Last night I plotted a route that would take me through Measham, west of Ashby to a village called Linton, then back from there a different way – a 24 mile rectagonal-ish route.
I took the Planet X. I’m pleased to report that the apparent problem with the new left pedal turned out to be a problem with the left cleat on my Muddy Fox shoes – a large chunk of it had snapped or worn off. Will re-cleat it later, I wore my Shimanos today.
A bit cold and blowy and once again I hadn’t wrapped up warm enough. But I was delighted to find that I experienced only minimal knee discomfort throughout. My physio has given me some slightly more brutal versions of my exercises to do and I did some of them half an hour before starting. I think that may have made a significant difference.
So anyway – out through Heather, Swepstone, straight on to Measham and along Burton Road. It’s quite rare for me to come out this way, possibly because it’s a bit more hilly than my usual routes. I took it very easy in order to preserve my knees.
I took a wrong turn after about 9 miles, which took me off through Netherseal. But I didn’t mind as this would have added only about half a mile onto my ride, and it was easy to get back on to the route proper a mile later. Unfortunately just as I’d rejoined the route I took another wrong turn, though I didn’t realise this until I checked Google Maps to find that I’d cut right across to the “other side” of my route, in a considerable short cut. So from that point I made up my own route home, hoping to add a few miles back on – to Moira, through Willesley Woods which was rather pleasant, to Ashby, through the town centre there and back home along Ashby Road.
The sun came out for the last 7 or 8 miles, and I warmed up a bit.
Nice change. 21.63 miles, a couple short of my intended target but good enough. And that takes me to 219 miles in March, which is over target and more than I’ve done in a calendar month since May.
I used the GPS Logger app to track my ride – it worked very nicely.
https://www.strava.com/activities/2234418240
For some reason my cycle trips west of Ashby can coincide with someone famous shuffling off this mortal coil. I suppose Tusk or Juncker are too much to hope for?