Llandegla Mountain Biking

Saturday was promised to be fine so we headed over to N. Wales to sample the delights of the new(ish) trails at Llandegla.

After a slight detour to pick up Pat in West Houghton it was back to motorway and good roads to Wrexham followed by a bit of windy stuff to get to the car park. It was packed and we ended up parking way up at the top of the overflow carpark.

Despite the promise of a nice day it was blowing a hoolie so getting moving was the order of the day. The first half of the three graded trails share a common track which is very easy, once at the far end of the forest the fun begins. We had planned on doing the red route but the high winds of the past week had led to various fallen trees so a section in the middle was shut. We did a short loop of the black route which was quite easy and overall the red route was far easier than trails at places like Laggan Wolftrax or Gisburn Forest. Good fun though and some good cakes in the cafe.

Sunday was also meant to be a fine day but it dawned dull and damp and we decided not to go climbing - it began to drizzle about an hour after our decision so it was probably right. I got the turbo trainer set up using a spare wheel and old tyre for the bike and had a 30 minute session which raised a good sweat.

I've had problems with my right hip and knee for some time with everything on that side of my body being really stiff and sore plus a groin strain that's been niggling for a couple of years. After a lot of pestering from Cath I finally booked an appointment with a physio. So after ten minutes of history of injuries (yep, it took that long) and a Q&A about where things hurt she got to work. She couldn't believe just how stiff and inflexible my hip was. A lot of the problems have been due to overcompensation following an injury. If you've never had sports massage/physio before then you don't realise just how painful deep massage can be! After half an hour of this and a bio-mechanical assessment of my stance and movement it was time for a few stretches to do before the next appointment - except that every stretch would cause the groin strain to ache. Eventually we found a couple that I could do.

The leg and hip do feel somewhat easier but I suspect that it's going to take a lot of work to get right.