T-12 weeks to go – Snowdonia – Hubble, bubble, boil and trouble!

Training Summary – w/c 05/05

Total – 20 hrs
Long ride – Double weekend ride – 7hrs + 8 hrs,

A Long Weekend in Snowdonia – no kayaking as originally planned as my shoulder was unhappy last weekend – so time to ride.

I planned out a couple of routes – Saturday was based on the northern sectoin of the bob chapman 600k audax.  I rode out from Dolgellau, hit the coast to the West, then north up to do a loop round snowdon.  Riding up to Pen-y-pas, then down into Llanberis was something I’ve always wanted to do.  It was surprisingly easy – ie steady gradients on major, but quiet roads.  Absolutely Loved It.

Then home via a different route, including the A470 back into Dolgellau.    A good days riding for 185k.  I felt good.

Sunday was a longer, more challenging route.  This was based on a 200k audax from Corwen, looping around Dollgelau – instead I went out west, down the coast on some easy riding, then heading back inland onto Lake Vyrnwy.  Things got tough on the way, with bits of 15-20%.  ouch.  On to Bala, (more hills), then onto a northern section towards Ffestiniog.  Things then got flatter as I repeated the out part of Saturdays ride via Harlech and Barmouth.  Lovely – but 3000m climbing.  I found it tough due to the steep gradients f the minor roads.  hmm

My 36 rear cassette got lots of use 🙂

The only downside of the weekend was Sunday night…..  On the way home, things started hurting on my right sit bone.  I’ve had the odd issue over the last 2-3 months with a hard lump / saddle sore, but something flared up over the 2 long rides.  I was on my tri bars a lot, (a lot more than the last few weeks).

I inspected things on Sunday night – hmm – a bit of a pussy head on top of a swollen 50p sized hard lump.  ouch.  I had a prod, then struggled to sit down all evening.  I’ve had tcr saddle sores / abrasions / sores.  This was something different, and a lot more serious

I started to do some reading, stuck a post on facebook whining about my arse, and concluded I have a boil – ie an infection caused by a infected hair folicle that is now deep down below the surface.  Thoughts of 1 inch wide excisions start to surface – bugger.

I skipped riding on Monday, had Tuesday off, then got a private GP appointment.  This is really important to me, and I don’t want a ‘lets leave it for 2 weeks and see how it goes’ response.

The GP was superb – instant diagnosis, comment of ‘thats not too bad’ and a script for 2 weeks of 500mg of flucloxacillin 4 times a  day to kill the infection.

I’m not happy about what thats going to do to my intestine / biome – looks like lots o yoghourt over the next 2 weeks 🙂

The rest of the week was easy, letting things heal etc…..