Business as Usual

It’s been quiet here recently. Nothing to blog about really. We’ve all had some sort of lurgy to one extent or another. It completely wiped me out for a few days and of course stopped me training. Anna and Morgan have had it it too, just not quite so bad.

Beekeeping

I’m gradually getting back into some activities though. I’ve built a new bee hive. We’ve gone for a nice cedar one this time as prices of hives have dropped considerably since we started beekeeping and you can now buy flat-packed cedar hives for between £100-£150. Hopefully it’ll last a lot longer than the pine or plywood hives we’ve had so far. I’ve checked on our bees as well and have started giving them some syrup to get them going for the spring. The colony at the bottom of our garden seems to be doing OK and was really busy one day last week. The two colonies that we have in our out apiary still have bees in them as well. I’ve yet to go through the hives properly and do a proper inspection as it’s still quite cold, but it’ll soon be business as usual and we’ll be into full on beekeeping once again.

A New Hive

A New Hive

Triathlon

As far as triathlon training goes, then I guess it’s business as usual there as well. In other words, its full of frustration. The lurgy wiped me out for a couple of weks so training suffered and that was on top of this niggling shoulder injury that I’ve had since Christmas. I just can’t shake it and none of the health professionals seem to know what’s wrong with it. I haven’t been swimming at all since Christmas and it hurts at work and in daily life so I just don’t know what to do. It’s hurting quite a bit today again, and I’m beginning to think that’s because I went cycling yesterday. Maybe cycling is affecting it more than I thought, but that means I’m going to have to stop riding my bike for a bit as well to see if it will help it heal. No swimming, no circuits, no gym, no windsurfing, no surfing, no SUPing and now no cycling… What am I going to do!

As far as races go, I’ve already decided to pull out of the European Championships this year as I haven’t been able to swim since Christmas, and it doesn’t look likely that I’ll be doing any of the World Qualifiers either. I’m not feeling much like a triathlete at the moment! The lurgy has certainly had an effect on my fitness too with a massive fall off just as things were looking good.

PMC

PMC

SUPing

The weather has been looking perfect for some sea swimming or SUPing as well. Talking of SUPing, whilst in the shed the other day building the bee hive, I noticed a strange mark in the foam of my SUP. Closer inspection and some prodding seems to suggest thet the board is cracked under the foam. I have no idea how that could have happened. I haven’t done anything to it and it certainly wasn’t like that when I put the board away in the shed a few months ago. As far as I’m concerned there must be a fault under the foam but Starboard have said it must have been caused by external pressure or some sort of damage. It looks as though I’m going to have to peel bck the foam to take a look so that we can see if there is some sort of manufacturing fault under there. I certainly can’t afford a new one so if I can’t get it fixed under warranty then my SUPing career may have to be terminated before it’s really got started.

Coast Path Run

If I can’t get in or on the water and can’t ride my bike then it looks as though I’m restricted to running at the moment. I’ve never been able to do too much of that though and always need to be careful so as to prevent injury. I don’t allow myself to run on consecutive days for a start. My plan of running around the coast of Wales has been put on hold lately as well. For one reason or another I just haven’t had any time free at the weekends. Birthday parties, family visits and the fact that Anna has been working a number of weekends recently have all scuppered those plans. Anna is working again this weekend so once again there’ll be no coast path run for me. It’s then Easter next weekend, then we are away in the Lake District, and then I’m doing the Welsh 1000 Walk, so it looks as though it’ll be getting on for May before I’m running along the Coast path again. So much for working my way around Wales every weekend, the last time I did so was over a month ago back on Valentines Day.

At least I’ve been busy at work I suppose. I’m still covering sick leave so I’m working at the University full time at the moment, but I’m also busy with website design so there’s plenty of early morning coding sessions and website building in the early hours going on just to keep up. All interspersed of course with the usual chores and with Spring on it’s way some work in the garden too. Mind you, there hasn’t been much time for gardening or chores really which doesn’t help my frame of mind either as I like everything to be neat and tidy and just the way they should be!

The shoulder injury may be keeping me out of the water, and maybe even off the bike, but I barely have time for that at the moment anyway. This was never the plan! What happened to all of those days of windsurfing, surfing, biking, mountain biking, running and sea swimming? How did I manage to keep on top of the chores and the garden? How did I fit it all in? So much for my ‘Simple Life of Luxury’ – this 9-5 business is such a drain on time!

7 Responses

  1. Avatar forComment Author Mum says:

    Sounds to me as if you need to go back to the doctors and insist on a second opinion and more investigations until it’s sorted, then you can get back to being Al, who managed to fit everything in that he needed and wanted. Even try going private.
    Garden’s looking nice though, I’ve managed some and hope to be able to do more, as last year I couldn’t do any really because of my wrist.

  2. Avatar forComment Author Mum says:

    Me again
    Hive looks nice.Hope the bees like it.
    Shame about your board, maybe keep on to manufactures, they try to blame anything rather than a fault their end.

  3. Avatar forComment Author Emily says:

    Get well soon, must be so frustrating. Glad the bees are still alive, has been quite a difficult winter in some ways as the warm weather meant they ate through their stores fast and then we had a cold snap in February.

    • Avatar forComment Author Alan Cole says:

      I watched the bees for a few minutes yesterday – the ones in the hive at the bottom of the garden that is – and they were bringing in loads of pollen which is a good sign. Not sure where they are getting it from, but there was bright orange pollen and bright yellow pollen too so there must be something about for them.

      Al.

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.