Every one of these has one of those

In order to finish on a positive note, let's talk about the cloud. The CIPA Open Championships for 2005 have now passed into history, as have my failed bid to set a UK record in Static breatholding. The 6+ months of training have been documented here, and have been 50% of the raison d'etre for the blog existence. It only leaves to analyse what I believe were the main contributing factors to the blackout I experienced at around 6 minutes. First and foremost, two previous and consecutive days of deep ( for me ) constant weight diving can only have had a detrimental effect. Same goes for the head cold that started the day before. There are 101 other factors that could also have contributed, from hood drawn too tightly around my neck, to stress of performing in a competitive environment. Because of these, and not wanting to gain an unenviable reputation for doing this sort of thing, I have decided to step down from my bid. If the margins are so close, then I wouldn't feel deserving of the record. It's not uplifting, and neither was the engine in our car blowing up on the motorway the next day. But life goes on, I'll get over it, and it leads me nicely onto the silver lining...

Four days in Nice with the best of company, weather, calm seas and generally feeling good about everything, are what I will remember most about my time there. Getting a 56 metre PB less than a week after my ear trauma was a bonus. So was reaching 55 metres the next day in the competition. Qualifying for the Individual Constant Weight Championships in September wasn't a bad thing either.

You can't always get what you want...but you get what you need.