I have to admit that it's been a tough couple of weeks in training recently. I've been warned about this but it doesn't really make it easier to go through: I've been struggling a bit with motivation and fatigue over the past couple of weeks. It's the first time in months that I've felt the need to drag myself to go and train, but I think I've managed to not miss or cut short too many sessions.
It's funny how the mind works. I'm only 5 weeks away from my race, which actually means only 3 weeks left of "hard" training (I will be tapering down in the last 2 weeks). I should be working the hardest during those 3 weeks but yet my mind just isn't "in it". I'm confident I'll pull myself out of it though. A training camp with 5-time world champ Craig Alexander should help (that will start tomorrow, for 5 days of twice/day hard training).
The other big change over the past couple of weeks is that I got the results of my food intolerance tests back: heavily intolerant to Gluten (bread, pasta, and all wheat products) and dairy (all kinds, including milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.). It's been a challenge to maintain calorific intake while maintaining a GF and DF diet. I'm still not 100% convinced it's working to be honest. I've been on it for 2 weeks almost, eating GF breads and cereal, soy/rice milk etc.
Lauris has been immensely supportive in that she did tons of research and drove around half of Dubai trying to find me all these products and preparing me really delicious GF meals. I don't know what I would have done without her support in this.
To be honest though, I'm beginning to doubt that benefits of going GF: my energy levels have been steadily declining, even though I've managed to maintain stable calorific intake. I feel weaker overall and I'm having digestion problems. I've definitely felt it in my performance: my endurance has dropped as has my intensity level. I'll consult a few doctors and give it another few days, and if it doesn't get any better I'm abandoning it, especially so close to the race...
Okay enough complaining! On a more positive note, I did register a couple of excellent / confidence-boosting performances in training too! I did my first 180k bike ride a couple of weeks ago, in 5h29min! That's a really good time, which I was very pleasantly surprised with! I followed that the next day with an excellent sea swim, where I managed to keep pace with teammates I had no business matching in the water. Those 2 sessions gave me a big boost of confidence in my biking and swimming. My run is starting to improve well too, a long way from where I want it to be but it's getting there...
Ok, so let's try to get that spark back and try not to embarrass ourselves in front of the world champion at the training camp this week! It won't be easy juggling 5am/6pm training sessions with work and family time in between, but I welcome the challenge!
It's funny how the mind works. I'm only 5 weeks away from my race, which actually means only 3 weeks left of "hard" training (I will be tapering down in the last 2 weeks). I should be working the hardest during those 3 weeks but yet my mind just isn't "in it". I'm confident I'll pull myself out of it though. A training camp with 5-time world champ Craig Alexander should help (that will start tomorrow, for 5 days of twice/day hard training).
The other big change over the past couple of weeks is that I got the results of my food intolerance tests back: heavily intolerant to Gluten (bread, pasta, and all wheat products) and dairy (all kinds, including milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.). It's been a challenge to maintain calorific intake while maintaining a GF and DF diet. I'm still not 100% convinced it's working to be honest. I've been on it for 2 weeks almost, eating GF breads and cereal, soy/rice milk etc.
Lauris has been immensely supportive in that she did tons of research and drove around half of Dubai trying to find me all these products and preparing me really delicious GF meals. I don't know what I would have done without her support in this.
To be honest though, I'm beginning to doubt that benefits of going GF: my energy levels have been steadily declining, even though I've managed to maintain stable calorific intake. I feel weaker overall and I'm having digestion problems. I've definitely felt it in my performance: my endurance has dropped as has my intensity level. I'll consult a few doctors and give it another few days, and if it doesn't get any better I'm abandoning it, especially so close to the race...
Okay enough complaining! On a more positive note, I did register a couple of excellent / confidence-boosting performances in training too! I did my first 180k bike ride a couple of weeks ago, in 5h29min! That's a really good time, which I was very pleasantly surprised with! I followed that the next day with an excellent sea swim, where I managed to keep pace with teammates I had no business matching in the water. Those 2 sessions gave me a big boost of confidence in my biking and swimming. My run is starting to improve well too, a long way from where I want it to be but it's getting there...
Ok, so let's try to get that spark back and try not to embarrass ourselves in front of the world champion at the training camp this week! It won't be easy juggling 5am/6pm training sessions with work and family time in between, but I welcome the challenge!
And to end it on a laugh, here's a link to the story of my life!!!
5 weeks to go!
Tony
Tony
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