Friday 1 June 2012

An unexpected entry (Juneathon day 1)

I wasn't going to take part in Juneathon due to ongoing hamstring problems that make running very difficult. However, completely by chance during a post-parkrun conversation a few Saturday's ago, a friend of mine kindly offered to let me borrow his mountain bike.

If I understand these things correctly, the bike should put less pressure my hamstrings than running does, and all being well I should be able to get out there on the bike almost every day.

A week later we were loading the bike into my car.

The first thing I did was buy myself a helmet, and then I went out for a test ride. I told the wife that I would be back in ten minutes, but I got carried away and finally arrived back home forty minutes later. I had forgotten how much I used to love riding my bike as a youngster.

That was a couple of days ago. I notched up 10.4km and my legs felt fine the next day.

I am fairly nervous about is riding in the road. When I say nervous, I don't mean that I am a nervous rider. I just feel like a sitting duck, waiting to be taken out by some impatient c*ck.

Fortunately, there are a few cycle paths in and around Tonbridge - although they do randomly end and then re-appear 100 metres down the road, but I can work with that. There is also a five mile cycle path that runs from Tonbridge to Penshurst place, which I have walked before and is very scenic. I will add that to the list of possible routes.

The plan is to do most of my Juneathon exercise on the bike. Albeit fairly low distances and intensity.

I will still be running during Juneathon, but that will revolve almost exclusively around parkrun.

Any sign of hamstring trouble and I'll stop all exercise that involves the legs and probably knock out some upper body exercises instead. If that fails then I'll roll out the excuses!

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Day 1 was a fairly simple out and back ride along the cycle path leads towards Hildenborough. The way out is slightly downhill, which obviously meant that the way back was uphill. And yes, the thighs were burning!

Juneathon 2012, day 1: Cycling - 7.2km (28 minutes)

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