" and you may ask yourself...." How did I get here?"

The journey from John and Marjorie's up to Aviemore passed without any delays yesterday. We arrived to sunshine and the opportunity to stretch our legs: Joanne set off up through the beautiful Rothiemurchus Estate woodlands for a run and I recce'd the climb up to Cairngorm ski station. TT bike will be fine tomorrow so no need for a bike change. 10 miles or so of climbing which will, doubtless, take me more than yesterday's 35 mins as I'll already have biked 150 miles by the time I do it next time. J and M arrived a bit after us and after a very pleasant meal we went to bed and waited for it to get dark.....and waited.......and waited. Still a glow in the sky at 11 and already light at whatever time the pubs kicked out and the drunken dawn chorus awoke us from our deep sleeping. Tomorrow we'll know exactly what time that was as we'll already have some miles under our belt, having set off from John O'Groats at midnight. A strange way to spend the first 8-10 hrs of your 53 rd ??!!? birthday. For those of you who are worried about whether it's wise for Joanne to return to Aviemore, we're fairly certain that her misbehaviour here as a college student has all been forgiven.....if not forgotten. She did get some strange looks and comments as she ran through the centre of the village yesterday but we're putting that down to the misguided behaviour of a drunken minority. No- one has mentioned Cyril the Squirrel yet, anyway. Oops, the cat's out of the bag. Off for breakfast in a moment but will post before we head to J o'G with some more sensible thoughts on how things may go over the next hrs / days! Richard

Hey Ho.....Let's Go!

After illness and the stress of rushing around organising SwashBuckler and ForestMan it was nice to get back on my bike yesterday. Just did a few repeats up to Hartside from Melmerby, which is where Joanne's parents live, just east of the Lakes, right under the North Pennines. It's not steep, particularly, but a good 6 miles or so of " alpine" type climbing. Three ascents of that got me back in the saddle and I finished before the rain set in for the rest of the day The bikes were great.....thanks Alex and Primera, for the posh Zipps on the faithful old TT bike. Nice to see some spare sprockets behind me, which I'm sure these old and undertrained legs will put to good use in the hills. Actually, considering the lack of riding over the past month my legs felt reasonable. Lungs still shot to pieces after the virus but hey ho......let's go! Joanne and her folk headed to Ullswater to collect their kayaks....thank- you to Distant Horizons for your support! Roger Burlinson is bringing a kayak for Joanne. They took the opportunity for a trial swim and Joanne worked out the best guidance/ navigation strategy with her Mum, who will be supporting her on Windermere. She was in the water for nearly 2 hrs, which was a good work out and also good for confidence. Fairly comfortable conditions....thanks Mike for the lovely 2 X U wetsuits!!! So today we head off to our base in Aviemore, where we'll tie up with Roger and chat through some filming details. I will continue to try and consume as many calories as possible. All this being under the weather and race organising has left me somewhat "lean" at just under 10 stone! Slightly worrying as that was as low as my weight got by the end of 7 in 7. So it will come as no surprise that I've moved on to the " Guinness" diet, along with ice cream and chocolate milk......although only rarely at the same sitting ( usually when I've had too much of the former!!!) See you all in Bonny Scotland, where I predict .......mixed weather, I believe " dreach" is the word but I shall rely on our accordion-playing Borders correspondent to confirm !!

Heading Up North! The day has arrived - we are all packed up and headed northwards. 1st stop Penrith to meet up with John and Marjorie, collect the kayaks - kindly provided by Distant Horizons on Ullswater! Hoping to have a bit of a test swim Thursday and then we'll be off to Aviemore for the weekend.

Just when you think you're making progress!!

Our event season has kicked off over the past few weeks and the additional stress that comes with those was always going to challenge our training a bit. After the first event we managed to take the motorhome to Exmoor for a couple of days wher many illy miles of cycling were undertaken......despite a sore throat. Bad idea. The past 10 days have been exercise free whilst I try to shake off the virus. Add to that an infected finger and I've not been a happy bunny!! Joanne fared a little better, at least managing to get in a couple of longer kayak sessions (one a beautiful trip on the Hamble with Roger) and some open water swimming before she succumbed to the same lurgy. Despite our coughing and spluttering....and wondering at one stage who would have a voice to do the briefings.....SwashBuckler was a success. Great venue, lovely weather and a switched on crowd of athletes...... should ever be thus!!! So now it's gently gently back on to the bike for me with a few Exmoor days for next week when Joanne is intending to up the open water swimming. Meanwhile in the not so frozen North John and Marjory have been able to get out regularly in the kayaks, John has continued to recce the lakeland 3's route to try and shave a few minutes here and there. In view of the very low water temperatures I have taken the step of getting hold of a wetsuit myself, just in case we need to do a bit of a relay. This will be interesting as I haven't actually swum a stroke since early November when I first developed my neck/left arm problem. Thanks to Mike Martin at 2XU for the loan of a magic suit which will surely do all the work for me. Still, how difficult can it be? Speak soon Rich