Holidays are Good Things. As soon as we were on our way I completely forgot the whole 'do lots of exercise bike' thing, but remembered about the 'lots of swimming' and 'keep fluid intake high' bits. So, two out of three's not bad, eh?
The pool at the hotel was f-f-f-f-freezing. 18 degrees to be exact, an that is pretty c-c-c-c-cold. We know it was 18 degrees because the lifeguard told us. The lifeguard who said he wouldn't swim because it was so cold. The lifeguard who when I said 'what if I was drowning?' said it would still be too cold. I'm guessing he was joking. I'm hoping he was joking... It took about two lengths of the 50 metre (we guessed, so 50 metre-ish) pool to be able to breathe properly, and after that it was really rather lovely. But salty. Which could be because it's a salt-water pool. Great for floating, brilliant for improving my front crawl, rubbish for swallowing. Still, on the basis that I don't want to swallow too much 'pond' when I do my next triathlon (it being full of duck poo and all that), the 'don't swallow too much pool while swimming' was useful practice. And I did improve over the week - on Monday I could manage 50 metres before I had hit the Too Much Salt threshold, by Saturday it was up to 300m. See - improvement!
Contact lenses and salt really don't go. Big time. So I took to not wearing them most of the week (except for important stuff like dinner) which led to a real 'oops' moment. I mistook 'tinted moisturiser' (who bought that stuff anyway?) for suntan lotion (stupidly the same colour bottle) and ended up with spectacularly orange palms for two days.
The hotel was lovely, the weather was warm (even if the Force 8 gale was a bit much) and the food was delicious despite the Melodeon Master thoroughly upsetting the slightly fierce Maitre d' by announcing on our first night that he was - wait for it - vegetarian. The poor chap never really recovered...
And we're back. To the rain, to Freaky Running Dog and to The Saddle.
80 miles a week by the end of April.
I do hope it's comfortable...
Did you not do Icebreaker this year? Has training for the cycling taken over? You didn't miss anything weather-wise while you were away.
ReplyDeleteMick
Er, no! I was all set to be back marker and then about 10 days out Elsie said they'd got somebody already, and I decided I wasn't actually fit enough to do it properly... pootling round at the back is one thing, actually having to compete is another story! Next year I will aim to do it for real. And not be last!
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