Four weeks away from home, no races for the last 2 weeks, and the excitement of that holiday type feeling has worn off. Now the reality of not being in the comfort of your own home or surroundings starts to hit home.
As nice as Europe is to visit - the history, the architecture, the scenery, after a few weeks you start to miss home. There’s no doubt we have it easy here in Wittenburg compared to some of the times Natalie and I spent in France over the years, but compared to the comfortable lives we live in SA, it is starting to place strain on our state of mind.
It's the little things you miss - like our coffee machine, plasma TV, our garden, remote access to your house. These are all things we don’t think twice about when at home.
Having to park more than 200m away from the apartment because parking in the city centre without paying is forbidden, is a pain, especially in the shoulders from carrying your groceries all the way and then lugging them up the 76 steps to get to the 5th floor (no elevators in 500 year old buildings).
So, being away from home is not as fun as everyone thinks it is, but for the sake of getting in good preparation for upcoming events, it has to be done. And that is the whole reason that we are here, to prepare adequately for the upcoming World Championships in Germany.
This week has been great from a training and weather point of view. The el-cheapo wetsuit is doing a great job in the 19 degree swimming pool for the 5km sessions I did everyday this week except for Sunday. The running has been quite tough, with the weekly mileage up to 117km including a 35km long run, my longest training run since October last year. Needless to say, it hurt.
Thursday was quite an interesting day for me as we headed to Berlin for a running stride analysis. I’ve had some problems with my shins for the last 2 years, and with the analysis the technicians will be able to build an innersole that will not only be able to help relieve the shin splints, but also activate foot muscles that will help eliminate tiny movements in the foot when it strikes the ground slowing you down by only a few milliseconds per stride, but over a marathon, that could equate to a few minutes. Free speed, count me in.
For the first time since I’ve been in Germany I did a 100km ride today without having to look at my map, which means I’m getting familiar with my surroundings. For those of you who have never had the opportunity to cycle in Europe before, it’s not quite like riding back home. You can’t simply pick a place to ride to and go. Towns and villages here are separated by as little as 1km and up to 5 or 6km at the most. Every time you get to one of those villages, you need to know the name of the very next village to follow the signs in the right direction or you might end up going in circles on a 4km loop. It takes some getting used to, but once you become familiar with the little towns it gets easier and sometimes quite enjoyable as you do intervals from one village to another. So after 600km in the saddle this week, I’ve chosen my favourite routes which will make next week a lot easier mentally.
Next week will be another long one in terms of training, but shorter mentally as we have a move to look forward to. So it will be packing and getting our ducks in a row as we head off to the mountains down south.
A big Thank You to Mike Mobius, the race director from ITT Ferropolis, who has been fantastic in organising everything for us over here.
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