Glad to hear you're ok Stu
Well, today was my first full club run for 5 weeks (I did manage Merstham and back last week) since the surgeons cartilage chomper was stuck into my knee, and boy did I feel it - the club run not the cartilage chomper
Decided to jump straight in at the deep end and took the first of the two 16 groups. I have managed a couple of turbo's over the last couple of weeks so I never imagined that I would find this first ride back so knackering , almost not making the last couple of miles home, literally crawling through my front door and jumping into bed for an hour
A good group of 10 stayed together for the most part, only splitting on the inclines which was fine as we regrouped straight after. This worked well as the group had a wide range of ability, from a good 3rd cat racer (Kevin) to a newby 2nd time out (sorry didn't catch your name) who was very pleased at pushing himself to his limit up the climbs.
I was pleased with my knee except for a small pop halfway up the steps, which then presented itself every time I got out of the saddle on the drags. The physio had told me not to worry about pops and clicks so I tried to forget about it and carry on as normal. Easier said than done
Conner turned off at Partridge lane and another turned around and headed for home (Geraldine's husband I think- sorry if I'm wrong). This left 8 of us to take the Lambs Green route to the cafe. On to the sprint road and I decided that I would have a go at a little sprint just to see how the knee was. Obviously I didn't want to do anything silly but I did want to get a 'feel' of how the knee reacted to a bit of power through it. Kevin had made an early breakaway with a couple of other guys, gaining 30m or so. I upped the pace and caught them with no problems so far. I pulled alongside Kevin and stood up on the pedals to start sprinting and sat straight back down again Me thinks sprinting is a long way off yet.
Lovely bit of cake and a cup of tea and it was back on the bike again. Me and Brian did a bit of work at the front and I was feeling not too bad until the climb through the golf course, where it felt like my legs had fallen off and someone had put my Nan's legs back on (where did that come from?) Anyway, whoever's legs they were they got me home - just.
Roll on next week
Steve