Nutrition Update

I am always looking for better ways to train and race in order to improve my race performances. I genuinely believe I can win my age-group in a race, most likely in a half-ironman distance event I suspect, at some point in the future but I am a little way off that based on past events.

I eat wonderful, nutritious, real foods and have felt so much better since I started doing this and avoiding processed foods about two years ago. Also, I stopped using mainstream sports nutrition products such as energy gels and bars and now fuel my longer workouts and races with real foods like fruit, nuts and/or fats like coconut oil, as well as drawing energy from my stored body fat.

Some slight changes

Over the past 12 months or so I have done many of my workouts in a fasted state to some degree and/or consumed very few calories during longer workouts. Through this I have found the ability to produce constant and consistent energy from burning stored body fat. What I intend to trial over the next few months, as I approach race season, is how I respond to training in a fasted state less often and consuming more calories during longer sessions. Also, preparing slightly different for certain key high intensity workouts with the food I eat, including extra carbohydrates before and during the sessions.

My hypothesis is that, provided I continue to consume a majority low carbohydrate, moderate protein, higher healthy fat, real food diet, practice moderate intermittent fasting and do occasional workouts in a fasted state, I will have no problem maintaining my ability to burn body fat efficiently for energy. Then, by determining what and when to eat carbohydrates during longer and/or more intense sessions, those workouts will be more progressive towards their purpose and I will have greater success at increasing speed on race day. This is particularly important for the upcoming season as I will include several short course events and I need to develop my top end speed significantly.

As I have discovered, fueling with fat from food and stored body fat is highly effective in long distance, endurance events. When you are fat-adapted you are far less likely, if ever, to ‘hit the wall’ – whereby your muscles are depleted of glycogen and can’t access any other energy source – because your body has so much energy in reserve in body fat to draw from and supply your muscles.

Fueling high intensity training and short distance races can be a different kettle of fish. I believe that for producing very high intensity efforts and production of maximum force/power/speed during a short period of time, carbohydrates are necessary. Carbohydrates provide the quickest source of energy to the working muscles, as they are absorbed into the bloodstream faster for use as blood glucose. However, it will only be the appropriate use of carbohydrates that will provide benefits. Excessive use could potentially inhibit performance as my body may resort back to a greater reliance on sugar/carbohydrate ingestion for continued, longer term energy output.

I have no doubt that a low carbohydrate, moderate protein, higher healthy fat lifestyle consisting of real, natural foods is very important for everyone whether you exercise a lot, in small amounts or not at all. Combine this with some intermittent fasting and I see it being the most effective lifestyle for obtaining and maintaining optimal health and weight control. Also, there has been a massive amount of people over time, including many triathletes, who have suffered because of an overconsumption of refined and/or processed carbohydrates. This has resulted in those people suffering a range of ailments including poor control of weight and appetite, big fluctuations in energy due to the blood glucose/insulin rollercoaster and poor recovery due to increased inflammation. Therefore, I understand the importance of not abusing carbohydrate consumption and using them appropriately to maximise training and racing gains.

Expectations

The quality and timing of those carbohydrates is highly important with the main sources being fruit and sweet potato. I may use fruit during workouts and races in their whole form or as purees that I prepare myself and coconut water too. Previously, I have eaten some sort of fruit everyday and sweet potato a couple of times per week; my new regime will be an increase on that.

Occasionally, I will do high intensity sessions in a fasted state because I might be doing it very early in the morning and/or to maintain my fat burning ability at those intensities. I know I often feel very good when I train first thing in the morning and have great energy throughout, therefore, I don’t particularly need anything to have a great workout, provided I am properly hydrated.

My intake during a race, I anticipate, won’t accumulate to be a very high quantity of calories compared to what I used to consume and what many athletes currently do. For example, when I competed at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Mont-Tremblant, Canada, I consumed approximately 1200 calories during that event. Then, only five months later, after becoming fat-adapted, I raced Challenge Melbourne over the same distance. In that race, I consumed less than 600 calories while producing a personal best bike split for 90km, feeling great for the entire run and coming home like a freight train in the last 5km. This improvement was all down to the fact that my body had become so much more efficient at producing energy because I was consuming a lot of fresh, real foods and less processed and refined foods on a daily basis. I had also changed to a low carb, moderate protein, higher fat intake which allowed my body to become very efficient at producing energy from stored body fat as well.

It is very important to understand that, although I will be going back to the consumption of carbohydrates to fuel races and more of my training, it is not reverting back to a common, daily, high carbohydrate intake. Also, there will be as much emphasis as always on the consumption of high quality, nutrient dense food but in larger quantities, mainly due to an increase in the amount of vegetables and fruit that I will eat.

The benefit of hindsight

Over the past couple of months, I have realised that I may have been functioning in a calorie deficit much of the time during last season, and this may have been the main factor in my sub-par half-ironman performances. On a very regular basis I was performing training sessions first thing in the morning in a fasted state. Also, I did many longer workouts, up to 3 hours, only consuming water and no calories. I would always refuel very well afterwards and I would be well fuelled prior if I was training later in the day but I was very focused on developing my fat burning capabilities in preparation for the Ironman, in May, and I possibly took it too far. I know that it worked for the Ironman as I was so used to doing a steady state effort for a long time relying on body fat for energy but, in hindsight, I may not have used my intermittent fasting as best as I could in an overall approach to my entire lifestyle.

For many months, I almost never consumed any food within the first three hours of the day. I would always have about 500mls of water and usually a coffee when I got up but I didn’t have breakfast until after training or after being up for several hours. Usually, I didn’t feel hungry until then. If I was working an early shift I might not have eaten for the entire shift and then have my first meal when I got home at lunchtime. My reasoning behind this was it would help me to be as fat-adapted as possible. I would eat large meals of nutrient dense foods and, usually, only do so in an approximate 8 hour window each day. Therefore, I knew I wouldn’t be overeating so I would be in control of how much I consumed and I assumed it was more than adequate for my energy needs. As it turns out, I may not have been consuming quite enough to properly combine with my training and, therefore, I was putting my body under unnecessary stress, to a degree, which likely contributed to the episodes of fatigue and illness which seemed to happen a little too often.

I must point out to you that what I was doing is not necessarily the wrong approach. In fact, I think the above mentioned approach would be a terrific strategy for more sedentary people to use several days per week while ensuring the food eaten is of a high quality. However, for someone who is trying to train 10 – 14 hours a week while spending time with a young family, aiming to get eight hours sleep a night and working a full-time shift work job, it appears this wasn’t appropriate for me. For that reason, I am changing my eating structure to be more suitable for supporting my training load as part of an overall strategy towards balancing life as well as possible. I thought I was doing this previously but my race results suggest otherwise.

A few changes

I began changing things approximately six weeks ago and I have been feeling really good for it. Here is what I have already started to implement:-

Ø  Large, green smoothies some days which usually contains approximately 700mls of fluid (combination of water and coconut water), two bananas, two large handfuls of spinach, half an avocado, another fruit such as one apple, some berries or two kiwi fruits, half a tablespoon of coconut oil, one or two eggs and a teaspoon of maca powder. Sometimes, when I make it the night before to take on an early shift, I will add a tablespoon of chia seeds and flaxseed meal which gives them time to soak up some moisture and make it a bit thicker and filling. This is such an easy way to get in fluid and nutrients quickly with little preparation time so it’s a terrific breakfast or post workout option.

Ø  Eating more often – I am eating up to five times per day and about half of the time I have breakfast within about two hours of getting up in the morning. Again, this is dependent on what training I have done or am going to do that day. I still always start the day with a big drink of water and a coffee before I decide what I will do for breakfast and how soon I will have it. This means I am consuming slightly more food and calories per day than I was before and I have found that I am drinking more water overall with this greater food intake.

Ø  The type of food is as important as ever – lots of vegetables and salad, the majority of which are non-starchy. Fruit, eggs, meat, chicken, fish, nuts and seeds and small amounts of dairy. Also, I have other fats from olive oil and coconut products like coconut oil, coconut cream and coconut milk. However, the quantities of each of those groups has shifted towards more vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds as an overall approach towards eating more plant foods.

Ø  My dairy intake has decreased – I use butter when cooking eggs in the pan but cream and cheese have become almost non-existent over the past month. Milk is limited to a dash in my coffee or tea. This has been a conscious decision as I am beginning to lean towards dairy not being necessary and if I was to eliminate dairy altogether I honestly don’t think I would be missing out on anything because I am replacing it with more vegetables. I have heard the point made several times that ‘cow’s milk is made for baby cows, not humans’ which seems fair enough to me. It may be the simplest explanation for why plenty of humans don’t digest it well. I don’t believe I have a problem with digesting dairy but if I decide not to have it all, it won’t be any loss nutritionally. Also, although I am not vegan or vegetarian, I have recently felt much more sympathetic towards dairy cows because, in order for them to supply us with milk, they have their calves taken away from them almost immediately after giving birth. I think becoming a father has contributed to these feelings arising and I must say that it seems a very sad scenario.

Ø  My fat intake is still up there through consumption of quality meats and fish, nuts and seeds, coconut oil/milk/cream, olive oil, eggs and avocados. Eggs will remain a regular item and I am consuming wild caught fish more often and other meats less often. Fish has not been very prominent in my diet recently but through the convenience of wild caught sardines in a can I am changing that. Whenever possible I will consume other species of wild caught fish too.

Ø  Less fasting – Instead of fasting until late morning or lunchtime most days, as I was before, I now only do it once or twice a week and it is dependent on what training I am doing that day or have done the day before. I haven’t done a 24-hour fast for a while but they will be thrown in the mix from time-to-time. Essentially, I will be looking to achieve a much better balance of fasting days to regular days to use it more effectively. Training on an empty stomach first thing in the morning will still be semi-regular which will cover the vast majority of my intermittent fasting regime. 24-hour fasts will only happen during low training, recovery periods and will be used to enhance those recovery periods as well as fat-adaptation.

Ø  No more bacon – I have decided to avoid bacon from now on. Previously, I had stuck to buying a locally produced product that a small, local grocery/café store supplied. It was the best quality I could find with almost no nasties in it and it was better than anything in the supermarket. I ate a lot of bacon in the early months of being low carb/high fat and didn’t give much thought to the quality of the bacon I was eating. Now, I understand how bad 99% of available bacon products are and the other 1% which is organic and/or free of nasty ingredients is very expensive so I just don’t care for it anymore. Instead, I will eat more plants. Essentially, bacon falls into the processed meat category, particularly when it is not in that 1% of quality products, so it is no better than cured or other deli meats and I definitely avoid those.

The changes I have mentioned above have enhanced my focus on consuming quality, nutrient dense, natural foods. This goes beyond looking purely at the macronutrient breakdown of fat, protein and carbohydrates. I now have the added focus of obtaining greater amounts of micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc.) through the higher consumption of fruits and vegetables.

In order to be in the best possible health to support my lifestyle and continue pushing for greater race results I must keep pursuing the best possible nutritional intake. Although knowing what is the best nutrition is an ever evolving thing for both me and the world, I’m sure we can all agree that the best possible nutritional intake will always involve the high consumption of quality vegetables. Likewise, the best possible food intake does not include processed foods, ever!

To be the healthiest version of yourself you must consume natural, nutrient dense foods all of the time. Every processed food you eat is potentially robbing you of life, causing you to be sick more than you should both short and long term. It creates unnecessary inflammation/pain in your body, increases your risk of contracting one or more of a huge number of diseases or illnesses and reduces your overall life expectancy.

Do what is best for your body and mind by only eating the best quality food and you will enjoy a lifetime of possibilities and if in doubt, just eat vegetables.

Cheers,

Lincoln.

Ironman Australia - Port Macquarie 2016

Sunday May 1, 2016.

Swim 3.8km – 1:05:56

T1 – 6:00

Bike 180km – 5:37:57

T2 – 4:58

Run 42.2km – 3:43:40

Overall time – 10:38:42

I felt much different in the lead up to this event. The pressure was off. I wasn’t racing to qualify for anything, as was the case in my two Ironman 70.3 races earlier in the season at Ballarat and Geelong. Therefore, I wasn’t thinking about what the end result needed to be. I had some general time goals but a high place finish in my age group would have just been a bonus if it turned out that way.

I would have loved to have finished in less than 10 hours, and I have no doubt that is achievable but it didn’t quite happen on this day. I’m not bothered by that at all because I really just wanted to see what I was capable of with a few more years in the sport behind me, since my previous full Ironman attempt in Melbourne three years earlier, along with now being a ‘fat-adapted’ athlete. The funny thing about comparing the two races is I did exactly the same time – 10 hours 38 minutes – in both events. However, in the Melbourne event of 2013, the swim was shortened to just 1.5km so I would say my improvement has been at least 40 minutes to adjust for the extra 2.3km of swimming I completed in Port Macquarie. I’m certainly a much stronger athlete now, both physically and mentally and this was a great indication of that.

I went into this event with clear intentions of how I would use my fat burning capabilities to fuel my day and it was a process which began well before the event. In fact, I have been preparing for this major test of my fat burning ability for more than a year by doing much of my training in a fasted state as well as performing many long sessions, up to three hours, consuming only water. In the 10 weeks of specific training I did for this event I ensured this was a focus whereby I only consumed calories in my longest rides of more than three hours. Even then it was only in the way of real food and normally not until about two hours into the ride did I start to consume them.

During my taper period of approximately two and a half weeks I maintained a very low carbohydrate, high fat intake. Each day, I focused on consuming a lot of non-starchy vegetables, 3 – 5 eggs from genuine free-range pasture raised chickens, nuts, seeds, avocado, kombucha, fermented vegetables and bone broth. I alternated between grass-fed red meats, high quality pork and fish with other meals. I cooked in coconut oil and butter along with plenty of spices, pink Himalayan salt and black pepper. I added cheese to some things and had small amounts of fruit usually mixed with nuts and pure cream.

As well as the training done in a fasted state and the low carbohydrate, high fat eating, I performed intermittent fasting which would consist of not eating my first meal of the day until approximately 3 – 8 hours after getting up. It all depended on when I was training and/or working but I would be intermittent fasting to some degree every day to maintain my body’s ability to burn fat for energy with ease. This definitely worked.

The day before the race was no different. I didn’t eat bigger quantities to saturate my body with extra calories and I definitely didn’t ‘carbo-load’. I ate the foods that I was used to that I knew would provide me with necessary nutrients.

On this day, after a coffee (long black with a dash of milk) and a light ride in the morning I had my vegetable-scramble which started with sautéing some silverbeet, mushrooms, capsicum, and spinach in coconut oil. Then, I added a large knob of plain butter (about one heaped tablespoon) and when just melted, added 4 beaten eggs. I sprinkled over about a teaspoon of ground turmeric and a generous amount of pink salt and cracked pepper then stirred through gently until the eggs scrambled and everything was combined. When on the plate, I grated some full-fat cheese over top and added half an avocado for some extra fat and goodness.

After this nourishing breakfast I went and did the necessary racking of my bike in transition and dropped off my transition gear bags for the race. A little later I enjoyed some banana and blackberries with some almonds and macadamias. I topped it with about two tablespoons of pure cream and added some cinnamon and maca powder. My pre-race dinner, at about 6:00pm, was a tin of sardines followed by a large plate of steamed vegetables consisting of broccoli, green beans, cauliflower and carrot with a knob of butter melted through and plenty of pink salt.

Finally, I finished off my ‘fat-loading’ for the race with a special dessert drink. In a pot on the stove I heated up one 270ml can of coconut cream and a heaped teaspoon of coconut oil. I then added a teaspoon each of cinnamon, maca powder and turmeric and stirred through. It was delicious and nourishing.

On race morning, despite only getting about 5 hours sleep, I felt good when I got up at 4:00am. I knew my race start time would be about 6:45am, due to the self-seeding, rolling start format. This meant if I was going to eat breakfast I would need to do it straight away to allow enough time to digest before swimming. But, I didn’t feel hungry at all. This is very normal for me so I just had a big drink of water and a coffee, prepared my drink bottles for the day and made my way to transition to get my bike sorted. I then walked back to the accommodation and did some stretching before applying some zinc and getting my wetsuit on. I still didn’t feel hungry, my energy was great and my digestive system was feeling light and comfortable aided by the normal race morning toilet stop. I sipped more water in the last hour before the race start and I felt as energetic as ever prior to beginning the race.

My energy never subsided throughout the swim and I kept a consistent pace while trying to maintain technique and as low a heart rate as possible. I tried to stay on the feet of faster swimmers who passed by and gain any advantage I could when the opportunity presented itself. I was very satisfied when I exited the water. I hit my goal time and I hadn’t used up much energy. It was a great start to the day.

I didn’t rush through transition. I made sure I had everything I needed, made a quick toilet stop and jogged to my bike. Keeping my heart rate under control all day was essential to being as comfortable as possible and maintaining a consistent flow of energy for the duration of the race. As I jumped on my bike I felt in a good place both physically and mentally.

The bike course in Port Macquarie is notorious for rough and undulating roads. The main undulations are within the first and last 10km of each 90km lap but the rough roads are scattered throughout. The worst of those undulations is a very steep climb about 10km before the end of each lap known as ‘Matthew Flinders Hill.’ It is only about 300 metres long but as steep as 20% gradient for much of it. I saw plenty of guys busting their butts to get to the top as quickly as possible and it’s hard not to when you’ve got the crowd there who devote their day to cheering the athletes up the hill. However, my approach was to get to the top with as little effort as possible to preserve my strength for later on. I went into my lightest gear – 39-tooth front chain ring and 26-tooth on the rear – and climbed the hill standing out of the saddle and staying mostly upright to use my body weight to push the pedals as opposed to trying to muscle it up the incline while seated or leaning forward. I felt this worked very well and I wasn’t smashed when I got to the top so I was able to easily change back up the gears and continue on my way comfortably.

Unfortunately, despite feeling physically and mentally good as I went onto the second lap of the bike, the weather changed significantly. I completed the first 90km bike lap in 2 hours 38 minutes which I was wrapped with as I had ridden conservatively. I was spot on my target pace but that was before the wind and rain moved in. The wind wasn’t a huge factor in going slower on the second lap but the rain definitely was. I needed to take a lot of corners extra slow and start braking a lot sooner as I approached them because my brakes weren’t quite as effective with the moisture. The other problem it caused was fogging up my sunglasses quite badly but when I took them off the rain kept hitting me in the eyes making me squint so I could barely see anyway. I decided to keep my glasses on but the foggy vision made it very difficult to see what the road was like ahead with bumps or potholes, etc. I certainly hit a few which didn’t help my rhythm at all. I ended up completing the second lap in 2 hours 59 minutes but I rolled into transition feeling pretty good considering the almost seven hours of racing so far.

My nutrition during the bike leg was very important to my day and what I was looking to put to the test. I was carrying with me two small bananas and 6 ‘fat gels’ which contained predominantly coconut oil and butter with a few other natural ingredients for a beautiful flavour. I didn’t consume my first fat gel until about 45 minutes into the ride which was almost two hours into the race. This was approximately 14 hours since I had last eaten (dinner the night before) but at no point before that did I feel I needed to consume any calories. In fact, I could have kept going longer before I started eating but I decided I would begin my steady consumption of calories at that point as a preparation for the marathon to come. For the remaining five hours on the bike I consumed five fat gels and the two bananas. The last thing I had was a fat gel with about 20 minutes to go before transition which was a good amount of time to digest it before running.

My fluid intake consisted of the two bottles I carried on my bike which had half coconut water and half plain water with some pink salt. I sipped from these throughout the bike leg and at each aid station that I passed on course I grabbed a bottle of water and took a good drink before discarding it. I took in approximately 4 litres of fluid during the bike leg and I was happy with how I felt both physically and digestively.

Again, I took my time in transition. I used the toilet and didn’t rush trying to wrestle off my rain soaked cycling jersey and socks because I knew it wouldn’t be an easy process. I made sure I was comfortable in my run gear before I headed out, minus my sunglasses which I decided weren’t any use in the dull afternoon weather.

The run is where my fat-adaptation was really going to be tested. In the build up to the race I had done several long runs of more than two hours where I only consumed water and the most recent was just two weeks prior where I ran 30km in 2 hours and 45 minutes. This long run was also done in a fasted state pre-breakfast. My plan for this marathon was to get through the first 30km on water alone and from there I would do what was necessary to continue onto the finish. One other goal I had at the start of the marathon was to ensure I ran continuously for at least the first half-marathon. This turned into the first 30km because once I reached the half way point I knew I could keep going so I decided I must get to that point. My pace and energy flow were consistent and my legs were more or less cooperating with my requests.

When I reached an aid station at the 30km mark I walked through it, about 100 metres, and took a bite of some watermelon to get a flavour hit. I chose the watermelon over banana because I knew the calories would be negligible as it obviously contains plenty of water and I knew it would be much easier on my digestive system. I had a drink of water too and then got back to running. For the remainder of the run I walked through one more aid station and had a couple of mouthfuls of the electrolyte drink provided. Again, more for the flavour as it wasn’t enough to contain any significant amount of calories or electrolytes for that matter. The rest of the time I continued to take on water each time I went through an aid station.

There is one significant uphill section on the run course. It is about 200-300 metres long and you have to go up it four times being that the run course is made up of four laps. The third time going up it I was able to stop to give my wife, Mel, a quick kiss and explain what I would like for dinner. On the final time up the hill I walked about the first 100 metres and had a chat to my mum as I did. In the end, I estimate that I was running for a minimum of 41.5km, and probably closer to 42km, out of the 42.2km marathon distance.

Overall, I was very happy with how I paced my run. It wasn’t based on maintaining any particular speed. Instead, I was maintaining a pace where I could breathe reasonably comfortable and hold strong technique while moving forward consistently. I did just that and, although my muscles were gradually being zapped of their strength, I was able to maintain a consistent stride and cadence, despite the puddles and mud, and a constant flow of energy through fat burning.

In the last couple of kilometres of the run, as my race finish drew very near, I felt this great sense of satisfaction and happiness come over me. I began to assess the outcome of my day and understand that I had achieved so much of what I set out to do. As I past the last two aid stations I thanked and applauded the volunteers with great delight. It’s one thing to be out there racing in such conditions but to be out there purely to assist others is truly generous. They deserved all the thanks they were given.

As I entered the finish chute I heard the cheers of my wife and mum along the barrier and I was able to stop and give them, and my son, Joshua, a hug. It was a very happy moment to see them after such a big day. Then, I continued down the chute towards the finish line, took a quick look over my shoulder to see if any other competitors were coming and, when I saw there wasn’t anyone, I knew I could soak up the atmosphere a little bit more. So, I applauded with thanks to the crowd, smiled from ear to ear and crossed the line with my arms raised high as Mike Reilly, the voice of Ironman, proclaimed to me, ‘You are an Ironman’.

It was a great day, in a stunning location, with amazing support from the local community. I highly recommend participating in this event and it doesn’t have to be the full Ironman because they run a 70.3 (half-Ironman) there as well which, on this occasion, was on the same day. Either way, you would love the experience.

Here ends another successful chapter in my development as a fat-adapted, low-carb athlete. At this stage, I won’t be doing another full ironman event in the foreseeable future as I would like to focus on sprint distance, standard distance (a.k.a: Olympic distance) and half-ironman in the coming seasons. The main reason for this is the world championships for both standard and sprint distance will be held on the Gold Coast in 2018. In order to give myself the best chance of qualifying I will go back to short course racing next season to hone my speed in preparation for the qualifying period during the following 2017/18 season. I will continue to do some half-ironman races purely because I enjoy that distance and I think I am most suited to that type of race. However, I am very interested to see how focusing on short course racing will affect my half-ironman events. I dare say it will only benefit my long course racing after hardly doing any short races in the past four years or so.

As with every race, I try to dissect my preparation for the event and decide where I can improve. It is no different after this Ironman event and I very much look forward to implementing my proposed changes as I get back to training now that seven weeks have passed and I feel properly recovered from the race. I will bring you the details of those changes in the near future.

I hope this piece has helped to illustrate that you don’t need mainstream sugar-based sports nutrition products to do endurance events. The most important thing is consuming the highest quality, nutrient dense nutrition all of the time so that your body can do what it is designed to.

Cheers,

Lincoln.

Psyched Out - Ironman 70.3 Geelong.

I don’t remember ever having a race, no matter the length, in which I felt I couldn’t push myself to the extent that I expect. Even if, during the race, I know I am not going to get the result I am aiming for, I can usually push myself to get as much as possible out of my body on a given day. However, during Ironman 70.3 Geelong, four weeks ago, I learned about the vital role that a healthy mind will play in the process of pushing your body to its physical limits. 

The race didn’t turn out how I had hoped and I didn’t fulfill my main objective of qualifying for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships, to be held in Queensland later this year. 

My overall time was 4:44:11. 

My splits were:- 

Swim 1.9km – 30:29 (a new PB for the swim leg). 

T1 – 2:54. 

Bike 90km – 2:26:55. 

T2 – 1:37. 

Run 21.1km – 1:42:16. 

It was very pleasing to start the day with a new PB for the 1.9km swim and I was heading out on the bike with very high hopes that this trend would continue. Initially, the ride seemed to be going along the way I expected it to but on the second of the two 45km laps, I felt like I was labouring more than is normal and I found myself getting easily frustrated with this, particularly in areas with rougher road surfaces and slight headwinds. The weather was excellent for racing so the wind wasn’t that strong and I couldn’t blame the conditions for feeling bad.  

Although, it’s expected that it will feel harder to pedal on rough roads and/or into headwinds, it was more than that. It was an emotional sensation as I felt I was tiring quicker than normal. A sense of disheartenment which made me want to grown and sigh as I attempted to maintain forward momentum at a reasonable speed. Despite this, I kept telling myself “c’mon, just keep going. Stay consistent”. 

After checking my watch as I completed the swim, I didn’t look at it again until I had put on my running shoes after racking my bike. It was showing 3 hours and 1 minute which was about 10 minutes later than where I really hoped to be and 5 minutes more than where I felt I should have been as a worst case. Initially, I said to myself, “just bury yourself to get a PB run”, because a PB run would have resulted in an overall time around 4 hours 25 minutes and that would have been satisfactory. However, within the first kilometre of running I felt very off but it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary in terms of my physical feelings. My legs felt heavy just as they have at the same point in any other race, which is pretty uncomfortable, but this was different. Something was definitely wrong. Instead of psyching myself up to push on and push my limits no matter how hard, I felt stagnant. My body was somewhat willing but my mind wasn’t going to allow it. 

Throughout the duration of the 21.1km run, I felt more and more emotionally unstable. The run had started badly and progressively got worse. I was on auto-pilot turning my legs over in order to make it to the finish line and it even briefly crossed my mind to pull out of the race altogether. In the last 10km I actually walked through most of the drink stations as I took on water and used it as an excuse to rest. The only drink stations I didn’t walk through were the ones where the most people were watching and where I had seen my family. Somehow I could force myself to keep going through those stations for fear of embarrassment but I couldn’t get myself to go harder in pursuit of my goal. This is not like me at all because I am so determined to push myself to improve in this sport and try and win an event one day. What was going on?  

The realisation that it was all psychological didn’t come until about a week and half after the race. In the couple of months before that I had increasingly become very anxious and was experiencing symptoms of depression. In that time I had been getting very frustrated with my job. Nothing had really changed at work because I still worked the same type of rotating shifts which contains a wide variety of start and finish times. But, for some reason, I was convinced that work was the main reason I was feeling excessively tired, making it difficult to train as desired and get the most out of sessions. There had been a couple of issues/incidents at work which I seemed to take badly when normally they wouldn’t worry me for very long at all. However, they turned into just another reason to hate going to work. 

Then, I was struggling to sleep well, sometimes taking a very long time to get to sleep and if I woke up during the night it was often hard to get back to sleep. I was thinking a lot about whether or not I want to continue doing this job because of the lifestyle and maybe I should look very seriously at going back to a career in health and fitness. However, the very reason why I am in this job – for those who don’t know I work in a public transport customer service role – is that the fitness industry is notoriously unstable and difficult to make a good living without many years of establishing yourself. However, my current job is very stable, secure, well paid and I am good at it. I get to help people every day and never have to keep working when I get home. My passion lies in the world of health, fitness and triathlon but I still get to enjoy that on a daily basis in a variety of ways, not the least being through this blog. 

Along with my work related stress, I was constantly feeling like I didn’t have enough time to do everything including spending time with my wife and son, training enough to satisfy my preparation for races and preparing good meals. It was as if, out of nowhere, I had so much piling up on me and I didn’t know how to fix it. I was getting terribly frustrated with what I believed was unnecessary pressure from all angles. Truth be told, there was no added pressure on me. I just perceived it that way but why were things feeling different all of a sudden? How did it come to this? Why can’t I just do what I want and everyone else just deals with it? 

But, what exactly did I want and what did I actually need? I started to try and convince myself of what I thought I needed to feel better again. This included finding the perfect, secure job where I worked in health/fitness/triathlon coaching or perhaps a bike shop that still paid well enough to get by. I needed a new bike, I needed to be able to train when I wanted to so I could ensure I was doing everything I could to get better, I needed to be able to prioritise sleep however I needed because of my weird shifts, I needed to race more and I just needed everyone else to understand what I need. However, even I knew that I was only thinking of myself despite believing I was trying my hardest to give time and priority to others too. But, I couldn’t get these thoughts out of my head. I kept dwelling on them and wondering how on earth I am going to get back to normal without being selfish. 

These feelings built up over a couple of months. I can’t recall a specific point where things started to weigh on me but my suspicion is that it was probably at a time where there was a combination of the following;-  

• A string of very early shifts at work whereby I struggled with sleep deprivation. 

• The sleep deprivation effected the quality of my training at, what I felt was, a very important time in my build up to racing.  
• The sleep deprivation had a big impact on the quality of time I spent with my family. I was grumpy and worrying about not being able to sleep properly or train well. 
• Some incidents at work had made me feel very anxious about being there. 

From then on, I began to feel like everything was against me and nothing seemed to be improving. I felt like I was in a hole I couldn’t get out of and I couldn’t even imagine the future where things would be good again. I was desperate to do something about it but I couldn’t figure out what I should do. The things mentioned earlier which I thought I needed to be happy were all about me and I was hardly considering anyone else. I knew this and it contributed greatly to my negative mental trajectory as I was viewing myself as a bad person. But, the other big point not yet mentioned is that I was doing all of this inside my own head and hiding it from everyone else. All everyone else saw was a grumpy Lincoln who just wanted to do his training, eat his healthy food, get more sleep and not be bothered about it. But, I was blind to this. 

I wasn’t talking to my wife about this, discussing our life and working on finding a better balance together. I wasn’t looking to find what I could do for her and our son. I wasn’t using professional help which I have used before and know that it helps me. In fact, I had put off sourcing those services on several occasions over the last year as I had gone through brief patches like this before. I was waiting for everything to work out on its own, like magic, so I wouldn’t have to do anything. Previously, I hadn’t been doing anything and just kept thinking ‘it’ll be Ok soon.’ In retrospect, it was never actually Ok, it just became less obvious.  

Without talking about these issues when they were most present, I never dealt with them properly. Fortunately, this time, I talked about it. I talked to my wife a lot and did several sessions with a psychologist who helped me to understand better communication and different personalities, among other things. The first session was a few days before the Geelong race and weekly thereafter. During the second week after the race, I had my third session, and my wife and I had been having some very productive discussions at home and putting some new plans into action. It was at this time that everything seemed to turn around. Suddenly, I had my energy back. I noticed it during training because I could feel the extra spring in my step/pedal stroke/swim stroke which had been lacking for so long. I felt motivated to read more and get back to regularly writing blog posts. But, importantly, I was fully determined to balance my life better to ensure that I truly make time for my family and enjoy life with them as well as satisfying my personal interests. 

It was an incredible feeling. Almost like an epiphany. I felt like I had found what I was looking for all along and it wasn’t what I expected. All of those other things I was thinking I needed were simply things I would like to have. Some more than others and for different reasons but none of them were going to truly change how I was feeling at this time.  

It turns out I just needed to communicate better with those closest to me. By holding it in and running things through my own head over and over, I was compounding the problem and this time it came with the added reaction of inferior race performance. The return of my energy allowed me to see what I had been lacking for weeks, possibly months. I had been battling these demons alone, unnecessarily, and it was sucking the energy out of me. 

A further two weeks on from that point where things seemed to move in a positive direction, life feels as good as ever. I don’t feel pressed for time and I feel like I’m achieving much more on a daily basis including some wonderful quality time with my family. Also, training is slotting into life quite nicely and the quality of training has been excellent.  

Training is now focused on Ironman Port Macquarie on May 1 and it has started very well. I will write a separate blog post in the near future about how I am approaching that race but for now I am glad to be enjoying life again and all that is wonderful about it.  

It must be said that I am very disappointed about what happened in Geelong, mostly because I have missed my chance to qualify for the first 70.3 World Championships to be held in Australia. Although, I am still in with a tiny chance of receiving a spot in the event via a lottery system, I won’t be holding my breath on that because I won’t find out until July anyway. So, I will focus on the Ironman eight weeks from now and look forward to developing myself further as a triathlete in the future. Along with this, I will remain very focused on maintaining and further developing my balance in life. 

Although, I’m not certain how things went downhill so quickly, I remember how bad it felt and the early signs that I can keep an eye out for in the future. This will be essential in avoiding such events again but I am sure they will come up from time-to-time and it will be of high importance to recognise them for the benefit of training and racing. I now have a new factor to consider for performance which I hadn’t considered much previously and it can play as big a role as any training session might. 

Cheers, 

Lincoln.