Dinner, Sun and Words of Wisdom

Last night we went to a local tapas bar in Aguilas with the Irish National triathlon team, which was brilliant. My first time to a tapas bar and it did not disappoint. 

Finally the weather seems to be improving again, which I am seriously looking forward to. It’s always good to be put out your comfort zone once in a while with the wind and rain, but too much interrupts important training sets. Rasmus Henning told me, to make things that cause suffering like fatigue, wind and rain while training my friend, it’s a long road to success and you’ll get to know them well, it’s better to enjoy rather than resent them, when it comes down to it and you sitting in the bike pack with these experiences, you’ll have an edge and be in a better place dealing with it over that guy suffering next to you. 

The Inevitable

3 weeks, 10,000 km, 7 riders, and no crash yet... well, Saturday was our first crash. Ladies man Randal was the roads first victim. He took it well, he went down pretty hard. However it’s okay, hes told me the ladies really like scars and war wounds.

My flat mate, Dan Loots, showed this link to me over Christmas and just thought was worth sharing to all the cycling fans out there. One of the hardest working cyclists in the business and someone I have a lot of respect for and admire, Jens Voigt. This is brilliant.

http://www.jensvoigtfacts.com/

Other news, most of the squad is going home today for a week leaving me to train mainly on my own for the recovery week. Looking forward to some time to myself, bit more running and hoping the sun comes back after hail at the top of the climbs yesterday...

First of Many - Winter 2011

Facebook, eBay and online games banned at work? Well here is something to read when work inevitability becomes too boring. Okay, so this is my first of what will be many blog posts, and it’s a big one. 

I’ve recently been away for warm weather training in Playitas, Fuerteventura, with Rasmus Henning and the TriScotland Performance squad. It was one of the best experiences in my time training, just spending time in the company of 2 professional athletes, Rasmus, Fraser Cartmell and my roommate Ritchie Nicholls, former European Under23 Champion, a very impressive and inspiring group to be riding with.

I’m currently in Aguilas, Spain, training for the upcoming season and will be here till the middle of February assuming the current weather conditions at home in Stirling improve, if not my stay could be extended. Aguilas appears to be a haven for triathletes these days current company at the pool includes; Gavin Noble, Dave McNamee, Peter Croes, Cat Morrison and Rachel Joyce to name a few. Week 2 just finished and my flat mate Ritchie has just gone home for 2 weeks.

Here is some total mileage for the last 2 weeks training:

                Swim: 46.5 km

                Bike: 966 km

                Run: 85.7 (a lot of which was fast/track runs off the bike)

There is limited entertainment here in Spain, so virtually anything to take up time will do..., in many cases Boys will be Boys, Hair Bleaching. 

Tracy from the Scottish Institute of Sport came to visit us and give life style advice, one of my particular favourite activities was “Ready Steady Cook” night with limited Eroski basic ingredients, like Tesco basics but worse, if that is possible. 3 teams took the challenge. The Judging was questionable. Cam, Randal and myself finished in 2^nd .