One month in...

It's been a week of adaptation. Temptation got the better of me last Monday. The call for a super sub came in around lunchtime. Home unexpectedly, I found myself irresistible to the urge of playing footie (soccer) for the local English pub. Four hours later the game was on and the team were running around the synthetic grass field like a bunch of overgrown children. Here's the thing about that very fact. Brain says "yay, I'm 18 again and can run with abandon". Body rebuts, "you must be joking. This will hurt tomorrow". And so, the body was shown to be right and I struggled with my right foot for the last 8 days.

This slight foot injury set me back a touch. However, early in the training season, it wasn't the end of the world. Training was adapted to reduce running and add biking workouts, with some elliptical thrown in for good ole fashion mental torture. The foot remains tender, but the long run last weekend was only an hour and was completed with minimal discomfort.  My ankles have always been a touch temperamental as a result of many years of youth football 5 days a week, playing on dodgy surfaces, quite often frozen. Therefore, to be a bit sore for a period after my one not-so-triumphant game a year is to be expected.

The opportunity to train in the glorious University of Minnesota pool was seized in the week. Anytime they open it up to the public is a chance anyone should jump at. Such a nice pool and a great chance to text your long course abilities. In addition to the joys of swimming at the U, Mother Nature decided to melt some snow this week, revealing the forever forgotten grass and show some encouraging signs of the forthcoming spring that will project me out of the basement and in to the wild. For now though, the basement remains and trainer road is till my best friend.

Off to back to the Motherland this week with a chance to do some training on the roads I grew up on and enjoy the countryside isolation. Better watch out for those potholes!

Good luck to us all!

The basement setup. Always need some entertainment!

Hopping in for a quick swim at the University of Minnesota. Wife on standby taking pictures!

Stuffed in a dark hallway in Texas to complete a 90 minute spin!