Ailbhe, Team Ribble, What's watt? - A post winter update.

What's watt?!

Well, winter has been and gone and with this lush February weather on offer, it is a real treat and teaser for summer. Watt have I been up to? Well, honestly... Quite a lot. I've put down a winter's worth of training like never before. I've hit numbers on the bike, that I have never before seen. I swam just 1sec off my 1500m PB from 2011 but this time from a push, not a dive, so I reckon that puts me in good shape. And I am running weekly totals I didn't know I could back up. It's been great in terms of training and my physiology. Mentally... It's been a whirlwind. I am no stranger to honesty and telling my story and this post won't be any different. I've been through the run of the mill this winter with my mental game. It's not yet over but as training gets better, and I am starting to see some real improvements, it makes it a little easier... Kind of. OK, so here is the update. After I came home from Asia last season, I didn't take to well to the long haul flight and I seem to have just exploded, weight and body shape wise. It was almost as if I woke up one day and I was not the person who went to sleep the night before. 8kg the difference... And not in the direction I wanted it.

8kg.

That's hard to do you know. 8kg. Woah. Anyway, I started working with a nutritionist 12 weeks ago to try and get my body back on track. For 12 weeks I watched and monitored every gram of food that entered my body. The first 2 months had a focus on not actually dropping weight but maintaining it so as it give my female menstrual cycle a chance to reform a normal pattern after the season. Sadly, I have yet to see a normal pattern but small steps forward. After the first 2 months had passed I was beyond drained as to how I was expending so much energy according to my Garmin, and was in such a calorie deficit but yet I would either stay the same weight or go up on the scales. I got blood tests done to check if there were any hormone imbalances going on or if there were any answers as to what was going on. Tests all came back clear. Still no answers. All the time, I have been very aware and conscious of what is going on. As much as I try not to stress about it. I couldn't help but focus on it. My own focus on my own problems was driving my head mad. The stress of being way beyond where I wanted to be was causing and is still causing me stress. A lot of people say that when they try to drop weight they can't and when they don't think about it, it just drops off. I think I am starting to believe this little by little. At the end of the day, at the pointy end of the race, power to weight is a pretty important thing. I opened up this blog entry telling you that my numbers are better than ever before. What use is that to me though if my power to weight hasn't actually changed or has even become worse. Que the mental struggle. For now, I am focusing on what I can improve and trying to leave the food and weight to one side for a bit. I am moving back to Ireland over the coming weeks to start a new chapter and go all in, in an effort to leave no stone unturned. Stay tuned for what I hope will be an exciting journey regardless of the destination. Ailbhe x