Recently, my natural tendencies have been on overdrive. Self discipline to the max. Cramming as much as possible into life in the not so slow lane and spurred on by recovering from a pinchy buttock nerve thingy after riding my bike in circles for 24 hours, I was determined to eek out as much as possible before heading to Canada. This was rewarded with some awesome figures in training and a big ego boost. Until things started going less than perfectly.
I'm beginning to realise, that it's not what you do when it's going right but what you do when it's going not quite right that counts. Having thrown in the towel with this racing game malarkey twice before (in 1998 and 2006), I can wholeheartedly sympathise with the idea that things going not so right aren't always easy to accept and sometimes even less easy to not take personally. I'm a little more resilient nowadays. So, when the usual seasonal occupational hazard struck last week I was determined I could get on top of it perfectly.
Echinacea tea. Mandarins. Vitamin C tablets. Manuka honey lozenges. Foods rich in antioxidants. Lemon. Ginger. Honey. Garlic. Homemade soup. Time off the bike. Whinging. Whining. More tea. Pre race taper reduced to dog walking and ironing.
I have learned two things in the process. Firstly, there is something worse than man flu. It's called doctor flu. If physician can't heal thyself there will predictably be much whinging (my apologies to the significant other). Secondly, I'm not quite as resilient as I'd like to think. That's not a slant on my immune system, but I've still got a long way to go on the road to acceptance when things are going less than right. And I'm sure, during the course of a week long stage race in ten days time, there will be plenty of times when that happens. Here's to a whole new learning curve.
Fall seven times. Stand up eight. But first, more lemon, ginger and honey.
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