Wegovy Athlete Diaries Episode 4: Summer 2026

It’s been a while.  And there have been a few significant changes over the past few months, so it’s probably time for a wee update. 

Last time I wrote anything in here I was all geared up- or so I thought- for the Celtman Solo Point Five. But training had been difficult over the winter and spring, I was struggling to find a rhythm. And, let’s just say, it didn’t go to plan. 

What happened and why?  Well, to be honest, I don't really know why it didn't go well.  It just didn't.  There's only one way to summarise it... and it's this: 

Pffffffffffttt.

Perhaps I wasn't invested enough.  Perhaps (probably) my training just hadn't been consistent enough.  But, whatever it was, it felt like it didn't matter enough to wring my hands over it too much. 

NEXT!!

The next big change is my weight, and body composition.  In mid-September it will be a year since I started taking Wegovy, and I'm quite proud of myself for having stuck with it for that long, managed any side effects, and having consistently kept losing weight even whilst training.  It hasn't been easy, there have been days when I've felt nauseous or a bit constipated, but by managing my diet and eating plenty of protein and fibre, I'm still taking the weekly jabs and...

I'm now the lightest I've ever been as an adult.  Yes, at the age of 51 I am now lighter than I've been since I was a teenager.  

And... 

My body fat percentage is also the lowest it's been since I started measuring it, around 5 years ago.  

All of this whilst MAINTAINING MY MUSCLE MASS.  I've said this before, but there is a lot of hype around 'The Jabs' and a lot of myths saying you will lose muscle mass if you take them.  But that applies equally to any form of weight loss: I have in the past lost muscle as a result of 'dieting' whilst not doing any form of strength training.  But this time, doing plenty of exercise and regular strength training, my muscle mass- carefully tracked and monitored- is approximately the same as it was when I started the medication almost a year ago.  

When I started the process of losing weight this time around, in June 2024, I weighed 94kg.  I'm now 77kg: a loss of 17kg, or 18% of my bodyweight.

And looking forward?  I'm nowhere near done yet, and expect to be taking Wegovy for a significant period of time yet.  Slow and steady is the key, and I will continue the process until I reach a stage I feel comfortable with.  When that will be, I do not yet know, but I do know that what I'm doing is working.  Monitoring weight, body composition, strength and fitness, and health.  Looking for changes, dealing with the ups and downs as they come.  This is a long term process that will probably go on for many years, with or without medication.  Having spent a lifetime not managing to get to a weight or body composition that is healthy for me, finally this gives me the help that I need to achieve that, and opens up opportunities that never felt possible before. 

August 2025 (Photo: Steve Murphy)

August 2026 (Photo: Steve Murphy)

The above two photos were taken by the same photographer, at the same race, on the same bike, a year apart.  10kg lighter, and 4 minutes faster over a 30 mile Time Trial. Stronger, lighter, and now faster than my 'Age Standard' time over that distance. 

So, where next?

Well, following on from the Solo Point Five, I felt I needed a different race, event, or challenge to test myself.  To give myself chance to build up again and wipe the slate clean, so to speak.  So what to do?  

Initially I looked at events in Scotland in a couple of months time... Aberfeldy Middle Distance Triathlon?  But it has a road run - not my favourite kind of running.  Do I do a DIY Tri?  I started planning for that: the simplest and cheapest option.  And then... After an 'in passing' mention, I happened upon a race that really fired me up.  

The Brutal Canol: Half Distance Extreme Triathlon.  September 19th, in Llanberis, an area of Wales I know well and haven't spent enough time in recently.  A 1.9km swim in Llyn Padarn, 93km bike on the roads around Snowdonia including (twice) the climb to Pen y Pass, a running lap of Llyn Padarn, and then a nip (!) up and down the Llanberis Path to the summit of Snowdon.  What's not to like! 

Around the same time, we went away to the Lake District for a week's holiday.  For a change, Alan (Triathlonworkx) and I decided I should have a break from formal training sessions, and have an active holiday, where I (we - Mark, Riof and I) would be able to do whatever took our fancy each day.  That resulted in a great week of getting up some hills, doing a wee bit of gravel biking, and a real highlight of the week, swimming end to end of Buttermere.  A chance to just enjoy my health and fitness, to get out and explore.  

That week really reminded me how much I love getting into the hills.  Having lived in the Lake District for a couple of years around the turn of the Millennium, it was lovely to go back and visit some well-trodden places I used to spend a lot of time.  To get up some familiar hills and valleys but in a different way - in running shoes, on a gravel bike, or in a wetsuit, and see them through different eyes. 

Pondering Consistency

While we were away, I did some thinking about training, and about what I could improve.  I'd been feeling like a bit of a 'DNF Queen' after the Solo Point Five, and wanted to work out how to break the cycle.  

Around the same time, Alan talked on the Triathlonworkx community platform on Skool about the nature of Consistency in training, and the level of training required to complete one of the full distance XTRi events such as Celtman, Norseman or Swedeman. 

Those who use Training Peaks will know the 'Fitness' score that pops up every day in your daily summary.  The theory is that to complete different types of event, you need to be tootling along just prior to the event at a particular 'Fitness' score, give or take.  For a full distance triathlon, that number is certainly over 100, and more like 120 or so.  

But I'd misunderstood what that meant.  

I don't think I really had a proper understanding of it, correct or otherwise. But I read a book while we were in the Lake District about the Legend of Fell Running, Billy Bland.  In one of his interviews with the man who still holds the Borrowdale and Wasdale fell race records over 40 years on, Steve Chilton asked Billy Bland about training.  He talked about how much, how often, the type of training... and about recovery.  Billy Bland was never coached, made up much of what he did himself, but he was meticulous in his consistency.  'If the weather was too bad I'd run on the spot in the kitchen for 3 hours'.  This after a hard day of manual work, and living all his life in Borrowdale, the wettest place in England, in the heart of the Lakes.  

Reading All or Nothing At All made me think about what consistency actually means, and Alan's words made me reflect on how that applies to the front page score in Training Peaks.  Crucially, he had nicknamed it 'Consistency Score', or in my head I started to think of it as a Training Load score.  

And I came to realise what it actually is.  

It's an average, over 6 weeks, of how much training load you have coped with every day.  The number is the 'Training Stress Score' you've averaged every day for the last 6 weeks, and in the small print it says that more recent days are weighted more heavily in the algorithm than those earlier in the 6 weeks.  But essentially, what you are doing is training your body to cope with a larger daily load: in order to cope with an even larger load on race day. 

You're training your body to go, recover, and go again.  And to increase the length of that go, and then go again, with the same or less recovery in between.  

And therein lies the rub.  What I had been doing was boom and bust.  Getting to the point where I needed a rest, blowing up in a minor way, and then taking days off.  Whereas what I need to do, to really improve my consistency, is smooth out the bumps.  To start every session, and then if it doesn't feel like I'm quite up to it, perhaps back off, or do something rather than nothing.  That's especially difficult around shift work, and particularly night shifts, and it requires a real mindset change for it to work. 

What that doesn't tell you though, is how fast you will be.  That comes down to the type, and intensity of the sessions you're doing.  And that, along with teaching your body and mind how to cope with the load involved, is just one of the reasons to have a good coach. 

These are early days in my little epiphany, but so far it's looking good.  I've managed a few really solid, really consistent weeks, and there has been a pretty significant shift in my mindset.  My brain now says 'get on with it'.  At least give it a bash and see what the body says.  

And The Brutal will be the test of that. 

The result so far?  I'm feeling resilient, and I think I'm recovering better.  Yesterday I cut a session short - but that's ok, I needed a bit of extra recovery time, and still did something rather than nothing.  

So there's a month to go to The Brutal Canol, and our trip to North Wales.  I'm excited about it, about the adventure itself, and about a test of my new understanding of consistency.  My brain is going to take some time to adjust to seeing photos of myself that look smaller than I recognise myself to be, but I'm very much enjoying the feeling of fitting into outdoor kit without having to send it back multiple times to find the right size, and to feeling like I can recover well between sessions.  

The mantra?  Just keep moving forward.