Over the border...

dkahn400 said:

MartinM said:

Quick RR; seemed like a good idea at the time...

Great ride report. It made me feel chilly just to read it. Well done
for getting through it (I lied when I said it was flat). These things
are anyway much harder as perms than calendar events IMX.
Commiserations to Blonde and Mseries. I hope Blonde is not too badly
battered from those falls, and wish her a speedy recovery.

--
Dave...

MSeries & Blonde rode a bit further north from Eskdalemuir then sat and
had a conflab and Eccles Cake. We decided to turn back and find a
hotel/B&B. We stopped at the Tibeten Centre for more food and drink
then headed back to Langholm, about 12 miles south. Blondes knee was
giving her serious gyp, not the fall but the cold and wet, shes had it
a few times before. By this stage we had done 400km since we did 63 to
get to Thorne, and we did it in 27 hours too but with no proof :-(.
Blondes spirits were very low, she really wasn't enjoying the ride,
fair to say I wasn't too. We found a lovely B&B in Langholme, Border
B&B, the props. were great, took our bikes into the garage and let us
pay and register the next day. After a fish supper we were asleep by
20:30 and up for a 09:00 breakfast on Sunday. Less than 50km on Sunday
to our £10 Travelodge on the M6 at Southwaite and more sleep after a
Sunday roast at Morrisons. Monday we planned to ride home but the rain
didn't raise the spirits, and Blondes leg was still painful, so we
headed to Appleby to get a train, however there is engineering works
this week and no trains north of Long Preston so we were force to ride
to there. Blondes knee was still painful so we rode very slowly in the
pouring rain over some of the best scenary in the north of England
which was hiding behind the clouds and mist. Via Kirkby Stephen, Hawes,
Ribblehead and Settle, 90 miles of pain and rain. We only just made the
18:06 train to Leeds, very wet, very cold and very down. I am
dissappointed I didn't get the brevet for the Thorne - Edinburgh but
needs must, I still did 620km for the weekend, Friday afternoon to
Monday evening, feel quite good physically, got a sore throat, thats
all.

I am doing Spurn Head at the weekend, Blonde was having second thoughts
as once her knee flares up it takes weeks to calm down again. She is
bitterly dissappointed that she might not get her first SR Series this
year and might not be able to do long rides if the weather is cold and
wet.

I'd still like to do the ride to Edinburgh again, maybe a 2 day CC tour
- anyone ?

MartinM said:

(which I assume is where the ski lifts
MSeries referred to are).

I was referring to the rope tow on Yad Moss, didn't you see it ? Next
time !!!

MSeries said:

Blondes knee was still painful so we rode very slowly in the
pouring rain over some of the best scenary in the north of England
which was hiding behind the clouds and mist. Via Kirkby Stephen, Hawes,
Ribblehead and Settle, 90 miles of pain and rain. We only just made the
18:06 train to Leeds, very wet, very cold and very down. I am
dissappointed I didn't get the brevet for the Thorne - Edinburgh but
needs must, I still did 620km for the weekend, Friday afternoon to
Monday evening, feel quite good physically, got a sore throat, thats
all.

I know how you feel, having been out of time on a very hilly 400 perm
last year, and having actually got there after covering 470.

Quoted message said:

I am doing Spurn Head at the weekend, Blonde was having second thoughts
as once her knee flares up it takes weeks to calm down again. She is
bitterly dissappointed that she might not get her first SR Series this
year and might not be able to do long rides if the weather is cold and
wet.

It's only May so it's too early to throw in the towel yet. I'd suggest
she keeps the knee warm when riding, maybe lowers the saddle a tad, and
is very gentle with it. She may be able to do a surprising amount while
nursing it along. A sports therapist or physio might be able to give
her some exercises to strengthen specific leg muscles and help
stabilise the joint. That's more or less what I did last year when mine
was bad. I also iced it in the evenings.

I hope she recovers soon in any event.

--
Dave...

MSeries said:

MartinM said:

(which I assume is where the ski lifts
MSeries referred to are).

I was referring to the rope tow on Yad Moss, didn't you see it ? Next
time !!!

hey, you're back, how did it go?

(no didn't notice the rope tow, there was a sort of grass skiing tow
thingy with tracks down somewhere around Ettrick)

MSeries wrote:

snip heroic tale

Quoted message said:

I'd still like to do the ride to Edinburgh again, maybe a 2 day CC tour
- anyone ?

yes one day, but not in the next couple of years. Chapeau to you both
for getting back; makes scrabbling round Edinburgh airport for
polythene seem like a holiday; especially to Blonde after those two
nasty prangs.

FWIW my knee was glowing a lot by the end; I also need a couple of
weeks without two zero's at the end of each ride.

On 16 May 2006 08:31:17 -0700, "MSeries" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Blonde was having second thoughts
as once her knee flares up it takes weeks to calm down again.

I, too, have a manky knee that has the potential to cause quite a bit
of pain. After reading articles in VeloVision and elsewhere about
significantly shorter cranks helping to (amongst other things)
alleviate knee problems I'm currently experimenting with some
adjustable shorteners. They are really helping, might that be
something for Blonde to consider?

I'm doing a lot of tweaking of both crank length and boom extension
(recumbent bike) and have been surprised how even small adjustments
make a big difference to how happy my knee is - 125mm crank length
good, 120mm bad.

I'm not done playing yet but already the improvement is huge, and has
been very worthwhile.

Knees being what they are I suppose there's no guarantee that short
cranks will help in Blondes case, but if she's looking for a solution
it must be worth consideration.

"Bob"
--

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