Friday night and the rain had managed to hold off......until the exact moment I alighted the train at Bangor. A heavy drizzle was being driven into my face by the wind. I smiled. "Caernarfon isn't that far and there's not many hills" I thought as I jumped on my bike and headed out of town. 

The rain was off by the time I arrived at the Black Boy where I was meeting my club mates for a training weekend. Before going in I checked my phone and had a text from Trish....they're in the Anglesey Arms. Gahhh....no phone signal so I went old skool and asked a taxi driver. Only 2 minutes away. Unfortunately, they had stopped serving food so it was a pint and a bag of crisps for me. Not only that, I (along with 5 others) hadn't noticed an email attachment asking us to bring bedding for the bunkhouse! The upside was that Lee had his van so I didn't have to cycle there, up a serious climb!

After a comfy night under a dog blanket, a group of us were ready at 8am to head into the mountains for the first cycle of the weekend. Unfortunately, a few others didn't know good etiquette and it was over 20 minutes before we were ready to go. (Must write a blog on group etiquette).

Setting off from Ceunant, Charlotte Cancellara and I set the early pace, trying to warm up! Out to Bethesda, up into the beatiful valley around Ogwen and on to Capil Curig. The pace upped a bit as we headed back to Llanberis over Pen-y-Pass. Being a bit heavier and lacking some bike fitness, I was dropped on the climb but managed to catch up with a few of the group on the decent. It was unusual for me to be able to pedal so hard downhill but the wind was crazy......a very strong headwind but without gusts! It soon dried the sweat!

The Slateman Sprint triathlon was going the other way.......we saw Pauline, Jude, Sonia and Claire smashing it heading the other way up the pass! Well, maybe not Claire.....she waved and smiled like a kids TV presenter! Saying that, she was still fast!

We all regrouped back at Ceunant for the next loop....round through Waunfawr towards Beddgelert. By this stage I was really feeling the pace having eaten my bike snacks the night before! I was dropped but everyone waited and we stopped at a cafe for elevenses! A few of the gang had full english breakfasts too! I had a toast and then went for a famous Beddgelert ice-cream. 

With the sugar-rush I was soon on the front working hard with Charlotte with the more slight riders tucked in behind. All hell broke lose with Lex, Charlotte and Phil racing for the summit of Pen-y-Pass again! Blahhhh......my sugar rush didn't last long and it was into survival mode! I quite enjoy such experiences, visualising myself as Cav in the Alps trying to avoid the cut-off-time in the Tour-de-France. 

I found myself in a small group of riders, coming down the pass! They were proper bikies, so we worked together in tight formation into Llanberis. We didn't say a word to each other but didn't need to. We all knew what to do and there are times when chat is simply not required. The final stretch back to the bunkhouse was attritional with me cramping up badly on the final wee climb!

After a quick shower and a bite to eat, I was rushed out for our walk up Snowdon! Again, Charlotte led the way, followed by Mark and Phil. Lex and many of the other light-weights skivved out. San got a free £200 consultancy from me on IM training as we walked up the mountain! The lead group were well out of sight as San and I passed the 1/2 way cafe.....we made it a few hundred metres futher before I decided I was too tired to go to the top! Rather, we both had a 'fly cemetry' in the cafe and then headed back to Llanberis! 

No rest time......we were soon heading out for dinner in Caenarfon. My pint went down well! What was really nice was getting to know my club mates a bit better.....there was little talk of swim, bike and run over the dinner table. When we got back to the bunkhouse, quite a few of the ladies who had raced the Slateman sprint earlier in the day (plus Trish) had hit the wine and cake! 

What a fun day!