Spring Update

April has been another busy month but I'm pleased to say that Spring has finally arrived in Switzerland, with the entire Fricktal region being coated in a layer of fruit blossom. The rape seed is about to flower, which can only mean the onset of the hayfever season!

When I say that April has been busy, it has been busy with holidays! Fi and I spent a really relaxing week in Majorca, staying again in Puerto Pollenca. This year we decided against self catering and booked ourselves into a proper hotel (Hotel Galeon) located on the sea front just a little way from the town center. The hotel proved to be really quiet and the staff always efficient and friendly.

We hired bikes from our friends Bruce & Lisa at ProCycleHire and I managed to get out on the bike every day, covering 200 miles in mostly sunny and warm weather. I even got out with the "gruppo" one day which was fun and also got out for a ride with Bruce on the Sunday morning before we flew home. To be honest, we didn't do a lot else as we were both fairly exhausted following events earlier in the year. Also, having been to Majorca so many times before we didn't feel the need to get out every day sight seeing. I did a few Geocaches, but to be honest, I'm a bit "cached-out" at the moment after doing so many earlier in the year.

The good news is that we both came back with a bit of colour, although I still find that I have to wear sunglasses if I expose my pale english legs to the sunshine back home! Even better news is that this week I have another week off! Here in Switzerland Thursday is a religious holiday (aufahrt) so the company has been good enough to give us Wednesday off for shopping and Friday off because it would be silly to go back for a day. I thought it would be rude not to take advantage of the situation and am taking the remainding two days off as holiday. Fi is at work....

Hmmm, work is already full on! I returned from sick leave hoping to take it easy for a little while but was immediately confronted with an increase of job scope. I really hope that I can live up to the "honour", but have my doubt whether a good work-life-balance is possible in the new situation. I'll see how things are at the summer holidays and reassess the situation. As an example, Fi and I returned home from Majorca on Sunday evening at 11PM. The next afternoon I was in a meeting in Naples, Italy for three days..... Not the best circumstances for reducing stress levels.

Despite the best efforts of my boss, I've still managed to keep ticking over on the bike and am please to report that I've lost over 10Kg this year. In fact, I feel healthier now than I have at any time in the last two years..... despite all the medication..... although the medication may help! My legs are really starting to look like real cyclists legs again with a spring shave and tan helping the look along.

I bought a new bike last week. I'm now the proud owner of a cyclo-cross bike with a triple chainset. The rationale is that I don't really do proper mountain biking and I like to combine some tarmac and dirt tracks into rides. Let's see how it goes.... I've ridden it once, and off-road it feels fine.... On-road it's a bit tough going with the fat "cross" tyres sticking to the tarmac. I need to find time to give it a proper thrash before I pass judgement. It could become my geocaching bike ("cachemobile") of choice.

So, finally, on the cycling front I'm getting in some reasonably good rides and doing a lot of climbing. I really feel like I've "turned a corner" physically although I'm still having problems recovering from a big ride since the lactic acid isn't getting pumped out of the muscles efficiently. I'll see my cardiologist in May and see if I can finally get off the beta-blockers.

Tonight I'm going out with the local cycling club to see how it goes (if it doesn't rain....). My first race is only a few weeks away now so I need to start increasing the intensity slowly. Next week I will be on a management training course in Weggis which I aim to ride to on Monday afternoon. That means I need to dig the folding bike and trailer out of the basement. Hmmm, I know what I'm doing this afternoon!