I wanted to do 26 or so, but I ended up planning a 30 mile route through Sutton Bonington and back, same as I did two weeks ago. I reasoned that the relatively low elevation of this route, with long flat stretches, merited a few more miles.
Quite a sunny day when I set off, so I took the Spesh. I also wanted to calibrate its new bike computer. I still haven’t flipped the stem, but I seem to have got used to it and the lower bars were no trouble at all. Will probably leave it.
Once again, cold. I wore warm clothing with two leg layers, and my hijab. It does a brilliant job of keeping ears warm, and keeping wind noise off my earphones. Had to contend with a stiff, chill headwind for the first half, going in a NE direction. But on the return half of course that disappeared, and I warmed up nicely. I did pick up a few spots of rain coming through the University campus, though.
Had intended to go up to Ratcliffe on Soar, but on a whim I took a left to Kegworth instead. Not that interesting really but I don’t think I’d been to that part of Kegworth. Anyway – I turned round at that point, and came back the same way.
Annoyingly I forgot to start the Strava app when I set off, and only remembered after about .14 miles. I may upload a dummy .14 ‘prequel’ track to Strava to keep it honest. I like my Strava stats to match my spreadsheet.
Over the recorded track, my new bike computer registered 29.76 miles, whereas the Android Strava app (which is pretty accurate I think) registered 29.68. The bike computer is set to a circumference of 210cm, and my maths tells me that if I’d set it to 209, it would have registered 29.62 – which is only slightly more accurate, but I suppose I’ll do that. Good enough either way really. But it’s a shame you can’t set it in millimetres, like the cheap Chinese one I have on the X.
It is, as of today, one year since I buggered my knees while cycling, on a trip to Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire and back. In that time, including today, I’ve done 1950 miles – which is way below what I’d consider my usual yearly average, but I do think things are improving and I was pleased with the way my knees coped with today’s 29.81. Even pushing relatively firmly up the climb through Thringstone didn’t cause any trauma. For sure the exercises I got from the second physio have made the biggest difference.
Anyhoo – that takes me to 796 this year. It also gets me my “British Cycling Ride Seven Challenge” badge, for doing 7 hrs riding between 8-21 April. In fact it looks like I’ve done 7 hrs exactly in that time, by coincidence – I honestly didn’t contrive it. Nice.
The weather is slated to warm up quite a bit this coming week, with 20 C forecast for Friday. Good times!