The ride numbers are gone! As promised once I passed 100 rides I would drop them. They just don’t have any significance any more.
Why is it my first climb in 7 weeks, well, on the 1st of Jan 2012 I started running again and did not want to add more to the weakness in my knees, the reason I had been resting since August last year from running. Well, now that I have confirmed I can no longer run without damaging my knees I have stopped running. It has taken a few weeks for my knees to recover from the ordeal, and in fact I still have slight swelling in my right knee, I am going to start training on some climbs. Starting at the place I first climbed a cat 4 climb, the Veloway from Darlington to Majors Road next to the Southern Expressway. I first had to get to Darlington to start this climb and chose to travel down the veloway from Panalatinga Rd. This part of the ride in itself contains a category 4 climb, more for its length than its height.
I have recently been learning to spin more and wondered how this would effect my times. I followed a rider most of the way down to the Darlington bollards before stopping for a quick drink and heading back. The first part of the climb seemed to be going ok but left me feeling more tired than expected. I increased my pace using gears as the veloway swung away from the Southern Expressway while maintaining a cadence of around 75 rpm. I felt to tired to keep my cadence any higher than this! I dropped the gears back down on the next steep section passing the little hut on the right as we drew close to the Southern Expressway once again. The climb at this point seems relentless and as we swing away from the Southern Expressway once again the incline increases even further! RING, RING, RING, dam, the phone starts ringing, I can’t ignore it so I stop to take an urgent call from Lynn. It was then tough to get rolling again on the bike but off I went. What I lost in slowing to a stop and starting off again I think was offset by the recovery over the 2 mins on the phone but alas my time was ordinary anyway. The main segment I measure on is the Strava segment “Darlington Bollards to Majors Rd“, this I did my 6th best time on, in fact worse than my 31st Oct 2011 ride, some 24 seconds slower. I have ridden up the veloway from Marion road some 25 times now and today was the first time I have actually stopped before reaching the top. As the timer automatically pauses when you stop it does not take into account the stoppage!
My conclusion is that I did not perform well this morning and need to do some more climbing. My knee feels alright after this mornings ride but I don’t want to overdo it before a full recovery.
Tomorrow I have the car in for a service and end of warranty check so I will have a few hours to spare and intend on going for a longer spin. We shall see tomorrow 
DETAILS:
- Start time: 5:55 am
- Distance: 21.8 km
- Riding time: 54m54s
- Av Pace: 2m31s/km
- Av Speed: 23.8 kph
- Av/Max HR: 129/154 bpm
- Av Cadence: 70 rpm
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