I discovered this written by me 3 years ago now as final preparations were underway to leave the UK for good and there was just a last little bit of the English Weather to endure before I could get away.

I couldnt help chuckling when comparing to our lifestyle these days, of amazing sunrises over beautiful beaches and riding the roads and trails every week all through the “winter” here

This was written in April 05 in the UK. ..Hope you enjoy

Amalgam Man Locksbottom

Ok, so it’s not quite Ironman, but today I had to go to the dentist and as the car’s being serviced and it’s only 18 miles away I took a gamble the rain would hold off and took the bike & rode there.

All was good on the way out, a few nice long hills to get the burn going, even almost had to stand up approaching the brow of one of them, good stuff.

The dentistry was ok, well averagely uncomfortable, with a few pain twinges, Ok by standards I have been subjeced to before might be a better description.

As I was leaving with a face full of lidocaine and amalgam, the receptionist said “I hope you dont get too wet..” and it pretty much all went downhill from there.

For a little while it was literally a long long downhill, and now starting to drizzle, and I pretty much have racing slicks on so was taking it fairly easy. About 3 miles into the return journey the rain got heavier, so I skidded up under a big tree and took the opportunity to have the lunch I hadnt had because of my 3.15 appointment. The time was approx 4pm now.

Absolutely starving, I wolfed down my roll, immediately swallowing my new temporary filling in the process, and then as the rain backed off a bit, ..the gods are smiling on me I thought, so I hopped back on the bike, upshifted and 2 hard cranks later was wondering what was going on at the front end.. ‘kin puncture!! ..flat as a slow hedgehog. Bollox! .. 2nd puncture in 2 days meant I had no spare tube now either.

Anyway, I thought there’s a Halfords abit further down the road and so set off on the walk of shame. ..At which point it really starts bucketing down hard. Perfect.

So, no Halfords, it’s moved, gone, not there anymore, & so a further 6 miles later, soaked to the core, I just caught Sidcup Cycles before they closed and bought 2 new tubes. 5.30pm.

I hastily changed the offending front tube, with both myself & the guy in the shop checking the tyre for the cause, with no sign of anything there.

I got back on the bike again with a mere 10 miles to go, the rain’s stopped, and f**k me, 200 metres later, FSSSS!! again!!

This time I can SEE a hole in the tyre and the air’s all hissing hissing, hissed, out. And then with only another ten miles to walk, all the shops properly shut now, it really starts bucketing down again.

I got home at 7.00 pm.

..So anyway I’m looking on the positive side of it all, and am christening this as a new kind of multisport, a combined test of endurance, fortitude and patience, called “Amalgam Man” - It’s not as long as Ironman, but more of a test of where your limits of patience and shouting begins, and comprises of:

20 Mile bike, 30 mins dental work, 4 Mile bike 16 mile walk with bike.

..granted there wasn’t technically a swim involved, but for the majority of the afternoon, you wouldnt have been able to tell that by looking at me.

..roll on Ibiza and leaving this shit UK weather behind.

Ok, have been very slack on the blog-writing front recently and must apologise for that, normal service will now be resumed forthwith.

Firstly, a big shout to our friends over at Ibiza Now Magazine who mentioned us and our love of fitness training outdoors in the March 2008 issue.

They talk about some stuff we were blogging about earlier in the year, the therapeutic power of getting yourself fit outdoors in beautiful places instead of dingy sweaty gyms, and the silliness of running on a treadmill looking at videos of beaches or woods, when you have the most amazing beaches and countryside all around us, and the perfect outdoor training temperatures throughout the winters here.

Gym goers in Ibiza…. …..Why??!!

Ok we thought it would be a good idea to recap over the last year to give any new readers finding us a better chance of seeing whats in my Personal Fitness training in Ibiza blog by listing back what we consider some of our favourite posts, in reverse order.

Most Sunday afternoons we do a free bike ride session with any of our existing Clients who want to partake. This week there were just 3 of us, myself and 2 stunning blondes and we rode the Ibiza Ciclo Turismo Route 11 which is a fairly challenging 38km mountain bike and off road route through some of the most stunning countryside and mountain tracks Ibiza has to offer. It was about 3 hours worth with some quite intense climbing on rough ground, but worth every moment of the legburn. Have a look at some of the snaps to see what Ibiza Personal Trainer Outdoor Fitness is all about.