Positive mindset

School was an interesting time in life for me.  My favourite teachers were the PE teachers - I spent hours playing various sports with them.  Unfortunately for my eldest son he isn't having the same experience and the language used always seems to be negative.  The other day the "f" word was used which is unheard of these days in school....failure.  So in order to establish some balance in the discussion I quoted Michael Jordan, the best basketball player in the world.  "I've missed more than 9,000 shots.  I've lost almost 300 games.  26 times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed.  I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed."
If it's good enough for Michael Jordan, it's good enough for me.  If you haven't failed, you haven't tried.  Come on get yourself out there and have a go!

A&E on a Sunday!

Failing to plan is planning to fail but you can't plan for accidents.  My son Ali has always believed that playing friendly matches is a a waste of time because someone always gets injured.  He was right, this time he injured the ligaments in his ankle so we spent 2.5 hours in A&E watching how not to run a hospital.  He left on crutches so now his plan will revolve around recuperation.  Injuries are a set back but you need to respect the recovery period and not to be impatient.  He's my son so........it will be a challenge.  I'm off to start my turbo training which was meant to happen hours ago.

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.