3:00am

A bit of time spent thinking today.

I had one of those mornings today where you wake up at 3:00am and can't turn off your brain. I had quite a few thoughts popping into my head, but in particular I was thinking about what I should do next.

My thoughts about the future weren't of a particularly serious nature, they weren't about whether I should keep working or quit and go join a circus or anything like that. Rather they were thoughts about what I should do to keep fit now that I am not racing. Strange thing to keep yourself awake with, but I don't think anyone would ever accuse a 3:00am brain as being particularly rational.

Since my surgery I have been keeping myself busy with easy spins on the trainer and easy jogs. They have been going fine, but they are not exactly the most exhilarating sessions. I had sort of been keeping myself busy with those kinds of sessions until I had seen Dr Stobie and found out whether more exercise was going to be possible in the immediate future. Since finding out that it is going to be a bit longer until exercise is possible my mind has turned to what else I can do.

My first thought was that I would be spending more time on the trainer and going out for jogs. But then I realised that I was being restricted by my mindset. When you are training for a triathlon you spend all your time training for that specific event, running, riding and swimming. However, it dawned on me early this morning that I am no longer training for an event, rather I am training to simply keep fit. As such, I am no longer restricted to simply running, riding and swimming. In fact, if my aim is to simply keen fit then I can go and do whatever I like, as long as it keeps me active. It sounds like a rather obvious thing to have an epiphany about at 3:00am, but it truly did only just occur to me. I think I blame it on a slow thinking brain and some ingrained habits.

Once I realised that I could be doing whatever I damn well please my brain got caught up thinking of the things I could be doing. I didn't reach any conclusions, but I did have plenty of thoughts about it.

Last week, when I was discussing something similar with a friend of mine, he suggested that I don't try and make any decisions about life for a couple of weeks. 'Give it a couple of weeks' he suggested, and anytime you feel an urge to do something, make a note of it. After a couple of weeks you will see a pattern of what is attracting you. It sounded like solid advice at the time and so that is what I have started doing.

I am not sure what I will end up doing to stay fit over the coming months. I suspect a bit of cycling and jogging will play a part and hopefully some swimming eventually. Beyond that I can't say, but I am really looking forward to finding out.