July 2015.

5th July: Did the extended 22 again this afternoon on the Dave Yates, it was breezy but warm and quite an enjoyable ride without too much knee twingery. One thing I definitely noticed that I didn't in Manchester is the weight! I think the Dave Yates weighs about twice what the Giant does and I really felt it on every incline; no longer will I scoff when I read things like "Of course, I really noticed the extra 7 ounces of bike A over bike B when going up the hills" in website bike reviews. 24.1 miles to start July off.

12th July: It was warm but incredibly windy so I went exploring again on the Dave Yates. It's fun but it takes about ten times more effort to get up to speed than the Giant does because it's so heavy. Still, I guess that makes it better for training on!

Anyhow, apart from getting lashed by a bramble on the cycle path that left blood running about six inches down my arm, it was quite a fun ride and my knee barely twinged at all. 24.1 more miles for July.

25th July: Well, after nearly two weeks off the bike, I dragged myself out of the house to do the extended 22. As has happened a lot recently, it was extremely windy so I went exploring again.

Aside from getting slightly lost near Skem at one point, it was a pretty fun ride, I took the Giant out and didn't even get a twinge in my knee which was awesome. On the advice of a comment I read on a cycling forum, I've been doing a lot of basic quad stretches (pictured. And no, that isn't me!) which definitely seem to be helping.

It was windy but the sun was quite hot so a good ride for topping up the tan and 25.2 more miles.

30th July: I did the extended 22 again tonight after work, I was knackered but a strong mug of Old Brown Java got me out of the house. It was incredibly windy but quite hot and sunny so quite enjoyable. I didn't get any knee pain again either, which was great, and I averaged 17.1 mph which was fantastic. Another 24.4 miles for July.

I was determined to get out for one more ride this month to at least match June but I've got a rotten sore throat and ended up spending the evening getting my website hosting sorted out  at last. Very frustrating overall but www.micrak12.com is finally back on the web! Only 97.8 miles to show for the month but I'm fairly sure my knee is sorted now so I'm going to try and have a mega-high-mileage August!