The healing continues

Well the healing process has continued to be a rapid one. Last Friday I went to the pool for the first time in over 3 weeks and to my surprise, I was able to swim full stroke freestyle and breast stroke. I’m still aware that I can’t go all out and really fling the arm about too much, but to be able to swim and put pressure through my left arm is fantastic. As with all my other training since the accident, I’m not going to rush it here though. A couple more very easy 30 mins swims to ease back into it, followed by plenty of Glens drill sessions next week and then the job of regaining my fitness and speed in the water can begin.

My running and especially my cycling is on its way back to its best. The beauty of the SRM's is that I can literally see if watts were I’m at. This morning I did a nasty VO2 max session.... the numbers were better than I was getting before the accident!!! It’s all very encouraging for me and gives me confidence that I might be back to full fitness and competition level sooner than I had hoped..... I’m even thinking that the national Middle Distance champs in a week’s time could be a possibility. I don’t want to do them if I’m not in a position to challenge for the title, but I’m feeling strong on the bike and my run strength seams to be coming back quickly too.... we'll see.....

I’ve entered a 70.3 race in Michigan at the start of August to try and get a World Champs slot. There’s another 70.3 race 2 weeks later (also in Michigan) which is very unusual, especially so close location wise. It’s full but I’m going to try and get a spot (if the pro field is still open).... 2 races in 3 weeks..... Well why not ha ha!

One thing that this mini break will have ensured is that I don’t burn out in what could be a VERY LONG season if I qualify for Florida. I have to say though that looking at the 70.3 UK results; I’m disappointed I couldn’t race it. Sounds like a tough course, but it would have been great to see how I measured up to the other guys racing. There’s plenty of time for that though.

All my mates head off on holiday this week. Its one of the things that I find hard to handle with the goals I’ve set myself in life. Things have to be sacrificed and this kind of thing is one of them. Matthew Pincents autobiography was very inspiring on this subject though. He frequently mentioned the weddings he had to miss, the sacrifices he HAD to make in order to pursue his dreams of Olympic greatness. Not that I’m comparing myself to him of course but it’s important I remember what it takes to achieve success in sport. Gordo made a great statement once "it only takes one totally obsessed guy and you'll finish second EVERY TIME" I'm not happy with second! Guess I’d better start obsessing......

......BREAK!

Well it’s been A LONG TIME since my last post.... and well sadly not much has happened although my plans 4 the last 2-3 weeks were for quite the opposite. Unfortunately a rather large lorry decided to stick its nose, or should I say 'reverse itself' over me and left me with a fractured elbow! Racing and training has been thrown up in the air completely and as I sit here writing this I should actually have been recovering from what I was expecting to be a break through race at half ironman UK.

The doctor said I’d be unable 2 do anything for about 6 weeks... I had other ideas however. I gave it 7 days of COMPLETE REST... no work, training, unnecessary moving etc..... all very hard for me to handle though I did managed to get through series 4 of 24 (where would we be without Jack).... Every cloud ha ha! I have spent the last 14 days there after slowly easing back into things on my turbo at home and I’m now in a place where I can ride on this almost completely pain free. I even managed a 30min jog on Friday.... swimming is still out of the question as I still cant straighten my arm, but its definitely a HUGE blessing to see how quickly I’ve healed.... many people from church have been praying for me and & I know this is the reason for it only taking 2.5 weeks not the 6 the doctor predicted.

I’ve actually seen it as a positive thing too. Talking with my coach, there’s a good opportunity to do some super quality training on the bike and get this up to new levels hopefully. The turbo might be boring after a couple of hours but it could have been so much worse.... the fact that I’m still alive, let alone even able to do this is very fortunate.

I’m starting to look at how I can keep things on track race wise 2. I was really looking to progress with the swimming through this summer and keep jumping in at the ITU deep end. Glen seamed sure that a 20min swim was there already and I was hoping to do a 27 at worst if I’d raced this weekend at UK 70.3. so looking at the race's available at HIM distance it looks like I’ll be heading over to the US in august.... silver lining to the cloud again ha ha!

it has given a good reason to spend more time with my mates though and l've had a few great nights round a BBQ with them that I know I wouldn’t have, if I’d not been out of action. It’s been nice to remember what its like to be completely free of commitment to training, racing etc. not that I want this to be the case more often, but that it’s aloud me to see other things in a clearer perspective.

whilst the frustration of not training properly, missing some key races and not swimming for SO LONG is still there its been eased, probably over-come by a number of other positives that actually mean this little break will have been a good thing once its over.