Stewie

My blips seem to be on nothing much more than my training and sport just now. I've got the old hunger back and I'm starting to remember just how much I enjoy it. Saying that, I'm looking forward to a rest day tomorrow as its been a tough weekend.

Yesterday was awesome. I pedalled to Marple to do the Parkrun and went nearly a minute faster than my previous PB. The firm ground and sunshine certainly helped. Then I went to Libby's, a brill cafe in Marple Bridge with friends James and Laure. My pain au raisin was amazing. Then I cycled back home through Etherow Country Park in WARM sunshine....I forgot what that felt like. After a quick lunch, I fitted cleats to my new cycling shoes and then rode to Glossop for the weekly shop. I had to get the train home though as my weekly supply of fruit was huge. After a quick snooze, I cleaned my bike and then did some maintenance. It took ages as my back brake had seized and I had to take it off the bike to fix it. Then, early to bed.

Today, I had a 4 hour ride in The Peak with loads a climbing. I was nearly a broken man on the final climb. Lunch followed by a long soak in the bath soon had me alive again. Then I headed off to town for an early swim session with Uswim. I was meeting a friend for dinner so couldn't make my normal tri club one. Wowee! Maybe not what I needed after a long bike ride.

The session was designed for open water distance swimmers and initially I thought the pace was quite sedate. They knew something I didn't though. I've never trained more than 90 mins in the pool but this was 2 hours long. I maintained a good pace for a while but the final 3 x 400m saw a precipitous drop off. My arms became like lead but I pushed it to the end. Getting out the pool and onto my feet was the ultimate challenge. Sarah, the lovely coach, gave me a seat....I was struggling to speak! Once out the pool, I felt quite disorientated and in another world....I suspect my brain was even glycogen depleted. A milk shake and a danish seemed to help.

Then the cool bit of the day. My old mate Stewie was making a flying visit to Manchester from Melbourne so we arranged to meet for dinner and beer. Wow....I didn't realise that we first met 15 years ago when he came over to Europe to race triathlon. It was a whistles top catch-up that brought back great memories. My fav was when Stewie n his mates had been racing the worlds in Denmark and stopped off in the UK on the way home... Josh, one of the lads, came out on the piss with me and a few friends and we drank far too much. He was starving so we took him to the Deep Sea for a deep fried (in batter) jumbo haggis supper. Ha ha....a young athlete in his prime didn't cope so well with this culinary delight.

Anyway, this is Stewie in the photo.....will have to plan a visit as he lives in Torquay just along from Bells Beach of Point Break (surfing movie with Patrick Swayze) fame.