A Britton in Britain: A New Beginning

A few weeks ago the Scud (Tom- my roommate) asked me a simple question that was rather entertaining in the complexity of the answer. Anyone who’s known me for long knows that’s not that difficult to achieve. Simple question = long winded drawn out answer. The question in this case, how many days have you slept in your own bed this year (2013)?

Hmm, Simple enough question... my response – well, what do you constitute “my bed”? Victoria? Derby? Or is it the bed I’ve spent the most consecutive nights? In which case neither of the former. So, the answer (to date) looks something like this..

Santa Cruz, CA – 1 2nights - Jan 01 – 12

Victoria, BC – 2 nights – Jan 13, 14

In Transit, Victoria – Vancouver – Airtransat - Derby – Mallorca - 9 nights (4 different “beds”) – Jan 15 – 23

Mallorca, SP – 10 nights – Jan 24 – Feb 2

Derby, UK - 12 nights – Feb 3 – 12, 25

Champagne, FR – 1 night – Feb 13

road side motel, FR – 1 night – Feb 14

Trans en Provence, FR – 2 nights – Feb 15, 16

Erics House (Hyeres), FR – 5 nights – Feb 17- 21

La Pouzin, FR – 2 nights – Feb 22, 23

Dijon, FR – 1 night – Feb 24

So the Simple answer now would obviously be…er, Santa Cruz?? Most successive nights in 1 bed, Right? I suppose if you really look at it I have spent more days in Derby, my “home” bed then anywhere else this year but MY STARS it doesn’t feel that way! I honestly feel like I blinked on a Tuesday in December and now its nearly March!! What the hell just happened??

I’ve traveled more (distance) in the last 8 weeks then I have in the last 2 years combined and have ZERO lounge status to show for it! Damn. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not for 1 second complaining, I have enjoyed nearly every minute of this journey thus far, but all of this globe trotting would explain more then a few issues I’m facing in my life right now. 1) Sleep pattern, if you’ve had it - you know – Jet Lag is a bastard. That was by far the biggest struggle I faced the first almost 2 weeks. (still think there’s improvements to be made in the sleep department) 2) Training consistency. It would be kind of comparable to trying to write a novel using only a laptop and having rolling black outs for 2 or 3 (or 5) days at a time. When it comes time to send in the first 3 chapters to the editor…there’s more than a few gaps in the content quality. My training as of late seems to be much the same.

This year, as I’m coming to discover, will be all about making the learning curve over here as ridiculously steep as possible! Not just the racing but life in all aspects is just a bit different than the norm I’ve become so accustom to back in the safety blanket of Victoria. Good thing I’m always up for a challenge and at this point Britain has proven to be a more than worthy adversary. I’m confident I will prevail but like I said I need to button up this change in lifestyle toot-sweet!

I’m really looking forward to the next few weeks “at home” (term used loosely, only doing 1 day races that are within a days drive) to make a huge dent in this adaptation and really get the ball rolling with some consistency in training, sleeping, eating and everything else in my day to day life. Fingers crossed!

Oh ya, did another race in France on the weekend. Didn’t go so well. Interestingly enough though I think it was the coldest race I’ve ever done, not the coldest I’ve ever been in a race but it was around 0C for the majority of the 5 hrs. So that was cool. Lots was learned over my time down in France and I’m incredibly grateful to the team for the opportunity and have full intentions of marking a massive improvement when lining up for my next race en` Francais.

Home now, next up, “The Sones” this weekend. More on that to come.

Stay tuned.

Here’s a few shots to summarize the last week.