Do all roads lead to Rome?

In short .... NO, they bloody well don't, they only lead directly into the wind.  Head out on the bike for a long training ride in a route that goes East, North, South and then West and the wind has the uncanny ability to blow directly into your face no matter what direction you are riding in.  I'm pretty certain that some laws of physics are being compromised here ...?

I headed out yesterday with Sarah, Paul, JP and Simon for a long training ride after swimming.  I knew that the guys were all in for the very long haul but I had decided to opt for a shorter session.  Since my last long ride bonk I have suffered a bit of a crisis of confidence and therefore needed to push myself hard but not to the point where I wrecked myself mentally.

When we reached Rye, Sarah and I decided to break off to do our own thing and headed off along the lanes into some very quaint, not to mention occassionally hilly, Kent countryside.  This made for a really enjoyable ride with good company - tainted slightly by the ever present omni-directional wind.  At least it upped the training load!  I am very happy to say that we covered 97.5km (almost as long as my last ride) and I felt fine, albeit somewhat weary.  This was the confidence boost that I needed and I now feel a lot happier again, so a real BIG thanks to Sarah for all her encouragement on the ride.

Also managed to work in a couple of good swim sessions over the weekend.  The Sunday morning session (before riding) I did a 1500m continual swim in 29:30 using a pull buoy.  Last year, the best time I could manage for the same was 37:30, so an eight minute improvement made me a very happy boy - especially as I was able to chat to Dean straight away afterwards - nice one Tex.

Also worked in a good 90 minute steady run with JP on Saturday - nice bit of conditioning work.

Congrats to Lorna and JP on the announcement of their baby on the way - due September.  Well done guys and good luck - it's guaranteed to be a lot of fun ....

Taking it easy for the next couple of days as the weekend represented a fair bit of training - now it's time to allow the body to adapt.  Blimey, that sounded a bit grown up and sensible :-)
Take care y'all.