The weekend and The Vitruvian Reccie

Hi People!

So what of this weekend of continuation of both the Olympics and Autumnal weather (I'm not joking, we've gone from spring, two days of summer sometime in June and now just gray wet and windy days - bleah!)

The plan for Saturday saw Leanne, Dan, Keith and Steve met up on the Vitruvian course... not that Steve and Dan are actually doing the race but they will be support crew on the day! Not great having a 2+ hour drive to get there as hammies and back were tight to start... Still be all gathered up, Keith and Steve having cycled from somewhere to meet us. Made it about 400m up the road when Leanne realised her sparkly bike (just out of service) couldn't change into the big ring... so we had a quick pit stop and started again... BOY was it W-I-N-D-Y... the kind of wind which blows you side ways across the road and makes it feel like you're going up hill when you're going into it... YUK!

Anyhow - I'm very pleased to report that the course is no where near as hilly as feared... In fact compared the the H.I.M it's almost flat! Although that doesn't paint a true picture and out of respect to the course I must confess there are a couple of challenging hills but really nothing too scarey! ... and breath a huge sigh of relief!!

Still have toe issues, but think with some more tweaking of the left cleat I may be close to resolving the cause of the injury and as said last weekend I'm managing it ok - more pain on biking then running and currently I'm feeling quite strong in the run - almost as good as I felt in January (before the back problem)... anyway where was I... Oh yeah the bike course.... So we had a lap with the boys then Keith and Steve cycled back (from where they came) and the three of us continued around another lap. We had less stops on the second lap, I had one close encounter with a wasp or bee when zooming down hill the poor bug must have been zooming up... hummm lucky I was wearing glasses, the bug did hit my cheek/ glasses at about 50kph (>30mph) which I think gave it more of a headache then me!!! LOL

Here's the profile of the route:

Oh it's not as bad as that picture would have it - seems to have squashed a bit loading it!!... Anyhow, we join it at the middle top, the cheeky hills are on the left side and then there's a nice flat/ down on the south side, only when you turn north west do you start to have rolling hills again.

Having completed the two laps this wasn't enough so a quick pack of the bikes into cars (well in my case bike, less front wheel which I forgot to pack and left by the side of the car - lucky no one wanted a spare wheel!).... So Leanne and I headed off for a run leaving Dan with instructions for two strong coffees to have been purchased in 30mins time!! ;o)

The run course is pretty flat really (couple slight inclines but nothing of notice, and again nothing compared to the HIM).... So the good is that it's flat the slight bad is it's mostly tarmac - which I think will make my foot a little sore, but hey by the time I'm running and it's hurting like everything else will be too so I'll probably not notice it!! LOL

Did about 5k on the 30min run, 20mins effort then 10mins walk/ jog back. The actual route on the day continues down in the direction I was headed, turns right then down the south east side of the reservoir to I think about that nobly bit in the middle bottom of the picture... .out and back twice is the half marathon part of the race. At least it's quite pretty!

Thankfully got back to a nice coffee from the shop (via Dan of course), we then fought the wind and staggered down to the water front where Dan gave us an idea of the swim course - two 850m laps! I think it's all coming together (well apart from my swim which still seems to be lagging behind)!

Having completed what we set out to do it was time for good byes. I had a lose arrangement that I would pop over to see some good friends in Leicester but felt a bit pooped to be honest. So I phoned Hellen up to say I was probably going to get in the car and drive home..... and then she put her youngest on the phone... Now Felix is 2.5 years and I only saw the family about 6 weeks ago... .and I know kids grow up quickly at that age but BLIMEY... he was having a right natter... so I couldn't resist it and headed the 45mins or so to their house instead.

Felix greeted me with his newest trick;

He then thought it would be a good idea to try our my trainers for size;

What a cutey!

Anyhow, kindly Ben and Hellen offered a bed for the night and an overgrown courgette (zuchini) for dinner;

Ben had missed these two for a couple of days..... hummm did I mention we'd had a lot of rain recently!! ;o)
Luckily there was also some pasta! So we had a nice relaxing evening with a couple of glasses of wine.. a perfect end to a great day!

... and then there was today... humm... well I was supposed to do a 2hour easy recovery ride... humm.. well I've been fighting a cold for a few days which has now turned into some beastly sore throat thing... by the time I got home I just felt pooped, even more then after the ride/ run yesterday. Suddenly the sofa looked kind of appealing.. and that's where I slept for a couple of hours!! Still I dreamed of riding and swimming so maybe that counts for something. Still not feeling too great and swallowing is like nettles from my throat down to my belly!! :o( Hopefully I'll kick this without too much bother as I'm having a nice long weekend break next weekend!! :o)

Ok enough for now - may even summarise my months training next week, not been too bad since I got back from hols (which is as well as The Vit is less then 3 weeks off... GULP!)