Day 4 & 5: Fishguard-Rosslare-Dublin

So with the Met Office quoting a 90% chance of us having a white Easter it seems I may have picked the wrong week to spend out on a bike.

Today's leg was the fourth day of cycling and saw me follow the east coast of Ireland up to capital city number 3: Dublin. This took me above the 300 mi mark since departing London 5 days ago.

I recorded a short video at the outset of this leg but the wind makes it nigh on impossible to hear what I said... it was just the usual: have made some good miles so far, made some good averages, etc etc (I'll add it later if I get a chance).

With temperatures sitting at -5C today and a 35kph easterly breeze there was a cross/head wind for much of the cycling which affected my avg speed quite dramatically and at one point reduced me to 4mph on the flat whilst pedalling out of the saddle!!

Unfortunately, I didn't make it the whole distance from Rosslare to Dublin by pedal power as the combination of icy weather and my failing knees prevented me from doing so - even with the 4 hourly doses of ibuprofen and copious amounts of ibuleve and deep heat creams/gels - it's a wonder that I managed to smuggle so much of the stuff into Ireland in the first place...

I'll book in to see a specialist on my return. In fact, it was so bad the night before last that I was on the nurofen at 3am just to get some sleep - you can imagine how the cycling feels - "grind, grind, grind" - this seems to be becoming a theme so I'll try not to bore you too much with it.

The leg (not my leg) was a particularly long one anyway at 105 mi and to make Dublin that evening I had to jump on a train for the last bit as it was getting late and I was still a way off my destination.

In other news, I have been navigating my way with the help of google maps and road signs as a few of you may have heard/realised that mapmyride gave up on the english/welsh border - apparently nobody cycles anywhere else.... Given I paid for the upgrade and it lasted a day and a half I'm not massively impressed - perhaps the sub-zero conditions had something to do with it.

The plan for tomorrow is to enter Northern Ireland and head for the Mourne Mountains but I'm still very concerned about the knee pain that has continued to develop over the last 3-4 days and shows no sign of abating.

I've got my fingers, toes, everything crossed hoping that I can resume cycling as normal.... Will keep you posted.