A more positive day......

The rehab day started much as normal with an early (and fairly small) breakfast followed by 30 minutes on the exercise bike hooked up to an ECG. No sweat there..... restricted to 140 Watts giving a maximum pulse of 120BPM. Yawn!

Then I had the "walking test" which consists of walking briskly around the gym for six minutes to see what your pulse and blood oxygen content are. No problems there so I managed to convince the physiotherapist that my program is too light. So then a chat with the head cardiologist (a Brazilian who trained in Sao Paulo) resulted in, I think, some really positive outcomes:

Firstly, I'm now "wired" and have a 24hr ECG monitor strapped to me to check for any signs of problems with irregular heart beat or strange activity. This was a result of mentioning palputations. Sods law has subsequently kicked in and I haven't had any since the monitor was attached seven hours ago!

Secondly, I'm going to have an ergospirometry test tomorrow to determine my anaerobic threshold. This information will enable the doctors to set a meaningful maximum heart rate for exercise whilst I recover.

Thirdly I've got permission to go walking alone which is a great thing. Today I left with a group but dropped them all on the first hill. Unlike last time I didn't bother waiting and made an extra couple of loops in the woods to fill up the alloted time. Really, I'm not competative ;-))

So, I just received my new programme which includes 2 hours on the cycling machine a day. I hope they have mops around the place because once they up my wattage I'll be making puddles on the floor. I asked if I could bring my own bike and trainer to the clinic. When asked why, I told the physio that I still wanted to have kids. He thought I was joking and said how he liked the British sense of humor.... I can't bring my own bike!

I also went to a relaxation class this afternoon. I'm sure it would have been relaxing if I could have understood the instructions. I just layed on the floor and tried to block the obligatory pan-pipe music out of my head. Bloody pan-pipes, I hate them. Especially the busker at Zürich airport. The Pink Floyd I had been listening to previously was much more relaxing.

One great thing about rehab is that you get time to think. That's something that we don't have much of these days. Today I made a list of the the top five most important things in my life:

1/ Fiona and our marriage;
2/ Family and Friends;
3/ Health;
4/ Fitness;
5/ A balanced lifestyle.

Unfortunately, all of these (except #1) seem to be suffering from neglect at the moment (unless Fiona cares to correct me). Therefore, the next thing to do is identify the factors that are having a negative impact and then make the necesarry changes to bring things back into balance. By the way, I think it's important to distinguish between Health and Fitness. For me you need to have good health before you can obtain fitness which I regard in a sporting sense (i.e. fit to compete). Of course, there is "fit" in the sporting sense and "fit" in the visual sense. Personally, I'd like to be both..... but I'll have to shift 15KG first ;-)) To quote Kate Nash: "I'd rather be wiv your friends mate 'cos they are much fitta"

Ho well, it's getting close to curfew again..... Bis Morgen, Tchuss!