Pedal to Paris

Just as the training is going ahead well, and the weight is coming down - 98k - I get an injury. I don't know exactly what it is but I got a pain behind my right knee as I was riding home from work on Friday. My wife is a nurse (ENP in A&E - That's an Emergency Nurse practioner in Accident and Emergency)she examined it an saw that the muscle at the back was swollen. No pain when pressed and it is only muscle damage but I have no idea how I did it. So it's rest it for the weekend and see how it does. There's no pain now after one days rest so after two it should be fine.

The trainings going well, I've now started the commute both ways. It's a great ride in the mornings riding before the traffic builds up too much. Took just 1hr 35min on the first ride in. I aim to get that dwn to about 1hr 15min. My weight is now down to 98.3K. the lowest it's been in about 10 or 11 years. I feel great and I really look forward to the rides. Next thing to do is find a local group to join in some rides with and get used to riding with others.

The day after I rode to Acipino I drove the road going to Setenil, it was scary in a car seeing how steep it was, it didn't seem so bad on the bike. If I driven over before riding I may never have gone.

Just back from a weeks holiday in Spain. We went to Ronda in Andalucia. A beautiful mountainous area. I hired a bike for my time there; didn't want to chance my bike in the hold of the plane. Went riding most days, near to where we were staying was a place called Ronda de la Vieja, also known as Acipino - a Roman site on top of a mountain. It's at 1001 metres so it is a mountain, just. I decided I would ride up. A trip of about 16 kilometres 12 of them uphill. I managed it even if it did take an hour and forty minutes to get there. My first mountain!. Only took 40 minutes to come down although I was braking a lot as I didn't want to go over the edge. The riding also gave me a chance to do several long climbs - over 4 kilometres. Theres not many climbs around Watford of that sort of length. The drivers are great over there when it comes to cyclists, very aware and give lots of room. I'll upload some pictures.
Got my weight down below 100k now and I've started the full commute. 20 miles in in the morning and then 20 miles home in the evening. Unsurprisingly I'm tired and going to bed early.
While I was away my computer crashed, completely, so it's gone in for repair and I'm using a loan model. Also lost all my files including all the files I'd saved for my website so I may have to start again.....

Finally started the commuting; Kennington to home in Watford.It's about 20 miles, took me 1hr 43mins. But this was the first time and it was home at the end of a work day. I rode to the station at Watford in the morning, then train to Euston and cycle to Kennington. Once it gets light a bit earlier I'll start the cycle both ways. 40 miles a day seems a good way to build up the miles.
I now need to find a group to ride with at the weekends to get used to group riding and get the speed up.