unexpected lessons from my 5th Ironman

In August 2016 I completed my 5th Ironman at Ironman Boulder. It didn’t go as planned. I finished about 2 hours after I had hoped - I did finish though and that's always good. In my post-race analysis paralysis I actually realized two improvements to my training build that caught me by surprise.

One I thought was worth sharing and the second I want to see if others have had happen or if it was just a random one-off.

So the first is that I never got the endless Ironman training raging hunger. I kept waiting for it and it never came. I mean I was hungry but not in the urgent unpleasant way that had happened before. In the past during peak weeks I would wake up in the middle of the night to eat food, eat extra meals while I was preparing meals, I found myself frequently eating in my car on the way to do things and I was known eat other people’s food at the table.

In one particularly embarrassing moment a few years ago we were eating in a restaurant and my son yelled out, “mom, stop eating my food!”

At the time, it made me question my training intensity. Perhaps I wasn’t working as hard as I had before? That could be correct but it’s hard for me to quantify looking back. The thing that I realize in hindsight that I know I did change actually had nothing to do with triathlon. It was a change forced by my daughter changing schools and a change in our family schedule. It’s not dramatic or exciting. I was simply forced to do a better job planning our family meals. I was forced to do a better job grocery shopping and as a result of this meal planning I was eating more home cooked meals and had plenty of left overs for lunch and better snacks on hand. It’s nothing fancy but it made a pretty tremendous difference in my daily stress level when I look back. So there's the sharing point. If you plan your meals maybe you won't be as hungry. Perhaps my secret super power is grocery shopping?

The second was that I didn’t buy much of anything this time around. Yup you read that right. It stunned me too. I ordered some nutrition and had my bike tuned up. The only other thing that I remember needing to buy was some tossable water bottles. I'm curious as to whether others who have done multiple Ironman races think this was just a random one-off or whether maybe there is a point where your closet and garage become well enough stocked that you aren't buying new stuff every week?

Thoughts?