One of the biggest challenges of my #OldDogNewTricks year of adventure is project management! For the first three adventures, I’ve had to prepare for each simultaneously: I started preparing for my musical theatre adventure, my track adventure (400m/800m) and powerlifting adventure in January.

Whilst my musical theatre adventure was done and dusted in April, my first track adventure takes place this weekend (9 June). All well and good, you might think 😉 .However, the small spanner in the works is that I’m less than 7 weeks out from the rookie powerlifting competition. This has meant that getting ready for my upcoming track races (including the NI Masters Champs at the end of June) is clashing head on with an increasingly heavy (literally 😂) powerlifting training load.

Result? I’m whacked. To be more precise, I’m REALLY whacked during the first week of every new powerlifting mesocycle. (Each mesocycle is a 4-week schedule with a very heavy first week, a moderate second week, a heavy third week , and a light fourth or de-load week). I’ve just come to the end of the first week of a new cycle, so I’m definitely feeling it a bit. With my first track races this weekend, I’m getting in as much recovery as I can. Basically, this means as much sleep as I can take (which is about 10 hours at the moment: 9 hours at night and 30-60 minutes kip late afternoon if I’m working from home). It also means as much food as I can take (which is 4000 – 5000 calories a day at the moment); and it means a strategic lightening of the training load (which means that I’ve front-loaded my moderate powerlifting week so all my lifts will be done by tomorrow lunchtime. It also means a slightly lighter run load).

On top of the physical training load is the psychological training load. Last week I learned how to get out of the blocks and got some track experience in my spikes to build a little racing confidence. This took a huge psychological weight off my mind. On Sunday, I’ll be focusing on enjoying the experience and getting a feel for what an athletics meet is really like: all useful for ‘peaking’ at the NI Masters Championships at the end of June 😎. (Listen, if you’re reading this and you’re competing at the Masters T&F Championships in Belfast at the end of June, don’t worry. My peak will be nothing like your peak: I just want to get off that track alive 🤣 ! And without getting disqualified 😱)

Psychological preparations have also started for the rookie powerlifting competition. Paul Cullen, my powerlifting coach (who holds two current weightlifting world records: behind- the- head military press and push press from the rack), ran an evening seminar for CrossFit Causeway lifters competing in the July competition. During this session, the five of us who are going to compete learned all about platform etiquette, how to work out what to go for for the three attempts at each lift, what the commands are for each lift, warm-up etiquette, weigh-in protocols and how you know whether you ‘got’ the lift. There’ll be three judges on the platform and what competitors will be hoping for is three white lights (and a minimum of two).

Knowing how things will work on the day helps me to stop worrying about all the things I don’t know (because I have a better sense of those things now) and put all that energy into training. Being prepared suits me 🙂 . Being inspired also helps me with my preparations. And last Friday Gail (my powerlifting training buddy) and I got a surprise mega-dose of inspiration after our CrossFit workout.

Northern Irish powerlifting legends Ricky Mullan and Eugene Currie popped into the box to train. Gail and I were thrilled when they took a bit of time out and had a chat with us. Gail got some top tips about tightening her belt and her wrist wraps (and, let me tell you, those things aren’t comfortable! My belt bruises my ribs every time I wear it 😱). When Ricky said I was probably a good deadlifter, it was really lovely to feel a sense of ‘belonging’ to the powerlifting community. To look at me, you might not take me for a powerlifter at all – and yet here was a great powerlifter ‘seeing’ the powerlifter in me. His words really helped to make me start to take myself more seriously as a lifter – and to feel more possibility too.  (I have pretty long everything, which isn’t that great for bench-pressing or back-squatting. Here’s an interesting wee factoid: my arms are actually as long as Gail’s legs! My old-lady back squats are improving, thanks to my knee sleeves which really help my old-lady knees 😉 But my super-long arms and super-long back are just perfect for deadlifting. )

So, here I am with 5 months of training under my belt. I’m running faster. I’m lifting heavier, and – most importantly of all – I’m feeling more connected to the world, and more alive, than ever before. If the world were watching me, I reckon I’d be getting 3 white lights right now!

Right. I think I need a little lie down, so I’m just going outside and may be some time 😉 . (By the way, if you’re new to my blog, you can find more out about my #OldDogNewTricks project here.)

JT 🙂