Blog from the sky

Ahhh, you’ve got to do something on a 9hr flight across the Atlantic. So you might as well blog, or at least write something for later.


We’re finally on our way to PCB for Ironman Florida, somewhere just South of Iceland having been royally screwed out of almost £140 ($200) by Delta for the carriage of my bike box, that’s just one way!!! Still, it’s done now and by the time you read this we’ll be safely cooped up in Panama City Beach, moaning about the heat and less than 6 days from the big day.

So, how’s taper gone so far? Well, I don’t call myself the Lazy Ass Triathlete for nothing and with some of my main training weeks only resembling a lot of Ironman Athletes taper weeks my taper seems to have dissolved into almost nothing. I’ve managed a total of 3hrs training in this last week and if it wasn’t for a bike/run/bike session in the hotel gym last night I wouldn’t have sat on a saddle for over 7 days.

I haven’t been helped by the beautiful British weather though which has done its level best to blow and or wash away half of Devon over the last 7 days meaning I cancelled my Monday night track visit and my planned Thursday assault on my local 20mile TT leg tester where I was confident I could push for a new pb had the conditions been favourable. Still, they say it’s better to be undertrained than overtrained - so I should be ok then.

It’s not all bad though, the three sessions I have done all went well and I put solid shifts in for all of them so there was no slouching around for a change and I’ve even had my pre race shaving so there will be less drag while I’m out there……….. ahhhh, hold on! I mean Shelly has buzzed my head with the clippers on a grade 4 and the unsightly growth that all too often sprouts around my face has gone. If you were expecting tales of leg/chest or even ‘back, sack and crack’ waxing then I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed.

---------- There seems to be a lot of coughing going around on this plane!! Bad Times -----------------

The bad weather and lack of training did mean though that I had plenty of time (which I need) to get my bike dismantled and packed on Thursday and it seems to have been one of my better efforts, although I’ll know more when I unpack it of course. My suitcase packing too almost seemed too leisurely and comfortable so I’ll no doubt report back later when I work out what I’ve forgotten.

Even this weekend’s travel seems to have been relatively hassle free, especially after our booking error where somehow we managed to be leaving from and returning too totally different airports. It didn’t start too well with us leaving home a little late and then getting caught in all the holiday traffic with people heading home after their kids half term breaks. That meant we were over an hour later than we originally planned to meet my parents for lunch at The Bowl Inn, Almondsbury after which they took Rosie pup off for her holiday at their house (yes Shelly cried!!!). We then chugged our way along the M4 to Heathrow where we stopped the night at The Renaissance which was nice (good gym). We’re leaving the car with them for the duration of our trip! This morning we had an early 3am wake-up call (helped by the extra hour due to the clocks changing) so that we could be ready at 4am to meet the Taxi which was taking us the 45miles to Gatwick Airport. Now there is just the hassle of US Immigration and the baggage claim/drop at Atlanta to deal with and fingers crossed we’ll soon be settled in PCB – I’m sure this paragraph will get altered before it’s posted if anything goes drastically wrong.

The week ahead could be a busy and interesting one. It appears that we’ll have a lodger up until the race as an old clubmate of mine should be appearing. His race preparation and organisation makes anything we’ve done look like it’s been executed to the ultimate though so I’ll only be certain he’s coming when he gets here.

-----------Oooops, that was close. The woman in front of me just reclined her seat and nearly broke my laptop screen in half------------

Thanks to the joys of social media there should be a few meet ups too. It’ll be nice to meet in person people I only know as a name on Twitter. It’ll also be nice to look out for some faces while I’m out on the course (especially the run) next Saturday, rather than it just being a procession of unknown blank and painful bodies staggering along the road. It’ll be good if it gives Shelly a few more faces to shout too rather than just seeing me appear every hour or five.

-------------- Ahhhh, we’re here ----------------------------------

Phew, here I am typing from PCB the morning after a 20hr+ day of travelling yesterday. I’m knackered and my back aches like hell but we’re here and that’s the main thing. This blog is a bit random, there’s no pretty pics or anything, but hopefully I’ll get a bit more regular (how many times do I say that??) over the course of the holiday. There’s no direct internet access in the apartment but it’s just a stroll down to reception before I can sit down and post random rubbish – expect bulk Twitter overload!!

Right, now I’ve got bags to unpack and a bike to build so I’m going to post this rot, hope it makes some sense and it isn’t just a random bundle of words. Next time I’ll try to post in the same day with words that fit together 