After an (almost) unprecedented rest day yesterday, this morning rolled around.  Waking up for the second day running feeling like an OAP as my joints creaked and ached and in some cases, hurt.  Oddly enough – not my legs…my arms and fingers!  Anyway, the plan had been to go and cycle gently at the gym for a couple of hours to ease my legs back in but, looking out of the window, the sun was shining and there was no wind.  Now, it would nigh on criminal to waste a day like that, especially when they’re so few and far between so…that was it.  Cycling kit on, decision made.

I planned myself as flat a route as possible and set off at a leisurely pace, fully expecting pain and strife with it but…apparently not.

Cycling time: 2:06:53
Distance: 34.35 miles
Avs: 16.1 mph
ODO: 708 miles

After 1:20 my average was 16.6mph, after which the route got marginally hillier, and clearly I slowed down a bit.  Still – the overall average was faster than usual!  Not your usual recovery ride then.  At that point the “taking it easy” went by the by, as I got sucked into trying to keep that average up, so I pushed it for the last chunk home.  I know, I know – very juvenile.  But fun.   I also practiced the “look ma no hands” bit on the long straight stretch near Burtle – it’s amazing how much easier that is on this bike than the old one.  Other than that, I spent a lot of time on the drops because it was more comfortable that way, and my left shoulder blade thing cut in with a vengeance early on and stayed there – which probably shows that I’ve not recovered completely yet.   However, for a ride only two days after that one, it went pretty well I think 🙂