The knee problem has dealt a killer blow to Matt's Tour of Wessex.
There will be only a few opportunities for more big rides before leaving for France so the ToW with 3x110 mile plus days each with 2-3 kilometres of vertical ascent was intended to be the last mega-workout to build and cement the riders' fitness. Unfortunately Matt was forced to stay at home to ice his knee and feast on naproxen capsules while Nick, Michelle and Bruce went to the ToW over the bank holiday weekend without him. He elected to continue training on the turbo but with high cadence (pedalling fast) and low load as he is rather optimistically trying to maintain his cardiovascular fitness and leg strength without overstraining his knee. This a very fine balancing act as he needs to be fit, strong and recovered by June 22nd so there is only one month to go. He has had help from his physiotherapist and from Tim at the bike shop where they are working on his pedalling by adding wedges and using cleats with more "float". For those who are non cyclists cleats are plastic connectors on the soles of cycling shoes - they are the things that make cyclist walk with their bottom sticking out and click with every footstep. To use cleats all cyclists are required to go through a humiliating initiation ritual at least once where they must make a dramatic stop in front of a large group of people at traffic lights, or a junction, or ideally in front of a bus queue and then fall over for no obvious reason (but actually because they have forgotten to release their feet from the pedals). Non-cyclists find this behaviour incredible and some actually laugh out loud. The cleats fix the shoe and maintain contact between the foot and the pedal enabling the user to apply pressure throughout the whole pedal cycle, even during the upstroke, where the pedal can actually be lifted on one side to aid the downstroke on the other. Unfortunately, by fixing the foot to the pedal Matt's cleats may also be reducing the mobility of his lower leg resulting in knee strain causing pain and it is for this reason his physio has suggested using cleats that allow more rotation between the foot and the pedal.
There will be only a few opportunities for more big rides before leaving for France so the ToW with 3x110 mile plus days each with 2-3 kilometres of vertical ascent was intended to be the last mega-workout to build and cement the riders' fitness. Unfortunately Matt was forced to stay at home to ice his knee and feast on naproxen capsules while Nick, Michelle and Bruce went to the ToW over the bank holiday weekend without him. He elected to continue training on the turbo but with high cadence (pedalling fast) and low load as he is rather optimistically trying to maintain his cardiovascular fitness and leg strength without overstraining his knee. This a very fine balancing act as he needs to be fit, strong and recovered by June 22nd so there is only one month to go. He has had help from his physiotherapist and from Tim at the bike shop where they are working on his pedalling by adding wedges and using cleats with more "float". For those who are non cyclists cleats are plastic connectors on the soles of cycling shoes - they are the things that make cyclist walk with their bottom sticking out and click with every footstep. To use cleats all cyclists are required to go through a humiliating initiation ritual at least once where they must make a dramatic stop in front of a large group of people at traffic lights, or a junction, or ideally in front of a bus queue and then fall over for no obvious reason (but actually because they have forgotten to release their feet from the pedals). Non-cyclists find this behaviour incredible and some actually laugh out loud. The cleats fix the shoe and maintain contact between the foot and the pedal enabling the user to apply pressure throughout the whole pedal cycle, even during the upstroke, where the pedal can actually be lifted on one side to aid the downstroke on the other. Unfortunately, by fixing the foot to the pedal Matt's cleats may also be reducing the mobility of his lower leg resulting in knee strain causing pain and it is for this reason his physio has suggested using cleats that allow more rotation between the foot and the pedal.
Over the weekend Matt and Sarah have collected more prizes for the raffle on pub quiz night. It is amazing how generous local shops have been. The prizes include a night in a Premier Inn, restaurant vouchers, Adnams vouchers, luggage, a ladies bowling ball and 2 tickets to an Ollie Murs concert, plus more.
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