While sports massage allows me to skive off in the gym, cheat when it comes to doing loads of training on the bike, it does take its toll on the joints and oddly enough it can be mentally tough too. I remember trying to explain to a client who didn't like anything to change when I treated him that this was like your boss asking you type the same letter every week - when you'd say to him "but I've typed that last week", he'd say "don't worry I just need it typed again". For a mind that loves problem solving, this can be quite tough and thankfully much of what I do these days is fixing things. However, my brain is cooked and needs a rest, as do my joints which are looking more and more like a gnarled tree - to the point where a Chiro friend pointed it out in a pub the other day.
So not being one to sit and do nothing, my break from work is to go off and ride across America, well not ride really, but to race. The inaugural TransAm Bike Race will take in 4,200 miles from Oregon in the West to Virginia in the East, being a solo, unsupported race there will be little time for worrying about life back home. Thoughts will be taken up with navigation, food, water, shelter and perhaps the odd shower. The perfect solution to a brain which never stops thinking, analysing and offering solutions. Oddly enough, there is no race fee, no prize money, no trophy - so I guess we'll use race in a lightest sense of the word.
So will you survive without me? Of course :-) Over the years I have not been able to keep up with the business I turn away, so have two great therapists who work with me and I trust my poor overworked body to them, and if they can keep me together given the degree of abuse I give my body - you'll be fine.
The clinic will still run as it does, thanks to a lovely little PA company who are taking care of bookings while I am away. From a client perspective, nothing changes bar me being on another continent. So keep on coming in and if you want to follow the race, my social media links and race tracker are detailed on my blog under "FlatPack Peta".
If all goes to plan and the legs keep on turning, I'll be back in clinic mid-July. This is an adventure, so there'll be no fund-raising for charity and no kickstarter pages to fund my holiday. Just plan adventure with a whole lot of "fun" thrown in (I hope). Besides I'll need some new things to talk about for the next 10 years.
