Eastlink Ride

The weather forecast was good, about 20 degrees with rain and thunderstorms not forecast until the evening.  There were several drops of rain on the windscreen during the drive to Ringwood for the ride start, but thankfully there was no rain on the ride.

I arrived at the start line just before 7:30am, but there was already about 1,000 riders ahead of me.  They let about 50 riders at a time onto the course, so it took about 15 minutes before I actually started.  With the tollway having 3 wide lanes, it was very easy to work my way past the congestion and find some room for myself.

Heading towards Frankston, the speed was very fast with a perfect road surface and generally being downhill with a tailwind.  My plan was to keep my Heart Rate below 140bpm and keep my Power around 200 watts - Ironman race pace.  I averaged 39kph towards Frankston, but only 27kph on the return trip back to Doncaster and I was averaging the same Heart Rate and Power in both directions.  Eastlink is so open that you are very much exposed to any headwind, and the road runs due north until the tunnel, so there is no respite from the wind.  My position on the road bike is very relaxed, so theoretically I'll be slightly less affected by the headwind on my Tri-bike - I can only hope.

I could feel the knee injury during the ride, but it was more of an awareness than pain.  After about 50km (of the 75km ride), my hamstrings started to feel worn out, a side affect of not having trained in the last 2 weeks.

I iced the knee 3 times during the day after the ride to try and prevent any further inflammation.  The good news is that my knee feels great this morning.  Usually the knee is very stiff in the morning and slowly loosens up during the day.  I cannot remember my knee feeling so good in the morning since I injured it - this bodes very well.