I’ve just returned from our family holiday to the Dordogne in France, which was really lovely with lots of well needed family time, relaxation and of course more training! It was great though as once I had done my early morning training I knew I could flop on a sun lounger and eat french bread and cheese to my heart’s delight!

The area was great for bike riding, plenty of lovely places to visit along the river ; Beynac, Roque Gageac, Vitrac, Cenac and some great climbing up to Domme!

It was very hot though, some days it got up to 38 degrees so most days I started pretty early.

I struggled to get many long swims in, as the pool was only 20m and it became very busy 30 mins after opening at 10 am. It was a bit of an effort dodging the giant inflatable unicorns and children jumping in from all directions! I did a bit of lake swimming and river swimming but certainly not the distance I would have liked, I decided that a 3 hour kayak session would have to do! The boys loved it!

So back home now and a hard couple of weeks of training coming up before tapering -as it is 4 weeks to go until the big day!

I went straight to see mum on my return, to show her the holiday pictures and tell her all about it- her eyes lit up when I mentioned some of the places that we went. Mum was familiar with the Dordogne as we visited there as a family over 30 years ago, I have such happy memories of our time there.

It was lovely to see her and have a lovely cwtsh but having not seen her for the two weeks we have been away the deterioration in her condition was a bit overwhelming,  once again Alzheimer’s has stolen a little bit more of my lovely mum.

However hard I find the long bike rides, the choppy swims and the pain of brick runs it doesn’t compare with the pain of seeing the vibrant, loving, kind and beautiful lady that we all love dearly succumbing to the grip of Alzheimer’s.

xx Kitty