Day 4 - Strontian to Gartness

After waking up after the previously horrendous day's riding my first thoughts were for the state of my knee and whether or not I could carry on, and if so could I do the 103mile route that was planned for today. To be honest it hurt like hell. It wasn't swollen which I took as a good sign but even walking was painful. Perhaps it would loosen up though? perhaps some ibuprofen for any inflammation and pain relief would help? I got up as normal and decided to go through the normal ritual of the 0630 energy drink and two energy gels to make sure I get as much carbohydrate in me as possible in the hour before the start of the exercise (I'm not joking, it's really hard to stomach that stuff at that time in the morning but it's important that it happens), before having some normal breakfast, checking the bike over and packing the bags etc. During breakfast I noticed that the cleat on the bottom of my right shoe (the thing that clips me to the pedals so that I'm physically attached to the bike) was twisted, and by a hell of a lot. It was a chance find and only because my shoes were so wet the day before that they were propped up against the radiator exposing the soles. If this was the cause of the knee pain then it would mean that'd spent at least the last two, possibly three days with a slightly twisted right leg. Not enough to tell straight away but plenty enough to cause problem for a repetitive movement over 300+ miles. Perhaps just straightening the cleat could solve the problem?

At this point a decision needs to be made about whether to go or not. My thinking was that to wipe out an entire day without trying was a complete waste whereas if I started and had to give up after a certain distance I could always pick things up from that point the next day without having to reride the entire leg again. It would require alterations to the planning to catch up the days on other legs (or changing the stop overs and increasing the distances between them) if I were to try and stick to the original target of finishing in 14 days. Aside from a few lost deposits it would be possible but it would rely on me being fit enough to cope with these extended days and keeping the immediate recovery time to the absolute minimum. There was no guarantees on either of those

No, it's better to press on now and see how things feel on the bike rather than just from the bunkhouse. The route allowed for several obvious decision points about whether to proceed or not so I shouldn't be stranded too far from civilisation should the worst happen.

The first 15 miles or so were pretty bad as the road I finished on the day continued its undulating way all the way to the Corran Ferry, each hill putting pressure on the knee. Here there would be a natural beak in the riding whilst we waited for the ferry and took the 4 minute crossing over the Corran Narrows. Whilst bad, I felt that I could carry on as long as it didn't get much worse and with the next decision point at Glencoe only about 8 miles away it wasn't too far if things did get worse. After a couple of ibuprofen we carried on and by the time we we reached Glencoe the severe pain had stopped and had become something closer to the dull ache I'd had the previous few days. The next decision point was much further away in Tyndrum the opposite side of the Glencoe mountains and Rannoch moor. A distance of perhaps 30 miles or so with some quite substantial climbing thrown in. At least the wind was now behind us and with the knee feeling a bit better the decision was made to go for it. It went surprisingly well. The weather was good, the knee continued to make it's presences felt but not unbearably so, and the tail wind allowed us to make speedy progress on the flat. For those of you that haven't been to this part of the world, go. It's stunning. Quite touristy but it's easy to see why. Some of the descents were spectacular. I think at one point we didn't have to pedal at all for perhaps 3 miles or so. Amazing stuff and it left me wanting to come back with my race bike with sticky tyres and no panniers etc to have another go.

At Tyndrum we stopped for some lunch and for the first time we felt that we were actually enjoying ourselves. Up to that point it had been purely about enduring the distance and the elements and just trying to get to the end of the day, but knee aside, this was turning out to be a good day.

We continued on the the top of Loch Lommond which we would then follow for it's entire length until we then headed east for 10km or so to the campsite. The A82 is the only road in the area that lets me go where i need to. It's also a busy tourist route plus it's the main road for all the car and lorries heading up from Glasgow to Fort William and Oban (and the islands). It's also one of the twistiest and undulating roads I know with very limited forward vision for cars etc to see it it's clear before overtaking. It's probably the single road that I've worried about travelling on in the planning of this challenge. Sure enough it was busy and there were a few dodgy overtaking manoeuvres but we got through in one piece. The knee did however start to play up again half way down the Loch but with the end almost in touching distance we carried on. Finally we made it.

I'm still very concerned by the knee but I've managed to do 103 miles on it today and it's a lot less painful this evening than yesterday. I'll keep taking the ibuprofen and see how it goes but as this was Ross's last day with me I will be losing his encouragement and the option of being able to slipstream him sometimes to give the knee a bit of a break. thank you Ross, I'm not sure that I could gave got to end of today without your help. It's hugely appreciated.

Tomorrow is the slog over to Jedbugh before Friday's when I then cross back into England. It's a bit of a positional ride as I'll only really be going East rather than making much progress south, but from Friday onwards that will change dramatically. I think the approach for the knee has to be the same as today. Try my hardest to do as much as I can without overdoing things so that I have to abandon the whole thing. The only way to know what's possible is to try it.

Rich






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Location:Gartness