The Audio-Talk Cycling thread.

[Dave the bass]

...does acknowledge that some places on the banks of the Thames fail to qualify of course.

Can't think of any myself!

Talking of which...we've been continuing our strolls (with Sarnies) along the Thames river bank southside. Back in summer 2019 we started walking the pathways along side the Thames from London Bridge Station/Tower Bridge as a start point and slowly (and also in bite-size chunks) made our way back to Dirtfud. Then we decided to just keep going, currently we're down to Cliffe Fort so far. There's so much to see,its an awethumne way seeing the lay o' the land + river and history.

EG. Surviving launch rail tracks from a wire guided torpedo system! Google 'Brennan Torpedo'.




That mass of concrete and the big cross section with the remains of 4 legs sticking are are all thats left of Great Nore Fort which was a Maunsell Army Fort located in the Thames Estuary...


Cor!

Gotta keep 'em peeled for some miss-information out there too though...


Pffffttttttt! Jelly fish deffo DO swim, I've seen 'em do it in an Aquariamumnumnumn.

[Ray P]

Was the Maunsell fort destroyed by the torpedo Dave?

Actually, I love discovering these sorts of artefacts when out and about - fascinating stuff.

Have you been down to explore that wreck full of explosives near Sheppey? You know, the one close to where they've build the gigantic natural gas terminal! The Montogomery is the name of the vessel.

[andrew Ivimey]

Ha ha now that's one I do know. If the full monty goes up then the isle of sheppey will be no more. Apparently the oil tanks are specially refrigerated though if there was a 'splosion I can't think that things kept in the fridge will be particularly safe.

[Dave the bass]

Was the Maunsell fort destroyed by the torpedo Dave?

Actually, I love discovering these sorts of artefacts when out and about - fascinating stuff.

Have you been down to explore that wreck full of explosives near Sheppey? You know, the one close to where they've build the gigantic natural gas terminal! The Montogomery is the name of the vessel.

Nah, Momma Nature and a ship colliding with it did for the Great Nore Sea Fort ->http://subterrain.org.uk/maunsell/part5.html

The Sheerness and the USS Richard Montgomery is coming up, we've got a fair bit of the Hoo Peninsular to do yet.
Love the new mural!

[Ray P]

Love it!

[IslandPink]

Quality stuff Dave, thanks for the pics.
I went out for about an hour on the bike late this afternoon.
Nice clear light, great views, but still a cold wind blowing.
Looking forward to dropping in to the Golden Lion for a pint one day - isn't far off !

[Dave the bass]

Pubs? Oh yeah, I remember them. I liked them. A lot!

We've had to skip a section on our planned Hoo Peninsular walk due to the footpaths across the marshes being closed due to Lambing, awwwww! We'll go back and fill in that gap once the wooly-bums are up and about.

So, today we did a stretch of the Thames path near Allhallows/Yantlet Creek...


The Estuary opens out really wide here, Kent gets further away from Esseckseth, which is good hehehehehehehe


See this little marker here on the right in the River...?


Thats one of the London Stones. That marks how far downriver the City of London/Port of London Authority have control over. Cool huh? I've never seen it real life until today.

[Ray P]

Scrat woz 'ere!

Scrat1.jpg (33.11 KiB) Viewed 2980 times

[jack]

Could only do 16km today before left knee got too painful.

It's been dodgy for about 6 weeks, so two weeks ago I went to the doc - he arranged an NHS MRI which was last Tuesday, only 10 days after the request and I got the result yesterday, just 3 days after the scan.

However, they weren't the results I was hoping for.

Basically, my left knee is completely screwed. A lifetime of sports, including contact sports like rugby and judo, have largely destroyed it - I have patches of bone rubbing on bone, odd bits of cartilage floating about and not a lot left
intact.

Waiting to see a knee man now, discuss options, then surgery. Probably no cycling, tennis, hiking etc. for at least 6 months and probably no running ever again.

Glad I got one marathon in before all this crap, but I still want a sprint triathlon to my name..

[pre65]

I'm not sure if he still is, but Simon was in the artificial joint business, and I seem to remember him saying that there is quite a variation in quality, expected life and price. If it's an NHS job you might get no choice.

[Ray P]

Could only do 16km today before left knee got too painful.

It's been dodgy for about 6 weeks, so two weeks ago I went to the doc - he arranged an NHS MRI which was last Tuesday, only 10 days after the request and I got the result yesterday, just 3 days after the scan.

However, they weren't the results I was hoping for.

Basically, my left knee is completely screwed. A lifetime of sports, including contact sports like rugby and judo, have largely destroyed it - I have patches of bone rubbing on bone, odd bits of cartilage floating about and not a lot left
intact.

Waiting to see a knee man now, discuss options, then surgery. Probably no cycling, tennis, hiking etc. for at least 6 months and probably no running ever again.

Glad I got one marathon in before all this crap, but I still want a sprint triathlon to my name..

Sorry to hear about this Nick, fingers-crossed that you get to see a good 'knee (wo)man' who is able to do something positive for you.

Ray

[Greg]

I had both knees replaced a couple of years ago. Was advised at the time they should last up to 25 years. However, as you say, no running but cycling, swimming etc is fine.

[IslandPink]

That is bad news Nick. Amazing you were able to do something like 40 miles on the bike just the other week.
Let's see what they can offer you.

[Ray P]

Following my 'blood in urine' scare a few weeks back, which, BTW, has not recurred, I'm still having some follow up checks and earlier this week was a visit to a cardiologist - I think the the GP referral was more to do with the level of hard exercise I do coupled with my age rather than related to the scare - she's just just being cautious. Anyway after the check up and acknowledging that I monitor my heart rate during exercise, check my blood pressure daily and have a good awareness of my health, the comment from the cardiologist was along the lines of 'no conerns, dunno why you were sent here - carry on! Of course, whilst that was good to hear there are no guarantees and I could drop dead tomorrow - probably will now I've tempted fate

I'm still glad I got the blood in urine checked out though.

[Ray P]

Back to cycling - I'm currently taking part in the 2021 'Tour of Watopia' on Zwift - this consists of five stages typically about 40Km each and with varying terrain including some really hard mountain climbs. The rides are billed as 'group rides' but, as you might expect they're treated as races and are very competitive and are hard. So far I've achieved mid-table mediocrity in each ride, for example when I rode stage 3 on Friday I finished 320th out of 827 riders - that said I'm actually rather please with that given that the majority of riders are younger than me. What really pleases me is that I always gain places on the climbs and always pick up places after the halfway point as I can sustain the effort and pick off riders who've 'blown'.

I'll probably ride stage 4 on Wednesday and then stage 5 next weekend - stage 5 is the big one, being longer at about 50Km and with three 'King of the Mountains' climbs.