After my last blog entry I met up with the surgeon and we decided to go ahead with the operation. This took place a few days ago. I was really impressed by the staff and facilities at the DTC in Basingstoke, and cannot praise them enough for the good treatment offered to me. The arthroscopy revealed that there were torn bits of cartilage that needed to be trimmed away, and that is exactly what happened. Since then I have made a good recovery and have found no need to use pain killers or to remain in bed. I asked the physiotherapist when I could get back on my bike and he suggested giving it a week before returning to some very light turbotraining. Sfor now I am hobbling around, and appreciating the support offered by friends who have taken me to the various appointments I needed to be at.

 

Paul is making good progress with mapping the route onto his computer so that we can make use of GPS coordinates to guide us across unfamiliar territory. Eleanor, our personal assistant, is busy assimilating company names and contact details in readiness for mailing a brochure out that will inform people of our aims and how they can become involved in supporting the venture.

 

Martyn Chapman has in the meanwhile signed up as a support rider and we welcome him onboard. Together with Paul and myself, the three of us have the challenge not only of cycling the distance but also of working together in what will be quite difficult conditions.

 

I have included a photo that shows the route that we will take.

 

Gavin

 

 

 

Happy New Year!

 

January is well underway and after a three week holiday in South Africa I feel ready to take on the challenge of preparing myself for LEJOG Offroad 2006. I have returned to the turbotrainer and am now training twice a day, 45 minutes at a time. The weather is terrible at the moment so I shall have to persevere indoors until it becomes possible to do some proper outdoor cycling again.

 

My aim is to increase the turbotraining workouts to 90 minute sessions within the next two weeks, and to make use of interval training (varying speed and amount of effort) during the sessions to simulate hill climbing, etc.

 

Diet wise I am focussing on a total reduction of calories for now, achieved by eating less and by consuming lots of organic salads, fish, nuts, and my favourite health drinks such as carrot and orange juice, all freshly prepared at home.  

 

I am also concentrating on keeping my heart rate down to below the 135 bpm range.

 

This will be my routine until I have lost around 8 pounds of weight. I am striving to attain a body weight of 186 pounds, which would give me the perfect body mass index for my height. I simply do not want to be in a position where I have to lug any extra weight over the 1200 miles we will be covering.

 

Later today I will be at St. Mary's Church for a photoshoot and interview with a newspaper reporter. If the article makes it to the press then I will include a copy here on my Blog.

 

Within the next few weeks I will be meeting with a variety of people who are helping me to plan the event. There is such a lot of work to be done, including, phoning companies to see if they will help financially so that we can cover the costs of the adventure, and we will also be planning a few meetings at Churches along our route where we will be able to promote the Christchurch Project and the rationale behind it.

 

One issue that needs resolving is that I have a small tear in the meniscus of my left knee. Surgery is available and could take place within the next few weeks, but I am hesitant to go down this route if it means that I will have a long delay in getting back to full training. If the recovery period is around a month then I will be able to make up the lost time. But IF it looks like the recovery will take longer then I am most probably going to delay the surgery and take a chance by doing the LEJOG event with the injury still in place.

 

The tear does not affect me when cycling but it can cause real problems when I run. So it is possible to argue that putting off the surgery could be the way to go, but I am not entirely sure that the injury will not flare up after sustained heavy riding of the sort that we will contend with in August.

 

I shall let the surgeon make the call!