Monday 11 May 2015

Extreme training!

It's been a week of extreme training.  Pushing my body to the limit while trying to perform at the highest level.  The warm up was two days at a business retreat at St Andrews - no seriously it was business and didn't involve golf.  But there was the odd glass or two of wine.  This was very deliberate as it was preparing my body for the extreme training ahead.
On Thursday a 4.15am start and off to the airport to meet with my team mates for the annual "Stryder Cup" in Portugal.  3 days of intense, nail biting golf followed by food and.....the odd glass of wine!  The nutrition programme started off at 6.30 am with a full Scottish Breakfast and a pint of Guinness.  I only do this once a year and most of the time I am walking through the airport at this time looking over at the noisy crowd and wondering how can you drink at 6.30am?  Now I'm wondering WHY did I drink at 6.30am?
Our organiser had gone to extra lengths this year and on top of 2 (out of 3) superb golf courses he had arranged for the Miss Teenager Universe Portugal 2015 to be hosted at our hotel and for the contestants to be staying there the whole time we were there.  Now before you start getting the wrong idea, I have a teenage daughter as did a lot of the players so we were very well behaved.  But watching them at breakfast, lunch & dinner walking up to the buffet was hilarious as they did it "cat walk" style.  Sadly they didn't crack a smile and it's not something that looks much fun.
Back to the golf.  I was captain of my team and am delighted to say we won comfortably although the individual games were tight.  Now you might not think golfers are athletes but 5 hours plus in the afternoon heat when you've been out to the very small hours the night before takes dedication and mental toughness!
Back home now and hopefully this week I'll get the orthotics sorted out so I can start running to shed a few of the extra pounds that have gone on unless the weight is muscle from the strenuous activity of golf!