We’ve both had some knee issues over the last few weeks – Audrey’s more acute problems appeared at the end of our last ride and I’ve had some less serious niggling pain which was probably caused by incorrect cleat positioning when I started using the SPD pedals; my left foot apparently wants to be angled out several degrees when pedalling, which I’d never noticed before – something about attaching your feet to the pedals concentrates the attention on such details.

To try to get back to full knee health (well, as full health as our knees ever get, which like most people older than 23 is simply “not hurting too much”, bloody knees) we’ve taken a couple of weeks off from major bike rides. This enforced break serendipitously coincided with a week in Devon, which included plenty of walking, hot tubbing, relaxing and actually having enough sleep. All of which feels like it helped but who’s to know without following the latest in sports injury recovery methods… Heat? Cold? Rest? Activity? No idea. But still, this:

For today’s ride, we wanted a relaxed pace and modest distance with an easy escape route home in case of knee trouble. With this in mind, we decided to cycle to Battersea Park and do a few laps there. Both the park and our route there are pretty much pancake flat, and the park’s 2 mile loop meant we could make the ride whatever length we wanted – subject to boredom, tiredness or pain. It also meant that we’re never more than six flat miles from home, meeting our easy escape criteria.

Heading up the Wandle Trail to Earlsfield on the way there, we noticed its new surface has been completed with what seems to be a tightly bonded rough gravel layer now adhered to the tarmac laid a few weeks back. Unfortunately there’s a large amount of loose gravel left on top which, whether intentional or not, makes for rather hairy cycling as you’re constantly worrying the gravel will slip and take your wheel with it, particularly on the bends. Will be contacting Sustrans (who have been doing the surfacing work) to see if they can clear this up as they assured me the finished surface would be great for cycling.

Overall it was a pretty uneventful ride, four laps of Battersea Park for a total of 20.3 miles at an average speed of 10.4mph, gentle as we intended. More importantly, Audrey had no problems with her knees and mine were feeling better than they have in a while. We’ll try and get a couple of rides like this in each week, until we start our formal training plan* in early May, once I’m done with my extra-curricular half marathon.

*doesn’t yet exist

NO ZERO-SPEED FALLING-OVER DUE TO CLEAT ISSUES FOR MARK! Ahem… Hopefully that is a sign of things to come, I’m finally getting some confidence about clipping in and out quickly and anticipating well when I need to click out. Fingers crossed.

Just before we got home, Audrey suffered the first Team Sheep puncture, caused by an unidentified small sharp thing going through her tyre (Sustrans’ finest gravel, perchance?). Luckily as we were close to home we didn’t have to do a roadside fix, so as punctures go, not a major problem. It might be worth us investigating new tyres with slightly more puncture protection for Audrey’s bike. I use Vittoria Randonneurs on both my hybrid and road bikes which seem to be fairly bullet proof, whereas Audrey is using the decent but not super tough Bontrager Select Invert tyres supplied with her bike.

Overall ride summary:

• Distance: 20.3 miles
• Elevation gain: 517ft
• Average moving speed: 10.4mph
• Time: 2h00m moving, 2h44m total
• Total punctures to date – Mark: 0, Audrey: 1
• Total training miles to date – Mark: 220.0 miles, Audrey: 203.7 miles