Writing late - 01:00 Saturday morning- got the early shift looking after my new son Will (6 days today) lots of guests as well. No chance for a turbo that i was angling for.

Did manage to get a 1 hour stretching class in at lunch time (Total stretch - Peckam Pulse)

The way i see things like massage and formal stretching (I cant have them often either because of time or money) is they enable you to pay attention to my body and reveal where is tight and where may need work. You need industrial sessions doing these things week in week out for them themselves to deliver anything tangible, and that's assuming you have an instructor/ masseur how knows what their doing and shares your goals.

Best to find the body part giving concern and then give it daily attention on your own (and save £50 a go)

so I was reminded - tight right rectus femoris, right hip mobility much worse than left - probably meant right lower leg was coming down during the intervals with more flexed knee than the right and hence the injury.

other thing I have learned - the natural response of your body to injuries like this is it lays down a disorganised happhazzard collagen, this then needs cross frictions (very painful to sort out) to undoo the damage (see Tim Noakes "the lore of running") To prevent this happening I now need to eccentrically work this body part to get a quick recovery with the right type of collagen. This basically involves lowering my ankle from tip toes. (contact me off line if you need any explaination)

The other thing about the injury; PSYCHOLOGY
- initially very depressed - catastrophising / black and white thinking / self critical
- turned quickly by afternoon to "good job it happened in training" "wow-that's a week point i didn't know about - I better blast that with some TLC and sort it out, don't want that showing it's ugly face in a race. "you were doing a 32min 10km session and holding up aerobically - imagine if that hadn't happened, the full session was on the cards"
- my brains not that well balanced but it's a bit like that. That is probably more important a demonstration in what is important than anything else.
- A positive mindset that works on the controllables
- I think its important to be brave enough to try new things etc
I was thinking about this when I did those 50 x 200m sprints!
Coming to think of it 10 x 400m sprints used to be all I could do for a session

anyway so trying new things - my first coach back in 2003 grant@aeromaxteam.com please feel free to e-mail him (think he came 2nd in Hawaii etc) gave me loads of quotes to mull over:

He always has someone on the podium at any ironman around the world

TRAITS OF A CHAMPION
1. Positive self analysis
2. Self competition - focusing on what you can control (think about it if you can"t influence your better letting it go
3. Present focus - This is massive - forget past, forget future, think technique, think breathing etc - this is basically buddism and mastery of your skill
4. Confidence
5 Toughness -ACCEPT the doubt and TRY to win
6. Have a game plan

Heard recently that       PERFORMANCE = POTENTIAL - INTERFERENCE

Will think over the next few rides how those 6 traits work on that equation.

baby woken up, more tomorrow