I look a little confused. Must be the mtb?

I’ve had a few days off now since Prague, Saturday past, and yesterday we had a bit of off road fun. – A change is as good as a rest don’t they say? I reckon so.

Blair and I threw some gear in the back of the car and after we’d finished arguing about exactly who’s fault it was that we’d managed to lock ourselves out of the flat, we got going northwards for the 2 hours it takes to hit Aviemore. We met up with Grum, our best buddie from home, and headed towards the heather!

We have a lot of fond memories from the Cairngorms; be it from caravan holidays or skiing as kids, or indeed riding the mtb’s throughout our youth on these very trails. So it’s always great fun going back up there for an explore. – Blair has had plenty more time than me to do this over the past couple of years, and he showed us some cracking trails.

There is a lot of excitement building as the w/e approaches though – it is the London round of the ITU World Championship Series in Hyde Park on Saturday. Blair is travelling down to watch alongside the Scottish Youth and Junior athletes who have a race themselves on Sunday. I however will be able to watch the whole event unfold live on BBC television here in Stirling. Both Gavin and Will are racing so tune in to give them a hearty cheer.

In the meantime I shall consinder unpacking my bike……….

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.