Back in the saddle

Ooh, that was good. Did a couple of laps of Cefn Du on the KHS test bike, which was a lot of fun. It was only about 1h20, but it was great. And I stretched afterwards too.

It's all been quiet...

Well, I've not been doing much. Which is a lie, of course I've been doing stuff but it's been DIY on the house, which bleeds my soul dry, so I'm certainly not going to start writing about how much I absofuckinglutely detest pissing my life away doing this mundane shite. But I digress....

Knees have been playing up since I did that road ride around the 3 peaks. Turned out my saddle was too high, which could obviously cause a problem (bike unpacked from france in a slightly dazed state, sloppily rebuilt, chucked in van, driven to Bentham, ridden without checking saddle height - doh!). So, bad knees ensued. And they didn't get better, for like, ages. So I belatedly went to see Zac at sportsresource.org who's wisdom could be summarised thus: "your knees are fine, your posture rubbish, you have zero flexability in all your muscles, stretch or die!".

And that's how I got switched on to Yoga.

Quiet week

Made the numpty error of not setting my saddle height properly last weekend, so I've had sore knees all week :( consequently haven't done much fun stuff.

Still, I'm getting over it. Jogged over t'Beacon tonight and met Matt there for some climbing/ddringo/bouldering (haven't learnt the welsh for that yet). That was fun, plus I got some useful tips on all the stuff I'm doing wrong :)

The 3 Peaks (by road)

Went to Bentham at the weekend for what would have been Dad’s birthday, popped out on the road bike for a couple of hours – 58km.

Spent Sunday morning driving home listening to Humphrey Littleton tributes on radio 4. Managed to get to the Beacon for about 90 mins of bouldering fun on the greens and blues. Knees don’t feel right, probably need to stretch more/differently.

Still tired, just less so.

Took Pippa for a 25 min power walk.

Nordic dog walk

Been feeling quite tired since the 1000M peaks - coincidence? Maybe...
Any road, took Pippa for a power walk up Cefn Du tonight - me with walking poles, powering along in a Nordic style, yes? Pippa didn't really embrace the whole Nordic mood, but seemed to have fun in her own way. Wasn't really paying attention, but it was proably about 45 mins. Surprised at how fast you move (compared to say, walking) and it felt like a reasonable workout for someone that didn't feel like running and can't take the dog for a bike ride.

Welsh 1000M Peaks race

Before I say anything I should say a big 'Thank you' to Club Gorphwysfa for organising another great race.

Weather forcast was looking good - barely any wind, 17°C with broken cloud at 900m. It felt pretty hot when we set off from Abergwyngregan at 9.30am and I was sweating more than you'd want to, despite starting out at a very steady pace. Got to the sheepfold above the falls and was dissapointed to see a line of people heading up the gully that I'd found with Justin and Emlyn a few weeks before - that was meant to be my secret route. Approaching Bera Bach it was apparent that the cloud was down to about 800m, which made navigation interesting/pot-luck. I found myself approaching the main path north of Garnedd Uchaf, which meant I'd gone too far west. I doubled back a bit to contour around the peak and with a bit of luck found my way to Foel Grach, despite a few anxious "where the **** am I?" moments. Celebrated with a chocolate brioche and pushed on to the first control on Carnedd Llewelyn.
I'm sure I stayed too high and missed the best line on the approach to Carnedd Dafydd, fumbling across the rocks where I'm sure there was a faster route a bit further south. It's all well and good going out to recce the route on a clear day, but it all goes to pot in the mist. Nevermind.
Coming off Dafydd I stayed high on a nice trod path and then cut straight down to the checkpoint at the wall, the marshalls there thought my route choice was bobbins, but what do they know, eh?
Grabbed a couple of Jelly babies at the unofficial feed station at Llyn Llugwy and had a couple of cups of juice at Ogwen before the slog up again. I could see Emlyn Roberts about a minute ahead of me but I couldn't close the gap and as I got further up Nicky Spinks and then Hannah Toberman passed me. I took solace in another brioche and plodded on.
Felt vaguely guilty about passing Hannah on the way down the hideous Miners track towards Pen y Gwryd, but felt good to be running instead of hobbling like last year.
I was feeling OK at Pen y Pass and as we headed up the Pyg track I had a Power gel and actually passed someone! I could see I was gaining on Emlyn too and passed him before the Crib Goch turn. Obviously the place was full of oblivious walkers and I soon got bored of being polite - saying "Excuse me" just seemed to provoke them to startled and irrational movements so I took to just nipping past them where I could. That bloody Hannah passed me again before the finger stone though. I was strugling to run up any incline now, but I could still manage a bit of speed coming off Garnedd Ugain and tried to run the final ascent to Yr Yddfa, couldn't quite pull it off though.

It was nice to finish and I could still speak, unlike last year. Shared congratulations with Hannah and Emlyn and got off the summit sharpish as it was too cold to hang around.
5:14:17 - I said at the start that an optimistic goal was 5:15 and I made it, so was happy with that. 46 mins quicker than last year - and I gained one place (33rd instead of 34th!).

Went for a short ride on Cefn Du the next day, legs felt OK but reactions and coordination had completely deserted me. Tiredness will do that.