My first day as an athlete is done. What was it like? Pretty good actually. OK it’s just the first day and not entirely typical of things to come, but still I’m liking it more than real work!
I opted for a bit of a lie in, getting up at 8am. Then first things first, check my email and see how the Women’s Triathlon had gone in the olympics. No real surprise on the winner there, it was always likely to be Snowsill or Fernandes and they got gold and silver respectively. I guess moving to Oz for a year I should be happy that an Aussie won when the Brits were so far back. Of course, they’re not too happy with how things are going at the Olympics right now.
Important stuff done it was time for the first bit of work for the day a short 30 minute run just to find out how things felt. Crap, they felt crap… I ran my usual 30 minute loop and completed it in 30 minutes fine (if I’m tired or going super-easy I’ll take anything up to 3 minutes longer) it just felt crap. Not aerobically, but my legs were so stiff. It’s enough to make me think I need a massage and I should probably be stretching them out too!
After breakfast it was time for a little admin work and some preparation for Oz. So a few calls to banks and magazines to cancel subscriptions. All is good except that Future publishing insist you cancel in writing, nice. To help prepare for Oz I also spent the entire day in board shorts when not out training. I wasn’t going to go outside like this, it’s too wet and cold, but it’s a start to getting used to my new lifestyle…
It took me a while to persuade myself it was acceptable to watch the TV. When I’ve worked from home in the past I’ve had no trouble having trashy daytime TV on, but now it felt a little wrong. Even with something like the Olympics instead of Cash in the Attic. Daytime TV seems the domain of the unemployed and I don’t want to be associated with that too much,. Sure I’m not employed, but I’m busy with other stuff. It’d just be wrong to spend the extra time I had watching Jeremy Kyle. Besides if you think UK TV is bad, you should see what they have in Oz! I watched about 3 or 4 hours of the Olympics today…
At some point in the early afternoon it was time for my second piece of work for the day – a bike ride. I put it off for a while, the weather isn’t too good and every time I make a move to go out Women’s Pole Vault is shown on the athletics… But I kick myself out the door for a really mediocre ride in shitty weather. Again legs just have no spark right now and there’s way too much tension in the left leg. I do need that massage! As in Switzerland my nice Campagnolo rain jacket keeps me dry for 3 hours in the drizzly rain. Now training is my life I’ll have to accept that crappy weather will be a factor. I’m not too disappointed by things overall, 2 weeks off training and tight muscles meant things would be slower than before.
On the other hand I did wonder what state this means I’ll be in for Worlds in less than a fortnight’s time. No use worrying about that too much now! Best use of the next 2 weeks is getting some good training in and getting myself back into a routine. Loosen up the legs and get myself feeling fresh in time for the race. Much as I’m racing for the GB Age group team it’s not an A race for me, my focus is more on Western Oz at the end of the year. I want to be hitting good form in November for Port Macquarie Half then peaking at Western Oz in December.
So all of that is done, along with a few other less interesting bits and pieces (I’m assuming the fact I shaved my legs after 3 weeks letting the hair grow isn’t interesting to most). Fitted in a blog post… And still plenty of time for dinner and some stretching… Yes, I’ll actually start stretching.
