Back on the road

Went out cycling with the ATHelite crowd this morning.  It was a good session and fantastic to be out on the road.  However cycling in Scotland means potholes and lots of sh1t on the road from tractors so you need to be careful.  Good practicing bike handling skills before going over to Lanza where you need to ware sun glasses to shade your eyes not to protect them from flying debris such as lumps of mud.  More turbo sessions this week to continue getting my fitness back before packing the bike away.  I will be meeting up with Neil so will be able to report back on his progress.

Toe dipping

7am and I dipped my toe in the water for the first time in 3 weeks.  Managed just under half a session but the good news is that I didn't cough my guts up during (or after the swim).  Followed the training with a cappuccino, bacon, scrambled egg, cheese ciabatta and caramel shortcake - nothing wrong with the appetite!
I took my bike to the repair shop as the gears have been causing me problems even during Ironman.  I put this down to them needing an adjustment but it turns out the gear cables needed replaced so I don't feel so daft.  I am aiming to do a reasonable bike ride tomorrow assuming it's not raining but I really feel I am on my way back.

Double up

Tonight I increased the duration of my turbo training session to 1hr and took my heart rate up to the maximum to see how I coped.  I'm delighted to report I was fine which is encouraging but I am not rushing back in.  Tomorrow I am on the red eye to London so there won't be any training - it will be a 20 hour "rest day"!.  Turbo training isn't the same as being on the road but it is getting me back to fitness.  At least I have not dogs chasing me down the road!

Enough of lying around!

I forced myself out of bed at 6.30am this morning.  After almost 3 weeks of long lies I needed to break the bad habit.  I managed 30 minutes on the turbo trainer and my heart rate was ok considering.  Didn't cough too much but my chest isn't 100% yet.  However the bad habit has been broken and the new one established.  Now to keep building it up to get back on target.  Thanks to everyone for their support during this blip in my training schedule.

Slow start

I had my first nights uninterupted sleep last night with no coughing.  Feeling good I decided to have a light turbo training session on the bike.  I aimed for 1 hour at an easy pace.  10 minutes later I got off the bike coughing with a pain in my back, probably some rubbish left in my lung.  You have to make a start and that's what I've done but I don't think I'll be doing much until the course of antibiotics is finished.  At this stage Lanzarote is looking more like a holiday but I still intend to achieve the main objective of going round the 112 mile IM course.

Road to recovery

This weekend I will start on my road to recovery with some light turbo training on the bike.  I've been advised that if I start coughing then I should stop.  I may stay out the pool until later on in the week as having a coughing fit may encourage drowning!  My target is to be ok for Lanzarote in 2 weeks time.  I know I won't be in full fitness but by the time I get back I will be a long way down the road.  My main objective is to go round the 112 mile Ironman course to see what I will be covering in May 2012.
In the meantime Neil is making great progress.  His assistant coach Maz tells me he did 14 lengths of the pool  on Wednesday with only two short breaks - that's unbelievable.  He may have been completely knackered afterwards but it shows what you can achieve when you want to.  I'll catch up with him next week and see how his power walking is progressing.  He will be getting a static bike in the next two weeks which will be the start of his bike training.  He's a man on a mission!

The Velodrome opens

Today the Velodrome opens signalling that we are on track for the London Olympics 2012.  At the weekend the cyclists won a number of medals in Manchester but when you got behind the "psycho babble" coming from the athletes I got the feeling they had not performed quite at their best.  But they are on track for 2012 and sometime disappointment can be the best motivator!  A good lesson for us "weekend warriors" which is we can't always be at the top of our game and we need to peak at the right times.  While I can't train at the moment it doesn't mean I won't be working on the mental side of my preparation - you should know me better than that!