Injuries can be very painful.  

I’m currently nursing one on my right knee, and it hurts. Boiling pain that crunches when I bend my leg, and lashes out when I walk. I’ve even got a limp at the moment, and probably two knocks away from crutches. The result of a rather grand badminton session two weeks ago, during which I was battered an embarrassing four sets to one by my nine-year-old son. He’s getting better, getting cocky and knows it. There’s always a sense of pride in watching a lil’ urn’ grow and become better in a sport that you taught him. We’ve started playing weekly – every weekend.

It’s fun.  
 
So, every injury that I now suffer seems to be a token trophy for him and his sister whenever they laugh at me, calling daddy fat n’ slow with every turn of the bat. Yes, sometimes I do feel fat and slow, or maybe that’s just the cookies talking.   

Ayhoo, back to the injury. 
 
I tried 48/17 as usual on these Sheffield streets but that made me slower, and was much, much more painful. 67GI seems to be holding court for now. Although I’m not a natural spinner, I’m apparently picking up faster average speeds over the same courses as opposed to the 75GI that I’ve grown accustomed to over the last few years in Nottingham. 48/19 glides through cities like Sheffield like the wind, and the hills are ‘manageable’.  
 
I say ‘manageable’ because hills in Sheffield are moody and have an attitude that changes by the day. Upper Don at 6% is grand, and the very next day that same grind might feel like 15% when killer Nordic headwinds decide to run riot through the streets. Sheffield hills are a strange breed, so yes – for now 67GI is manageable – maybe until I get to the Peaks. I remember reading about Simon Warren’s article in Cycling Weekly, where he also writes about gearing down for Sheffield while on fixed.

59 gear inches is a bit low for me, but heck even my 67 on freewheel feels too high at times when torrential rain and hail hits the city. Apparently, Sheffield hills are the gift that keeps on giving.

Ayhoo, back to the pain.  
Yes, it’s still there and I have to do more stretches plus yoga to alleviate the pain. This is the first time I have been injured in another sport, with an effect to the next – so this is all a learning curve.  
 
67GI. 
Something to adjust with, I guess. A gear ratio to learn from I hear you say. Like I said, I’m not a spinner by trade – jus’ a lone sprinter by birth. So keep an eye on these pages for updates on how I get along.  
 
I’ve come to learn that hills in Sheffield ain’t San Fransisco. Learning to ride the hills of Sheffield is almost like college prep for a doctorate in “I’ll F**k You Up Good In Hill Philosophy”. These seven Yorkshire hills clap back. So you gotta take it all at a stride, if you’re to spaz lower gears in this hilly City.
 
67GI and I’m crying. 
I miss the fast lanes of Nottinghamshire lol’.

75GI @48/17.
God bless my flat memories of Nottingham.