Definitely a case of back to work for a rest ! Yet another weekend whooshed past at the speed of light.
Training last week really didn’t happen, I’d been suffering with a cold and temperature all week and there was no point killing myself just to tick boxes and doing junk miles. Got a a couple of races and a week long trip to Tenerife coming up so no point in not recovering properly.
Thursday went to the gym and chilled in the steam room for an hour, that always sounds such a silly comment but nice and relaxing. Friday feeling much much better so attacked the turbo to get some idea of how my fitness was holding up… Not bad knocked a handful of seconds off my pb.
Saturday, not only my Mum’s 80th birthday, but our 6th wedding anniversary so started the day with the bed covered in wrapping paper. 6th is you “iron” anniversary so to stick to theme my wonderful wife bought me a set of dumbbells and a kettle bell ! and a new Timex Ironman GPS watch with a working heart rate monitor. No excuse for not training at home now.
Great evening with all the family at a smart hotel in town, where we had a private room superb service and a really fun evening.
Sunday and after a rubbish nights sleep another few words from Sue, mainly consisting of no, not really wise etc etc I set off for Llandegla forest and the Fearless Duathlon and to hook up with Jon (sprog 2 ) and his wife Yvette both very experienced mountain bikers.
Simple format run 9km round the forest, jump on mountain bike and ride 19km round forest before running for a final 4km. Having only ridden my MTB for 30 miles in total and only done one lap of Llandegla perhaps Sue was being sensible with her worries about me being unwell and far from confident on the bike. Still the Pirate ethos of try something new on race day………………
Racked up the bike and tried to keep warm, Sue arrived to take photos and provide post race flapjacks. Race briefing done and the ladies and relay teams lined up, they got a 15 minutes head start then 3 2 1 GO ! Up the first hill and really struggled to get any sort of rhythm or keep my heart rate down. But continued to stick one foot in front of the other, very slippy and lots of ice under the trees, this could make biking fun ! Made it to transition and surprise surprise mine wasn’t the only bike still there, Helmet on and off out onto the red route. The first couple of km’s were up hill, very slushy bit like pedalling in porridge. Off the fire road and onto the technical sections under the trees, lots and lots of ice, Then after about 8 k’s disaster. I was following another rider down a very narrow bumpy track covered with about 3 inches of solid ice when he crashed leaving me with no option to touch the brakes. The next thing I knew was I was face first on the track and my bike was in the trees. Made it to my feet and just avoided getting run over by the next rider, who promptly fell off as well. I knew I had banged my knee as I went down but seemed ok and as I was wearing some old Ron Hill tracksters I couldn’t see any damage, The handle bars were out of line so I needed my allen keys to reset it. Jumped back on and apart from being a little winded felt ok, and I have to admit I was more than aware of my limitations as a MTB’r after that and was very slow and took it easy after that. More than happy to start to see runners heading out onto the final run as it must have meant transition was close. Threw my gloves to Sue and was able to see Jon & Yvette already packing up their kit… Yes they had done the whole event quicker than I had managed the bike and first run… See I said they are good, Jon even managing to make up the 15 mins head start the Yvette had had.
Plodded out onto the final run, and actually started to enjoy myself. Picked off another couple of women runners and then a guy from ManTri who was struggling with cramp. Last massive bank to crawl up on hands and knees, really slippy after 200 other people had been thro and it was the last downhill into transition, Cheers from the kids and a big hug from Sue. Still haven’t seen the official results but around 2hrs 34 on my watch but I was struggling to hit the buttons with my bike gloves on.
Couple of team photos and time to stick the bike in the car, Then decided to change into dry kit. Peeled my tracksters off to reveal my left leg covered in blood and pound coin sized flap on skin and tissue hanging off. Yuk.
Wandered back to the race HQ and scoffed the free pasta. No surprise that Jon had won the local hero award for fastest local male and between them Jon & Yvette had won the best couple award, so a case of beer and champagne and flowers.
I for one was just happy to be in one piece. Home and jet washed the bike down and finally got Sue to look at the damage, I hadn’t thought it was that bad during the race I suppose adrenaline and freezing cold numbed it. Cleaned out and steri striped together and then wrapped in bandage. Really started to ache as the evening went on, So opened a nice bottle of Bordeaux to go with our evening meal, cos I’m not going to be training for a while !
Being a rather hairy type getting the plaster pulled off was almost as painful this morning, So before it was re-dressed shaved most of the area around it so tonight’s dressing session wont be so bad and sat here at work with an old pair of running tights on under my suit to stop the bandages slipping.
Looks like upper body weights for a week or so….
And leg shaving is for proper cyclists !
