Taking time out......

Traditional Devon Thatched Farmhouse

 With the cold weather still refusing to give way to spring I decided to take some time out and come down to the West Country and spend the Easter weekend and this following week with Anne's family...... 
We are staying in the thatched farmhouse shown above, which is situated in a small valley set right in the heart of the Devon countryside.......
I decided that what I needed was a complete break from the 'on /off' training that I have been doing and give myself a proper chance to get over the viral infection.  
Then, when I get back home I  can restart my cycling with a fresh mind and body, by which time hopefully some warmer weather will have kicked in to make the whole thing a lot more of a pleasure than it has been recently.........

Some of the horses in the paddock 

Mini tractor/ grass cutter

I made a point of leaving all my bikes at home as what I wanted was a solid break.....so no road cycling or even mountain biking for me for the rest of this week.....
Mind you I could always take one of the horses for a ride....four legs instead of two wheels for a change....and when I get fed up with that there is always one of the mini tractor/grass cutting machines that I can have a ride on.....

Mucking out in the stables

 For some additional fitness training there is always mucking out in the stables...although I have to admit that I have managed to avoid that particular activity up to now......
Over the Easter weekend and so far this week the weather has been really nice with bright sun and clear skies but still bitterly cold.... Looking at the longer range weather forecasts we should be seeing some warmer weather by about the middle of April and I have to say that for me it can't come soon enough.....

With the extra long winter we have been having this year...my illness... and now trying to get over this viral infection, my original training plan has gone a little wrong to say the least.
One of the problems I find, is that since my treatment it seems to take me a lot longer to get over even the most minor of things such as a cold or virus....just one of the side effects of the treatment I suppose, but it does seem to interfere with my training.......

When I get home it will be back to the bikes on an almost full time basis. I have re-scheduled my training plan to take account of the fewer weeks in which I have left to prepare for the 10in10 ride from the UK to Italy.... 
At the end of April we have our one week training camp arranged...a week following that the team is entered into the Jurassic Beast Sportive which is one of the Wiggle Super Series. After that there is just a further four weeks before we all set off....

I can't remember any other ride that I have done in the past where I have been so far behind on my training plans....there again I have never set off on an event where I have had over 11,000 miles of solid mileage in the previous year.....hopefully it will all come together at the right time.