Chikka Tirupathi

Date: 27 February 2016

Total distance: 70 Kilometers

Start Time: 7:00 am

Return Time: 10:30 am

With: Sushanth

Altitude Profile:

Finally, it was time to test my leg after the Achilles Tendon Rupture. The injury has set me back and it has been a difficult 4 months post the injury. I am able to walk with heel support and have gone on a few 20-30 kilometer rides to get back to cycling. Medical advice is that I can walk and should cycle without resistance. However, I have been aching to get back to cycling and see if the leg will hold. I am still unable to run as the leg feels very tender and without any strength. Am looking to cycling as a physio activity to help in the strengthening of the leg. Chikka Tirupathi is a small ride and wanted to break in with this ride. Had planned to ride 2 weeks earlier, the leg was still feeling sore and did not want to risk it, so postponed it by a week, then had a bad fall when cycling and hurt my left knee pretty badly and had to postpone by another week. This week did not want to postpone any further and made up my mind to cycle even if it got late. Sushanth said he would join till Decathlon and I would have to ride solo from there. We planned to start at 6:00 AM. It was going to be my first long ride on the Btwin Triban 3 road cycle.

I missed the alarm kept at 5:00 AM; woke up only at 6:00 AM. Knew that the start would be late, however, did not want to push it for another day. It was 6:35 am when I started from home, however I got a call from Sushanth that he needs the pump and had to return home. Met Sushanth at the Agara flyover and got his cycle ready and we were ready to leave at 7:00 AM.

The initial ride till Decathlon was slow and steady as we did not want to push  too hard from the start. I had my apprehensions about the leg holding up and Sushanth was restarting after 3 months, so we did a nice gradual ride till Decathlon. We rode on for another kilometer after Decathlon when Sushanth said that he would return and I rode on towards Sarjapur. We were done with the uphill's till this juncture and it was mainly downhill segments from here till Sarjapur and the pace was up. The traffic was heavy for a Saturday morning and the vehicle honking was irritating. Missed listening to music as I was not carrying earphones, the vehicle honking would not have been so much of an issue with music.

After Sarjapur, the road was better and also had lesser traffic. Even though it was mainly downhill here, there was cross winds which resulted in me losing on significant speed on the downhill's and I had to pedal quite a lot to keep the pace up. There were 2 other cyclists on MTB's doing the same route who had crossed us at the Agara flyover, I caught up with them near Magalur. I stopped near the bridge at Magalur and saw that the water level was the same as it was the last time that I had been to Chikka Tirupathi a year back. Will need to trace the source of this river, as the water supply seems to be unabated at this place and not dependent on the rain.

It took a further 15 minutes before reaching Chikka Tirupathi. It was 8:30 am when I reached. Did not go into the temple and just took a few snaps outside and then opted to return rather than have breakfast since I was not too hungry. There was a Saturday market at Chikka Tirupathi with people buying/selling sheep and goats and the place was very crowded, with humans, sheep and goats. I dwindled with the idea of having something to eat, however, decided that I would have coconut water further up the road.

The segment from Chikka Tirupathi to Sarjapur is uphill and I was expecting this to be a difficult ride. However, to my pleasant surprise I was able to negotiate this segment rather easily, could be the wind helping or the cycle, was definitely not me. I stopped just outside Sarjapur for coconut water as I was feeling hungry. Quick stop to recharge batteries and I was up and about again. As I passed Sarjapur, was beginning to feel the effects of the ride and the thighs started to hurt a bit. Was happy that it was the thighs and not the Achilles and was also disappointed that it was just 50 kilometers and the legs were beginning to feel the pain. Did not stop and kept riding, made slow progress as there was an uphill segment here which runs for almost 2-3 kilometers. As soon as I made it out of here I knew that the ride would ease out as it was mostly downhill from here.

Was able to glide through the downhill's and kept the pace up on the uphill's and made it back home by 10:30 am. The Sun has sapped me, the thighs are hurting however the Achilles feels fine. It does feel tender but there is no pain nor swelling. Will wait and watch and see if I can start increasing the load on the Achilles. The quicker that I can get this working the faster that I can get back to long rides.

Ride Details:

From	To	Distance	Ride Time (hrs)	Total Time (hrs)	Departure Time	Arrival Time	Avg Speed
Koramangala	Sarjapura	26	1.08	1.25	6:35	7:50	24.07
Sarjapura	Chikka Tirupathi	11	0.67	0.67	7:50	8:30	16.42
Chikka Tirupathi	Sarjapura	11	0.50	0.75	8:35	9:15	22.00
Sarjapura	Koramangala	22	1.00	1.25	9:15	10:30	22.00
		70	3.25	3.92			21.54