What a difference a week makes..

I'm feeling so much more positive this week.. the 'grumpy old bag' from last week has been well and truly put in her place! In fact I can't believe I wrote that blog.. who was that negative person?? Not me, that's for sure.


But in a way, that's what's so important about writing this blog and recording all of my feelings and experiences.. the good stuff and the bad. It would be so wrong to dismiss my negative feelings and to only write about the good things. In a way writing about it helps get it out of my system and helps me focus on the positive. Life with an ileostomy isn't all roses, but it's really not as bad as anyone might imagine and I believe it's my responsibility through this blog to show both sides of the coin.


Anyway, I've shelved all ideas about running, about doing the marathon and about trying to build up my mileage.. and since having done that, I feel like a weight has been lifted.  It doesn't mean I'll never run again, but for the moment I need to figure out this hip and knee issue and it's not going to get better if I keep running in pain. I can however, still cycle and it doesn't seem to hurt my knee at all.. yippee! So yesterday I went out with my friend Steve and we did 33 miles all around the local lanes and villages. Glorious weather and great company and a fantastic sense of achievement. I was a seriously happy bunny when I got home and had that lovely 'tiredness' from a 2.5 hour bike ride. No knee or hip pain at all and in fact I actually think it helped strengthen and fire up the muscles.


One of the good things about triathlon has always been that if you have an injury of some sort and it prevents you from doing one of the three sports, you can generally still do at least one of the others. And that is what is important now.. not to be miserable about what I CAN'T do, but to be grateful for what I can do and flexible enough to work it into my schedule. Ok, so running might be off the agenda at the moment, but I still love cycling and swimming and that's more than I could do this time last year when I was feeling so ill. 


So instead of setting a unachieveable running goal that's going to make me miserable, it got me thinking about setting an exciting cycling goal that would provide some motivation and excitement. 


And I'm not one for an easy challenge, so the first thing that came to mind was the 325 mile London to Paris bike ride. Perfect ! don't you think? Of course it's not all in one go.. that would be a bit too much.. well this year anyway. 


You spread it out over 4 days. It would be achieveable yet challenging enough to be exciting. And even better it would co-incide with my 40th birthday and I could do it with my hubby. Right then.. better get ourselves organised and plan it. I've got that excited feeling in the bottom of my stomach, and as my life coach friend Tony will no doubt agree.. that must mean it's the right goal.