A Socially Distanced Ride Out

        I have now been off work almost 6 months, initially feeling unwell at the start of February with yet another cold, leading to a chest infection and then Covid hit around March and I found myself being socially isolated in line with the government's guidelines for people assessed as being at a clinically higher risk.
 
During my time off I have not been sitting idle, far from it. In fact, my health and fitness regime, including my changed diet back in December of 2019 has continued and I now find myself on day 255 of cycling every day. The majority of this has been indoors upon my Turbo Trainer and road bike. 

Social distancing

A good few weeks back when the lockdown had eased somewhat I decided to head out on my bike and unfortunately over the course of 2 days, managed to snap 3 tendons which fit onto my Bartlett Tendon Knee. Rather than not use my knee I removed the cams and just decided to keep active cycling indoors. As well as cycling I have been also doing some core work and as much as I can with the pair of 15kg dumbbells I have. I am kind of limited for space in my bedroom for any more gear. Anyhoo it has kept me ticking over and I quite look forward to building up a sweat.

I bought a Fitbit a good few weeks ago and I think this has also helped maintain my enthusiasm as I can view various things upon the app and it gives me something to work towards.

Ooh and with being off I have also found more time to read. I have finished a number of books including the Unabombers Manifesto, and interesting read, but for a super-intelligent guy I just did not get his point or methodology.

I also have just finished a fantastic collective book of works by Neville Goddard. After reading Neville's work I am now trying to use his teachings to manifest amazing stuff into my life.

At the moment I am a couple of chapters into Alexandre Dumas and the Count of Monte Cristo. Wow this book so far is enthralling. I was even recounting the story to John as we went out for a ride, so a bit like Jackanory but on bikes. Not entirely sure how much attention John was taking as at one point he asked was I talking about Romans LoL

Anyhoo to today's adventure. Out the blue last night, my mate John messaged me asking how I was doing. John went on to say he had this week off and was I ok and up for a ride out. "Yeah sure" I replied as it has been ages since I have seen John and now as far as I am aware it is safe to venture out as long as you social distance. I mean I think this is correct, but who knows as the government just doesn't seem to be able to make it's mind up and is already preparing for the next wave.

Sorry, this is all over the place...Going back to the BTK Crossover I feel very fortunate to have received brand new cams and tendons from Brian Bartlett to try and remedy my snapped tendons. I am currently using what is classed as a G2 knee and there is a newer G3 knee now out. As I am no longer sponsored or supported, and prosthetic provision is very, very expensive I just feel really lucky to be able to use my current knee and get out and about. So at the moment, I have a sort of "Hybrid" Knee a mixture of old and new components.

BTK G2 Chassis and G3 Cams and Tendons appear to work

Today was the first time fitting the new components and initially, I didn't think they were going to work. I soon discovered they would, it was just that I was still half asleep this morning when fitting them and had forgotten to place the retaining "grenade" like pins in place into each of the cams. It's been so long since I used the knee for mountain biking it just completely slipped my mind. Anyhoo early morning panic over the knee once set up was spot on. I don't usually use the flexion wedge, however, Brian recommended popping it in as the G3 tendons are slightly longer when used with the G2 chassis and the wedge prevents a sharp tug on the tendons when going through flexion to extension.

Gear all packed just about John arrived down at my house at around 10:30 AM and we set off. Our plan was to venture up to Waskerley and have a little spot of bait at Smiddy Shore reservoir, before riding back.

As we rode from my house heading over to South Moor and heading up the "Black Path" John was in front. Now I am pretty much blind as a bat these days. I had popped my Oakley shades on as I knew there would be lots of flys about, and they knack when you get them hitting you in the eyes.  Anyhoo I don't know how I spotted it, but there on the very side of the narrow overgrown pavement was what I thought was a very small hedgehog. I immediately stopped as I had almost ran the poor little thing over and got off my bike shouting for John to wait as I did so. John came back just as I was taking my backpack off and going in my pack I recovered my gloves which I had packed just in case. I popped my gloves on and picked up this wee little, what looked like a baby hedgehog.

Aww poor wee Hog

Wee Hog started to come to life

Now I don't know much about hedgehogs, what time of year they should be out, how big they should be etc etc, but this little guy looked very small. I knew my friends Michelle and Lee quite often got them in their secluded garden so I rang Michelle to ask her advice. After speaking to Michelle, all the while holding this little hog, who was all balled up I waited for Michelle to text me the number for the Hedgehog Hotel over at Dipton. Apparently, it's a place that looks after hedgehogs and gets them ready to go back into the wild.


And so I rang the Hedgehog place, unfortunately, there was no reply, both John and I were unsure what to do at this point. I then rang my son Kyle to see if he could come over with a shoebox and pick up the little fella, thinking  I could maybe contact the hedgehog people later when I got back from my ride. Just then the little hedgehog started moving a lot more in my hand, opening his/her eyes and seeming a lot more energetic, compared to when I originally picked him/her off the pavement. Maybe it was the warmth of my hands as I held it. 

How cute is this little Hedgehog?

After a quick discussion with John, we decided maybe the little fella would be ok in the thicker undergrowth at the side of the pavement, which led into a safer wooded area. So I stepped over what used to be a fence and placed the little guy way back from the path. As I stepped back onto the pavement and as we listened carefully we could juts say here the little hog making its way through the brush.
 
Now I don't know about you, but for me no matter how old I get coming across a wild animal is so exciting, especially having the opportunity to actually hold it and look at the details of how beautiful and in this case how so very cute it was.
 
After that small encounter, we carried on our ride with me every now and again saying to John "Eeee I hope that little Hedgehog is ok". By the time we got to Smiddy Shore John said "are you still thinking of that hedgehog, you are aren't you"

 

Smiddy Shore

Maintaining Social Distancing

Maintaining Social Distancing

It was canny windy up at Smiddy Shore so we took shelter around the side of an old building while we ate the bits and bobs of stuff we had brought. A few pic later and it was time to head back, the return journey being a much easier ride.

John with his new Marin mtb

Man even though I have been riding some 255 days I can tell there is a huge difference between being "cammed" up and using tendons, compared to just riding without them on the turbo. Proper enjoyed the ride out even if I was knackered and it was great to catch up with John.

Me

I took my Specialized Turbo Levo today. I have been messing around with the Mission Control App and tuning the engine. I was quite surprised when I got back and checked my stats. Covering just under 30 miles I only used 12% battery, which I think is rather good. I rode the whole way there and back with only 10% assist on Eco mode. I reckon this just about covers the energy loss from being an above knee amputee, as whilst the bike does offer some assistance, it is by no means doing all of the work.