We went mountain biking at the w/e at the excellent Glentress down past Peebles. We have had Mari staying this week – returning the favour in some small way for all the weeks I have stayed with her and her family in Stellenbosch, and we saw this cool VW camper. – There is a Life Is Good shop in Stelly, so it seemed worth a picture and making this link.

It’s been a finishing off with one block and starting up with another different one these few days. – Racing has been wrapped up for the time being, and consistent training is gradually beginning again.

Saturday was day of ‘everything catching up with me’ – everything being the 4 races in the past month and the 10+hrs of racing over the previous two weekend. Nonetheless, we did have an eventful morning, in an unconventional sort of way. – We chased ducks all round the garden. Somehow, a flock of ducklings had ended up in the back garden – and they must have trekked the (for a duck at least) mammoth journey down from the university loch (at least a Km) where they presumably came from.

Long stroy short – the duckling were easy enough to gather up – cardboard box and a little plastic tray with some water kept them happy enough. The mother duck?? Now that was a test in skills of capture. Sadly we lacked such skills. Nearly 2 hours later – after having clambered over most of the neighbours garden walls trying to catch the damn thing – I had to give up and admit defeat. I upturned the cardboard box and left the duckies to waddle around happily after their mum. They were adorably cute however!

they couldn't all fit in the 'bath' though

Yesterday I got back into some normal aerobic training after a week of bits and pieces. – 5k swim, 50k bike and 12k run around the North Third which was absolutely stunning. – It was in fact the first time I have ever stopped to cool off and dunk my head in the water during a run, and I have had countless runs up there over the years.

The weather really has been superb here in Stirling over the past wee while. Despite this, I will be leaving for the next month to go train in St Moritz, Switzerland. Altitude is something I haven’t really done in a long time – in fact the last time I was higher up was in early 2005 when I spent 3 months living in Glen Innes, Australia. (The given-the-name-not-too-surprisingly Scottish Capital of Oz; so I was very much at home!). We only lived at 1200m then though, and couldn’t ride much higher than 1400m … so it wasn’t really ‘true’ altitude. Despite this, when I ‘came down’ I had some of my best results to that point. St Moritz is a much more useful elevation – the village itself being at around 1600m with the oppertunity to ride very high indeed – the Stelvio pass in nearby Italy reaches to 2750m.

With 4 weeks training up in the mountains it will be interesting to see what effect it may have on my results when I resume racing again in August. I will be training with Tim Don but there will be a few other guys and girls making use of the lack of oxygen. I am looking forward to it.