I deliberately returned slowly to training after Raphael was born and everything, apart from being bitten by a dog whilst out training in Monaco at the beginning of the year, has gone pretty well.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.
I can train harder and put myself through more punishing efforts now than I used to do, having done the Tour de France, and come off the road now.
I trained well this week but I think it will take some time until I recover my best rhythm in this specialty.
Training has been such a huge part of my life and career I hope to keep going with it.
I find that dancers are only well trained in ballet these days.
In the Raphael Room, the secret turned out to be that only some of the paintings were made by the great master; the rest were made by students. I had liked the ones by Raphael. This was a big jab for my self-confidence in my ability to appreciate art.
Training with Bela and Marta Karolyi took the joy out of the Olympics for me. I look back and feel there was a lot of verbal and physical abuse. For years, I felt it was my problem.
Two days after returning from Montreal, I was training again, and I went on to win two more golds at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Some of the routines come back very easily. We do it off the top of our heads.
I've been training quite hard.