After talking about it for so long, spending every spare hour cycling in training, and sixteen days of pushing myself in the hardest challenge I have ever taken on….it all now seems a little surreal.  I wanted to get back from the trip and get straight on with cycling, but being unable to do anything due to my knee injury makes it feel even more strange.  Get the bus to work instead of cycle?  Sit down in the evening and do nothing?  What??

Going from cycling every day to trying not to even walking too much was hard and made worse by my knee seemingly getting more painful by the day.  I’ve been to the doctors a few times and am assured that nothing is disastrously wrong, but it just needs time to heal.

I was waiting until I was back to being active again so I could blog and say “yay…back on the bike”, but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen any time soon.  This week there seems to be a slight improvement, so I’m going to try a little bit of gentle indoor cycling to see how it holds up, and then take it from there.  The important thing with an injury is not to rush back into activity as soon as it seems to be getting a little better.  However, it is also important not to leave it too long and let all my hard work to get fit go to waste.

Despite the pain, during and after the trip, it has definitely been worth it as I have so far raised £1,142.15 for Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.  I want to take the opportunity to thank each and every person who donated to this great charity, your support helped me keep pushing and raised a fantastic amount to contribute to the great work they do.  Thank you!

Whilst my knee is healing I have time to think about what to do next.  As my plan for this year was going to be to run a marathon (which I clearly didn’t do after being distracted by the whole 1000 miles of cycling in 16 days malarkey) I would like to start training for that.  Running fitness is very different to cycling fitness, so I have no idea how long it will take me to get ready for that, I may not even be able to do it next year, who knows!  I would also like to keep up with the cycling, possibly join a friendly cycling group if I can find one, and maybe take part in some organised events.

I’ve decided to keep blogging because I found this a great motivator in the preparation for cycling to Switzerland, so you can follow me over at my new blog if you want.

The scariest thing for me recently was my first appointment with the doctor, when he suggested I could do some swimming if I wanted something to do while my knee was healing.  Anyone who knows me well will know that I dislike swimming, mostly due to the fact that I’m a terrible swimmer with an irrational fear of drowning.  A year ago I would have laughed at his suggestion.  A year ago I would have said “no, I don’t like swimming, and I’m not very fit, I wouldn’t enjoy it.”  A few weeks ago, when he said that to me, my first thought was “oooh, maybe I could do triathlons!”.  What has happened to me?  What has happened to the old Jen, the lazy Jen, the ‘occasional sport is quite enough for me’ Jen?

I have no idea where that Jen has gone, but I’m happy she’s left!