12 Miles - 600 metres climbing :-)

Yesterday went better than i hoped so am on a high today.  12 miles doesn't sound like enough when 30 miles is 5 weeks away but it's a real step forward.  Think i've discovered a few things that i really must try to remember.

• Start slow, i've not got the discipline to do proper static stretching so starting off at a walking pace and gradually pick it up.
• Off road really is the way to go.  Hard man made surfaces really do hurt, so maximising the amount of off road really helps mimimise the pain.
• Antisocial is the way to go at the moment.  Having the freedom to go at my own pace makes a massive difference to managing my grumbly knee.

So yesterdays outing.  I felt good in the morning so figured it was a good day to push it a little.  It was easy enough to work out a route, head out the door, hit the hills and start walking.  I'd stayed at Lisa's in a town called Pontypridd just outside Cardiff, Wales.  Travel through town on a Friday night and there's not much to enjoy about Ponty but in it's defence it has some fantastic hills right on it's doorstep.

So, Northward bound into the Rhondda Valley it was.  Once, in the age of coal, the Rhondda valley was once at the centre of the industrialised world, it's safe to say it's not now.  Just like old industrialised areas throughout the world it's struggled to adjust to the changing world of the last forty years, certainly growing up there was not much fun when i was a kid and i don't think it's much better now.  Lack of jobs and prospects aside though it has some nice hills and as an adult i've found myself going back there more and more, often to enjoy the things i ignored when i was an adolescent.

Six miles in Archie and i found ourselves above Porth, with the sun out and feeling good it was a good place to be.

Oh, and yes, today my companion was Archie the wonder dog.  Fair play to him he's always up for an outing despite being a complete scaredy dog is a fantasticly loyal companion.  Amusing moment of the day was when after 8 miles he decided to literally just walk off the bank and into an algae covered pond, over his head he went and calmly as you like just swam back out.  Guess he was a bit hot and tired by then.  Anyway, here's Archie.

So, that's it for yesterday.  Really, really good day and hoping to move things forward this next week.  Will also try to take more photo's and make even try to get some of them in focus. :o)