UK time

so I have been in the UK for about two weeks now. I arrived back the day before the olympic opening ceremony to surprise my mum for her birthday :) customs at heathrow was the fastest I have ever known it! the train from london to carlisle was cancelled though and I ended up having to go to newcastle and across to dumfries that way - slow :( I did eventually make it to my mum's friend's house where we had planned she would be and she looked really surprised when I walked in. so that was worth it :D

I had a nice relaxed few days at home and saw loads of folk in glasgow that I hadn't seen for a while, then headed back off to london town to see more folk. it was a busy but good few days there as well before I headed off to gosport to join my level 1 clipper course.

I finished that yesterday (it gets a whole post - eventually) and am now in dorset at lorna and david's. they had a baby in may and tomorrow I am going to deny satan for an hour for her christening. she is very placid and incredibly cute and doesn't mind me walking about with her talking nonsense. what a patient child :D

on monday I start my navigation course back in gosport, which I'm assured will make more sense having done level 1 already. unfortunately I can't do any more training this year with clipper, but am hoping to do levels 2 and 3 back to back next june when my contract is up in muscat and I come back home. it should go quickly, as I am back to muscat on the 22nd of august and go straight into the aida fit-up. once the season starts it'll be busy! need to get back in touch with omansail when i get back who have kindly offered to help me out on some yacht time :)

also back to normal training from monday as well - it's a bit difficult to go running on a yacht.... I also need to think about adapting my training to include a lot more strength and core work. that's going to be a lot more useful than cardio ultimately. 

back to training!

finally went to the physio a few days after the tri last month where I discovered I had damaged one leg of my deltoid ligament in my right ankle. she reckoned it could have been because I was 'scooping' the pedals on an unfamiliar bike, so at least I was not going crazy!!

two weeks of it being strapped up and a lot of ibuprofen and biofreeze made it a lot better. I managed a trip to Dubai to do a fibre-optic course (and a tiny bit of shopping...) and at work we have been doing night shifts testing the outdoor areas for next season. bizarrely even at night it is still over 40C with stupid humidity. ew.

the other day I had my last physio appointment, and Jo told me I could start gently running on the treadmill again. that made me very happy as I have been climbing the walls not being able to run. instead I have been swimming - training with my friend Ahmed who is doing Challenge Roth soon. we have been doing about 3km every other day for the last week, which is great, but I am getting quite sunburned. for some reason he insists on training between 12 and 2 in the afternoon...I am ginger!! this will change when we stop having days off at work anyway ;)

longer term plans are coming together as well. I am hoping to do the Abu Dhabi half marathon in November and the Dubai marathon end of January 2013. these will both be firsts for me and will make up for missing the Muscat half on Thursday. I am being bike support for one of my friends so I still get to do it :)

the Clipper 11/12 crew left Nova Scotia yesterday to head to Derry-Londonderry. I am imagining how they must feel on their last ocean leg before the race ends...

I go to the UK in August to do my level 1 and I am starting to get very excited about it. I can't wait to learn how to sail one of these yachts.  I am trying to think about what I will do when I get back, but that is a *very* long way away!

anyway, time to go swimming!