My training bike, a specialized tarmac expert, is having to be washed down on a near daily basis during my final weeks in Scotland before heading to warmer climes. My SRM read 5 degrees over the weekend and as the ride progressed I began to look forward to South Africa more and more. I have been logging some steady miles here over the past 5 weeks at between 250-270 watts and will start to focus more on the numbers as Christmas draws nearer.

This week I was involved in launching 'Ticamps 2010' with Irish Sports Management company Sports Academy International - www.tricamps.ie . I will be leading some training camps in early 2010 and am looking forward to it. During my end of season break I travelled to Monte Gordo in Portugal to reccie the area - and the location certainly fits the bill.

A quiet picturesque town with great new facilities. It's somewhere where a lot of European Running Federations send teams for warm weather training and with a brand new 50m pool it has everything we need. Even though I was only there for 3 days I got lost enough times out on my bike to find lots of quiet undulating roads in the National Park - often the best way to explore an area is to load your bike with 2 bottles and simply ride without a time restriction, that, and with a support car with an endless supply of chocolate on board and enough petrol to get everyone out of trouble !!!

The camps are at the end of January and come just as ill be finishing my first big aerobic base building period of training. It can be a long winter racking up the miles and so with a week in Portugal to plan my mind will be kept active and ill have a mental break from my own training before moving into a more specific phase to get ready for the first of the ITU World Championship Series events in Sydney at the end of April.