Hey,

Time for another update: Mid-October already, been in Canada now for 10 weeks and on campus for 6. My mum lasted approx 7 weeks before she scheduled her first visit so along with my little sister she'll be travelling across next Friday.

Had my first midterm exam last week which I passed...phew! All of last week was an easy training week so I just put in 14 hours, 4 in the pool, 3 running and about 6 on the bike with some core. Back to full steam this week so have already racked up some miles;

Monday
7-8am Steady pool session (recovering from Sunday's race)
9-10am Tempo run (4'40/km) ~ 13km
7-8pm Core session [Normal January session - 52 minutes + stretching]

Tuesday
0530-7am Pool session (Main set 3 x [3x100 Steady, 2x50 Build, 500m as 1500m Race Pace])
10-1pm 85km Bike

Wednesday
1.40-3pm Long Run (5'00/km) ~ 16.5km
6-630pm Core
7-8pm Pool session (20 x 100m FC on 1.30 holding 66's and a 59.1 on the last rep)

Plently of stretching is keeping me ache and pain free, plus the occasional "deep heat" session on the legs. Can't wait for the snow to arrive so I can start pounding out the hours on the ski slopes! Certainly this year after coming back from April skiing I felt much stronger on the bike, hopefully in 2009 it might rub off on my running too!

Heading up to Whistler on Friday for thanksgiving, it's also their biggest sale of the year with ALL of last years stock being sold off for about 20%RRP. Spoke to one guy who got a board, bindings, boots, full snow outfit and helmet for under $800 ... that's £400! Can't wait =]

Should also say I was racing last weekend, had a team time trial with one of the local teams in the cycle series for the area. Was great fun and a shock to the system after having 6 weeks of long steady stuff, nice to get firing on all cylinders again. That said we put in a stormer and won the event by over 2 minutes, so definitely a successful Sunday morning.

One thing I did want to write today were a few thanks. 2008 has been an awesome year, so much fun and so much learned. I've been places I never thought I would go, met a whole bunch of great new friends and have become completely immersed in the exciting new world of endurance sport.

• Firstly I'd like to thank Blair (my coach) for essentially everything, he trained me up for this years world champs and all the racing I've done since, let me stay at his house (for probably over 2 months!), taught me about racing, training and tactics in a new sport and is still working with me from over 4500 miles away. He's getting a chapter in the autobiography without a doubt!
• Secondly there's my dad and family. Dad has supported me 100% financially this year no questions asked (http://www.norwellengineering.com/), I couldn't have even considered doing half of the things I have done in 2008 without that. More importantly they have all understood why I needed to do this and fully supported all my hours training and the fact that I've essentially been away from home since June.
• 3rd is Fraser. Frase (Blair's big brother - http://www.frasercartmell.com/) gave me a lot of help this year too, as he said I was essentially living full time in Stirling with him and Blair from March - July so a lot was passed on to me then and still is now. Seeing how much he had to train put into perspective what was needed on my part, he is the first athlete I've ever seen that truley took his training into every part of his life and this has given me a more professional approach to my own training.
• Team Yeoman. I met Mark and his wife Lisa while at the world championships in June. He basically became my big brother/pe teacher for the whole week looking after me and keeping me chilled out before my race. They were both then awesome enough to have me down to stay while I was racing at Windsor in June. We have stayed in touch since and he continues to pass a massive amount of knowledge my way and is one of my biggest motivators.

People continue to amaze me with their support and kindness in this sport, I meet new people everyday who surprise me with their generosity and even more people who just plain blow me away. From 25 year old cancer survivors doing their first olympic distance tri just 2 years after being given a 40% chance of living to 84 year old guys doing their 14th world championships, there is no one ordinary in this line of work!

On that note I'm going to get back to training, eating and sleeping. The three things I love the most!

Train Hard

Mike