A 40 year old bore

I've become the most boring person on the planet since I started training for this race. Every night I'm in bed not long after 9pm, up at 5.30-6 even on weekends, and one glass of wine after a long run or bike ride sends me to sleep on the couch. My 5 year old has been known to stay up later than me - not just the once. I turned 40 three weeks ago and didn't even get drunk...quite a different experience to turning 30.

The sad thing is, I've never been happier. I realise that race or no race, I need to have exercise in my life every day in order to feel my best, and to balance out the many hours I spend hunched over a desk every day.

View from a run on Sky Road Clifden

Training is going well generally. Lots of long day trips to Dublin caused me to go days without doing any training and that made me feel pretty rubbish, headachey, cranky etc...so now I go to the pool before hitting the road, in the pool by 6 and on the road by 7. As the race gets closer, I'm getting more focused on the training (fear of the race is the main motivator), so aiming to train every day from now on.

A friend of mine, Paula, is doing the Dublin 70.3 in August as well and has offered to come on the long bike rides with me every Sunday afternoon. That's been a real joy...long rides on your own are no fun and we've had great chats, and a few too many cups of tea along the way. Training is therapeutic in its own right but even more so when you have good company.

Had the bike fitted yesterday at Velocity Bike Store, very enjoyable experience with Mark there, coupled with some great coffee from the coffee shop downstairs. I realised that I should have had the bike fit done ages ago, I was over-stretched with the original stem, not overly comfortable on long rides with pain in my shoulders and neck. The bike is a perfect fit for me now so looking forward to taking it out today....now need to build a business case to convince my husband that I need to spend 1400-1600 euro on new wheels that I saw in the shop....

Here are some tips from Lucy Gossage - a British pro triathlete who also manages to fit in being an oncologist 3 days a week. She's won 6 ironmans and got two top ten places at Kona and her life outside of being an oncologist and racing is pretty boring too. Something you have to accept if you want to be good I guess.

• Training
• consistency is key, running 25-30 miles a week slowly every week is much better than doing a big distance one week and being wiped out for a few weeks afterwards 
• planning and time management is key. Plan training at the start of the week, plan meals the day before, prepare lunches the night before
• Listen to your body, push it but we aware of when too much is too much. If work is ridiculous, and you need to forego the evening sessions, that's ok. Write down the key sessions and make sure you do those.
• develop the ability to push yourself in training, the most important days are the ones where you really don't feel like it, you just can't be bothered...if you do it anyway, that's another little mental achievement in the bank. That will set you up for the race, and if you feel like quitting then, remember all that you did to get there.
• Work without training is dull, training without work is also dull - doing both provides some balance
• Don't limit yourself by setting low goals (e.g. just finish) - be the very best that you can, aim higher! 
• When training is hard, remember those who can't. Life is short and you have to make the most of it!

• Nutrition
• Training: eat a lot of healthy food (e.g. nut butters - calorie dense, fairly healthy and delicious), but also use food as treats in training - e.g. after a long ride.
• Racing: 
• pre-race: white diet for two days before, no fibre
• marsbars/snickers at the start and 150 calories on the bike, High5 gels and electrolyte drinks, gels on the run and electrolyte drinks at the aid stations
• Start drinking straight after the swim - if you get dehydrated you won't be able to play catch up

• Bike (time trial or road) 
• while there's no doubt that a time trial bike is faster, you can do well on a roadbike, especially if you get a good bike fit, have aero bars fitted etc. (Velocity Bike Store in Galway are great.)

Gratitude
Always grateful that I'm not injured - that's a constant. Although the amount of foam-rolling I'm doing doesn't reflect that!


Training Update

This week's training:
Monday 1km swim
Tuesday - 45min turbo
Wed - 6km run
Thurs - 45min turbo
Fri - 30min Tabata, recovery swim, 30min turbo
Sat (planned) - 70km bike
Sun (planned) - 14km run, 2km swim

Last weeks' training:
Monday - Dublin (no training)
Tuesday - 6km run at 5.39km/hr (fast for me!)
Wed - Dublin (no training :-()
Thurs - Bike 60km in 2.35min (heaven)
Fri - 2km swim
Sat - Yoga, Strength & Flexibility (a slight twinge in the knee forced this to the top of the priority list)
Sun - 12km run followed by 2km swim (planned)

Previous weeks' training on Strava.