Facing another week off the bike is the last thing I need right now! I've had setback after setback this winter and am slowly being driven mad with it. Doing the training is the fun part for me, I love pushing myself to the limit and feeling the level of my progress develop. Getting me to rest when needed is the hard part. Broken wrist, sickness and now a muscle strain in my lower back. The world is against me at the moment, so it seems, and facing it with a brave face is proving tricky.
The wkd past, was another scottish cycling development wkd. On Saturday, we did 4 brutal hours on the road with team time trial, road race and more hill climb efforts up Eaglesham Moor. I felt stronger than ever and was able to put distance between myself and the other riders. It was very exciting especially team time trialling out in the countryside through the tunnels and roundabouts. The last effort of the day though, our 2nd time over the challenging Eaglesham moor climb ended not too well! I was dragging my tired body up the last stretch of it when my back locked up! It was very painful and I couldn't get out of the saddle or shift my weight. I was frozen in one position on the bike and it was uncomfortable putting the power down. Hoping it would settle with some rest, I sat on the back of the group for the return ride home, trying to avoid putting my back under as little stress as possible!
The next day, we were set for a 3 hour road ride with some more road race type efforts. With no luck on my side, I woke disheartened as my
back was still hurting and did not feel ready to cope with more pressure. I tried to ignore it. Training hurts, right? It's just a bit of pain, I can fight through it.
So I started the road ride.... we headed up and out of Glasgow but every rise in the road soon became a struggle, a change in pace had me hanging on the back of the group for dear life and a speed bump became Alpe d'Huez! I fought with the bike up Eaglesham Moor in the fog and rain, once more, but as the effort continued the pain in my back worsened and I was struggling to even stay on the bike as the other riders disappeared into the fog. Finally, the summit was in sight. Tears streaming down my face i climbed off at the top and the coaches helped me and the bike into the car. It was one of the most devastating feelings i've ever experienced. Climbing off the bike and watching my companions push on almost broke me.
I've learnt now it was the wrong decision to ride. But when you love the bike like I do it's hard to make the call. The coaches spoke with me after and said I should have spoken to them about it. I know that now and I respect their reasoning for it but I was afraid to miss more training. I told them "i thought, it was just pain that i could fight it, because training hurts, you have to toughen up". "That pain isn't doing you any good, pain like that causes damage" they responded, "you must tell us about these things".
I was allowed a shot on the track in the afternoon though to see if it was just the stress of the hills out on the road. This was great as I got a good shot on my new Moda track bike! (huge thanks to Central Investment for funding it and Sandy Wallace again for sourcing it). It was amazing, very fast and light, can't wait until I can race it :) but unfortunately the pain in my back was pretty severe, so I had to call it a day. I stayed to watch though so I could learn from the other riders and listen to the coaches talking us through the Madison and giving us lots of technical advice.
On Monday, back home, we managed to get an emergency physio appointment for my back (thank you Louise and the team at Elgin Physio!). They discovered the problem quickly. Luckily it was just a strained back, which although painful and there is a lot of recovery involved it's not nearly as bad as first feared. With a week of rest and focus on the exercises to help it i'm hoping to be back on the bike by the wkd. Although this is going to feel like a long week!!
Hopefully my next post will be a very positive update!
Thanks for reading and for the continued support :)
