Tunney's Blog

A good friend is getting married. He is very much into triathlon and is off to IM Kona having qualified in IM NZ earlier in the year. In the three weeks since IM Austria. I did no swimming, no cycling and only 3 jogs at 5mn a km that near killed me.

My plan for this race was to not drown in the swim, not crash on the bike, do 100m of the run and then head to the pub. A few pints the night before didn’t help.

In the swim I zig-zaged like a ^&^&*^* and everytime I zigged I swam over a club mate. Everytime I zagged I swam over him too. I kicked him in the kick. I swam over his back. I generally beat the crap out of him. I felt very bad about it but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t stop.

Anyways I beat him out of the water and then sat down and took my wetsuit in a very very relaxed fashion. Despite beating him out of the water I exited T1 18 seconds down on him.

Given I didn’t trust the security of the place we were staying I had left the disc snd SRMs at home so i rode by perceived effort. A steady to mod hard effort meant that he was 200-300m ahead of me for most of the cycle and I was riding past lots of people. After a few km I past the stag and suggested he jump on and get a tow. He didn’t take up the offer

Carbo was still 200-300m ahead until 15km and he went for it. I rode on and came into T2 safe in the knowledge that next stop was the pub. Heading out for my 100m run I twigged I was in top 5 or so and in all good conscious couldn’t fvck off to the pub just yet. My running legs were still in Austria and there wasn’t a hope in hell of me running well. My lower back has been super stiff. I can’t engage my hammers and all I could do was waddle about and hope that my waddling was faster than Hughs. It was faster, just not fast enough. I never caught him and I was passed by one guy. I debating going with him but my legs just wouldn’t turn faster. I continued my waddle and finished 15 seconds down on my clubmate in first place. Looking at the results now I do regret a little being so “relaxed” in T1, but hats off to Carbo. Excellent riding. The big red machine is coming back and will be flying for IM WA!

Third place, prize money, more beer money. Happy days.

After a week and a half of alcohol, crisps, chocolate and jellies I dragged my a$$ out today for an easy jog. But it was anything other than easy. I’m meant to be doing a sprint triathlon as part of a stag on 24th July – it could end up being a swim-bike-beer rather than swim-bike-run. The recovery is just not a fast as I’d like to be honest.

Finally crossing the line in Austria on July 4th took two years and alot of support. I know my time was not fantasic but I know how difficult it was for me to get there and for people to help me get there so I’d like to extend my thanks and gratitude for this team effort to many people. My friends and club mates for helping me recovery from my accidents and getting me into this and keeping me going. Dave C for keeping me together against all the odds and doing a fantastic job over the years. For putting me back together after Dublin Bus took me apart and for helping me through many things this year. Thanks to Greg for the nerdy sciencey stuff that he knows I love so much and put so much stock in. Thanks to my coach, Rich Brady, for the constant advice, reassurance, guidence and help. I’ve always been a handful to coach and this year I was much more difficult to deal with I’d imagine. My family were fantasic in understanding why I had to start in 2009 and why I had to go back in 2010 and were brilliant in supporting me in everyway that they could. Finally I’d like to thank my wife Glenda for letting me go to Austria despite the bus accident in 2009. For understanding why I had to finish what I started and not only letting me go back in 2010 but suggesting I enter after the day after race day last year and for making me HTFU at times and do what had to be done. I only got one medal when I crossed the line and if Aoibhe hadn’t claimed it as her own it should be Glenda’s, not mine.

The Lead up

The week leading to Austria was less than ideal. I had to work late on the one night I had planned all my prep (and left to the last minute). I hadn’t slept more than 3-4 hours a night for the 5-6 days before flying out and as much as I would love to blame someone else – this was all me. I just couldn’t sleep.

I had sent my SRMs off to get repaired and something had gone wrong with the PCV when I got them back and SRM said they’d try and get a loan one to me in time but I wasn’t confident in getting one. The tyres on my chosen wheels were borked and I didn’t have time to change them. I was a little stressed. In the end the PCV arrived, I went with different wheels, and I got packed.

This year I was travelling with my wife, six month old daughter, and my mother. I had initally suggested going by myself but given what I put everyone through last year they insisted on coming with me as they couldn’t go through it from Ireland.

Flew out very early on the morning of the 1st to Munich. Plan was to drive the 3:30 down, assemble the bike and go to bed. However it wasn’t Munich, and it wasn’t a 3:30 drive, it was closer to six and was West Munich ala Ryanair. Still we got there for about 9 and little Aoibhe had been a total angel for the whole flight and drive down, happy out.

Up the next morning, Friday, and after lunch when to assemble my bike. My rear mech had gotten a hammering despite being off the frame, wrapped up, and in a solid bike box. One extreme panic later, and with the help of my mother and the local bike shop, the rear mech was fixed. Back to putting the bike together. However a screw, the rear wheel adjusted on my P2c, was missing. Another bloody disaster. Again my mother took charge of things and drove me down to the Ironman village where against all odds they had one, a single one, in the entire mechanics tent.

I was stressed to the hilt at this stage, tired from lack of sleep, nervous, and horrible memories of 2009 coming back.

I got out on the bike quite late for some moderately hard work. Did my warm up and started working. As I did a moto with two girls came past me. I accelerated and jumped on their wheel. Try as they might they couldn’t drop me despite their best intentions and to be honest it was a fantastically fun ride.

Back in, sat around for a bit, feeling a little better but still stressed to the hilt. Then out for a easy run. Ran in the heat and noticed my HRs 10bpm than what I expected them to be for the perceived effort. Must have been the heat. Then back into hotel. As I started to go back into the hotel I saw my wife, my mother and little Aoibhe in t-shirts that they had got printed up with “Team Tunney” and “IM Austria 2010″ on them. I nearly cried and was completely overcome. This completely changed my attitude and banished the demons that were haunting me from 2009. It was almost instantanious and I felt so good after this.

Up the next morning for another brick and all was good. A splash in the evening with some pick ups and again all was good. Off to bed with a few glasses of wine on the Saturday night feeling good, feeling happy and feeling relaxed.

I even went to the race briefing. Which was pretty handy as I had intended on only bringing 5 gels with me and getting the other 10 I would need from the aid stations. Turns out no gels were being given out on the bike. Handy I went. Even if I was 20 minutes late. The funniest bit was the main man saying “Under Austrian Triathlon Federation rules water temperature must be 24.8 degrees or lower for a wetsuit swim. We found one spot in the centre of the lake.”

The race

Alarm went off at the crack of dawn on July 4th 2010. IM Austria race morning – take two. I was already awake. My 6 month old daughter did not appreciate being woken at 4am. made a nice change though, her being woken at an ungoldly hour rather than me. Up and down to breakfast in Hotel Dermuth. Porridge that I gave them had been prepared for me and after a nice feed of porridge and coffee I was ready to drive down to the Ironman Village, or rather be driven.

Arrvied down at the Ironman village, and into transition. The amount of bike p0rn was amazing. My favourite was a bike parked near me. A red and black Spesh Shiv with Zipp 900 disc (red and white) with a Zipp 808 front (red and white) and a red SRM PCVII. Fantastic. It just looked so fast and so sweet. Still I went over to my trusty P2c with 900 disc, 404 and SRM PCV and stuck my gels on. Then grabbed my wetsuit, arsed about a bit and then headed down to the swim start.

IM Austria is broken down into two swim starts, left of a pier and right of a pier. My intention was to start from the fast side which was the left. Or so I though, but that topic was covered in the first twenty minutes of the briefing. I quickly figured out that I was on the wrong side when I had no feet to sit on from the start and no one could sight without reverting to breast stroke. Still I swam as best I could, concentrated on sighting regularly, finishing my stroke and staying relaxed. First buoy came and went in what felt like an instant. 1400m out. Onto the next one and this is where I was glad I learnt a lesson last year and used mirrored goggles – I could sight on the way back in, the glare on the water didn’t blind me. Onto the next buoy, then onto the canal. The canal got rough again but I kept at it, swam my own swim and coming up to the exit I was happy that I might have met my ‘A’ goal of 1:10 or at least my ‘B’ goal of 1:15. I know I swam 1:09 last year with a broken collar bone but given my reduced feel for the water due to reduced miles swum I didn’t expect to match it. Out of the water, looked at the clock 1:06, fvcking excellent.

Swim Pros:
* Sighted well
* Consistent pacing
* Comfortable

Swim Cons:
* Turnover low
* No feet
* Time not under 60

Into T1, the most dangerous part of any triathlon. Wetsuit off, socks on, shoes on, helmet on, ran to bike. Grabbed bike, and ran to the exit all the time looking out for fat blokes who might push me over. Anyone and everyone avoided, I’d survived T1 – this day just gets better and better I thought.

T1 Pros:
* Survived
* Under 5 minutes

T1 Cons:
* Should have had shoes on pedals, but hand’t practised with road shoes.

My plan for the bike was holding 225 watts for the flats, 260 watts for the uphills, easy on descents steering clear of groups, and popping a gel every 20 minutes, 750ml to 1000ml water an hour and a salt stick or two at the 90km mark. Heart rates around 145bpm for first lap and 155bpm for the second lap.

I let my stomach settle down and worked at getting my HR down. After 20 minutes or so I popped a gel and my HRs were coming down. The bike was very congested but it was possible to ride legally.

After a while groups began to form but it was still possible to ride legally. Most people didn’t, I did. I kept on rolling and taking it a little easy. I noticed my heart rates lower than expected and my power lower too. I wasn’t working hard enough, so I picked up a little.

The first proper hill came and everyone went nuts. I was out of the saddle and close to 300 watts and guys were flying by. I’m not that heavy so for them to be flying past me they must have been pumping out 700+ watts. I thought to myself “At least the group will be out of my hair, cause they’ll maintain their lead on the descent”. Given I intended to take it easy on the descent and most of my riding had been on the Computrainer, and I wasn’t used to riding a disc, I was convinced I’d loose alot of time on the descents. Nope, both not only did I catch the group that spanked it past me on the climb, I passed and dropped them and continued to ride my own ride on the flat.

I came through the first aid station that I need new bottles in and to my horror they bottles of water were the crappy disposable ones. I had a lollipop bottle holder and this was not good. Still I did my best and moved on from it

First hour 146bpm average, 208 watts average, 35.4kph.

Temperatures were still nice 23 degrees for the first hour and I was pi$$ing like a race horse. Eventually the second climb, the longer, steeper one came and my plan was the same. By this stage the group I had dropped wasn’t far behind me, almost caught me in fact. I hit the base of the climb, *ping* *ping* *ping* guys, big guys, hammering past me, I chuckled, maintaining my own plan and rode on. Hlaf way up the climb, I’d caught them all. By the top I’d passed them. Including the guy with the blinged out Spesh Shiv, “Nice bike” I told him as I passed him. Didn’t get much of a response. Again on the descent I put lots of ground into them, same on the flat. I was becoming aware that I was working too easily, that my power, HR  and perceived effort were well down on where they should have been. Speed was not were I wanted either. I decided to see where I was at the halfway mark and raise it for the second lap. First lap cautious, second lap not, was the plan.

Aid stations after the first one were given water in proper bottles so happy days, was getting plenty of water on board. Too much, still pi$$ing all day. Lost time on the pee breaks.

Second hour 144bpm average, 203 watts average, 34.7kph.

The group seemed to be working more as a group now and by the turn around point they had caught me and they were more organised. The last 30 minutes of the lap were fast. Very fast. 40kph fast. But for low power and low HR. Came through the turn around under 2:30.

Last 30 minutes of lap one 145bpm, 195 watts average, 39.7kph

Decision time. Push on and aim for 155bpm and 225 watts average or ride the same again and get under five hours. Was I going to be greedy and go for broke. Or accept a 4:59 bike. Given my best case goal was 5:05, riding the same again would bring me in 6 minutes less and I’d have extra for the run. Rightly or wrongly I decided to ride the second lap easy again.

A very different lap. Not for me, exactly the same for me. Well close too. If anything I rode a little more easily. Again was this a mistake? I don’t know.  How was it different? The constant surges of the groups meant they were a spent first. The group that had been yoyoing past me on the first lap were gone, the next group was caught, past without them even trying to jump on me and people stopped pinging past me on hills.

First hour of second lap 145bpm, 198 watts average, 34.5kph

This next hour of the bike I really really came into my own, I felt fantastic but didn’t push on, I rode the same again. But I was catching groups – 20 rider groups and 3-4 rider groups, left right and centre. I wasn’t pumping out much wattage so they must have just blown completely. I knew the average speed dropped on the first three quarters of the lap but picked up on the last bit so was still happy sub five would be close. Temperatures now up to 37 degrees. It was warm.

Next hour 199 watts, 146bpm, 33.2kph

The last 30 minutes was very very fast again, but I wasn’t passing people now. Which was good as the temperature dropped and the heavens opened. 21 degrees getting off the bike and 4:59. Fvkcing delighted.

Last 29 minutes of second lap 145bpm, 195 watts, 37.7kph.

Total bike 200 watts average, 145bpm

Bike Pros:
* Consistent pace
* Controlled hills
* Perfect fueling
* Solid descents

Bike Cons:
* Too much water, too many pees for first three hours
* Didn’t ride to plan, rode too easily.

(Update: My sports science friend went over the SRM file and while I could have ridden harder I wasn’t the 15% off I thought I was, maybe 5-10% off. I could have rode smarter and scatter analysis of the SRM files show places where torque and speed, and torque and power are out of whack. One possiblity is not changing gears – something I do from time to time. But also that a 39×25 wasn’t ideal for some aspects of some climbs (the 10 and 12% places), however, bar these short sections the gearing was perfect for me and I wouldn’t have like a compact on the flats or the nastiness of a more spread cassette. Plus given the time spent in these bad zone, there would have been neglible impact on cycling or running)

Coming into T2 I had a choice – a slow cautious dismount, or a leg swinging, hit the ground running. The choice would be a reflection of how I felt my legs were. Would I cramp and snot myself if I tried a fast dismount and hammer to rack my bike and get my run bag? I felt as if I had biked easy so went for it. I didn’t regret it Racked the bike, grabbed my run bag and thanked God that Glenda made me pack socks “just in case the bike ones needed changing”. The combination of pee and rain meant they did. Stuff in the bag and off I went. Given it was cold and overcast I didn’t wear shades and didn’t put on sun cream. I changed my race belt to the run I had stuffed with Sis Go Gels. My choice of energy for long runs.

T2 Pros:
* Legs in good shape

T2 Cons:
* Slow for what I did
* No sun cream

So out onto the run. This was the leg that I was most confident in as I hadn’t cycled as much as I like, nor swam, but I ran lots and I was running well.
I went with my Polar S625x instead of my Garmin 310xt as the Garmins HR reading is utter crap. So I just had perceived effort and HR to go off but that should have been enough I thought. Ran with a low PE and a low HR. A combination that had always in training yielded 4:30 per km. Plan was 19:30 run, 30 second walk. But I also wanted my km splits and 5km splits, I tried to juggle things in my head and with the watch. I came through 5km in 22 minutes. C0ck I thought. Way too fast. And then the fiddling with splits and laps started. I still felt great and ran as I felt. Water in aid stations was in cups and I didn’t take any as I don’t like cups. I popped a gel at twenty minutes but then with the fiddling and the rest I missed one or two gels over the next hour and a half or so. All went well for the first two hours or 27km. There was a warning at 21km when my 30 second walk break was more like two minutes. Yes it was hot but that didn’t really bother me. However the warning signs were there, if you run long with me you’d know I go for 1-2 pees an hour. I had one coming out of T2 but that was it. I’d not taken that many calories on in hindsight and I’d gone out too hard. 4:10 per km for the first 10km was bad. It was just I felt so fresh. At 27km my 30 second walk was a few minutes and I struggled to get going again. My quads went completely, agony. I knew it was bound to happen just not so early. And not when sub 9:30 looked possible. I switched to a race walk approach. This worked for maybe a few hundred km and then it was walkies time. 30 minutes later and somewhere with 7km to go I realised that if I didn’t get something going I’d be 10:30 plus out there. I’d sipped some water and some coke for the 30 minutes and even tried stretching. Eventually I managed to hobble a bit. The hobble turned slowly into a jog and the jog kept going. Coming up to 39km I know I’d go under ten. I pushed on thinking I might make 9:45 but eventually I realised that was going to happen so I walked some more. I ran the last bit and coming up to the end I saw four lads ahead of me. “Four places for the taking” was the immediate thought and I sprinted. How the hell I managed that I don’t know. I caught and passed three of them but the last stayed away. In hindsight a bad idea as my finishers photograph shows 9:51:20 instead of 9:51:17 as I had to wait for him to finish his posing. I had finally finished IM Austria and I felt good. I really really felt good. Mentally and physically. I really did.

Run Pros:
* Was fresh starting
* Finished well
* ITB held up

Run Cons:
* Hydration issues – should have brought own bottle(s)
* Fuelling issues – should have taken more on board and at the regular predefined times
* Pacing issues – too hard out
* Mental weakness – could I have started running again after 10 minutes? 15 minutes? 20 minutes?
* Quad implosion

All in all IM Austria is a fantastic race. So scenic, so much fun. Great swim, great bike, great support on the bike, nice enough run and fantastically supported. I’d go back in a heartbeat.

Overall I raced well but deviated from the plans slightly and was punished for it. Lessons learnt. A success, a good day, a result I am happy with. Glenda, Aoibhe and my mother made a huge difference by being there. Given all that happened over the last year or so I needed the emotional support.

At then end of Janurary of this year I was new dad and proud as can be of my little daughter, and all the joys of sleep deprivation that comes with it. I had an injury that I just couldn’t shift and could ride or run. I was working all the hours that god gave and I felt under huge pressure for IM Austria. My friends were targetting 8:5x IMs and Kona slots and I just couldn’t keep up. So I binned it. I canned it.  I told my wife I was out of Austria. I told anyone and everyone that I was finished that I just couldn’t juggle the lot and something had to give. The company that I had broken my b0ll0ck for folded, and I was unemployed again. Unemployed with a three week old, injured, fat and unfit I just wanted to hide away and spend time with my family so I retired. Except I didn’t.

I found work a fortnight later and things were tense in the new (new old) place so not doing triathlon and having the time committments of it where good so I told myself that I would do my best to do what I could, when I could, without impacting home life and in the new work world order, and then when I got very close to the event I would make a call based on how things had gone. What I really needed was for people to think I had retired and to not ask my how I was juggling training and a baby and work because that only served to make me realise that I was trying to get by on a fraction of my usual training. But priorities had changed and in the new world order training and sport came well down the list. I was happy to talk anything and everything about babies but didn’t want to hear or talk about triathlon. What I also really needed was not to be done that I was being a sh!t dad by trying to do some sports and having a baby. I wanted to go back to enjoying swimming and cycling and running and that is what I did.

I talked to my coach and he knew what I was going through as well and programmes were revised, updated, adapted to my new lifestyle and commitments. He was fantastic in the support, guidance and advice he gave. The triathlon related stuff was handy too

So we did what I could when I could. The days of 4 bikes a week, 4-5 swims a week and 4-5 runs were gone. Traditionally I did all my training very early in the morning. With only a handful of hours sleep a night this ended. Swims and turbos were what suffered. Long bikes too. Being gone for hours at the weekend wasn’t ideal. Stretching, foam rolling, and core went too for the most part.

A few things enabled me to get some training done:
- Running at lunch – this allowed me get running down, runs up to a point, done without impacting family. Didn’t always work with work but a few days a week it would
- Computrainer and Real Video courses – I love the turbo, I always have, but every long ride, every ride infact being done indoors for months was a little much. I already had the CT and I invested in a few Real Video Courses. I was able to ride for a few hours every week in the shed, safe in the knowledge that if I was required or desired I could be there in seconds. The CT in particular gets much more from the time you put in. The videos are good but the erg files and erg mode of the system are where the real gains are made.
- Use Exposure lights – eventually Aoibhe was old enough to be driven by her mother to her grandparents in Cavan. They’d head up the Friday morning or Thursday evening from the end of Februrary once a month or so. I already had a good set of lights I whacked 2000 lumen of lights on the bike and rode up to Cavan. Pitch black country rodes in the pi$$ing rain. But it was a monthly outdoor ride, and to be honest I had no other way to get up as we had one car and buses didn’t suit the times I need to travel at.
- Everything was targetted to get maximum from the time I put in.

At no time did I consider what I was doing training. I was just doing a bit here and there and having fun. Since no one knew there was no pressure. My first outdoor daylight ride was in May, and I did one two hour spin on which I had company.

About 6-8 weeks out from Austria I took stock of where I was and realised I could do Austria. 10:30 definitely, most likely sub 10, possibly 9:45 and if all went perfectly 9:30. My power numbers were similar to last year but given the reduction in muscle mass (legs literally half the size) the power was coming from elsewhere. I put alot of it down to the savage years biking I did the year before. My swimming was shocking but I’d live with it. But my running was vastly superior to the previous year. My long runs were up to 3:10 easy marathons. (Albeit just the one). My technique and form were completely changed.

I started looking into flights and accomodation and this is when my family said that I was not allowed go on my own. Simply enough I had put them all through hell last year and if I was doing it again they were coming. Flights booked, accomodation booked, the whole lot and I was happy and excited. By this stage a few people knew but not many. I was going back, I was prepared well enough, I would close this chapter in my life. Two and a half years on I hoped I would close the Austrian chapter.

I sent my SRMs off a week or so ago to be have the batteries changed. Back they came and now the PCV screen is dead and the whole unit is useless, the service centre is closed for a week and I need my SRMs.

I dragged my ass out of bed and struggled to the pool. An achievement for me these days. Went to get change to swim.
No togs.
Faced with the choice of going home, going to work, or swimming in my jocks…… Well I got some strange looks. But at least the session got done.

My first race report in a long while that has not ended in a hospital stay.

Rocked up on a fine summers evening with the Carberry’s. I was tired from tot’s sleeping habits but sure what is new.
Registered, changed, jogged a little to warm up, some drills to get the hammers and hip flexors firing and then wetsuit on and into the water for a bit of a warm up. Took the wetsuit off to fix a pin that was stabbing me and then eventually got in the water for the off. A 750m swim, slightly against the current, deep water start. Mainly a straight line swim so that would prove challenging as I’ve never swam straight before.

Positioned myself at the front and the countdown became “10-9-8-7-5-4″ remembering something that I was told when I first started in the sport. Go on 3. So I caned it on 3. Went hard for the first 150-200m to try and get fast feet but didn’t get a single draft. After 300m my left shoulder, my bad one, was quite sore, I soon remembered that I have to put my wetsuit on in a particular way to stop the pain in the left shoulder. I swam surprising straight and sighted rather well. I have a pair of mirrored goggles that I need to make sure are okay as if I was going the other way I would have been blinded by the sun.

I had targetting a 12:00 swim and stood up in 12:30. Close enough. However I was very disappointed that if I had held this pace, it would only be a 1:15 IM swim, which would mean closer to 1:20, oh well it is what it is. Started to dolphin dive to shore. Nearly skulled myself on some large rocks. Curved slippy large rocks the whole way to shore. People around me starting hammering over the rocks. I paused and thought – “If you hammer over these rocks that are slippy and don’t allow sure footing what will happen, you’ll break your ankle like LD did and then game over”. So I gingerly exited the water in a very slow and cautious manner.

2:30 later I left transition, 15:00 in. I knew I could run as hard as I could turn my legs and not blow up as it was just a 5km and I didn’t have the speed to blow over that distance. So I ran as hard as I could. Averaged 182bpm or there about for the run, but to be honest I felt could have done it 3-4 more times. I crossed the line 16:26 later and immediately started chatting to Hugh. I could not have run any faster but it just didn’t hurt or take anything out of me.

Middle of the night I woke up and realised “An IM swim is 3800m, not 4500m, it was a 1:03 pace.”

A nice race, swam well considering that I’ve not been in open water since Austria 2009, ran well – was happy with how I ran, reckon the course was 500m or so short though. I think it bodes well.

I was discharged last year late on the Monday or early on the Tuesday. I’ve no idea really.

What I do remember is that horrible fixation on the fact that I had not finished my weekends training. As I was now unemployed I was at home and decided to do the long cycle that was interrupted by the bus again. When I say remember I have power meter files and vague recollections. Turboing in the kitchen on a summers day is never fun. Doing so with your arm in a sling, a fractured collar bone, no sense of balance due to a head injury and a face thats mangled and a head injury isn’t,in hindsight, smart. I fell off the turbo every few minutes. I repeated this process many many times, certainly more that was wise, in fact getting out of bed was unwise., and against advice. Not the brightest in hindsight.

Given it was the anniversary of my accident there has been quite a bit of conversation with my family and friends over it and alot of details were filled in and shared.

For starters I didn’t know when my wife arrived at the hospital she asked her husband David Tunney was. The response was – “Ahh the guy who keeps asking where his bike is and keeps asking about his SRMs.”

I’ve vague recollections of oodles of x-rays and MRIs, however I’d never really thought that I was scanned that much. Turns out I was, bleeding on the brain was a concern I’m told.

I remember lots and lots of pain, and liking tea with sugar and toast. Something I never liked and not liked since.

I’m told as well that I was talking completely and utter shite, that I was going on and on about nonsense. That I was away with the fairies.
Amazingly people let me do a telephone job interview from the hospital as I’d been made redundant two days before the accident.

I didn’t get the job.