Animal Farm

I'm off to stay at the team manager's house this weekend, ready for the start of the stage race on Friday. I also realised recently that we're practically living on Animal Farm, so here are some pictures of the animals I saw whilst mincing about on my rest days this week.

Caruso the hound dawg.

Sheepy (getting camera shy).

Flock o' weird birds.

Giraffe.

Pecky and fwends.

Big ass cows.

Eeyore's cru.

Parrot and a parakeet (maybe?)

Massive white fella.

Picture perfect

I got a wicked camera for my birthday (cheers sisters and brother in law!) so this post is mostly going to be my crap attempts at photography. It'll give y'all a bit of an idea about where I'm living though, which might be interesting.

Here's one of two pyscho wasps on the inside of my window. I shooed them out and when I came back in a few hours later they were there again, waiting for me.

Here's Saasha just hanging in the garden. Note the 'swimming lake' on the far left and the football pitch on the right.

Kitchen and that.

Lounge for lounging.

Epic cup collection. The 'turrrtoise' on the far right is a defo fave.

Caruso, the super dog!

A Belgian welcome

We arrived on Wednesday night for a short stay before heading to our beautifully furnished, cosy little apartment at the Team Manager’s house. Of course it’s turned out that the house isn’t finished yet so we’re staying put for the time being with four of us sleeping in a 5 year old girl’s bedroom. This is the high life, after spending the first night in bed with the team boss Andrew (sleeping in a sleeping bag obviously).

We got given a load of new kit which is always good, and the new bikes are pretty sweet. I had a bit of a mare and managed to put my O Symetric chain rings on wrong so I couldn’t use the little ring on my first ride. I’ve sorted it now though and enjoyed the limitless bike paths yesterday; I rode all the way to Bruges (which is really nice) and didn’t leave the bike path once.

Every time I come to Belgium I seem to have a few good stories to tell, and this time’s no different. We’re all enjoying flushing the toilet with a bucket and getting drinking water out of the shower. It’s great to get such a warm welcome from the Belgian guys here though and we’re all excited to start racing.

Josh and I are doing a 140km point to point tomorrow with a 2km cobble section in so that’ll be nice. I’ll report back with any good news. Tarrah.

Stuff that cyclists do but normal people would probably think is right weird

Hanging washing everywhere - enter at your peril. Potential injuries include chain ring slicing, bike frame tripping and being crushed by boxes.

I know where everything is: just don't test me.

Recovery outfit - I'm a renowned fashion icon in the Surrey / Somerset areas. It's kind of my thing.

Standard set of recovery socks right? Coupled with the obligatory dressing gown for an enticing combo

Insane food consumption - lots of exercise means lots of enforced eating. Well it's not really forced for me.

Victor Frankenstein and his monster

Tramp Foot - this is a little trick I learnt a few years ago whilst sleeping rough on the streets of Moscow (this is a fabrication). When getting dressed you do look like a crazy bag lady, but once you pull your oversocks up your feet will be windproof and toasty!

My choices today were Debenhams on the left and Pizza Hut on the right. Other bag manufacturers are available

With legs this smooth, how can I lose? It's all about looking Euro I've heard; being good is so last season.

Smoothest legs in the household. The socks are a big look too, obviously.

Peeing in public - it's widely accepted in the cycling community that peeing wherever you please is a-okay, particularly in Belgium. The only requirement is that you're in lycra and/or near a bike. 

It seems my wires got a bit crossed on this occasion.

Caught with my pants down

A week in snappy snaps

 Here are some random pictures portraying pretty much every aspect of my life. It's groundbreaking stuff.

Wearing oversocks! Clean shoes are cool kids. Oh yeah and I usually do some training once I've got the kit on too.

Making random compilations of food, usually with good stuff in though! This particular day I think it was macaroni and cheese with bacon, peas and salmon(?) on the side. Standard meal right? 

Playing with my sister's dog Alfie. He's completely insane and has an attention span of between three and five seconds, so we get along great!

Getting stuff from High5 - this was a great day. It was like Christmas all over again, but this time I got  a load of caffeinated powders. Thanks to Raph and Jack from High5 for being heroes.

Spending too much time staring at the O Symetric rings and thinking how cool they look when you spin the cranks. I'm not really into bikes but they are pretty mental to watch.

  

Drinking coffee out of various highly mature mugs. This should probably be top of my list as I do it at the start of every day; not addicted though!  http://douglasdewey.blogspot.com/2011/12/im-not-addicted-i-just-cant-live.html  

Ahhh, the fridge. One of my favourite haunts of an evening. I dread to think how much time I spend just staring into it, usually wishing I'd bought some dessert. Other areas of interest to me are the bread bin and my food cupboard.

Battling the never ending stream of stinky lycra outfits is hard work but it has to be done. Subsequently my bedroom spends 90% of the time looking like a launderette, with stuff hanging on every available space. 

Spending time on a turbo trainer has been a bi-weekly thing of late. My coach says it's making me stronger but I'm not sure he's taking into account the serious psychological damage that's being wreaked. That's definitely sweat on my face. Not tears.

Drinking far too much energy and recovery drink. I have perhaps one day a week when I don't have one. Thank goodness they taste good.

Fitting as much food as possible onto a plate. This picture really doesn't do the meal justice as it was a ridiculous portion of stir-fry and actually filled me up, a rare feat. I also take up this challenge of mega-fillage in the morning with my cereal bowl. It doesn't usually go as well though because I haven't had coffee yet and so tend to leave a trail of oats and milk on my walk from the kitchen to the chair. 

Spending more time on a turbo, doing some sweating, loving life. This is immediately followed by a thorough mopping of the area and then a long sit down in the shower.

So there you have it. The fascinating ins and outs of being a full time, unpaid, unemployed cyclist. I bet you never thought it was this glamourous!