Back at it

Thankfully, my twingy knee sorted itself out in the course of the week and, bizarrely, walking/running only seemed to help. A 7km walk/run on both Monday and Tuesday including some hills and then a 'proper' 11km run on Wednesday were no problem at all which was quite a relief. Although the weather was very cold, no more snow has fallen which left the ground firm and excellent to run onOn Thursday, I made the 3 hr round trip down to Thuir near Perpignan for my appointment with my most excellent osteopath, Sebastian Roles. He declared that my right knee showed no signs of ligament damage and that I would be OK to hop back onto the bike again - hurrah! Whilst I was there, he gave my right leg a general going over and successfully released some very tight muscles. I have been instructed to work on strengthening my VMO (Vastus Medialis Obliquus aka the muscles that run up the inside of the leg just above the knee) in order to counterbalance my very strong lateral muscles. I am back on track again!

Whilst I was down in the Languedoc, it seemed silly not to stock up on wine, so I popped into the Cave des Vignerons in Estagel which sells many of the delicious Côtes d'Agly wines and spent a little bit more than I had intended on some gorgeous reds and a few bottles of my favourite aperitif, Muscat de Rivesaltes and also a Rivesaltes Tuilé which I have not tried before. After yesterday evening's sampling, I can confirm that is very scrummy!

Yesterday, I was quite excited about jumping back on the roadie after 2 weeks off. It is now equipped with my new Charge ladle saddle, my cleats have been properly adjusted and I have new Gore Bikewear long pants so I was ready to rock and roll. The first 30kms was a joy, I was riding strong and had no niggles or pains at all. Fantastic! But then the headwind kicked in. I say headwind but it seemed to be coming from all directions and, being a dinky lady, it almost brought me to a halt on a couple of occasions. Hard, hard going, despite Andy's efforts to shield me. I was exhausted when we eventually made it home. Full stats on the usual site. But my knee was fine which was the important thing. So the proper training starts here. Bring it on!