We drove back from Scotland on Saturday and I had a clear plan in my head to do at least 50 miles on Sunday but my knee was playing up (my knee gives me pain if I walk or drive and we did lots of both while away) so I didn’t expect to manage much more so decided to stick close to home so I could easily cut it short if needs must.
Set off in glorious sunshine in the morning and soon caught myself speeding up to catch a cyclist I spotted a few hundred yards ahead. Caught up with him intending to have a chat to find he had earphones in and was choosing to ignore my attempt to strike up a conversation but was happy to streamline me so I left him for dust as soon as the road started to incline.
Did my standard 31 mile route first of all and got a puncture around the 23 mile point. Not impressed at this as was on the same stretch of road as my last puncture and yet again it was from flint, this time a small piece which got through the tyre. I was attacked by some huge bug which decided I was breakfast whilst I was fixing the puncture and despite my dancing around slapping my knees like I was in the Austrian Schuhplattling championship I think he got away with it to.
Took me a while to change the tube and when I got home I also took a bit of a longer tea brake than normal as I packed a replacement tube and pumped the tyre up to full pressure.
Fruit, Twix and Red Bull later I headed back out in the direction of Frensham Pond, was amazed to see the river bank crowded with families enjoying the cool of the river as I passed Tilford Green for the second time and there must have been at least 400 people at Frensham Pond when I got there. Having done 50 miles as I approached Elstead Green for the second time I was aware of my knee now being a bit numb (I see this as a good thing as its not painful) so could possibly extend the target to 70 miles but was low on fluids so I stopped at Spar next to the Green to get supplies. There is a tree with a bench built around its trunk there so I sat in the shade for 10 minutes whilst enjoying my treat of a Mars Milk and a Pastie. The last 20 miles where pretty hard going as my knee had decided to let me know it was not happy so I concentrated on mainly using my left leg for the last 10 miles.
Got home pretty exhausted but feeling great at the same time for going the extra distance. My bad knee and the muscles in both legs felt like they were burning so having seen lots of sports people have ice baths I ran a cold bath after having a shower and submerged my legs (shiver) for 12 minutes. Once in it was actually quite pleasant and I think it helped as the burning stopped and my knee seemed to ease a bit.
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