Wegovy Athlete Diaries... the Solo Point Five prep edition

'So if the swim is about 40-45 mins, and Saturday's Bealach Sportive took 4 hours...'

This morning I found myself talking goals and possibilities for this year's Celtman Solo Point Five with Alan, who if you've read my blog before you'll know is my coach.  I spent this weekend in Shieldaig, home of Celtman, doing the Bealach na Ba Sportive on Saturday followed by a swim round Shieldaig Island on Sunday.  

On the face of it, that doesn't sound like an unusual conversation.  It's pretty normal to work out how things might go, with a few weeks to go to this year's main event.  

BUT. 

This is very different.  

It occurred to me this afternoon, that not once in that conversation did we mention cut-off times.  

For the first time ever, I'm taking part in a really hard event, and I'm confident that, barring catastrophes like illness, injury or a mechanical, I will make the cut-off times and get to the finish.  I mean, nothing is guaranteed with a race like this - it's called an Extreme Triathlon for a reason.  But the progress I've made over the months leading up to now mean that I have moved from 'might make the cut-offs on a good day' to 'on a normal day, no bother'.  

So how have we got here?  

Well, those of you who read my blog regularly will know something of my background, and if you don't I'd urge you to read some of the posts leading to this one.  But in a nutshell, I'm a 51 year old female who has spent my whole life active, but overweight.  In September last year having been training pretty intensively for XTri races for some time (Celtman Solo Point Five, and Celtman itself) I made the decision to start taking Wegovy, one of the weight loss jabs.  It hasn't always been plain sailing, and there is very little information out there for anyone taking those drugs alongside hard, consistent training.  But I've been making good progress.  

In my last post I talked about my low Ferritin result - and having done a little more research, it seems I may have had low Iron for some time.  Perhaps even years.  So having taken my iron supplement every day for a couple of months with vitamin C to aid absorption, and avoided calcium, caffeine & tannins for 1-2 hours after taking it, I went back to my GP practice for a follow up test.  I felt much better than I had... Surely the new result would be an improvement on the previous 25. 

And the result?  26!  I couldn't believe it  - only 1 point up on the last result.  So what do I do now?  Well, I had a Coeliac test and spent a weekend convinced that it would come back positive.  Surely that would be the reason I wasn't absorbing enough iron?  But nope- negative.  

So I decided to double my supplement intake.  And I also made the decision to go with monthly private testing.  I did the first test fairly soon after the last GP test to 'calibrate' it against the GP practice results.  I'm currently waiting on the second test kit to arrive in the post. The result will be interesting!  But either way, this will be an ongoing project, a work in progress that will last some considerable time.  

Iron-y breakfast once a week: black pudding and orange juice! 

I've made some dietary changes too: added in some high-iron foods at least once or twice a week, and ensured I'm not limiting their absorption too much.  

I'm still getting gradually lighter, and am slowly learning how to manage training alongside the caloric restriction imposed by my use of Wegovy.  

Weight record since June 2024: 

the change in gradient is the point at which I started taking Wegovy.  

An aid, not a quick fix. 

One of the ways in which the GLP-1 drugs work is to slow down the absorption of food in the gut, which makes you feel fuller for longer.  Initially I struggled with fuelling training as a result of this, because it meant I couldn't take in enough carbohydrate to fuel longer or more intense sessions.  I had a plan, therefore, to taper down my dose of the drug through this summer, to allow me to train harder and complete the events I wanted to enter. 

However, as time went on I discovered that I could fuel training better with the use of liquid carbohydrate.  Whether that's through carb mix in my bike bottles, or Precision Fuel & Hydration Flow Gel in a gel bottle, I can get in enough carbohydrate for the session without feeling nauseous or uncomfortably full.  As a result, I've managed to maintain my dose of Wegovy, and continue to lose weight whilst training reasonably hard.  

So what has that done for me?  

Well, this...

Me in June 2024:

In September 2025: 

And this weekend, in May 2026: 

 

But of course, pictures don't tell anywhere near the whole story.  If you watch TV, listen to the radio, look at social media or read anything in the press, you'd be forgiven for believing that GLP-1 medication inevitably makes you shed muscle and lose power.

But is that really true?  Well, not necessarily, in my experience.  If you don't work to maintain or even build that muscle mass; if you do very little exercise, little or no strength training and don't eat enough protein (which, let's face it, is a description of the vast majority of the UK population), then you will lose muscle whilst losing weight, no matter how that weight loss is achieved.  

If, however, you do plenty of exercise - preferably vigorous exercise - do some strength training, and eat plenty of protein, then that doesn't have to be the way. 

And the proof?  

On Saturday I completed the Bealach na Ba Sportive in 3 hours 59, and rode up the Bealach na Ba, the UK's biggest road climb, without stopping or putting a foot down for the first time ever.  It gave me both my highest ever 1 hour power output in 'absolute' watts, and my highest ever watts per kg power output for an hour.  I was pretty close to my highest ever power numbers for 20 minutes & 90 minutes too, and having done that event 3 times now, finished it 49 minutes faster than my first time in 2022.  

Let me leave you under no illusion though, this journey is far from easy.  I'm training 8-12 hours per week on average with some weeks more than that, and of course that doesn't include time driving to the pool, washing kit, dealing with bike maintenance, and making sure my nutrition is as up to scratch as I can manage.  It's a lot of work, and I have regular wobbles along the way.  

Next week I'll do my next Ferritin test, and really hope that has improved; but if it hasn't I will work out what the best course of action is from there.  My body fat percentage today is the lowest it has ever been in the few years I've been able to measure it, and I'm recovering better than I have before.  

In just over 4 weeks time I'll take on the Celtman Solo Point Five for the second time.  The first time, I breaststroked the swim in just over an hour, sneaked into T2 bang on the time cut-off for the bike, and wasn't allowed to complete the final road section of the run due to being outside the time cut-off.  I was the final finisher of the day. This time, barring catastrophes or disasters outwith my control, I'm not especially worried about cut-off times.  I expect to complete the swim (front crawl this time) comfortably in 40-45 minutes, the bike in around 4.5 hours, and the run... well we'll see how it goes on the day.  I have 'A, B and C' goals in my head, and none of them is to 'just finish'.  At last I can look at a hard event and focus on performance, rather than just survival.  

But the ramifications of that carry across so much of my life.  I look in the mirror and don't feel ashamed of what I see.  I think about performance these days, rather than what society expects me to look like.  I can refer to myself as an 'athlete' out loud, without hesitation. 

I've lifted myself off the bottom of the results sheet... and we've only just begun.