Nothing exciting to report

It's amazing how little there can be to write when there are no races going on. The new Iain has stuck partly to his plan and there have been no more last minute race entries to mess up my weekends. The only problem is that the training has hardly kicked off in the way I'd planned, so I may as well have been racing somewhere.

It all started well enough with my announcement that I was now 'Base' training and the weekend after my disasterous Marathon I managed two consecutive 50mile bike rides - nice and steady. It's real hard for me to try starting from scratch when everybody I know and could train with is ramping up the intensity in preperation for the upcoming season. I'm someone who needs training partners to drag my carcase out of the house, without them the days just tend to pass by without me doing anything.

The original plan was to hit the bike every Saturday AND Sunday while I build my cycling fitness back up, I can get enough running in during the week to cover any sessions that I need and swimming just isn't an issue. The original plan only lasted 1 week though as last weekend I only managed to scrape together a 2h30m session on the Sunday and this week I've only managed 2x1hr turbo session, although the weather has been horrendous so going out on the road would have been a daft option really.

I've managed a couple of good comfortable LSD runs (1h30m & 2hrs) in the last fortnight which has done wonders for the confidence after Neolithic but it's the bike I need to be working on. In my head my bike:run ratio should be at least 60:40 but it's closer to 40:60 at the moment, now if I can only get that ratio where it should be without my run volume dropping off then I'll be where I think I should be. My gym membership has now run out so that'll come to an abrupt stop unless the weather is ever really really really bad and there's just no other option.

At work things are going through a few changes which could well screw up the training a little. After 3+ years of going to the same places week in and week out my job's going through a bit of an upheaval and from next week I've no idea where I'm going to end up. It may sound a bit dull having that repetitive sort of job but knowing where I'll be on any given night has been more than useful because it's meant that I've been able to hook up with some local running clubs.

At the beginning of this month the first changes happened and my Tuesday night run sessions with Tiptree Road Runners came to an end. I haven't managed to train on a Tuesday night since. This Thursday will be my last night running with Marlow Striders. I've been running with them for the last 3+ years and have almost become part of the Thursday night fixtures and fittings. It'll leave a big space in the training calender when these have both gone, if I don't find myself somewhere easy to train I could be in trouble. Both Tiptree and Marlow have been great to me in allowing some bloody foreigner to infiltrate their clubs, I'll miss both their training and the people there greatly. Thanks for looking after me folks.

That's about it really, other than that life's pretty dull. I've bought a new car, but it's so sensible it's hardly worth a mention. My old bucket has gone to the car park in the sky - RIP - and has been replaced by a new van type thing with extra windows and seats which I should be able to get the bike inside comfortably alongside the dog and all the luggage without having to rip the bike apart. Dull as dishwater really, but hopefully it'll do the job a lot better than anything I'd rather have bought.

That's about it really, it'll be back to normal next weekend as I've got one of my few remaining races. There will be no pressure on it though as the day before I'll be riding the 80miles to get there so no doubt my legs will be shot to bits as it'll be far longer than anything else so far this year. It's a race I won last year though, so watch this space, stranger things have happened.

Until next time (I'll try not to leave it so long)