well it's reasonably late here in the Raceci (about an hour from Prague) and unfortunately I have to get up extra early in the morning for a heavy session of pieces. Equally as unfortunate is the fact that my room seems to have been soaking up the 36 degree heat all day and after an hour of trying to sweat myself to sleep I've given up and have come outside to try and cool down for a bit.

 

We made it here about a week ago from Lucerne and upon arriving were given 3 days off!!! I know sounds unbelievable but I can vouch for this unprecedented event occuring, though fortunately to restore sanity (please note sarcasm here) John decided we'd better go for a stretch row on the 3rd day just to make sure we were grooved in for the rest of the week, awesome thanks John!!!

 

First day off, John Howard (tour manager and regional manager for pretty everywhere) organised a bus for us to go sight seeing in Prague. Cosidering tourist type adventures are normally reserved until after World Champs this was a cool treat for the team. Didn't really do anything particuarly exciting there got to wonder around across a few amazing old bridges and up the hill to a Cathedral, oh and who can forget the 12th century clock who's maker was blinded afterwards so he couldn't make another, how awesome is that...not!!!

 

Funnily enough having that much time off, whilst being a fantastic psychological break, almost seemed to be worse for the body I felt pretty stiff and creaky by the time we hit training again, though nothing like a few 20km bursts to push through that, coupled with copious amounts of massage and physio of course.

 

We have trained well for the last 10 days here, the weather has been very hot but the course is pretty flat though the wind seems to circle the lake so matter which way you go you always get some head winds, which is more than a little annoying.

 

We leave here on Sunday and unfortunately so does Steve Burden our massage therapist, between him and Darryl Reid (physio) they have managed to keep the niggles down to a minimum. I guess Wintec needs him to lecturer more than we need his strong thumbs. Kate Harper arrives 10 days later so we will survive though I know Darryl is wishing she could have made it a little sooner.

 

Thats about for now, starting to cool down a bit so might go and try to sleep again. Hope all is well where ever you are.

 

Cheers

 

Nathan

 

PS. Some photos of Prague up on site to for anyone into that sort of thing.