Recovery and Job search

With the Xterra Trail Running World Championships behind me, it was time for the real recovery work to start. A little sore after the exertion of the event, I needed to let the wear and tear of the race to heal, then start stretching/strengthening my way back to cycling health.

From my initial injury to now, I have consulted 3 GP's, 2 sports-medicine doctor's and 3 physiotherapist's, and read widely on the subject of disc herniation. I therefore have quite a catalogue of actions to ease the pain, encourage recovery, rebalance the spine, and strengthen the back. For me, once I got passed the worst phase, I found that "neuro-flossing" (if you're a sufferer look it up, or send me a message, and give it a try); and simply walking are the closest thing I have to magic bullets - I feel noticeably better within 15-20 minutes of starting to walk, or after a few reps of my neuro-flossing exercises. I also have several daily stretches and regular strengthening exercises that are supposed to build my back strength/flexibility to support my spine. Nearly all the health professionals I have seen have been impressed by my recovery and said almost the exact same thing - the people who actually get on and do their exercises and stretches, do much, much better than those who just talk about it.

In addition I needed to lose over a stone to prevent excess wait putting extra load on my spine (it's easy to keep eating like a round-the-world cyclist, even when circumstance forces you to sit around doing nothing!), and gradually reteach my body how to be on a bicycle again.

I had Christmas with my family in Scotland and for the following weeks spent most of my hours on rehab - up to 8 hours a day walking, running, cycling, stretching and exercising (all whilst cutting calories).

One February day, the sun was out and the temperature was soaring close to 20C, my parents and I decided to have a barbecue. For those unfamiliar with Scotland, this is a ridiculous proposition - a barbecue in Scotland in February! On exactly the same day, one year earlier the "Beast from the East" weather system was dumping large amounts of snow and taking temperatures to double figures below. 20C is on the warm side for the middle of summer in Scotland, February just doesn't get that hot. But we sat out in the sun and it was warm and pleasant.

It was lovely, but at the same time terrifying. As a global cyclist I have been struck by community after community telling me about how the weather is now, compared to the norm - monsoon seasons coming at wildly different times/not at all; whale or other sea life migrations not happening; crops failing, record temperatures, snow melt; desertification; etc; etc.

To deny climate change, is a descent into the same mad rabbit hole that so much of our fake political discourse is heading.

What is particularly disturbing is the narrative that many of those on the right end of politics choose to take - the same people who denied there was a problem, then claimed the evidence was fake, now pedal the idea that man has nothing to do with it; that we can't know for certain where things are going, so it's best to do nothing.

Why would they do this? It's the exact same as those on the right pushing Brexit, or "trickle-down" economic theory, or the smoking industry - Profit ahead of people. Of course it's easier to personally make more money if you don't have to worry about the consequences of damage to the environment, the health of your consumers, the wider health of the population, minimum standards, etc, etc. Ideally the true cost of you making a lot of money through polluting business/Brexitting/selling cigarettes/etc/etc will be picked up by the consumers, governments, future generations.

A friend who is in the same political zone claims that because climate modelling is so unreliable, we should do nothing. The deep irony is, that due to illness, he is rightly cautious about staying clear of potential triggers  (alcohol, cigarettes, certain food) that could restart his condition. The double-standards here are blatant - I will do everything I can to minimise potential risks in my case (risks that have a statistical link, rather than a direct causal link); but when it comes to actions that are highly likely to effect future generations/people living in more sensitive ecological areas/etc, I will stand against legislation modifying my actions, and businesses actions, so that I can make more money for me, and leave the likely cost of my actions for others to pick up/suffer.

Whilst back home, I also was keen to find a job for my return to the real world - August is the start of the academic year in the Northern Hemisphere, and although it was early days, a few music teacher jobs were being advertised in January and February. One of the first ones I applied to was at Park Lane International School in Prague, and we were mutually happy with each other, so I now have an exciting opportunity lined up for August 2019! It's nice to know I will be coming down off a rtw cycling high, with a great new challenge like that.

During my last few weeks back in the UK, Brexit madness continued to spiral. It's no secret what my feelings about the whole thing are. As we get closer to the event horizon, it becomes more and more apparent what false rags and tatters the whole case was built on.

Every time I meet a Brexiter and ask them what will be better on 29th March vs now, they come out with "Oh, I'm not a political person", or things that have nothing to do with EU legislation and everything to do with UK government legislation - "The EU forced us to let in Eastern European Immigrants", "Our taxes are set by Brussels" (neither is true); or outright lies - "bent bananas banned", "we will lose our veto/have to join the Euro/Turkey will be joining and flooding the UK" (there are no such EU legislation/plans).

The one group of people I have a certain amount of sympathy for are UK fisherman - EU rules on fishing are not good, some of the Common Agricultural Policy is also pretty bad (IMHO), but which political system is without fault? These things are bathwater compared to the baby, for all except those directly employed in UK fishing, but even the fishermen are likely to be worse off, if they can't export their catches to the continent without heavy tariffs.

The other big one that I hear from Brexiters, is Immigration. Back in 2016 this was a much subtler influence - it was not really acceptable to cite immigration as your main motivation, most of the people I know who voted Brexit at the time would emphatically reject that Immigration fears played any part in their decision, and much of the immigration arguments were slightly hidden ones (eg Farage's infamous poster), but that has changed. My fear, reading the press from outside the UK, was that the country had descended into a seething mass of racism and anti-foreigner sentiment (ok, maybe a slight exaggeration). The reality (certainly in the Scottish Borders) is that tolerant acceptance of different people with different backgrounds and beliefs continues with pretty much everyone I met whilst home.

However, the majority of Brexiters, after being challenged about what will be better on 29th March, and shown that their reasons are either due to Westminster rather than the EU; or outright lies spread by the leave campaign, nearly all now admit that Immigration is a major issue - so either they lied back in 2016 when they claimed they weren't backing leave because of immigration; or upon realising that every other reason that they voted for Brexit is false, have seized upon this one crumb. Yet, when challenged about which Polish plumbers, or French housewife, or Italian baker in their town they feel are sponging off them, or causing trouble - have had nothing but praise for their own EU immigrants - just a kind of shady awareness of this "other" out there somewhere in the UK, the root cause of every problem.

No, the rabid, racist Brexiteer seems to be as much of a caricature, as the scrounging, malcontent immigrant. And that seems to be the heart of the problem -  a campaign which offered nothing but false innuendo to people about why they were suffering after the 2008 financial crisis, left the ordinary people receptive to right-wing poison being dripped into their ears, and meant that they fell not only for the now proven lies; but also the general (false) innuendo against the EU and immigrants.

The Brexit alternatives are now coming into stark relief - anyone making things, or producing services can have full access to a free market of 600 million customers, or 60 million; consumers can buy things easily, with consumer protection, without extra taxes and regulations from 27 EU countries, or just from UK businesses; Employers can search for their ideal employee from 600 million people, or 60 million; and employees can freely work in 27 countries, or 1. It's no surprise that younger people - those who continue to be economically productive, are overwhelmingly against Brexit.

For me, the prospect of a no-deal Brexit are particularly disturbing. If we crash out without a deal, many countries have said they will allow Brits currently in jobs to continue. For people like me who are planning on starting a new job in Europe, no-deal would mean there is nothing in place - no freedom of movement, but also no visa system in place - with hundreds of thousands of other pieces of legislation needing written up, most likely dragging on for a decade, will that legislation be in place in time for me to start my next job?

When you realise how vague and uncertain the so-called benefits are, only a fool would take the hit of all the downsides.

And so with the UK in turmoil, but my spine back to 95% of where it was, the time came around to get back on the touring bike! I flew via Berlin for a few days, and then through Moscow Airport to Osh in Kyrgyzstan, the nearest biggish International Airport to Margilan in the Fergana Valley where I had left my bike and much of my gear. I was ready to restart my adventure!