Results of the restaging checks were very positive (let's knock on wood):

the PET-scan showed no signs of hyper-metabolic activity whatsoever; the CT-scan showed that all tumours have shrunk.

So the terrible chemo-therapy I received seems to have worked out.

My hair starts growing back in untidy patches; my beard grows back so strong that I developed a five o' clock shadow which is stronger then it ever was before in my life.

On the body-rebuilding front, I had to rethink the way I do training. I now do a 3 day training, 3 day off cycle, which works out quite OK for me. Your mileage may vary(!)

2 days of this cycle are dedicated to rebuilding muscle mass, and one day is dedicated to rebuilding aerobic capacity.

Earlier on, I tried to train like I did before the onset of cancer - something like 3 days of training, one day pause, with many sets (6 to 8+).

I however found out that this training was way too much for my wrecked body.

I now do very few sets per exercise - 4 sets are usually enough to make me feel very sore the next day. Also I make sure to give my body plenty of time to regenerate.

I keep to very few very basic exercises:

Day1:

1. chin-ups, which are a good all-around exercise for the upper body and arms. I do 4 sets, and I try to manage 12-10-9-8 reps.

2. Barbell curls, mainly to rebuild the veins within my arms. I do 4 sets at 20 kg, and try to do 12-10-8-8 reps.

Day 2:

1. heavy knee bends, which is a very good all-around exercise for the legs. "Heavy" for me is in the 40-70 kg range. But as I weigh 59 kg and have quite a "chemical" history, I guess that's quite OK.

2. push-ups, the same as above. I do 4 sets, and aim to manage 20-18-16-14 reps.
I will probably shift to bench presses in some days (I avoided them till now because doing bench presses when you have water inside your lungs hurts like hell, as I found out before sterile room).
When doing bench presses, I can press 60-70 kgs and aim for something like 10-10-8-7 reps.

Day 3:
60-80 minutes aerobic training, either on the stepper or on the ergo. After 20 years of training, I have a very good feeling for my heart rate, so I usually do it without heart rate monitor.

I do a moderately intensive aerobic training. I set the ergo so that the load feels "just right" - for me that's so that I can play a videogame while pedalling (that basically means my blood lactate value remains below 4 - if it increases to a level above 4, your hands-to-eye coordination among other things will suffer and you will, among other things, not be able to properly play a videogame)

Two remarks:

I think that the low heart rate training that has become so popular with Herman Maier only works if you like to sit on your ergo for 6-8 hours a day. And yes, I think it works and even might be the most agreeable way to train. Unfortunately, it would make me crazy to sit on an ergo for such a long time, so it's definitely not my way to train:-)

And I think that the high intensity interval training which is very popular now is not very agreeable to the human body. Seriously, what can such a training do for your aerobic capability?

Yes, it will train your body to handle short term overloads. And yes, it will speed up your metabolism, so that you can burn fat.

It's ideal for people who do not want their body to *be* fit, but want their body to *look* fit.
And yes, in this strange age, when appearances are all that counts, I can understand it has become very popular.

Anyway.

My blood seems to be very OK, as I manage to do 1 hour at 75 W on the ergo without any problem (whereas before sterile room, in February, I had my troubles pedalling at 25 W).

Anyway, it seems I found my way to rebuild my body for my final endeavor.

I have 6 more weeks before the next high dose chemo and 6-8 weeks of sterile room, after cord-blood-based stem cell transplant.