Doctors today- 19th August 2010

So today was a big day for me with yet another chat with the doctor whom I saw 2 weeks ago when he told me to come back and think about the options he gave me. Basically I could have a ‘lateral release’ which free’s the offending tendon with surgery by cutting the damaged piece away, or have another cortisone injection and wait. Now I was tempted with the surgery, this relieves the pain, but my grip would never be the same on that arm and he made no bones about it when he said that I wouldn’t be able to ride competitively again. So it’s a no brainer really and I had no choice but to have another injection. Now then good stuff you might think? But………….trouble is with cortisone is that it is a very high dose of steroid which reduces inflammation, the bad part is it also masks pain and gives you a ‘false sense of security’ in a way. Last time I had one I thought I was superman and started picking and lifting things up to test my arm because I didn’t feel any pain which in turn means you’re still damaging the tendons underneath, so this time I think I might take it a bit easier and see what happens. I done a hell of a lot of research about the injury and spoke to people who’ve had the injections with results being about 50/50 on weather it works or not. Of course the operation has a huge percentage of success, but that’s no bloody good to me is it?

It all means that I still want be riding for another while yet and that’s a huge disappointment to me as I really wanted to do the ‘Dawn to dusk’ event again this year as I feel it owes me something as I was going so well last year until I had to pull out through getting injured. The last couple of months I’ve really put the training in hoping I could do the race, running 4-5 days a week up to 10 miles in 25 degree heat as well as exercising 5 nights a week doing some ‘core’ work. Never mind, always next year eh?

Next week is the ‘Dawn to dusk’ and I’ll be traveling with the lads from down here in Cornwall up to Wales to the event. There’s quite a few doing it so I’ll be there helping them all out and giving um a bit of support. Looking forward to that, a good weekend away and a good laugh

'On yer bike'- 15th August 2010

Yes I certainly did as well. With it being a glorious day I quickly got the bike together and threw on some old plastics, stuck the reg plate on, put a bit of petrol in her, chucked it in the back of the van and drove up to the moors for a bit of green laning. A case of ‘Gently as she goes’ was the order of the day but I did succumb to opening the little ‘strimmer’ up a few times just to feel what I’ve been missing all these months! Even though I only did about 30 mins, It felt great just to be back on the bike albeit against the old doctors orders. Racing the bike is an entirely different matter and this week I’m off to the doc’s again for a serious chat about an operation or another injection to see which is the best way to go.

Lurley- 8th August 2010

I had high hopes of actually doing this one, an ASW organised Enduro cross, 2 races of 1 hour each with a break between the 2 races. I was going to test out the arm for the 1st race in order to see if it would cope with the riggers of racing and maybe do the 2nd race as well if everything went ok, but it wasn’t to be, oh b*llocks! So I was left yet again on the sidelines watching, never mind though, it was excellent stuff!

I traveled up to this one with Adam (Blake), got there nice and early, and with loads of time on our hands we decided to go and take a look around the track. A nice warm overcast day and the track was bone dry, very open and much similar to an old school motocross course, rolling fields, a few hills and a couple of jumps. After looking at the start of the kids race it was back to van to see if we could actually see anybody we new! Um………..what’s going on here? Hardly knew anyone! Apart from Barry weeks, John Pitman and his wife Sue who was taking some photo’s for her webpage (see links on the right hand side of the page) and Ben Scotts dad (sorry mate, seen you around at all the races but don‘t know your first name), we didn’t bloody well see anybody else that we knew.

On to the racing then and it was all extremely fast stuff with the motocross boys having their day and filling up the first 4 to 5 places in the expert class (no champ class), but that was to expected as the course had nothing really in the way of any tight nadgery stuff or obstacles to slow them down and the laps being a mere 5-6 minutes to complete. I was stood on the hillside with just about everybody else to watch the action so basically you could see half the track and follow the action all the way. Adam did well and was 1st of the ‘enduro’ riders home in the 1st race.

So there we are sat down having a natter before race 2 commenced and the phone rings……………’where abouts are you then? I’m on my way’, it was Steve (Jose) who’d been away for the weekend with his other half and her mum and dad and were traveling back when he had the cunning idea to make a detour and get them to drop him off so he watch the 2nd race and then get a lift home with us! And sure enough half hour later he pulled up, got out of the motor, said ’see ya then’ to the family, and off they went on their merry way.

So to race 2 then and me and Steve managed to find a nice hill out on the course that had some nice deep powdery dirt laying on to of it, probably about a foot deep in some places so nothing really seeing as everything was as ‘dry as a bone‘, but we knew it would catch some riders out and sure enough it did. We had a real laugh with a few other people watching some riders going up it, but wasn’t all fun and games as we did help a few out that got stuck in the deep stuff. I was stood gesturing most of the time to the 125 riders telling them to ‘pin it’ so they could make it up the hill ok without getting bogged down in the dirt, needless to say most of them ignored me! Aaaarrgh, wish I was bloody well out there riding! Would loved that bit of the course, I do love ‘pinning’ the old strimmers (if my memory serves me right).

After the 2nd race had finished and with Adam having an even better result with a 4th place, it was off to the burger van to get fed but not before I got on Blakey’s 250 and had a quick spin on it! We then had quite a wait until the results got posted up before heading home. Another good day out today and nice to watch a bit of Enduro cross.