A New Beginning...

Watching England crash out of The World Cup has reminded me that painful though these things are, they bring with them a moment of epiphany that can ultimately be much more rewarding than simply struggling on.

As far as the football goes, the simple fact is that we weren't good enough.  Our players are drained from an exhausting schedule playing in the toughest league in the world and the manager continued to play a system which was palpably not working.  So we crashed out and I've been left confused and angry as to why we didn't put up a better show.

But once that anger has subsided I am left hopeful that an opportunity can be seized to change things once and for all.  What better time than now to rebuild the system, clear out the dead wood of the old players and bring in a fresh manager with  new ideas - someone who can undertake a root and branch revision of the way we do our international footballing business.  Sir Clive Woodward as performance director working alongside Roy Hodgson's management?  I tell you what, say what you want about it but I guarantee that we'd do a hell of a lot better in four years time under that management team.  However,  I doubt, in this case, that the nettle will be grasped.

In life too we can re-invent ourselves at moments of perceived weakness.  I'm convinced that this continual revision of goals and methods is a fundamental part of keeping life interesting and fresh.

I figure I have the opportunity to do just that whilst I'm re-habing from my achilles injury.  It's a great opportunity to look back at what I've been doing and look ahead to what I might want to do in the future.  Do I want to continue with Ironman?  Perhaps more swimming?  Perhaps more 'event' cycling?  How am I training?  Could my train/work/family balance be better?  Lots of challenging questions and opportunity for revision.

We shall see.

In the meantime there are signs of slight improvement on the injury.  I am three and a half weeks into the twelve week plan and, whilst I still can't jog on the achilles, it is now showing signs of strengthening due to the repetition of the eccentric exercises that I've been doing.  I figure that this strengthening is part of the healing process and am focussing on these positives rather than being concerned with what I can't do.  I actually had a dream the other night that I could run again.  What a day it will be when I can.

Anyway... time to rush on and do a bit of re-invention.  Waiting to hear back from some literary agents about my book but am not holding my breath.  I don't have enough rejection letters yet to be considered a serious author!  Work is ticking over but it seems as if everyone is in some kind of World Cup/Heatwave torpor.

Laters...