Those weeks just before and after Christmas with the storms (cue gale force winds and torrential rain) weren't too conducive to happy bike riding, not to mention the devastation the flooding caused so close to home. It was absolutely tragic for so many people! I distinctly remember 2 days in a row when it was absolutely chucking it down outside and no chance of it ever letting up. So a mere mile or so down the road and I was soaked. A few hours later I returned doing my best impression of a drookit rat and spent the next while trying to regain the feeling in my extremeties. Repeat the above for the next day. When the third day arrived and conditions had gotten inexplicably worse, with many of my training roads under water, I couldn't take another soaking. So turbo training it was. My coach has a saying "race in the rain, train in the rain". I do agree with this (don't tell him I said so!) but there comes a point where braving the elements becomes silly if its as wild, wet and windy as it was then. To some extent the suffering in the cold and wet toughens you up. Apparently there's no such thing as bad weather, just poor clothing choice....
Thanks to Santa (aka Mum and Dad) I did manage to escape the Scottish winter and have a week training in Tenerife in January. This was such a good week! While my family were there to chill out, I was off to get some warm weather miles in. Riding in temperatures of low to mid 20 degrees every day with very little wind and not a thermal baselayer in sight was delightful! This was my first time in Tenerife and I soon discovered that riding there was either up or down. I laugh when I think of the first day, just an easy "acclimatisation" ride turned into over 2000m of climbing and a final ascent that almost made me cry! I did bump into Ashleigh, Andy and Sarah on the descent and laughed about how unexpectedly savage that climb was! Safe to say after 6 days of riding my legs were suitably mashed and ready to head home for a rest! I'm actually sitting writing this blog on the plane headed back to Tenerife and can't wait!!
After a few weeks back home I then headed south of the border to spend a week training with Nikki in Essex and pick up my team car from Ford at the same time.
This was a brilliant, hard week of training and just so good to have Nikki for a training partner and quality banter! Best way to get acquainted with my new EcoSport, drive 500 odd miles back to Aberdeen. The car is ace, but it was still a long drive and I was really glad to get home to my bed! Travelling long distances is all part of being a bike rider and especially living in Aberdeen when you're really far from everywhere! I don't mind the travel too much though as I have my many playlists, get to ride my bike all over the country and beyond and love where I live so it's all worth it.
A few days later and my recovery week was spoiled by injury. Even light spinning on the turbo flared things up. This was so frustrating and I was kicking myself a wee bit as it probably could have been prevented...But if any good came of it then I've most definitely learned from it and the rest probably did me good! So after missing a fair bit of training and building things up in "baby steps", things gradually improved and I was eventually back on the bike. Albeit with a lot of help from James my physio, his elbows, cups and needles!
Well I think that's me up to date with life this winter. It definitely doesn't feel like winter today, sitting eating breakfast al fresco in sunny Tenerife!
Thanks for reading!
Jools.
