bits before contouring above the village of Holmbury back to the YHA.
Although only out for 40 minutes, the combination of views, friends and roots brought a smile to my face. Unfortunatley the smile was short lived….. as about 20 minutes after returning from Sunday’s ride my back suddenly spasmed and pain started running down my right leg. I soldiered on through dinner that night, some beer deadening the pain, but the next morning I was really struggling.
On Tuesday, the final event of the Jubilee Orienteering festival brought a mass start score event. Again I was struggling to get about, but determined to at least take some photos of the start I walked down to the bottom of the hill.
The return journey was one of the most painful things I have ever done. I kept telling myself it was only a nerve being pinched but the pain was excruciating and I almost fainted at one point and had to be lowered into a chair by friends.
Since then I has basically been sat on a sofa, icing and taking brufen. Its improved a fair bit, I can get up unaided now and potter about to get a coffee etc, but thats about it, the pain returning with a vengence if I do too much.
I’ve tried to bring my next consultant appointment forward without success, so I now just have to rest, watch day time telly, and wait for the 20th.