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!

The recovery starts

Back at work today, for half a day any way.  The advice is to break myself in slowly and I intend to take the advice.  Training won't start until I get rid of this cough that has been so bad that I've been confined to the spare bedroom and yesterday pulled a muscle in my back while coughing!  On the bright side the weight loss (like I need it!) and the constant coughing are starting to improve the visibility of a six pack!  Every cloud has a silver lining as they say.

Made my day

Still in my sick bed but you really don't want to hear about that.  I was concerned that Neil would be missing his coach and putting his feet up eating some machos! How wrong I was.  He has continued with his programme, assisted by his wife Maz, and has doubted the length he can do before taking a rest in the pool - that's significant progress.  More power walking this weekend planned though he'll have to wrap up looking at the forecast.  What this proves is that if you have the desire to tackle a challenge, you will make sure you do what is necessary to achieve it.  Well done Neil it brought a smile to my face this morning before I started coughing.........Keep it going you'll start to feel the benefits.

Flu jab essential

I never want to repeat the last 4 days.  Watching time go by slowly, feeling horrendous and that's just because I'm on my tenth episode of The Sweeney - daytime telly sucks!  But it does make you appreciate the small things in life like getting to the top of the stairs and not being out of breath.  I will remain off work till Monday as this really has taken a lot out of me and will rebuild the fitness levels starting slowly next week.  Like all aspects of life, set backs happen it's how you pick yourself up and get back on track that matters!  Thanks for the support while I've been ill.  Next year I'll be getting a flu jab.

Enforced rest

I feel worse than if I'd just done an Ironman - I won't bore you with the symptoms but I am going to make sure that when I am back to full fitness I am not going to take it for granted.  At least it's just a chest infection and not lying in a ward some where battling something serious.  Normal service should be restored in the next few days I hope.

Man down

The lurgy got me.  Chest cold which as all me will know could be very serious and is probably going to develop into "man flu".  Therefore all training suspended over the weekend which is really upsetting because it will knock my fitness levels back having just got them to a good level.  Could be worse, it could be just before an event.   That's why the first objective in any training like this is to get to the start line fit and injury free.  I'll leave it to Neil to take up the batton over the weekend with some training - progress report to follow.