Under The Knife...

I've been training hard this week. Two reasons really. Reason one... I like training. Reason two... the snow has disappeared. Reason three... I go under the knife on wednesday.

Okay I grant you, that's three but what's a reason between friends.

Dealing with one and two first, it's been a pleasure to be able to get back on the road again for all my disciplines (simply driving to the pool has proved difficult over the past few weeks). The snow finally cleared around thursday meaning that my road bike (newly refurbished thanks to Marcus at my LBS) could be unclipped from that most evil of torture machines, the turbo trainer.

Truth be told, my trusty Specialized is running as well as it ever has, as it should thanks to Marcus fitting new Shimano 105 wheels, a new ultegra 12-25 rear block, new chain, new brakes yadda, yadda, yadda. I was out today on the annual 'Tour of The Brickhills' a tough and unforgiving hilly 55 mile ride organised by North Bucks Riding Club. Despite coming off in the ice I was pleased with my ride (I'm not a mountain goat and never will be) of 3 hours, for an 18.3 mph average and 22nd overall in the company of some strong cyclists, several of whom were Cat 1 level.

I've obviously been keen to put it out there too due to my upcoming varicose veins operation which is on Wednesday 18th. For those of you keen to know what the procedure involves, there's a link here to give you all the gory details. I particularly like the movie that explains how they stick a wire into your veins and strip the offending beasties out of your leg. Anyway... I'll keep you posted on how I go.

Being quite mad by now due to incessant exposure to ludicrous amounts of training, I'm going to attempt to train every day, including the day of surgery. My plan is to go for a 5k run the morning of the op just to get the heart racing, recover through Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning and, on thursday afternoon, do some light weights and core work. From there on I'll do a little every day, hopefully seeing the green shoots of recovery in short order.

That's the plan, anyway. As a veteran of half a dozen or more general anaesthetics, I'm aware that the anaesthesia itself can be as debilitating as the surgery. I'll listen to my body and - rest assured, fair reader - a sensible course will be steered.

This week's training looked like this:

Mon - Rest day, 45 minute 10km run in the snow
Tues - 1 hour 2.7km swim session, 65 minute tempo run
Weds - 1 hour 2.8km swim session, 2 hrs 25 minutes brick session (20 mins on turbo at 85% MHR followed by 3.5 mile run x 3)
Thurs - 80 minutes 2.8km swim session, 40 minutes turbo session (high cadence), 15 mins upper body strength weights
Fri - 1.5 hours easy bike with lunch stop
Sat - 2 hour long slow run, 25 minutes easy spinning on the road bike
Sun - 3 hours 55 mile hilly bike, 15 mins running off the bike

Total time training 15.5 hours

Swim: 8.3 km
Bike: 110 miles
Run: 39.7 miles

Mark Robson got last week's film quote. It was spoken by KEVIN SPACEY as VERBAL KINT in THE USUAL SUSPECTS and the link with the previous week is Pete Postlethwaite who was in both movies.

Here's this week's:

"In this life, it's not what you hope for, it's not what you deserve - it's what you take!"

Who said it, in what film and what (or who) links it to last week's quote?

I put the latest story treatment of my script to bed last week and sent it off to my Agent Sean and my writer/director mate Robert in LA for reading. I guess I'll hear back this week. I'm happy with it and, for me, that's a lot of the battle.

Enjoyed my ride out with Colin this week. We ride out to a tea room in Stewkley and have soup and a baguette and, sometimes a little extra treat. I had a 'lightweight' samosa this week, Colin took the 'heavyweight' option of the Lasagna... the pic says it all - and he was surprised he was slower on the way back !!

I've been keeping up to speed on the movie front, seeing a few this week in addition to last week's THE LOST BOYS and GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK. On Wednesday I saw Michael Hanecke's CACHE (with an acute accent on the 'e') or HIDDEN to give it it's English title. I'm a big fan of Haneke's work - check out the original Austrian version of FUNNY GAMES for a really scary movie - and HIDDEN was an intriguing piece that still has me thinking as I write this. The following day Fiona and I continued our 'Oscar Watch', going to see THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON which looked great, was superbly directed but frankly didn't add up to a hill of beans. SLUMDOG all the way for me in this particular race. Friday I saw 28 WEEKS LATER which was a formulaic sequel to Danny Boyle's excellent 28 DAYS LATER and - the best till last - last night, Fiona and I watched THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD. I remember my favourite critic - Mark Kermode, announcing it was his movie of the year in 2007 and I found it equally inspiring. If you want to see a great Brad Pitt performance, save your dosh and rent JESSE.

Good luck to Team MK members Alan and Lynne Coldray who have just started up their B and B in France, catering for all but specialising in looking after cyclists and skiers.  Looks great and there's a link on the right.

Anyhow that's it. Next time I chat with you it will be in a lighter vein.

(Geddit)

Have fun and think of me on Wednesday morning...