On my bike for the first time since getting back from the trip. Been six days since I've been on a bike and more than two weeks since I've been on a bike weighing race weight. We were carrying an extra twenty kilograms around on our touring and the bike was an old beater which added another five kilograms to the tally. The achilles has still, excuse the pun, been my weak spot for the week. I've been limping around trying to save them from as much action as possible. Quite difficult when that basically means I would need to be off my legs.
Well I made sure to take it easy this ride and did a ride with Ofir and Omri so they were also still fresh off the long ride. Decided that hills would be detrimental to an quick recovery but still wanted to get back on the bike. We went up to Ein Tamir, translated as Tamir's Spring. You go up a canyon that has a old crusader castle protecting the way. Montfort basically means strong mountain and is one of the old crusader relic's left in the region. A beautiful castle built of white stone and nestled inside the oak forest's endemic to this area. We rode here because the road is pretty flat with a gentle rise to the spring although there is one kicker but I really took it easy up the hill and rode as slow as possible in the lowest gear.
So the round trip was about 30km, I didn't have my heart rate monitor with me because I still haven't transfered everything from. Was a bit of a blessing, one less thing to worry about. We got to the spring without any problems and Ofir's girlfriend Orli had joined us. Glad she came along because the pace was more manageable for me. We had some coffee, sandwiches and then a dip in the ice cold mountain water. Quite unimaginable that there would be a place like this in a dry country like Israel but these places exist and its amazing to find them hidden away. Like jewels where in other countries they lie scattered all over. I hope to show more of these gems as I find them. The racing has taken me away from the fun part of riding and to get back to these roots is brilliant.
On my bike for the first time since getting back from the trip. Been six days since I've been on a bike and more than two weeks since I've been on a bike weighing race weight. We were carrying an extra twenty kilograms around on our touring and the bike was an old beater which added another five kilograms to the tally. The achilles has still, excuse the pun, been my weak spot for the week. I've been limping around trying to save them from as much action as possible. Quite difficult when that basically means I would need to be off my legs. 
Well I made sure to take it easy this ride and did a ride with Ofir and Omri so they were also still fresh off the long ride. Decided that hills would be detrimental to an quick recovery but still wanted to get back on the bike. We went up to Ein Tamir, translated as Tamir's Spring. You go up a canyon that has a old crusader castle protecting the way. Montfort basically means strong mountain and is one of the old crusader relic's left in the region. A beautiful castle built of white stone and nestled inside the oak forest's endemic to this area. We rode here because the road is pretty flat with a gentle rise to the spring although there is one kicker but I really took it easy up the hill and rode as slow as possible in the lowest gear. 
So the round trip was about 30km, I didn't have my heart rate monitor with me because I still haven't transfered everything from. Was a bit of a blessing, one less thing to worry about. We got to the spring without any problems and Ofir's girlfriend Orli had joined us. Glad she came along because the pace was more manageable for me. We had some coffee, sandwiches and then a dip in the ice cold mountain water. Quite unimaginable that there would be a place like this in a dry country like Israel but these places exist and its amazing to find them hidden away. Like jewels where in other countries they lie scattered all over. I hope to show more of these gems as I find them. The racing has taken me away from the fun part of riding and to get back to these roots is brilliant.
