Pain Train

 Hard training was promised and it has for sure been delivered.  I’ve been a passenger on the pain train for a few days now and am yet to get off. It would be fair to say I’m stuffed! Although other words would describe it better. The last few days have been all go with some hard bike efforts one day, a killer of a swim the next, a nicely broken 5km run TT tailor made for hurt and finished it off yesterday with more bike efforts. Living the dream they say, living the hurt explains it slightly better, but enough moaning on a whole it has been awesome. Training with all the guys here really brings you up to a new level and there is absolutely no room for slacking off.

The typical day consists of 1^st breakfast  morning training generally our key session for the day, 2^nd breakfast, a sleep then secondary training, lunch, possibly another sleep and if we’re lucky a massage (although that could be debated whether or not it is enjoyable). Dinner here is a bit of a spectacle, we’ve been split into groups of about 4 and cooking for 20 athletes means good times had by all. A few ooh ooos crept in through our meal. Sadly I don’t think we won master chef for this week.

You really know you’re in an elite athlete environment when the casual quiz night turns into something similar to the Olympics and the term sore loser could probably apply to most around here. The Nightly card game also seems to be slightly firing up and just quietly I think I have been one of the most consistent performers, although Marty would be a big contender.

From here I’ve got a couple of easy days before our race simulation, will be trying to get rid of a small cold and trying to get as much sleep as possible.