Hiya, it is quite hard to update a blog about cycling with pictures - (not necessarily related to cycling - but taken whilst out cycling) when you aren't doing much cycling. In fact it is very hard. Tomorrow is the six-week anniversary of the accident, it seems like ages ago and yesterday at the same time. I am still feeling a noticeable improvement in the general shoulder area each day. In fact my wife is sick and tired off my daily update - such healing minutiae are really only relevant to the injured person, but when you are bored and your focus has been reduced then little things become important.
Now the weather is starting to get much more spring-like it is becoming even more frustrating not to be able to get out on the bicycle. In fact once or twice I have been tempted to pop down to the local shop when I buy a paper. This is the longest I have been off a bicycle in around 6 or 7 years. I find myself watching cyclists go past the house somewhat wistfully.
I am a little concerned that my fitness will have diminished significantly by the time I can start cycling in earnest again, but I am more concerned about my knee. I have a slightly dodgy left knee after tearing the cartilage in 99/00 (not quite sure). The specialist "recommended" cycling - after I had asked him and a friend suggested taking glucosamine tablets. A review of the literature suggested that such tablets might have some benefit and the combination of cycling and glucosamine has kept my knees working well. Since the knee injury I have cycled just under 80,000Km/50,000miles, including cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats and from Bangkok to Saigon and both knees have held up under the strain. My worst moment was last year during the Summer. I was not able to cycle for 4 weeks (apart from a couple of pleasant rides in Oregon and Alaska - I know a tough life). When I returned to the UK my knee was so painful I was hobbling around. During those 4 weeks I had stopped taking the glucosamine and at one point thought I might have to cancel the Bangkok to Saigon ride. This time around I have been worried that I would have the same problem, but have continued taking the glucosamine tablets, the result is that whilst the knee has suffered a little from under-use it is much better after 6 weeks than previously after 4 weeks (of non-cycling).
I was interested, but sorry, to hear that Lance Armstrong had also recently broken his collar bone. I could certainly emphasise with his comment about how sore it was. It turns out that his collar bone was broken into 4 pieces and required surgery. How they managed to get a plate and 12 screws in I am not sure, but he was talking about cycling on a static bike after a week. Then someone else reminded me about Tyler Hamilton winning his first ever Tour de France stage with a broken collar bone sustained during the stage - professional cyclists are certainly pretty damn tough! (www.redorbit.com/news/general/10682/hamilton_with_broken_collarbone_wins_stage/).
One little quirk in myself is that I have not wanted to read my cycling magazines - two have turned up in the last month - CTC Cycle and Cycling plus. I guess it is a slight reaction to the fact that I have not been able to get on a bike. However I have started reading cycling related blogs/newsletters again. I can recommend the Cambridge Cycling Campaign which has an excellent bi-monthly Newsletter (www.camcycle.org.uk/) and some highly competent and committed members. I have also been reading www.crapwalthamforest.blogspot.com, www.pedals.org.uk/ and www.josiedew.co.uk all great sources of inspiration and humour.
I have also had an email from Jim - he and Mary (see the Bangkok to Saigon parts of the blog) have booked a cycle tour in India for later in the year, although I am unable to committ at the moment I hope to be able to sign up to the same tour - before the accident I was researching a suitable cycle tour in India. I am also going to re-start my specification and purchase of a titanium framed bike with hub gears (rohloff)
For the first time I drove round one of the routes that I used to (and will again) cycle around. I was hoping to see fields of daffodils as they are grown in these parts as a bulb crop. No such luck so I have resorted to taking a few pictures of flowers in the garden. Which you will find at the end of the blog.
These are Imperial crowns - they have a latin name as well - but it has been a long time since I studied latin - which is what you did at Grammar Schools when I was a boy.
I like this one because of the delicate purple/pin amongst the green - it was taken with a 400mm lens on a tripod. A great lens for throwing the stuff in front and behiond the subject out of focus.
This is a similar shot, again of a Hellebore (www.hellebore.com), there was a fly hanging around and I had to wait for it to move. The 400mm lens is pretty heavy and although I took this using my tripod the mirror mechanism caused the camera to wobble slighly as the picture was taken. (In an SLR - single len reflex camera, the viewfinder looks through the lens that the picture is taken through using a mirror and when you take the picture the mirror flips out of the way.)
Here is another Hellebore with the flower colour popped. On reflection it looks a little too green.
One of the other things to do with a zoom lens is to move the zoom whilst the picture is being taken for the "slapped look", my phrase - not sure what it is really called.
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