Weathermen

There I was sitting in my living room this morning with my second cup of coffee in my hands looking outside muttering to myself about the look of the sky and saying something along the lines of it being the calm before the storm. However despite the black clouds the BBC weather woman advised me that if I headed east I'd be fine......Tomorrow morning I'm watching ITV weather- enough said. 3 hours later I got home soaked and tired from battling a headwind for the last hour or so.

I have to own up here and say that in a huffy mood I left the trusty steed outside for a good hour whilst I showered, ate and drank some more coffee. With pangs of guilt I finally went outside to dry it of and bring it inside. Hopefully I'll be forgiven before tomorrows ride.

Thankfully it was in slightly better spirits that I went running tonight in the rain for splashing through the puddles is a heck of a lot better than riding through them. The clouds even parted in the last twenty minutes so I was able to tired after my run sit on the front step admiring the calm after the storm. Some days it's just got to be done even if it's not the most enjoyable experience.

The only other interesting event as of late is that I sat a new personal pull up record in the gym of a whopping 5!!!- It was a big moment for me. Was it embarrassing that the rugby boy next to me was doing reps of ten with 15kilos attached to his waist? Yes. Was it even more embarrassing that one of the little tennis chicks managed to do 7pull ups? Definitely, Next time I'll get her though. I've already warned her.

David McNamee, International Triathlete

Busy, Busy, Busy, Snowy

Its been a busy couple of weeks in the shop, our online sales project was rapidly accelerated (from May Launch to March Launch!), which has meant spending inordinate amounts of time populating the site with product images and descriptions - my eyes have gone square and my fingers numb, but it has been well worthwhile - you can see the shop at http://www.walkerscyclingshop.co.uk/ - we've been told that it will take a while for it to work its way into the matrix, so I might be busy again in a couple of weeks!

In the last month both my shop demo bikes (Giant Anthem X and Cove Stiffee) have been sold, so I've been left off-roading on a rigid singlespeed - which has been interesting in the snow at Cathkin Braes - the snow was a little softer than last time, so the club ride last night was largely rideable, but everyone was having "icing" issues - freezing freehubs, cable and even brake pistons! The biggest problem by far though was when you did have to push, your shoes filled up with snow and you couldn't get clipped in - a big problem on a singlespeed!

We should be taking delivery of our first Bionicon next week though, so not only will I have gears available, but on the fly travel and geometry adjustment. We'll be at the big demo day at Glentress on April 5th with Bionicon - so come along and try some fancy bikes!

The clubs "gravity" athletes had a successful weekend at the Innerliethen Winter Series DH last weekend, Michael Turnbull had a traffic free run this time, and moved up to 6th place, and a lot closer to the top few guys, and James Neill made a big improvement to finish 12th (both in the Youth Category, which regularly sees over 50 entrants!) - more to come on the race from Michael soon.

Neil Walker

Skittles.....

So there I was half way through my first recovery week in a long time and as the weather is finally beginning to turn better (even sporting a pair of shorts to go running in at one stage), and like a true Scotsman I catch a cold. After a long lie in and consuming several mugs of lemsip I trekked to the pool for a paddle in the pool for 3kms worth of steady stuff.

It was afterwards during some chit chat with one of the old dears who had been in the pool at the same time that she informed me that at her age it feels like your swimming through honey. In cycling terms its when your in the small chain ring but your legs are convinced your pushing your biggest gear with into the `mother of all headwinds`. I felt like telling her I was battling with the gooey stuff today but I didn’t think she’d appreciate it. So during the last few swim sessions its just all been about getting rid of that honey in the pool and changing it back to water- slowly but surely I’m feeling better.

Away from training today I rediscovered after many years the joys of eating a bag of skittles- its been a few years since my mum use to buy them for me (they were a favourite of mine) but as I popped into the shop on the way to the gym they called out to me. That and since the word fruits is on the bag I`m counting it towards one of my five a day. Another 4 bags and that’s me there. Now all I need to do is get nack to 100% health. Now where did I put those lemsips….

David McNamee - International Triathlete

Ice-Breaker

We got the traditional season-opener out of the way on Sunday - an early start to avoid the traffic for the Ice-Breaker 2-up TT. Over 40 teams were there to open up the lungs over 14 miles. Walkers had 6 teams riding, including 3 first time road racers - and all had a good time, despite the effort, one team missing their start, and another missing a turn at a roundabout!

What a difference a proper warm up made - I don't think I've done one properly for about 10 years, and I don't hurt nearly as badly after as I usually do - maybe I'm not getting old after all.

Drew did a good job in my team - gave plenty of spells, and rode it technically perfect - apart from a wee touch of wheels - but at least that shows he was close enough behind. After our practise on Friday I opted not to ride my new TT bike as Drew was getting zero shelter behind me! I've been slowly tweaking the position as my stretching regime allows me to get lower - so am looking forward to seeing how much quicker I'll be able to go!

APR's coming up next month on the Moscow Circuit, so hoping to get a good club turn-out for those ones too!

Neil Walker

Rubbing Salt in the Wounds

The snow is falling and my car seems permanently frozen, so today I took the mountain bike out on the roads for I decided to have a small separation from my turbo. After 3 days in a row it just gets to repetitive and theres only so much afternoon TV you can watch whilst moving your legs round. Even though the logical part of my brain was telling me that riding over ice should surely result in a painful ending, the mountain bike was having none of it and kept rooted to the ground. However after 5 hours my fingers and feet were passed the frozen stage but worse than that I had inhaled a few kilograms of salt from all the grit on the road. After brushing my teeth 3 times in an hour its finally going away and I`ve thawed out but the fan heater is still staying on just in case.

Despite the weather training has been going well since I came back from Spain. The long of hours of training and living like a monk appears to be paying of as my fitness is improving and I`m slowly getting stronger (one step at a time). Well I suppose its time to layer up again and get some running in. Till next time….

David McNamee - International Triathlete