Woke up feeling terrible this morning, apparently stricken by some low level debilitating virus. Which is good, because it explains why I felt rough after about 50 miles on Saturday.
However having done only one ride so far this month I thought I should at least do 20 miles or so, on a decent weather day. And I wanted to see how my knees would do after a 70 miler at the weekend. So I set off on a Twycrosser this afternoon, intending to do the original, 22 mile version. But as I got to Sheepy I seemed to be doing OK so I pressed on to Ratcliffe Culey and cut across to Sibson. Came back along Gibbet Lane. Extended the ride slightly by opting to come home through Burgoland and Swepstone, and ended up doing 25.96 miles which takes me to a reasonable 96 this month.
I took the Cannondale for a change. I should use it more often. Of all my bikes it’s the one that suits me the best, I think.
A cool, cloudy day and I was comfortable enough, but had to wear a couple of layers on top and cover up my legs. Back in tights already. It looks like the weather might perk up a bit for the weekend, though.
The knees did feel a bit tender over the last 7 or 8 miles. Probably needed longer to recover from the 70 miler at the weekend. I think they’ll continue to improve. But who knows?
Decent weather today. Wanted to do a Fondo, and weather conditions, with
the wind coming from the NE unusually, seemed to dictate a trip out
East. Additionally, I thought it might be nice to do Rutland and back as
a sort of sentimental Fondo homecoming, since that was the first
longish ride I did in my current cycling career, back in 2016.
I
chose a different route from that one though, consisting partly of the
newish route over to Six Hills, and partly a brand new stretch that
bypasses Melton Mowbray to the south, going through places called Great
Dalby and Little Dalby but arriving at the same point of entry into
Rutland along Whissendine Road.
Decent weather, cloudy but dry. A
bit cool. I wrapped up warm on top but wore shorts. Hoped conditions
might warm up a bit later on but they didn’t really, or not by much
anyway. Would have been better off in tights. The sun came out for a bit
once or twice. The wind was a bit annoying for the first half of the
ride.
Anyway, a thoroughly enjoyable run out overall.
Started
feeling a bit rough on the way back after about 50 miles. I didn’t feel
that great when I woke up this morning; the fallout from immoderate
vodka inhalation on holiday I’m afraid. I shall stay off the sauce for a
couple of weeks then go back to the occasional beer now and then. So
although I’d planned to stick to a pork pie and an oat bar on benches in
villages, I stopped at the pub in Burton on the Wolds again and had a
crusty ham baguette with fries. A 25 minute rest stop did me good.
The
lady in the photograph below has just emerged from the pub to ask me if
I want white or brown bread, having forgotten to do so when I ordered
it.
My
right knee, which is the troublesome one and the only one I bothered to
have scanned, held up quite well. Unfortunately the left one was quite
painful after 60 miles or so. Not the stabby, irritated pain though,
more a sort of arthritic pain. I have some way to go before I’ll be able
to do 100 milers again.
By coming back through Coleorton I thought I’d probably have extended the ride just enough to make it 70 miles but nope, 69.98.
Listened
to my Beatles bio audiobook (handy for a long ride because the
rechargeable battery in the MP3 player goes for many hours), then 5 Live
on a DAB. Then when the battery in that conked out, for the last 20
miles or so, I listened to Level 42 and Badu on my phone. I have a 256G
card in there with all my MP3s.
I’d uploaded the route to my
eTrex yesterday because of the unfamiliar part near the Rutland end, but
when I switched it on it didn’t seem to be there. Annoying. Had to rely
on the phone for navigation for a few miles in the most distant part of
the ride to and from the destination, but that wasn’t too arduous.
So
I grabbed my Foretrex 320 for track recording and the battery on that
conked out after Great Dalby, annoyingly. But I’d already started
recording the track on my phone’s Strava App 10 minutes earlier, luckily
– so I could follow the route I’d set up on Strava. So I ended up
editing and stitching the eventual track together from the two devices.
