Non-Stop Life!

I left work a little early on Thursday to the Tour Series Criterium around the Grassmarket and take some pictures. I failed slightly in both. Most of the time was spent speaking to old friends, some who I've not seen in years. I couldn't walk 20 metres without bumping into people I knew.
 
Right on cue, just as the race was about to start, the heavens opened over the cobbled streets. The Grassmarket is surrounded by tall buildings too……heavy rain, poor light and fast moving objects are a photographer's nightmare. I still had a fun evening.
 
Friday was a busy one as I've just been given a large data-set to analyse and spent all day tidying up spreadsheets. One day and a third of the work done. Then Chris picked me up and we went down to Porty for a swim in the Forth. We met up with a group from our Tri club and were soon swimming towards Joppa. The water was really flat and clear, although temperature had dropped a little from the weekend.
 
Afterwards Berit suggested a trip to the pub! Much as my salty throat could have murdered a pint, one of my athletes' had a race at the weekend and we had arranged to discuss race strategy at 8:30pm. I just got home on time……Rosemary was off to do a few races in the Lake District.
 
The alarm went off at 5:15am on Saturday. I was tutoring for British Cycling over in Glasgow for the weekend. It was the 1st time I had donned my old work kit since I had left Manchester in November. There is only one Glasgow…..certainly not a generic city. I love and am saddened by the place in equal measure.
 
The cycle to the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome was better than the last time, when I had hit ice and slithered into a railing! Chris (not Hoy) and I went about setting up the room…..I had an issue in that I didn't know how to set up my Mac to use with a projector (schoolboy!)  but  Chris had everything on his computer too so all was well.
 
We were soon heading out to the car park with our group of 16 coaches. I had my 1st every paracyclist in a course, and I amongst others was distracted by her fancy carbon fibre  hand-cycle.  We were welcomed to the car park with the music of a flute band and Chris and I had to explain to our friends from south of the border that it wasn't really a welcome sound.
 
After an eventful day I headed back to the centre of the city. It was full of drunken football fans, women on hen nights and a few sober looking people. Hibs had won the Scottish Cup earlier in the day…..and I then clicked why it had been so difficult to find a cheap hotel room. The only one for under £130 was the Easy (of Easyjet) Hotel. It was the worst hotel I'd ever experienced. My room was just large enough for a double bed and there was no window. The corridors were a maze of confusion, with me dreading to think what would happen if there was a fire. Without any sense of irony, I believe that the only differences between this place and a prison was that a) I could leave when I wanted to b) I could have swung a cat in a prison.
 
I think I would have preferred the sound of tin cans  being bashed on iron bars to the sounds that I heard through the thin walls…..banging doors, drunken songs and goodness knows what else. I can't say I felt refreshed for the next day's tutoring. The cycle along the Clyde was just what I needed in the morning, which just about managed to trigger my happy switch.
 
During the 1st cycling session, there was a massive explosion. In the distance, we could see a huge puff of smoke. ISIS hadn't reached Glasgow though. Rather, a tower block in Royston had just been demolished. Our next interruption was from a rather unhealthy looking lady and her daughter. "When will ye be finished?" she asked. "We always feed the seagulls here at this time". Sheesh kebab!!!!
 
Lunch was spent speaking with Simone on the phone, who'd finished 2nd in her 70.3 IM in a really good time of 4hrs 40mins.  I was a very proud coach. Then it was straight back into tutoring, one-to-one feedback with all the coaches and a finish just before 6pm. I pedalled back to the train station, had 20 minutes to wait and then met some lovely older ladies on the train who'd been to the theatre. Surprisingly they knew quite a bit about cycling and even more about how to keep white hair high with full aerosols of hairspray.
 

Rosemary arrived home before me……she'd done great in her races, getting a 3rd in a trail half-marathon and a 3rd in a 3km swim against single sport athletes. I was very proud of her too but really struggled to speak as I was so exhausted.