Long time no blog.....

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I consider myself officially told off - having a lovely drink in the pub after the Endurancelife wild swim today, Sarah commented that she likes to read my blog and I'm aware that I haven't updated for a while - sporadic blogger that I am. So much to update and share, so consider it done, and read on - this one's for you Sarah x

The last couple of weeks have been okay-ish. Had a lovely strong week towards the end of June, I have been pushing it while cycling as just sticking to my optimum heart rate zone seems to make me painfully slow. Had some lovely evening rides after work and the last few 3km swims. Running wasn't so hot though with the odd ache and pain starting, but nothing to write home about.

2 weeks ago, James, Nat, Don, Albert and I headed out to France to catch up on some of the Tour and had a really cool time training. We were staying at a campsite near Cap Frehel, the finish for stage 5, so made sure we got right on it. We arrived at our campsite at about midday on Saturday and headed straight out for a run to acclimatise ourselves and find the nearest beach. A quick run down from the campsite took us to a gorgeous long sandy beach, gently sloping, with the tide out it must have been at least 400m wide, and to run along took us about 40mins - so a pretty big beach by all accounts! At the far end of the beach we turned inland and found an awesome coastal trail, that was pretty technical by our CTS standards and full of amazing butterflies. At the hill back up to the campsite we carried straight out on the trail along the coast to the next village and wound our way, slowly, back up to the campsite, through wheatfields and with the blazing sun. This was planned to be a 2 hour run and took us about 2.45hrs and was pretty tiring in the heat.

Next day was long ride day, so we got up early-ish and jumped on our bikes and headed south. What a refreshing change, James and I were able to cycle net to each other for most of the time as French drivers are so much more conditioned to cyclists and give a lot more room. Plus being on the right hand side of the road meant I could hear what was coming, so we happily pootled along side by side for hours.
Along the route, passing through many of the villages and following most of the route of the Tour stage near us, down as far as Yffiniac (couldn't find a non motorway route to St Brieuc so decided to turn here) and then headed back up towards Cap Frehel.
We passed a huge bike race heading in the opposite direction, then the penny dropped that we should have entered it.
It was a glorious day and eventually the bike race caught us up - or we caught them. Hurtling up to Cap Frehel and the finishing line for the Tour, we childishly stepped on it and raced through to a sprint finish along with the riders, then carried on through for the extra 5 miles or so to the actual Cap.
We turned round and headed back for home, with a quick Galettes stop in 'Sables d'or les pins' a crazy little seaside village taken over with a bike expo and lots of kites?!!
Total distance was about 57miles, in about 5hrs, with food stop, some pootling, but some tourist photo stops too!