Catriona Morrison

  Indeed there is not. Especially if your return from a 5 week stint on training camp to discover that the renovations to your house are note quite as advanced as you had hoped and the first thing you have to do is dig through the dust to get in the front door! Well, I exaggerate of course. These things always take longer than you hope and the final painting always takes longer than you hope and hope again. As always it is super to be back in my own house with my long suffering (and long painting) husband. This week I have to play catch up on the admin and sort out final race plans, travel details and generally straighten out my diary. I’ve got the Scottish National Duathlon Champs to look forward to at the end of the week and a lighter training load to let some of the hard work from my time in Spain sink in. It really was a great stint of hard work. After a dodgy couple of weeks where I was still feeling the after effects of a tummy virus (leaving that to your imagination) I settled into some great training. I extended my stay as the weather reports from Scotland were worse than the ones for Spain. I had the privilege and pleasure of introducing Chrissie to Aguilas where I have been escaping to for training for the last 8 years (I am getting old). Aguilas really does hit all the buttons for basic no-nonsense training. Andres and his wife Juani rented us a great apartment (www.aguilasserviciosvip.com) and we were (as usual) treated like kings at the local polideportivo. The Aguilans are such a welcoming bunch of people; I really can’t thank them enough for all their kindness and hospitality. Andres even took us out on a boat tour of the coast which was great way to spend a lazy afternoon.

Now it’s time to get back into a routine and to await expectantly for the blooming of those mild Scottish spring days. I won’t be holding my breath…..

With the continuing winter weather in UK I have decided to extend my stay in Spain. Not too much heartache there-asides form the fact that I have been wearing the same clothes for over a month and not seeing hubby for a while. Although the weather has been mostly bright and clear, Spain is suffering from the movement of the jetstream southwards over the country bringing snow and storms to the North and very chilly conditions here to Aguilas. Even the locals are feeling the cold this year. Anyhoo, the roads are dry and less potholed than at home and conditions make for more consistent training which is all that matters. It’s taken a while to get back some sort of form after illness and injuries at the tail end of the season last year. I am now officially running again and have the sun total of one “session” under my belt. Touching wood as I type. I even entered the local Fuente Alamo duathlon last weekend which saw me running at sub 36 min 10k pace – holy schmokes, there is hope afterall. I am really happy to have had a comfortable race and no ill after-effects. I now have a handle on my running fitness that I can use to start building my training around. I am currently finalising my early season race plans and hope to get them up on the site soon. I was really hoping to be ready to race in Abu Dhabi but given all the time I’ve had to take out to get healthy again I just didn’t want to risk pushing to hard too early in the season. I may seem fit right now but I am concious that the base of my pyramid needs some building!

As usual the local Murcia triathlon federation (www.trmurcia.org) never cease to amaze with the ability to put on draft legal races with minimum fuss and provide a small prize purse that means that I can pay my rent. Even the school kids get a drafting race around town and stick around to cheer the oldies on. The community gets involved and a great outing is had by all. Aguilas is a second home for me and offers great training in a no fuss environment. If you ever want to get away from it all and put your mind to some hard work then I can’t recommend it highly enough. Give me a shout and I will tell you all you need to know about where to go, where to stay and where to train.