Day...Four!?!

Our penultimate day started out with some solid uphill rides. For a change. The pain in my Achilles *hadn't* gotten much better and I was truly concerned for the first time that I wasn't going to make it till the end of the ride...

I talked to two physiotherapists here who both said that as long as it hadn't gotten worse over the course of yesterday, the chances are that I wasn't straining it on an ongoing basis -- but there was little chance  the pain would get any better. I asked how I would know when I should really just stop to prevent serious damage, and both said "oh don't worry, you'll know. Your feet will kind of stop being able to flex at all and the jeep will need to come get you." 

With that, I took off riding uphill and then, oddly, I was saved. I discovered that if I ride with my *heel* on the pedal, as opposed to the ball of my foot (the way you are really supposed to ride to transfer the most power), the pain actually vanished. Like, completely. It only took a few minutes to get used to riding like that and I was home free. 

So much so that in the middle of the day, before lunch, we had an option to ride three different 'single' routes at the top of Mt Gilboa and I actually took the intermediate one. It was 4 or 5 km through a fairly rocky narrow trail and then a long and steady 3 km rise to return to where we were eating lunch. 

The ridiculous thing was that the minute I got off the bike and had to walk on flat ground, I was in pain again. But I can live with that now, having made it through four out of the five days. I'm still have no problem with muscles or endurance... actually enjoying tackling the hills, valleys and everything else they throw at us.  I'm usually at the front third of the pack, which is not what I expected. 

Here's a quick panorama pic of lunch, with everyone trying to get their strength back. 

Tomorrow's ride into Jerusalem for the closing ceremony at the hospital is long and steep but I've done parts of it and I think I know what to expect. And again, riding uphill actually puts my feet into the best position to prevent straining my Achilles. So I think I'm good to go.

The only problem? Rain. It's scheduled to rain tomorrow afternoon and Jerusalem. Today it rained for the last 15 minutes of a ride, but it was fairly light and after we gotten off of the forest trails and onto asphalt. Should be interesting :-)

Now they're bussing us back across the country for some reason, to a hotel in Netanya, for a Gala dinner to celebrate having made it this far. 

[okay, dinner is over. Biggest highlight was awarding special riding jackets to people have have done this either 5 or 10  years. I can't even fathom that. Hats off to them.]