Hello again, am back from the cycle tour!

First things, I have been very silly - it seems my speedo is different to everyone elses and instead of working out my average speed for that particular ride, it works it out across all rides... so as my first ride was very hilly and a couple of subsequent rides were flat i was thinking my ride speed was 9mph for the flat when really that was the average of them both... realised this when i did 12 miles in under an hour and still had a speed of 9.5!!
So it seems I am faster than I originally thought!

The tour was very successful, did about 500 miles in about 10 days, did a couple of 60 mile days, and also cycled up Alpe D'Huez (had to stop once 2km from the top with excruciating stitch - could kick myself now!) and the Col du Lauteret, and Montgenevre and a place called Sestriere -did Montgenevre and Sestriere on the same day - 2 huge climbs and then had an amazing 56km of descent of about 2000m, was crazy!

So I have gained a bit of muscle in my calves (I had stick legs before) and toned my thighs and lost about 5lb! Am now looking forward to NOT eating pasta!!! My body is just about recovering (only had 2 rest days during the trip and then had the day before we flew home in Milan where we didnt cycle). Have found that the tendons/ligaments right behind my knees are very tight, and found also that my knees suffered a lot during the rides. Not sure why this is, does anyone else have painful knees when climbing in particular???

So after around a month of cycling I am very proud of myself and just want to carry on now! Bike needs a service though!

Thanks for your posts!

Liz

Liz