Countdown to Ironman: Week 46

Forty-six weeks to an Ironman that I'll do at age 46. How's that for synchronicity! Forty-six is a year that, according to Google searches at least, women are concerned with crow's feet, tummy tucks, anxiety and depression meds, and the onset of menopause. I don't know about you, but that sounds downright depressing! No wonder we have midlife crises. But triathlon can give us a wonderful gift - a desire to concentrate more on what our body can do than what it can't do, to look at what it's capable of and not so much what it looks like (because for sure I have crow's feet and grey hairs and all that fun stuff). So, forty-six. Is it an age at which you could expect to feel at your peak, mentally and physically? I'm hoping the answer is yes.


It's hard to believe, but at age 45 my body feels fitter, stronger, and healthier than it ever has. It's not the lightest it's ever been in my adult life (thank you anorexia, I don't want to go there again). Nor is it the heaviest (I always did tend to gain a *lot* of weight when pregnant) but it feels like I can ask it to do almost anything and it responds willingly. It sleeps well and trains hard, it craves healthy food and feels mentally alert and creative.

This last weekend saw me do about a 70.3's worth of training. Three miles of swimming, 57 of biking, and 12 miles of trail running over two days. Considering that I took a fair bit of time off of training to heal my arm, it all feels fairly easy and I'm not sore or overly tired. I think I can comfortably lay a good base down this winter for my Ironman specific training. Now that my kids are older, I can train a bit more than I did last time and hopefully feel even better prepared than I was for the first.

Paleo-style training nutrition this weekend included my Banana-coconut custard, some fruit leather for the trail run and bike, and my chia gel before my swim. At-home meals were grass-fed hamburgers and salad, shrimp-veggie stir fry, and chicken masala.