Ups & downs... Counting progress

I've just failed a bike session... I did everything I could to try and get it done despite waking up feeling tired after a full-on couple of weeks.  But nope... no, no, no.  Not happening. Not today.  Sometimes, the body just says No.  It happens less and less now, as I gain fitness and resilience, but sometimes you just have to take a rest day. 

So, to try and avoid beating myself up for not completing it, it seemed like a good time to look back over progress in the last few weeks and months. 

A warning: this is a looooong geeky post! 

The last couple of months have seen me gradually regaining progress lost while I was ill in November, and going beyond where I was in terms of strength.  It's been hard-won, and setbacks like that can make regaining the lost ground feel really tough.  I've got there though, and have had some really nice wins recently.  

I think this has mostly come through old-fashioned consistency.  Simply showing up every day, at least starting every single session, and giving it my best shot.  Sometimes of course, I fall short of what is planned, but just occasionally I exceed it.

The experience of having my skin infection return months after the initial recurrence left me nervous though - that it would come back anytime I become run down.  And of course, that's a constant threat when training is hard, and when shifts mean disrupted sleep patterns.  More on that, and how I'm trying to guard against, it, later. 

So first of all, where are we?  

19 weeks to go. Today.  So 19 weeks from now I'll be somewhere on the Celtman bike course... 133 days.  So at an average of somewhere around 2-3 each of swims, bikes, and runs a week, that's around 50 of each.  That's assuming that everything goes to plan - and of course we all know that sometimes doesn't happen.  

And a reminder of where I need to get to: 

    3km swim in Loch Shieldaig (10-12 degrees C, jellyfish)

    202km bike round the North West Highlands

    40km off-road run in the Torridon hills.  

And I need to do the swim, the bike, and the first 18km of the run within 13 hours to be allowed to complete the race. 

Why?  

Well, this... 

And also, an added motivation that's become apparent in the last few weeks: 

I am the fittest and strongest I've ever been.  Ever.  

And I'll be turning 50 in less than 9 weeks time. As someone who spent a good few years working in sport, and having done quite a number of endurance events, and lots of extended expeditions, that's quite an extraordinary thing to realise. 

So, on to progress to date.  

Well, one pretty major marker: even though I haven't been in the gym more than 3 times per week, and have been spending a lot more time swim/bike/running than lifting, all of those things have combined to mean I have beaten my previous PBs in two major benchmark lifts. 

First, a 46kg Bench Press.  My previous PB, set last summer, was 40kg.  So to increase that by 15% felt brilliant. 

And then the biggie:

100kg Deadlift.  

My previous heaviest lift was 92.5kg a good few years ago when I was working as a Sea Kayak Coach and in the gym often 5 times per week.  

Now of course, neither of those things have a direct bearing on my ability to complete Celtman.  But what they do give me is increased strength to bring to bear in my swim/bike/run training sessions. 

And onto the main constituents...

Swim progress:

Progress is slow with swimming for me- it's definitely the element I have to work hardest on, and the newest of the three.  But having had my latest 1:1 session with Alan recently, and following some very hard work on my part, it feels like things are beginning to click into place.  Just yesterday, despite feeling a little weary before the session, once I got in the water my swim felt great.  Good pace, good flow, and feeling strong & competent.  I need to remember that feeling. 

Bike progress: 

Well, this is satisfying. 

Last week I felt strong- for some reason I had a suspicion I might be due an FTP increase soon (Functional Threshold Power, if you're reading this as a non-cyclist- and if you are I'm impressed you've read this far!).  Alan seemed to agree following a ride together down in Glasgow.  So I set out to test it during an outdoor training session... and came back with - not an increase in FTP as such - but a huge increase in *actual* 1 hour sustained power.  I've managed a higher average than above for a sustained 20 minutes previously, but I couldn't have sustained that for an hour.  I can safely say I'm by far the strongest I've ever been on the bike. 

I'm also noticing that my natural cadence has gone up, and my position on the bike has improved.  My arms are routinely bent and relaxed, a sign that my upper body is strong, and is supporting me on the bike rather than my arms doing that job.  

After that session, Alan pointed me to the Training Peaks Power Profile (now if this wasn't geeky enough, here's the depths of geekiness).  

This month:

Notice the distance of each purple bar from the bottom horizontal line in that chart - a chart used for 'racing classification'.  

And then...

This month last year: 

Those are my 5 second, 1 minute, 5 minute, 20 minute and 60 minute Peak power outputs on the bike.  And in the last year, every one of them has increased.  

Then last in the Swim-Bike-Run chain... 

Run progress: 

Following my strong progress on the bike, we decided to test my run too.  So I set out to try and beat my 1km PB.  A few years ago I worked hard on my running and managed a sub-30 minute 5km, and a sub-60 minute 10km.  I've got much slower since then... but satisfyingly, last week I managed my fastest flat (i.e. not downhill!) 1km time in several years. And I did that in an 'off the bike' run session. 

Weight:

So this is always a kettle of worms or a can of fish for me... 

But: 

Thanks to the fact that Alan isn't scared of tackling difficult subjects with me, we've been able to really take on what has been stopping me making progress with losing weight - and he gave me the contact details for a brilliant woman, Caroline Toshack who has been able to help me make some pretty significant changes.  

Between us, we came up with, among other things, the idea that my relationship with food needs to be 'Constrained, but not Restricted'.  I need some guidelines, some boundaries, but no 'banned foods' or negative implications about eating certain things.  Of course that isn't everything, but it sums up a significant change in mindset. 

I discovered these recipe books: 

Recipes designed to fuel an athlete's training and life, made from scratch, with simple ingredients and easy/ quick to prepare.  They have been an absolute game-changer, and I'm now preparing all of my (our) meals and snacks from scratch, from these books.  What that means is that both Mark and I are eating very little Ultra Processed Food, and what we are eating is helping to fuel training and life.  

Polenta cake, Frittatas, Ginger Biscuits 

& Oatmeal Cookies, made from scratch.

I'm around 5kg lighter than last June, and just under 2.5kg lighter than when I started the process with Caroline and discovered those books.  

Coincidentally, last week I came across this podcast on the BBC: 

Food and Exercise: A Puzzle

The discussion centres around the myth that exercise causes you to lose weight.  Shock spoiler... it doesn't.  

Now, I've understood and experienced that for some time, along with the theory that we all have a 'natural weight'.  But what this programme does is clear up the latter idea, and talk about it within the context of a 'Food Environment'.  Yes, we might all have a weight that we settle at in a habitual food environment.  But if you change that food environment, it's possible to change that settling weight.  

THAT is what I'm trying to do. And where could it take me from an athletic perspective if I can do that?  Who knows. 

Now... I said I'd talk more about general health, recovery, coping with shifts, and all that.  

I've learned in the last six months that I'm capable of a whole lot more than I thought.  I can train around shifts.  I haven't yet found my limits in sport.  And the key to those things has been Consistency. 

This chart shows all my training in the last two years.  Look at the right hand side: the darker colours.  That's the last six months.  More training, more often, less days off.  Thanks to Alan's creative programming and flexibility, I can do more training, more often, and as a result we're seeing definite results. 

Now, this is something I didn't expect.  The chart below shows my Resting Heart Rate: 

Since I started training with Alan in late June 2024, my resting heart rate has gradually come down, and has settled between 43-48bpm.  It's been steady at that ever since.  It's come down around 10bpm in a year. 

I'm measurably the fittest and strongest I've ever been, and my Heart Rate is the lowest it's ever been.  My weight is higher than it was a few years ago but is on the way down, and I'm healthy and resilient.  Training gives the immune system something of a battering, but I'm taking supplements of Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Zinc (at my GP's suggestion) and Magnesium to help protect against that, along with Creatine to support strength gains particularly as I'm going through the Perimenopause.  HRT helps with the rest. I still need to improve my sleep patterns, and as a shift worker that will be an ongoing project. 

So there is plenty of work still to be done, and gains still to be made.  But we're on track, I feel good about progress, and the days are getting longer, the temperatures warmer.  

The best days, the best sessions are still to come. 

Bring on the Spring training days!