Turbo Man's Fitness Blog: Rest and Recovery

NO LOVE HANDLES ALLOWED!

'It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.' Theodore Roosevelt 23 April 1910

Sunday 20 June 2010

Rest and Recovery

It's been a very light week for me this week. After The Magnificat last Sunday this week was planned to be a recovery week, but domestic commitments meant that it ended up as almost a total week off, with just 2 sessions completed. But I'll be honest, I thoroughly enjoyed having a focus on something other than cycling.

On Tuesday we drove up to Leeds for a parents evening at our daughter's new school where she will start in September. Her 2 brothers already board there so it won't be completely alien to her. Our daughter stayed overnight in the boarding house and then had a full day in the school on Wednesday. On Tuesday night Mrs TM and I stayed in a fabulous B&B just outside Bradford and we headed into Bradford for a traditional Indian meal. On the Wednesday we went into Leeds city centre and enjoyed a relaxing day following our noses with no pressure to do anything except make sure we were back at school to collect our daughter at 1600.

On Friday our daughter was involved in a dance show. Despite a bad graze on her knee from a playground fall earlier in the week she participated in 2 dances in front of a crowd of a couple of hundred or so enthusiastic parents, grandparents and friends. Afterwards, she received 3 awards following dance exams she had completed earlier in the year. Excellent. Straight after this, we drove down to Bournemouth for a weekend away. We stayed in a very pleasant B&B that used to be the family home of the actor Stuart Granger and on Saturday we went to see Blondie in concert. This took me back to my teens and despite being an OAP Debbie Harry can still sing and we had an excellent evening, fuelled by an excess of Ireland's greatest export! Sunday morning came far too early and a man with a jackhammer was trying to escape from within my head. I did my best to conceal it (and failed!) and after a hearty breakfast and opening my Father's Day gifts (a large bar of Toblerone (my absolute favourite chocolate) and 3 short sleeved casual shirts - excellent choice kids; many thanks and I love you all too!), we spent a couple of hours resting on Bournemouth's sandy beach. After this, a ride in the simulator (the Pepsi Max Ride from Blackpool Pleasure Beach) and a '99' I was feeling much better.

Looking ahead, I now have a 6 week block of speed/power training leading up to The Outlaw. I'm really looking forward to both the training and the race itself; I'll let you know how it goes.

All the best