We arrived back to the UK after a 2-day journey through air and time, culminating with a -mile trip in mum's purple nissan Micra, dangerously loaded with or bike boxes and baggage obscuring the view out of every window. Good thing it was a saturday night and the local Po-leese had other things to focus on in town. to a bit of a chill shock, but that has been tempered somewhat by the beautifully clear and sunny weather that we've had all week. yesterday I even briefly considered riding in shorts as i went around one of my favourite routes on Exmoor - one reserved for fine clear days like that. It's great to be riding and running around 'home' and witnessing the signs of spring in the countryside. However since our return it feels like my feet have hardley hit the ground. Or rather - my bum has hardly hit the sofa. my feet have been hitting the ground in a fairly regular and rythmic manner since it recently it's dawned on me that the Virgin London marathon is approaching and a few long runs might help me in that regard!
Aside from catching up with friends and family - and a surprise christmas dinner complete with presents and requests for reciprocation, most of my time has been focused around final stage of organization for the training camp which starts next week as well as kit orders, renewing my team and sponsorship contracts and arranging for good to be shipped in the small time period that i'm here in the UK to receive them. This has required a good deal of back and forth correspondence, which is time consuming, and at times frustrating when I just want/need to get out and train! But on the whole it's been enjoyable and fulfilling, not to mention a great learning experience. We have had amazing support from sponsors for this camp and I'm confident that the efforts invested in oragnising this first camp at just about hopefully break-even will be worthwhile if the athletes all have a great time, see fitness gains and the camp sponsors feel that we have justified their support with exposure to a hungry market. Next time around, we'll be more experienced, have an established network of support and a basic camp template in place. We envisage that running training camps will become a key aspect of EverydayTraining in the future - so here's hoping that we pull this one off! The basic premis of the camp is a big volume week of no-nonsense training, with a few competitions and challenges to add a bit of extra motivation as fatigue sets in and mojo's threaten to crumble .This is the sort of thing that both Steven and I really enjoyed about Epic - and felt it was rare to get such an opportunity. We've done it on a 'shoe-string' to make it really accessible, and just hope that we're not proved to be total freaks ..and that those who've signed up for this week of suffering will enjoy it too! Both steven and I will be posting up daily 'blogs' from camp on the coaching website blog page and you can follow @EDT_news for Twitterings too.
The coaching aspect of EverydayTraining is developing nicely too - since our return to the UK we've signed up 4 new athletes - 3 of those are local triathletes, which is a very positive step for us in getting into the 'scene' down here. However both Steven and I are realizing that there is a point where we will not risk reducing the level of attention and service we can provide taking on more athletes - we're not there yet, but I am already holding my new sign ups until after Ironman Lanzarote this year.
Other exciting news for me is that my new bikes have arrived! I was doubtful that the contract with American Bicycle Groups and QR would be in place and bikes shipped in time for me to take on the Camp - but they were received in our local bike shop - Bicycle chain, Taunton - where Brian my favourite mechanic put in a few hours over-tiem to get it cabled, cut and set up for me to train on saturday, get it in a box ready for departure today. he's a star. And the bike is COOOL. It is pink, which is something that i am having to come to terms with :o) - but i think that it's gonna force me to ride it fast - for fear of being called a Jesse. Steven commented yesterday that I'm riding well - he couldn't quite drop me as he usually does at 300W.
long run this morning (not my favourite session - 3hr run = about 45 min of fun in total for me), quick hair cut for steven and were OFF to LAnzarote this afternoon!
