Hello again, well my road to Beijing hit its first bump this week. A case of the flu had me laid up in bed for the second half of this week. It was nothing serious because thankfully my coach and I noticed things weren't right early enough to change the training accordingly.

Honestly, it could work out to be a good thing for me (I know that sounds strange) because three days out of the water now, might help freshen me up mentally for the challenges ahead.

This might be a good time to tell a story that I mentioned in my first entry. At the 2003 world championship selection trials I woke up on the morning of the 100m breaststroke final (my main event and only chance of making the team) in a bit of discomfort. When my room mate left to go to the pool, I started being physically ill, so I asked him to send the doctor over.

The doctor came over and gave me a needle to help with the nausea and just told me to rest. Over the day, things didn't improve so when I went to the pool in the evening I received another needle. I could only muster around 400m of warm up (instead of 1200m). When I got out behind the blocks the only thing going through my mind was deep breathes and don't throw up. I swam the race finished second, which was good enough to make the team and then spent ten minutes in the bathroom being sick again - not the most glamorous celebration I have had.

The next day, I woke up still felling terrible and was then told by the doc, that I had appendicitis I promptly flew home and had my appendix out a couple of days later. The reason I tell this story, is to demonstrate how powerful the mind really is. I still can't believe how I swam with appendicitis, but the fact was that I didn't know. That the doctor and my coach didn't tell me, probably made the difference because I would not have been able to handle the news that I was really sick.

Like most occasions, life doesn't go to plan, but it is how you deal with problems that make the difference. I would like to think that is the biggest difference between me now and four years ago. Back then I was a good swimmer on my day, but often if things didn't go to plan I would panic a little. Now I feel like I can swim well on any day of the week and am prepared for any small hiccup along the way. This illness for example, years ago I would worry about my fitness and how I would cope, but I am now confident that the work I have done will hold me in good stead.

I leave you with a quote that sums up my last two months before trials - "Extraordinary performance comes from doing ordinary things, extraordinarily well".