New PB's, Injuries, and hills....and hills.....and more hills..I'm so sick of hills!

It has been a while since my last blog update. Overall my training has been going well (although I have still not got my swimming up to standard), my cycling is improving, and my run strength is also getting a lot better. I have been doing a few brick sessions to get rid of that ‘’jelly legs’’ feeling during race scenarios, and have surprised myself by doing some tough bike rides and then still running some decent 5km-10km times.

My Planet X bike is also now fully built up, thank you to everyone who sold me some nice things nice and cheap J

I have ridden it only on a few occasions and the fit needs some work but that just gives me something to do.

Ok, so the last few weeks have been run and cycle orientated in terms of racing. I ran the Swansea Bay 5km on 8^th May, and set a new PB of 19:05 (official results 19:17, but the course was long, 19:05 at 5.04km according to my Garmin GPS), I was absolutely chuffed to bits, knocking 57secs off last year’s PB, although looking back at the race I feel I could have pushed a little further and gone sub 19:00 (that is the goal for the 5km race in July down at Llanelli – watch this space!!).

The next day however I had terrible knee pain (have had a knee injury before, thought it was old flare up), it was very painful and hurt to flex/extend my knee, so was walking with a ‘gangsta limp’ for a few days, which did me no favours as I am skinny and pasty, so must have looked a right plonker! Anyway, the pain went after a day and I thought nothing of it.

On to the cycling!! Myself and Andrew did the Tour of Pembrokeshire on May 12^th, and OMG, it was hilly, with some hills thrown in, and a few extra hills for safe measure, and finishing with some hills!! It was brutal!! Our plan was to draft each other, but there were no flat areas where we could do so. Andrew is a very strong rider and even he was having a hard time, so imagine how I felt. The road surfaces were dodgy to say the least, very narrow lanes with lots of gravel and dirt build up, not ideal cycling conditions, and my bike was rattling something awful for the full 100miles. There were some very technical descents which Andrew flew down, and I went down with my brakes firmly on, which in hindsight cost me time, but I also only have 1 front tooth, and didn’t want to lose the other one by flying over my handlebars, once was enough. Anyway, the day was pretty much the same all the way around, breath-taking views, bucket loads of hills, and they were not just gentle inclines, these were big boy hills, and they were there to test our stones!! I will always remember on one hill Andrew kicked and was off like a man possessed, so I thought ‘’I’m going to catch you’’ and I did, we flew up the hill and others looked on in a kind of amazed fashion that after 60-70miles were could smash a hill like this. As I rode next to him, we could see two riders stood next to their bikes up the road looking in the other direction, so we asked if they were ok, to which they replied ‘’yep just having a breather’’, HA! Lightweights! Then the road banked left and we knew why, the hill kept on going, steeper and longer, we both looked at each other and said the same thing ‘’why the hell did we do what we just did’’!! We spun up the next hill nice and gentle to regain our breath, although I was so far over my handlebars fighting this hill that I seriously think my chin toughed my front wheel.

Anyway, after 125-130km Andrew still looked strong, whereas I was completely cooked!! So, I told him to go on and go for it! Which he did! At this point I began talking to myself, cursing the hills of Pembroke, singing ACDC and shouting at cows and sheep, if anyone saw me they would have thought I was completely nuts! I finally managed to grind out the last 40km and finished in 7hrs 41mins, Andrew finished in 7hrs 35mins. And because I drove down, we caned it to McDonalds in Carmarthen and stuffed our face!!

The week after the race was pretty uneventful, although I had another bout of knee pain, which has been diagnosed as IT band syndrome!! Uh-oh!! Not good, it’s a difficult injury to treat and avoid, the IT band becomes inflamed and causes pain as the knee extends. I have since had a week off running and applying ice every day and rigorous stretching.

During this week Andrew and I were both recovering, to be nice and fresh for the Sarn Helen Sportive on May 20^th – this was 115miles, but with a lot more flat areas thrown in, thank god! With this ride we would be taking along some gym members and friends, all kitted out in our Dragon Health Club printed cycle jerseys. 8 did the 80miler, and 4 of us including me and Andrew did the 115mile ride (I wish I did the 80). There is not much to say about this race, it’s beautiful! It has some great climbs and great descents, some long flats to time trial and some lovely food stopsJ. 2 of the guys flew off being towed along by a Category rider, Andrew and I knew this was suicide pace, and were only 60km in to a 200km ride, long time to go! We finally caught up with them at a food stop, and then headed on to the turn off for the 115mile route, which was not too bad, but we knew what was coming. We had a long descent up an absolutely amazing road leading towards Llyn Brianne reservoir (dam), near Llanwrtyd Wells. It truly was spectacular, I tried taking a photo but didn’t want to stop, and so sorry it’s not the best. Anyway all the way around the reservoir were long sweeping roads and gentle climbs, and we knew, from Andrews previous experience, there was something god awful coming up! It is called the Devils Staircase! It is a 25% incline the other side of the reservoir. We climbed up a steep hill (which I kind of hoped that was it), I looked to my right, and there it was, a long and winding tarmac road so steep that it had its own grit buckets for people to put down so their cars won’t slide in the bad weather, which was reassuring. So I did a few circles as my legs had already gone to jelly from the previous hill and off I went! Boom I’m half way up, Andrew is still behind me, ‘’I must be getting good at this cycling malarkey’’ I thought to myself, then I passed another rider ‘’damn I am flying’’ I thought, oh how wrong I was!! Three quarters of the way up my legs officially died, and without any shame whatsoever, I unclipped, otherwise I would have fallen off. I was a bit gutted but we still were only at mile 55-60, it was a long way back on tired legs, another 55-58miles or so. Anyway, Andrew finally past me, pushing with everything he had on his pedals, and he too finally had to unclip. I think fatigue from the week before was also still there. My back was hurting more pushing my bike up this hill than it was riding up it, it really is that steep!! After a few strides we both jumped on our bikes and pedalled up the rest, it’s a funny thing pride, we should have walked all the way up, but in the macho way, we decided to grit our teeth and plough on! We knew that was the last killer hill of the day, it was nice and flat all the way back to Llandovery and then all that remained was the Black Mountain climb, which we have done many times before so know what to expect. It is still a tough long climb, but it’s nice and sweeping. Anyway we were on these flats and time trialling our way back in, using the drafting method to conserve energy, but I was wilting! And Andrew somehow comes alive after 130km and is like a man possessed. We finally reach the foot of the black mountains, from here it’s a gradual incline of about 4miles, I was flagging, and another rider had caught us up, so Andrew went off again (he always leave same ha-ha) and I thought its only 40km to the finish I’ll wait for this guy. Anyway, he was too slow and all of a sudden I had a second wind, I hit the Black Mountains with everything I had, passing some of our friends who were on the 80mile route, ‘’sorry lads, can’t stop, I’m in the groove’’, and off I went, ploughing up each hill to the top, then zipped up my jacket, and hit the 3km descent with everything I had hitting speeds of 60kmh and hoping that one of these gigantic horses wont kick me as I pass them. Then it was plain sailing through Brynaman, Cwmgors etc., time trilling through on my own (I know the roads here well and they are flat so it’s worth putting my foot down here to make up for lost time). Anyway, I finally got about 3miles from the finish, when I rocked up this hill, got to the top and thought ‘’if I carry on this way, I’m in Llansamlet, that’s miles away from the academy at Llandarcy’’. Well as it turns out my sense of direction in my home town failed me, I went all the way back down the hill and finally saw the turn sign, I was so angry at myself for not concentrating, I have done this race before, so should have remembered really, but after 115miles you kind of lose focus. I hit the last climb with everything I had then finally arrived at the academy where Andrew was laughing at my poor sense of direction.

Andrew came in around 7hrs 30mins and I think I was around the 7hrs 45 mark, although at least 7mins was from my ‘de-tour’ J

Overall was a brilliant days riding, everyone did absolutely amazing and we all sat down and enjoyed sausage and chips together at the finish. Well done everyone!!

Next: Bala Half Ironman – June 10^th! I am hoping my IT Band syndrome (ITBS) clears up by then, I’m not running for another week, worst case scenario I will have to hop the 21km run J

Thanks for reading again guys and gals! Don’t forget you can follow me on Twitter @Trirob249, and donate at www.bmycharity.com/robcrabtree to sponsor me for IM Wales where I’m raising money for Help for Heroes foundation.

Take care and happy training!