Yes, I’ve been a bit absent here – the back issues have been a pest, although it’s now beginning to seem more likely that they are now not back issues (they were definitely back issues last year and the year before) but have become knee issues. The problems morphed a bit but were still somewhat similar to back issue symptoms, but a recent MRI shows my knee is a little bit toast. This seems more likely trauma (an MTB accident three years ago) than arthritis. I suppose that’s good?

I’ve been back on the turbo for a while, and back to strength training. I’ve been doing mobility work as well and that seems to be paying off in that I definitely have more mobility (dynamic cyclist program – not sponsored, not an ad, I just like it).

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I went, I rode. I dithered the night before, worrying whether I’d be fit enough etc etc. I decided to drop from the 100k to the 50k, from some caution – I haven’t ridden for much more than an hour, even on the turbo, this year. I don’t think I’ve ridden more then 30km or so either, so 50k seemed a manageable increase, whereas 100k was possibly overdoing it.

In the morning, my wrist ached and I was clearly trying to talk myself out of the whole thing. But I got up, I went (I forgot a pen, as usual).

The ride was lovely – helps that the weather was good, a clear spring morning – and I started to think that 100k would have been fine. I got to the end feeling fine, too. So, maybe I could have done 100k.

Note to self: do not forget how much you like being out on the bike.

On balance, I would rather feel like this – fine, thinking I could have done more, than tried more and realised my limit was somewhere around 75k and then wiping myself out to do the last 25k.

The Wahoo Roam is toast, though. Blew through 50% of the battery in 54k and 3.5 hours – the 17 hour battery life seems to have been lost during covid. It’s a Roam v1; some research on DC Rainmaker etc suggests that the v2 (from late 2022) isn’t significantly different or better. I miss the food/drink alerts of Garmin (I ate half a thin bagel, drank an espresso and ⅔ of a bottle of Torq hydration, during the ride. Not.Enough).

So I’ve ordered an Edge 1040 – it’s got a larger screen and a much longer battery life. Looks like I’m back to cycling, although this may be a bit optimistic with the knee surgeon appointment tomorrow. The knee behaved fine on this, thankfully. Wrist was also ok, after the morning dithering.