It's been a while since the last proper update, so there's a lot in this one: how training's actually gone since that weekend together, a first off-road triathlon, a PB that wasn't even planned, and - the bit I didn't expect to find genuinely interesting - a full DNA gut map lined up against a blood panel.
Xterra at Weston Park
First off-road triathlon for me, at Weston Park in Staffordshire - part of a build toward 70.3 Bolton five weeks out at the time, so the whole point was a hard training day with zero pressure on times or splits, not a goal race. New off-road shoes, a recce lap of the bike course the day before (glad I did, a couple of properly gnarly sections), and an 18.5°C lake that felt a lot less intimidating once I was actually in it.
Swim was murky with a lot of weed, but a solid effort either way. Bike had some tough climbing on the second loop. The run is where it came together - picking people off in the final few kilometres as the sun came out, a proper sprint finish, and a hug for my mum at the line. Just under three hours, second overall, first in my age group. Genuinely one of the better days I've had on a course.
What training's looked like since
The honest version: mostly consistent, with one real setback. A scrape on the mountain bike cost me a few days off and knocked my confidence more than my body, but I bounced back into a 14-hour week not long after. We've since moved into actual VO2 max work for the first time, having spent the block before this one just building tolerance to handle it.
The one that genuinely surprised me was a half marathon PB - 1:27 - run purely on feel during a normal training week, no taper, no prescription, just told to go and see how it felt. What mattered more to Andy than the time was that my HRV didn't drop afterwards, which meant it hadn't cost me anything I'd need to recover from.
The DNA gut map
This is the part I didn't expect to find this interesting. Working with a naturopath on Andy's team, we matched a DNA gut/genetic panel against my blood results from March. Celiac, IBS, and leaky-gut markers all came back clean, and so did the genetic markers around obesity and type 2 diabetes risk. Stress and cortisol handling: green. Sleep, melatonin, and circadian rhythm: green.
The one that actually changes something: I carry a variant in a vitamin D transporter gene, which means I need meaningfully more of it than most people to reach the same level in my blood - not a deficiency exactly, more that my body doesn't move it around as efficiently. That ties into zinc (hard to measure directly, but likely low through March), and into cholesterol, which came back slightly off despite otherwise very clean genetics and a good diet - something we're addressing with more soy lecithin rather than reaching for medication. Caffeine: I metabolise it fast, which explains why I've never needed much of it. The genuine green light was the power-and-endurance marker - reassuring, if nothing I didn't already suspect.
The one red flag was connective tissue and injury risk - some laxity around the ankles. Nothing's actually gone wrong there, but it's now something to factor into recovery. Andy's also flagged my HRV as lower than he'd like since we started tracking it properly, which is the next thing on the list to work on.
The blood panel itself
Thyroid and cortisol both checked out. Cholesterol ratio, magnesium, red blood cell count and triglycerides all came back good. Vitamin D was low side of optimal even with winter supplementation - which the gut map explains. The plan from here: more magnesium at night, more vitamin D, soy lecithin for the cholesterol, and fine-tuning the omega-3s with more flaxseed, walnuts, and whole grains. We'll retest at the end of July, before Tallinn.
What's next
Another VO2 max block this week, building toward 70.3 Bolton next month as the real test of where the fitness actually is - then it's all pointed at Ironman Tallinn later in the year. Not a qualification attempt, just the proper test of everything this year's been building toward.
