[Closed] Getting back - first off-road ride

So, I bust my knee at Strathpuffer. A tiny, innocuous bump at 2AM in the snow... and I've been an invalid for 2 months! Knee pads are in the post... I've been commuting this past week and I got out today off-road.

I put the 456 together as a geared 26" mountain bike (it'll never catch on....) and cashed in my solo-parenting brownie points for an hour or so round the woods & along the estuary path. I've been comfortable and fairly fast on the road, so I was keen to get off-road but nervous about impacts.

Turns out my front thigh muscles are a bit shot! My pedalling's uneven too, I keep missing the rhythm on my right stroke (ooh err missus). So, some technique to re-learn.

On the upside, I seem to be nice and loose in my upper body which is a surprise. That section in Home where the guy's talking about getting back after injury (I'm sure his was much much worse than mine) rings true.

So, a beautiful evening and a great fun ride. Curlews, more than a dozen shelducks (these: [img= http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=shelduck ]shelduck images[/url]) and ****-all people. Excellent.

I even managed to fall off! Dropped right a foot or so onto soft sand, pulling left and lost the front wheel. Instant panic and I expected the knee to explode in a hail of blood and sinew, but actually the worst thing that happened was my glove landed on a dried up dog shit.

Roll on Thursday! Round GT red/blue with rosqo - I doubt we'll see any shelducks and I hope there's no dogshit! But sore thighs and dodgy rhythm are guaranteed.

Cheers, al.