Turbo or not Turbo...

... that is the question.

Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of an outrageous winter...

Or maybe the title should have read "Now is the Winter of our discontent..." to stay in the Shakespearian vein. Anyway, you get the drift. And if you don't, the drift is this:

Summer has gone.

Kaput.

No more.

Il a disparu.

So, let's move on. There's nothing we can do about it and whining about the cold and wet won't solve anything and will take up valuable training time and even more valuable mojo. Time to - as our American cousins might say - "winterise".

I've been through my changing room and carefully folded all my summer gear, putting it to the bottom of my storage boxes. Resting at the top now, ready for action, are a whole assortment of winter tops, head torches, high vis jackets, long bibs, woolen socks, overshoes and the like. In a kind of perverse way I'm looking forward to getting out there and mixing it up a bit in the winter elements.

I'll be turbo-ing too on the bike. I think there are some top sessions to be done on the old machine and I'm going to rig an old TV up in the garage to watch movies on whilst I grind out the hour(s).

I've renewed my annual membership to my local swimming pool, so the days of early morning swims are nearly back with us and the memory of refreshing dips in sun-drenched lakes are fast becoming a distant memory. I always liken the onset of winter to a tooth ache. Once it's with you it's impossible to remember life without it or imagine that it will ever leave.

What else? Well, not running is becoming a real drag. I'm desparate to get out there and start again but am going to give it another week and a half at least. I feel fat and lazy though and am going through serious withdrawal symptoms. I've managed to keep my hand in with some reasonably long bikes (I do a couple of 50 mile plus rides a week along with some shorter stuff) but even managed to perform my first over the handlebars crash at the weekend. It cost me a new saddle, a lot of road rash and a sore neck, but all told I and the bike can count ourselves lucky.

I managed to neatly sidestep the oncoming Range Rover issue by forking out nearly £ 500 on a couple of front tyres and MOT for my current car. I also figured I might as well invest another ton and get the thing professionally valeted. So, I've spent a few hundred but feel like I've got a new car, as opposed to spending £ 30k or so and actually getting one. That, I can tell you, I am happy about.

And so, my lovely bloggers, as the rain beats its steady tattoo on the full length windows of my office and I look out to see trees swaying in the heavy winds, it is here that I must leave you. I must write words in another application for another purpose.

Until we meet again, may the skin on your backside never line a banjo...

(Old Irish saying)