Belly-Dancing, Snowed-In, Septic Paw and Olympic Hopefuls

Belly-Dancing, Snowed-In, Septic Paw and Olympic Hopefuls

Jules Has a Belly-Full of This CycleFit Xmas Dinner

Bit offended really. Jules is a better mover than I am but I have clearly got the biggest belly. And yet our belly-dancer chose Jules for a shimmy around the Moroccan restaurant. But as as the fez went on his head - the signal that he was the chosen one - she lost interest and wafted to another table and another victim -just as Jules was dusting off his Northern Soul moves for one last Dad-dancing outing. Just as well because he definitely would have gone for the splits and then six months of physio.

Training for the Marmotte and three Olympic triathlons that Jules has committed us to, hast to say the least, 'tapered'. I am 'tapering'into training, having tapered out of exercise because of my sabbatical to Milton Keynes teaching. The plan was to move house and then run every day with Van the border terrier over the xmas period. More of that later.

We moved from Frieth (highest part of The Chilterns) to Warren Row (another fairly high place in The Chilterns) on the day of the bizzards.
First the removal van got stuck going down Pheasants Hill - from Frieth down to Hambleden and then again getting to Warren Row.
So it was dark, snowy and foul when they started humping our precious belongings into our new house. I could not help but notice that one of the removal men was limping badly. I then noticed that his left leg was so swollen it was trying to burst through his jeans. I asked him if he was okay, with his one Elephant-Man leg. To which the boss removal van answered for him:
"dozy f**ker fell off the back of the truck - he'll be awright - too fu**ing daft to feel any pain aren't you soft lad?"
As Soft Lad limped away to do a bit of 'to-you-to-me' with a heavy chest of drawers I was fairly sure he was going to do so with a broken leg! Over the next few hours he would catch my eye hoping I would take pity on him and insist he went to A&E in a loud authoritative voice. Maybe on any other day Mate. But with a wife and baby with colds, dog with a limp and most of our wordly posessions stuck out on the lawn in a blizzard? Get on with it soft lad.

So there we were with 82 boxes spread around a small house.Some we found a week later buried in the snow on the front lawn. And Donna with a cold and soon after baby Scout as well. Well at least the chaps are holding up eh Van? Van? Van's limp had become a hobble and then it went septic and now we are at the emergency vet where I get the pleasure of paying £1200 to become his bloody wet-nurse over the whole holiday! Last man standing, snowed in and more infections than a leprosy ward. Happy bloody christmas everyone.

But Van's infected paw also signals the end of my xmas fitness program - or gentle jog every three days - as I call it. There is no way I will go running without him, especially now since I am everyone's nurse.

Back to work and I am now riding my folder a few miles to Maidenhead station and back. Even that feels hard. The first evening Donna is shocked how hard I am panting and how much I am sweating.It is alarming how fast the body can lose condition and fitness. The plan has to be now to commute a little everyday and try and get start running again as soon as possible. I am pretty sure the Marmotte is out of the question, I am starting from too low a base. But the target of an olympic tri by the end of the summer might just be achievable?

Speaking of 'Olympics' we were recently visited at CycleFit by Olympic hopeful Emma Trott (pictured above) to make her some custom footbeds and review her foot/cleat position. Normally Jules does all our work with elite athletes and professionals. He likes it and I don't.My preference is older riders with injuries. But Jules was out so it fell to me. And I was tremendously impressed. Emma has just signed with Marianne Vos's Dutch Nederland Bloeit squad and has the talent and calm confidence to become one of the world's finest riders. All at the age of 21.Impressive. Early emails from Emma's team training camp in Canary Islands is favourable. We will be making her some stiffer footbeds and working on her TT position when she returns in a couple of weeks.

And at the time of writing I am sitting in a Holiday Inn Express in Glasgow setting my alarm to go for my first run at the crack of dawn. Which is quite a bit later than in London being a few hundred miles north. And I can't even see how light it is outside because my window is a wall. Literally I open my curtains and the wall is inches from the glass and fills my whole world-horizon. Surely this is against some law? What are they thinking?
I will let you know if I got up for a run.

Postcript: I did. 4k around a foggy, dark and damp Glagow city centre.

I am up in Glasgow teaching the Alpine Bikes chain of stores for Trek. We are teaching in their Tiso store which is so huge it has a climbing wall, stream, rock-walk, stone bridge and every conceivable piece of outdoor kit imaginable.

Stop