Returning from two fabulous weeks snowboarding in Canada we were greeted by friends and neighbours with “You chose the best two weeks to be away the weathers been crap”. Living in the west of England the area has suffered serious flooding, gale force winds, persistent rain and been under a grey cloud for what feels like 6 months. Vitamin D tables should be distributed by the postmen as we haven’t seen sunshine for so long, there’ll be a scurvy outbreak next.

Now whilst it was nice and sunny but a little windy the weekend we came home, the landing was a bit of a white knuckle roller coaster ride but luckily we weren’t diverted to Manchester or Birmingham like many other flights. We wondered what all the fuss was about.

Some news of the atrocious weather had made it onto Canadian news in-between Olympic updates and medals. The notable items were to sinking of Somerset under more flood water, sink holes swallowing cars, train services to London none existent and the saddest was a man from our village was electrocuted whist trying to move a fallen tree as his power was out. We got away lightly and when returned home we found minor storm to the house and garden, a few mushy items in the freezer and the tropical fish had gone.

I was due to go the European Parliament for work on the Monday following our return but with the state of the house, trains and roads plus more bad weather forecast I canceled. The upside was I got the get back to ironman training and puppy walking.

Good training news of the week my CSS – critical swim time has come down from 2:03 to 1:51. This is the time you can comfortably repeat 100m sets for infinity and beyond 🙂 I managed to get this session in just before jet lag hit.

During  15 years I transatlantic & far eastern flights for work where I was on the plane more than in my own office or home I never suffered from jet lag, yet this trip both my hubby and I were regulars for the following week in the 3am wide awake club, then fall back into a fitful slumber until mid morning. No idea what caused that nocturnal disturbance for us ?

On a semi dry day I grabbed the road bike to get some fresh air to try to flush out the jet lag, my local 15 mile loop. Good to be out, nothing earth shattering with the time though. Another swim session, a spin/circuit class completed the week.

Hello sunshine – I got some new shoes. My new shoes make the outgoing old pair look rather dull. Half price but couldn’t really workout the actual colour on screen. Seems orange looks more red online ! Maybe they’ll glow in the dark for when I come in at end of ironman 🙂

The weekend was like Jekyll and Hyde in weather terms, luckily I had the chance to get out and ride on Saturday which was sunny and dry’ish. But boy was it hard work. Whilst good to be back out in sunshine on mostly dry roads I battled with the wind & hills on this ride. At some points only managing 10 mph on the flat into a headwind. I did a similar route last summer and managed 50 miles in the same time as it took me to ride just 38 miles on this one !
Many roads were closed for repairs, diversions due to fallen trees & power lines with  a few flooded areas and debris plus lots of hedge cutting branches to avoid.

Then Sunday was back to the savage wild west wet & windy storms. Three wooden patio chairs can now only be used for fire wood if they ever dry out as they crashed and broke up after falling. So I headed for the gym expecting it to be packed but pleasantly surprised just to see 2 others in there so I could hog a treadmill for an easy 40 minutes with a couple of fast miles thrown in.

Here’s hoping the sunshine is found soon and spring can get underway. Signing out from a wet wild west. If we continue to have this weird weather I will have to resort to the pony express for mail and updates ! Yee haw 🙂