Rambouillet to Maintenon – 28km
18C
Terrain: forest routes and country/busy roads.

It was really difficult to say bye to my mum this morning. Even though we’ll hopefully be seeing each other again in a few weeks, for some reason it was much harder than usual. I miss her and my family and friends enormously and I think being home, really made me realise how much. I think it’s also the contrast of having been back in my comfort zone for a few days and then being thrust back into wilds so to speak. But then it’s through pushing that comfort zone that we achieve greater things.

The trouble is when you have the amazing fortune of being loved and loving others, it also opens you up to pain. But I see this as a gift. I wouldn’t in a million years wish to give up that love to avoid the pain (given the last few years, I’m quite surprised I’m saying this).

I have to say, it didn’t really help today that my knee pain (IT band related) has flared up again as it seems to do every time I take a break. Grrrr…not much running today at all.

At least today and tomorrow are shorter distances to hopefully allow the internal inflammation to go down which it tends to do (fingers crossed).

The shorter distances weren’t really in my original plan. I’ve actually been having real dilemmas with my route. In past blog posts I often mentioned the crazy busy roads as I was heading towards Paris. I’m now trying to find alternatives going south to avoid the stress and danger. The difficulty though is finding the right balance between less dangerous and not adding too much distance in the process.

My first idea was to look into the pilgrimage route to Saint Jacques de Compostelle. I did follow this for a significant amount of my route today but if I follow it all the way, while very peaceful and calm, I will be zigzagging my way down to the south of France which equals lots of extra kilometers.

Just to give you an idea, going from Rambouillet to Tours the direct way is just under 200km, taking the pilgrimage route, it’s 315km!

More research today and I think I’ve found an alternative cycle route which I’m going to try out over the next few days. While still not completely direct, I think it’s a sensible half way house.

We’ll have to see how the experimentation goes…

Some pics from today.

I started in the park in Rambouillet, really beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of lovely forest today too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quite stunning.