Bad year for trail riding

About a year ago I was riding The Kitchener Trail at Sherwood Pines and had an unlucky fall onto my elbow, which broke on impact. A couple of hours later I was having this swanky accessory fitted to hold the tip of my olecranon onto the rest of the bone:

This put me out of commission entirely for six weeks and prevented me from riding the trails again for months afterwards; though this was partly because I felt strong enough to go out around January time and the weather was hideous for months after! I have been to Sherwood since and suffered no accidents.


I did a lot of road cycling in the meantime, which wasn't easy especially on the cratered moonscape of Lincolnshire's roads. The tricep on that arm has been weak and painful since then and road buzz aggravates it. After a round trip to Matlock this summer I decided to get rid of the metalwork.

That surgery took place three weeks ago, almost a year to the day since I had it put in. They didn't let me keep it unfortunately (medical waste this, biohazard that, etc) and now I'm recovering again.

So I'm going to miss riding Follow The Dog and The Monkey Train this weekend with my colleagues. I'm strong enough to take the recumbent around the family trails though, so I'll do that if we can somehow stow the huge bloody thing in my friend's car for the trip.

In the last year I've gone trail riding exactly once. I'm going to have to really get the lead out next year.