Coach Carter

Following a hectic 4 weeks of lab testing, workshop, writing lab reports, training planning this week has been relatively calm. A chance to catch up on paperwork, admin (I love the end of the month and doing my books!!) and work on the website (a long needed back up!). I've needed this grounding time - a chance to re-group and pull my head in a bit like a turtle!

It has been as good a week as any to do this - the cold snap has firmly taken a hold of the south-east of England. And, for the second time in 12 months, I have found myself saying "its so unusual for it to snow in Eastbourne"...I will not be falling into the trap that the tagline "The sunshine coast" lays any more; or as French athlete Nic calls it "the shiny coast". Its okay for him, he is in Perpignan this week whilst the rest of us suffer in minus temperatures.

Once more, athlete diaries are coming in with reports of switching to the turbo. Those brave enough to venture outside have been suffering fuel starvation in long rides as their drinks bottles freeze over. Its hugely challenging to be an endurance athlete at times like this. Thankfully, the impact is less severe than when the snow came and held the country in its grip in January. By that point, athletes were hoping to be hitting peak volume, needing to extend their long rides out as long as their weekly time allowed. Right now, people are only a few weeks back in to the plan, so often rides can easily be substituted by 2 hours maximum on the indoor trainer.

I've been driven indoors too - although my rides have only been 45 minutes long. Not because I am losing the ability to do long sessions without a goal in mind tomotivate me, but more because the foot injury that had me pull out of the Great South Run back in October is still niggling. The cold doesn't help (as I think it is tendon related, and tendon tissue doesn't like the cold much!); but I think it started from tying my shoe laces up too tight on the day of a 10 mile run back in late September. It has been hard to pin down, as the symptoms keep changing. It hasn't been a big issue for me, because I have nothing to be training for...but my patience is now running thin. I've loved switching to more activities like yoga and walking, but I'm seeing the training camp looming and have a desire to also get out for social riding with my athletes too.

The weather has interfered with some of our PBscience activity this week. We were nearly put out of action in Mobie on Saturday, when Dan had athlete Craig in to test. It was minus 1 inside the lab - and Dan even had the gas hob running to warm things up. Testament to Craig and how hard he worked - as it was 17 degrees by the time he left for home! Poor guy - he then had to fly to Abu Dhabi for work the next day - as he landed it was 30 degrees...what a difference 24 hours makes! Since Saturday, the weather has got worse, and further lab tests and athlete meetings scheduled for tomorrow have been postponed.

NEWSFLASH!!!! The picture on the left was taken this morning - 4 inches of snow on top of poor Mobie...I reckon it might be warmer inside now with this layer of insulation!