pembrokeshire triathlon Camp

Wednesday headed on down to the pembs velo 10m tt to do a bit of marshalling. Fabulous was there on a recovery comeback, the colemans, will was marshalling too, Had a nice chat with john reagan. Nigel rocked up disc wheel and all and good to go. Now, i don’t know why but people always seem to ask me to put their numbers on for them and i am crap at it. I think i fully stabbed Nigel not once but twice.He did well to hold it together. The second time was so bad i thought he may need stitches. Manual dexterity not what it used to be. Ahem

Off to start and all three novice newbie time keepers are stalling not to be the one doing the finish. As the start is easy the finish requires some rudimentary maths. I turned out to be the worst at avoiding this job and got it. John and Tony did the starting. The three girls were off 1 to 3 and there was some good racing between them only 30 odd secs separating them at the finish. Fabulous missed his start by a country mile and went off last. James ‘pepperami’ shaw was in the mix as was the mighty DJ . All doing good performances. The night went to Nigel i would say . who finished 2nd behind Dan coleman. clearly getting a needle up his ass is what motivated this tenby boy to get going. Good work nigel , the ultimate competitor. Fab had an ok ride but clearly still lacking some zip from his ‘viral infection’/std.

Thursday back in the pool warm up and drills then 15 times 100m sprints. Doing these in 1 min 40 secs , 1.45. which is faster than last year. I did ,however , have a tri suit on. A 3 year old one that when it got wet was as baggy as a very baggy jumper. Not a good look and ended up having to roll the legs up. So much for dropping the drag shorts. Which is a poor choice of words.One of the main reasons for getting rid of the drag shorts was that they are old too and the velcro on the fly is not what is used to be. I hope they don’t have under water cameras in the pool or some mornings i could easily be up on a charge. Although i get the feeling some of the old dears wouldn’t be complaining too much at that side show,

In the evening out on the bike, 2 hrs at z3 with half hour in z4. was quite hard and just managed to keep the HR where is should be. 36 miles average speed 19.1 mph.

Friday. No pool and had a day catching up with all the little jobs that i have said i will do and have been niggling at me. Got a last minute booking up at the camp so went home and sorted that out.Then ended up in the gym on a treadmill for my run session. 1 hr z3 with 20 mins in z4/5 was very hard. first 15mins upto 15 kmph then up to 15.6 from 20mins, 16 to 30 mins then 17kmph for one min back to 15 for one min . for the last 2 sets upto 17.5kmph for a min drop to 15 for a min.last set 90 secs at 18kmph then back to 15 to complete the 10k in 42 mins. Carried on then at 15kmph till 50 mins then a warm down

Saw the man, the myth Charlie Coleman outside the leisure centre looking very chipper. Off ball room dancing the man said, don’t you know. Lovely lad is our charles and can handle a bike too. Did a post mortem of his top which was a tale of many punctures , pumps and canisters.

Tired,home.bed. the camp is full again over the weekend so a full change over in the morning,Then off camping with Pepperami for the angel on sunday.

I did nip into bierspool cycles earlier today too. to get a new cassette and chain. 8 speed stuff is way cheaper than 10 and 11. only had a 42/23 last week in the top. im better equipped this week with an 11/32 cassette.i wanted an 11/28 but they didn’t have it. Adam was well on form today and one of adams few,well only endearing character trait is nobody takes the piss better out of Adam than Adam. Had a good laugh in there for half an hour then ended up giving some lost soul on a touring bike a lift in the van to Pembroke(top of st daniels hill) he had come from h west and was going to stack rocks. He looked fucked already to me and he still had to get home.Good luck to him.

For some unknown reason i decided tonight was also the night to set up the new electric fence, now with its own battery and move the pigs into their new field. What a fucking mistake that choice was. I tried to coax them,cajole,softly softly , trail of food and a gentle ‘here piggy piggy’. Not a fucking hope mate. Gone, up the drive ,in the garden,up the bank in with the horses, in with the chickens. every fucking where apart from into the new field. The gentle approach quickly degenerated into big fucking stick approach, i wish i had a cattle prod. I got them back into their original pen. Then it was me and them on all fours in an 8 by 5 foot enclosure, eye balling, whose gonna make the move. I was gainfully outwitted at every turn.Sweat was pissing out of me. At this stage no one is happy. These pigs are only half size now but this has turned into an pig wrestling epic of biblical proportions. At this stage anormal person would’ve hd said fuck it , leave them. Not me,by fuck no. No way these pigs are going to win ( win what exactly) (there was no prize as it turned out).

A piece of rope. Around the neck theirs not mine. And drag little piggy screaming and hollering into the new field. One pig down .the fat one to go. Christ it was strong.got it in there ,let it go and we just stared at each other for 10 mins.Trying to make some semblance of sense over the events that just unravelled in the last hour. I would have shook its hoof in respect if it wasn’t such a bastardand it wouldve tried to eat it. I am not doing that again. My clothes and hands are covered in good knows what and its not a good look.