As a pro-triathlete, I would have sacrificed my socializing, ensured I got to bed early and eaten correctly to maximize my recovery; come hell or high water I would never have missed a training session, unless I was ill or injured. So far I have missed about 50 % of my sessions mostly due to work, family commitments, or fatigue from my busy lifestyle. My planned 10 hours a week is averaging around 5 hours; Not good!
On the plus side, my diet, has been second to none. I had a scare last year with high cholesterol and since then have revisited my eating habits. Now, I am happy cutting out cheese and full fat dairy products, these are replaced by soya. I have stopped eating junk, no more biscuits and cakes. Once I set my mind to it, I have not been tempted to eat badly, apart from chocolate! I now allow myself a small amount of chocolate once in a while, so long at it is over 70% cocoa…why 70% ? Well, recent studies suggest that in small amounts dark chocolate may have certain properties that protect the heart!
I have stopped drinking alcohol at home, and now only drink with friends in the pub…..Drinking alone at home is a bad habit to pick up easily, and an odd glass of wine here and there, a cold beer while watching TV…by changing my approach to food and drink, I have already dropped from 70 Kg to 65 kg. so my weight is good, And I feel healthy, which is a positive.
As for the training, I have really struggled with the bike this year, the heavy snow and cold weather during the winter meant that apart from a trip to Lanzarote, I had not been out on the road bike much in England. This is very bad
I substituted it all for indoor turbo sessions…which let’s face it, (unless you can get a good sound track to ride to or a good Tour de France DVD to motivate you), is mind numbingly boring. One plus, is my indoor trainer has a very good watts meter so I can monitor my power out put. This is still lower than it should be, averaging only 200-240 watts a session, not good
but as I have lost 5 kg of fat already, so I know my power to weight ratio has improved a lot, another positive.
The track running was also a disaster at the start of the year due to the snow and heavy travel commitments
, but I enjoyed running in the snow and mud, and this gave me some real stamina sessions, offering a great and unexpected base work out, another plus.
Swimming has been my favourite training, I am currently working on my timing, which is so important and something I have tended to over look in the past……if I am pushing too hard to think about my stroke, I slow the pace down. This strategy is paying dividends, as I have just knocked out my best set in the pool for over 7 years. I did 10 x 200 m on 3:30, averaging 2:40 for them all, proving to me that age is not a barrier to fast swimming, it is technique !! This is worth two smiley’s as I feel my swimming is ahead of schedule.
So we can see from the smiley test it is 5 smiles and 4 sad smiles……..which suggests to me that although I am not where I want to be at present, all hope in not lost