Letter from an American friend

Letter from an American friend
 

  ITU World Long Distance Championships

There could not be a better Easter surprise than to get a message from an old friend in Florida. Actually I think it was my turn to write by a considerable margin and I have no excuse. Her photo is still up on the wall right where we have dinner. In the photo, taken in Säter, Sweden in 1999 I have my very nice trophy for the getting age group win, I still have that trophy, which is amazing since it is so breakable. Both women, Mary Ann and Peggy were on team USA and the event was the ITU World Long Distance Championships. I have not been to stay with Mary Ann in Florida for many years but in the past she invited me to take a training holiday with her now and again and we did lots of races there too. It was great fun and I have the happiest of memories. Peggy was also competing last year in Lausanne and in London a few years back so we were able to chew over other times then.

Apart from the fact that at the beginning of the year, it looked like I had amazing race programme with races everywhere, starting with Poreč in Croatia, then Ironman 70.3 Graz in Austria. Later  including the 30^th Anniversary of the Windsor, triathlon that I have done nearly that many times. Later in August the ITU Worlds Edmonton Canada and toward the end of the season Zell am Zee Ironman 70.3 and shortly after that a newer favourite Brighton and Hove triathlon to name but a few. Most of these have already been cancelled and the sword of Damocles hangs over the rest if this plague forges on and does not give up the ghost.

With the amount of idiots still taking no notice of government directives and wandering about in groups, it could have a second wave and even a third…. Heaven forbid. Well those are my darkest fears my thoughts anyway. I heard on the news the other day that in Manchester the police have been called to break up countless parties with big groups of young people. All brain dead I suppose.

I have been in doors most of the time since the beginning of March and Steve started a few days later. Business has ground to a halt for the time being. The warehouse has been closed since all the clients booked in on buying trips cancelled and stayed home.

The one is giving up his store for good.

Another family has closed for the rest of the season and he and his wife have not left home at all.

Still they have a beautiful garden and a big house, we have a small terrace cottage, so not so much room if we wanted to stay out of each others way.

But still we are training fit to bust in fact, much better in fact because we are not tired for work, journeys, office hours and running a triathlon club and a poetry group. We have been leaving home while it is still dark to do a run in the woods, when there is nobody else there and that has been sheer joy with hardly a soul in sight.

So we are training every day but only leaving the house alternate days for an extremely early run then all indoors. This week we had 2 x 6.5 km and 2 x 10 km runs,  bike sets vary, from hard, to watching a movie and just spinning. The runs are going better than usual because of doing lots of classes on YouTube, stretching, Yoga and Pilates, so no tight muscles, nice and flexi.

The best and hardest class is the NYC ballet workout.

We are doing all the classes together, even the ballet.

We move all the furniture back and relax into it.

Then we do two 15 minute sets of Tai Chi, that we are both starting to get the hang of and find the time flies by because it is so slow and peaceful but still need attention.

Oh did I mention the ten minute Hula class on alternate days to keep my hips wiggling?

Don’t laugh! What ever it takes to prevent madness eh? We are not able to swim yet because the sea is too cold still and of course all pools are closed.

 

The nice side of all this is that the theatre groups are showing regular previous recorded performances so we have top rate entertainment, National Theatre etc. Last night we watched Cosi Fan Tutti  by Mozart from the Royal Opera House and that was a real treat. Normally, neither of us likes it at all when they change the period of a play or opera but this worked well with modern dress. It was sung in Italian and had German Subtitles that we managed quite well with but then, we do know the rather silly story well having seen this opera previously a number of times.

It is beautiful here today and we got the best of it being out in the woods and over the hills before dawn.

Keep busy and stay safe everybody.