Training Test & Kids’ Eating

It has been a month since I have started training almost full-time. I have to say that I generally feel that, surprisingly, both my fitness and speed have improved quite a bit more than I thought they would in just this short period. I put it down not only to the increase in the actual training, but also to the major improvement in my recovery routine. I have made quite a few improvements to my nutrition, and I get some decent sleep and down times. An even much bigger achievement is the kids starting to eat their greens every evening! In this post, I’m talking about the changes in nutrition I have made over the past few weeks, as well as the recent time trial I’ve done and changes to my training.

Time Trial and Small Race

I have just done a sprint time trial on Sunday to check on my progress. The total time was where I thought it would be, which was a relief, but the purpose was also to look at each discipline to see what I should be doing either to improve or maintain my level. Working it backwards, my 5km run was exactly where I thought it would be (to the second), which was a very reassuring sign that my training focus on the running since last summer has actually worked well. So, running is on track.

The cycling time was fine, but I didn’t really have any huge expectations there. It is quite difficult to judge it exactly, since cycling in a time trial on the roads (or on a turbo trainer) is usually very different from a race. To start with, roads aren’t closed like they are on a race, so you get affected by traffic. Also the terrain is very varied between where one trains and where races take place. But, one can generally get an idea by comparing previous times done on the same course, so there has been a bit of improvement there. I’ll leave the cycling focus until after the end of this season.

The swim was the thing that surprised me, though. It seems that I have plateaued, or reached a wall in my training. However much I have done since the beginning of the year seems to have had very minimal effect on my speed. The fitness has improved, something that has to happen if one swims over 10-12km a week, but my speed hasn’t improved much. With this in mind, I am adjusting my training, starting next week, to focus much more on the swimming speed, maintain the run training as it is, and try to improve the bike a little bit. I’m happy with my transitions, so just a bit more practice in the same way.

While doing such a time trial or smaller races still takes its toll on the body and I still need nearly a week to fully recover, it is much better to find out one’s weaknesses during these events than wait until a major race. With just under 6 weeks left until the race in Madrid, I have just about enough time to try to tweak my swim a bit to hopefully get closer to the 2:25 time I want to achieve for the full distance on the 1^st of June! I have a sprint race on 12 May, which I’ll use to do a proper trial for race strategy, nutrition, equipment, etc, but I’m not planning on pushing myself hard that day, since Madrid will only be 3 weeks away.

Nutrition

Organising all meals, cutting carbs from evening meals and exchanging normal milk for soy milk have been the main changes these past few weeks. I wasn’t aiming to lose much weight, which I haven’t, but my body composition is shifting to more muscle and less fat as a percentage, which was the main aim. I also have decent levels of consistent energy, something I was worried about when cutting carbs, and a less bloated tummy! I haven’t cut out the carbs completely, of course, but I have replaced quite a good chunk of it with vegetables.

I do not eat alone, and the whole family eats the same things (albeit different amounts), and the biggest achievement from this, though, is that the kids are starting to actually finish their greens and moan less about the lack of pasta or rice; they even didn’t say anything about it this evening! This is huge, as there were certain vegetables that they just never ate, but they’re now eating, either because it’s the only thing available, or that they actually started to like them. They have also found some vegetables that they actually “love” eating, which is something I didn’t think would happen this quickly. It's early days, though, but in any case, they’re moving in the right direction, and that definitely makes me happy...

It is little things like this that make the whole process more than worthwhile. When the kids now get some dessert yoghurt after their meal every few days and they are really excited about it, it makes me believe more and more that I’m doing the right thing, by getting them into taking on the right habits to lead a more healthy lifestyle now and later on in life.

Next step: get the kids to run!

My next update in a few weeks will, hopefully, contain some exciting news in addition to my training progress and readiness for Madrid. Stay tuned!