Ok so after 3 weeks of cake, I am finally done! 3 weeks is a bit too long for losing 1kg, so clearly I enjoyed it a little too much…! It could also be that as I’m nearing a low weight, the weight loss rate slows down a bit, but I think it’s safe to blame those baked goods for the slow progress.

On the plus side, I experienced some very good performance gains in my training, which was definitely not expected. My FTP (Functional Threshold Power on the bike) increased from 281 watts at the beginning of this project to 313 watts by last week. That’s only about 15 watts less than my all time best. My run also seems to be in reasonable shape. My swim is not, but that is mainly because I have not been swimming at all (maybe a topic for another post?).  Anyway all this performance improvement is a good thing, and I would certainly always give up rapid weight loss if it means my performance will increase. But as I’ve said before, it’s best to focus on one or the other, I just happen to have got lucky getting a performance increase while on a weight loss project. As you can see though, weight loss was almost non existent while my performance was increasing.

So, the main project is done! But, it’s also not done, because I’m interested in seeing what happens now that I return to normal eating, with a focus on training performance. That means higher calories, with healthy foods that help to support my training and recovery. It is about time, since bizarrely I have been craving salads and vegetables!

I will also throw in some experiments along the way – at some point I really want to see if that rapid weight loss I experienced in the ice cream phase was just coincidence due to the timing of ice cream within the project, or because the calories are very predictable, or some other reason. I did not expect that at all, so it will be fun to repeat it and see what happens.

In other news, I decided today to enter Ironman Texas (which is in 2 weeks time). That will be an interesting experiment because I have not been doing any real Ironman training. Between January and April I averaged under 11 hours training per week, with only 22 miles of running per week and 150 miles of biking per week. My average swim distance is 1500 meters per WEEK!!!! That is a 10th of my “normal minimum” of 15k per week when training for an Ironman.  So, I will definitely be able to finish the race, but I’m treating it as a big training day. I will not be competitive at all. I think I will just survive the swim, I’ll do quite well on the bike, and I will do as well as I can on the run, maybe a 3:30 marathon is not out of the question. Probably closer to 3:45. So possibly an overall time of 10:15-10:30 depending on how things go. 

I’ll be doing some last minute Ironman training this week, and won’t taper at all for the race, so at least I will arrive fit(ish) but not very fresh. Either way, it will be fun to race with some friends and have a good time out in the Woodlands on April 22nd! One great discovery I made during cake phase, was Angel Food Cake, which is pure carb (both complex and simple carbs) and no fat at all, so I will be incorporating this into my carb load for sure! Plus some burgers and ice cream the day before race day – my secret weapon!!!

Also, when I get some time, I will do a post with a recap of the whole race weight project. Lately I’ve been pretty busy so I need to squeeze in the time to get that done.