Now don’t laugh. Remember my last post? I was feeling pretty smug wasn’t I? Three days out of hospital from the jaw surgery, ready to tackle training again. I was going to get an early night and wake up fresh for carb free breakfast and training.

Well talk about tempting fate. If you weren’t already aware. I ended up in hospital on Monday afternoon. Damn you norovirus! I will spare you the gory details but essentially I woke up at 5am on Monday morning feeling like someone was trying to rip my intestines out through my belly button. I then proceeded to throw up until I couldn’t stand oh and then I collapsed. Quick call to 111, ambulance arrived, IV drip, anti nausea injected, anti spasmodic injected and finally allowed home on Monday evening. Fortunately my Mother and Father are gold medal winners at parenting and they got me on the train home and proceeded to look after me until yesterday. I am now back in London and after a quick trip to the dental surgeon this morning…

TOUCH WOOD EVERYONE

…………..I had the all clear regarding the stitches in my mouth and I also managed my first training session in 10 days (1500m swim – easy peasy). HURRAH!

So, fingers crossed that is all behind me. I now have a week of gentle training, three weeks on INTENSE training and then my final week before the Ironman where I will be tapering (a combination of reduced training and intense carb loading).

Down to business then. Eminem or “Marshall Mathers”.. Hands up if you like his music? No Mum I know you don’t… don’t worry. More importantly though, as I was gingerly making my way to the pool this morning I randomly had “success is the only motherf***ing option, failures NOT” come into my head. Perhaps not the cleanest of motivational speeches but still, he has a point.

I’ve had a few people ask me recently if I will be ok for the Ironman on the 13th September. You can imagine my response. “Of course I will! I’d have to break both my legs to stop me doing it!”” TOUCH WOOD TOUCH WOOD TOUCH WOOD. It’ll be fiiiiiiiiine. Ahem.

Seriously though, in my mind there is no other option. Bailing/postponing/cancelling/doubting… none of these are options. I’ve trained for over ten months now. I’ve cried and sweat and cried and collapsed and bled and cried and slept and cried but I am still here. My friends and my family and my colleagues have, and are still, incredible. Without them this wouldn’t happen.

I’m not trying to be overly emotional but this is it now. Shit is getting serious. Like REALLY serious. I spoke to my coach this morning. He says if I have one more mishap I will be out of the running altogether. That means an injury or a sickness or a moment of weakness. I cannot afford to miss these last few weeks of training.

Fortunately, I was born hellish determined. I am known for being stubborn. So what happens now? Well for the next 5 weeks I will eat, train, work, eat, train, sleep, repeat. Every day. 6am starts. 9pm bedtimes. I have a weekend in Edinburgh this weekend which will involve a swim/bike/run on the Sunday. After pulling out (thank you norovirus) of my only Triathlon prior to the Ironman. I have missed and will not have any other chance to practice my transitions or competing alongside hundreds of other people. Yes you read that correctly. My first ever triathlon will now be Ironman Wales. After Edinburgh I have a weekend in Newcastle where I will be going swim training with my very very good friend Keith Christie. Keith has completed 10 Ironman(s). He is taking me to the sea and kicking me in the ribs and attempting to drown me so that I am prepared for the mass brawl that occurs as everyone initially enters the water on the day. Sounds fun right?

Then it is London until Friday 11th September when I will pack the hire car with my Mum and drive to Wales.

Good food and lots of it. Water and lots of it. Training and lots of it. Resting and lots of it. Massage and lots of it. This is my life for the next 5 days.

I have to avoid injury and sickness at all cost. All vain thoughts of abs and being lean? No longer exist. The only thing I will focus on now is staying strong and preparing my mind and my body (and ma money on ma mind…. *cough* sorry about that) for the big day.

Intense stuff huh?

I am not sure if you are all aware but there is another reason for this Ironman. Admittedly when I first signed up it was purely to test myself. However, after training for a couple of months I learned of a dear friends awful situation. Her granddaughter had been diagnosed with SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy). She didn’t survive. She was only a baby. It has ripped their world apart and they are not alone. This is an awful awful disease. It is genetic and there is no cure. The SMA Trust is raising funds to research and hopefully find a cure. If you haven’t done so already please support me by donating a few pounds? Even £2 will make all the difference if everyone does it… You can text “CATM57 £5” to 70070. You can put any amount in the text message from £1 to £10. If you’d like to donate more you can go to https://www.justgiving.com/Catriona-Macpherson1

I’m going to wrap this up now as I have a lot of work to do but I will be back most days this week with stories of cooking and training and general waffle (ooooh waffles….)

As always, if you have any requests or you want to get in touch then just drop me an email – the address is above. Also remember to sign up! I need as many followers as possible to feel popular. The sign up box is in the top corner!

Thanks all and catch you all tomorrow. C xxx