Alan Murchison's blog by Alan_Murchison

I'm just back from a few days of sun in Mallorca and I am struggling. I've still been cross-training like a man possessed and really enjoying doing different exercise. But I'm still a good month away from running at the earliest, and although I am keeping positive and busy, I'm really missing it. My 8-year-old Freya starts athletics training at the local club in Winchester soon and I hope to join her in the jogging! Fingers crossed. Only issues I have had training recently have been the heat and then the lack of it. In Mallorca it was what the weathermen would describe at 'scorchio'! Certainly mid to high 30s in the afternoons and with an early morning swim for an hour followed by an hour of aqua-jogging, my daily cycle usually took place about 1pm, obviously at the hottest part of the day.

Now I don't normally mind the heat but this was too much even for me, and the final nail in the coffin was getting lost on my final day and being out for 4 hours in 38C! I lost the plot completely with an hour still to ride and as you can see by the picture, I could not even stand up at the end. What a plonker! But a short flight home and it was back to wet and rainy England. In fact 24 hours after my 'sweatfest' in Mallorca, I jumped on my bike and just about froze to death. I wore a thermal top, arm warmers and gloves in temperatures of a rather Baltic 13C! I was not a happy bunny and was shivering upon my return. That's a temperature difference of 25C in less than 24 hours, which just can't be good for you? No doubt I'll get a summer cold to add to my grumpiness!

My Olympic event quest this week has been sidelined somewhat, with getting back to being busy at work and holidays, so I'm sticking in an easy event for me to do badly. I decided to do a swimming event again however not a ridiculous 10k open water but a mere 1,500m freestyle swim. Now I am not the greatest swimmer in the world and know that this is a soft event for me. But I have been swimming 4/5 miles a week now for 6 weeks, so in fair shape at best. I went to my local pool near L'Ortolan at Nirvana Spa where there's a 25m pool always set up with lanes. Brandishing a new set of goggles in I jumped. However I only managed 1,500m in a very slow 29.47. Rubbish. I need some coaching to try and get anywhere near to a respectable time in the pool and I was getting lapped by a 15-year-old girl every 5 lengths! Putting how rubbish an effort this was into context, my old mate and swimming god David Davies (that's the lunatic who took silver in Beijing 10k swim in 1.52!) managed 6th in the Olympic final with 14.52! Again twice as fast as I can go. I might get a canoe for the next swim event as this is tragic, but I promise to re-visit the 1,500m swim when I am less bad! Next week badminton and road cycling prep 'Cav' Style.