Welcome to my channel! After years of failure, injuries and balancing work & training, I am now finally giving my professional triathlon career the attention and time it deserves by going all-in. As hey, life really is too short and you never know what can happen!
My aim for this channel is to share the most creative, fun and informative videos I can to give you an honest insight into my triathlon world from the highs to the lows. So strap yourself in and thanks for joining the journey!
It really is so precious and yeah have to admit, every day feels like the best day. Odd how sometimes all you need is a little perspective and understanding of how lucky we all are! Thank you 🙏
👋 Hey team! Great to be back, and sorry for the very long absence, however the time just did not feel right to do this video... But we all need to move on and here we go! Thanks for all your support and bring on the return to racing in a few week ❤
Thanks for filling some of the blanks for us. Yes we had enough dramatic Eloise. Boring Eloise will do for the rest of 204! 😀 when do you think your first race back will be??
Fun vid as usual. It wouldn't be the same if you weren't long winded so don't change that! 😅 hopefully you finish the year out with more positive results and go into next year primed for a great year!
2023 season is a go... again! Thank you to everyone who has shown their support, got me back to a start and most importantly, kept me laughing. ♥ It really does mean the World x
Would love info on what to do when you’ve been so burnt out from training, underrating, emotional stress and experiencing chronic fatigue and other issues like digestion vision etc and not getting better for years. Is it just eating more carbs and calories and stopping training till everything heals?
Thank you for sharing. Fellow anorexia sufferer with a complex relationship with exercise. I’ve spent a lot of time being banned from any movement, but ultimately it doesn’t help me learn to manage my Ed alongside the thing im passionate about. I’ve realised recently that actually sport might be my way out. You’re really quite harsh on your unwell self, you were unwell, give your past self some love! ❤ Im hoping to do my first sprint triathlon sometime next year
Thanks for your message. Just make sure sport doesn’t keep you stuck. It can certainly help you and it did for me, you just need to ensure you can get healthy, remember sport is for fun & love vs. A need and keep fighting. ❤️ You’ve got this and one day at a time. You won’t regret it x
Sport has saved my life and still saves my life most days - but it is so hard to get that balance- I think I do need to learn that I can still be alive without it - but its hard! @@eloisedulu
What you eat is mostly sugary carbohydrates. Your insulin level is like a roller coaster all day, you might as well eat Snickers bars all day. Do you ever give your metabolism a break?
I also train 20-25hrs a week so my glucose levels are actually being regulated through exercise and ensuring I have the fuel required when I need it. Thanks for your feedback!
It's been a bit of a rollercoaster to build back after the hamstring tendon tear, but very grateful to be able to build to any start line even if the form is unknown. Thanks to everyone for the support and for Lizzie for getting me through my second full weekend of triathlon panic training ahead of race day! Hopefully see some of you at Challenge Vieux Boucau as well, let me know if you are racing!
Very interesting, as I become older I am also a bit concerned about insulin resistance and diabetes risk from high carb diets which has been shown in some athletes. Wonder if Renee has some expertise in that area as well.
I would not know, however those studies may be mainly done on men so be wary and have a look at all the details. Carbs are important for women’s hormones, as we age and if this changes I do not know.
IF YOU ARE NOT PRO DO NOT EAT THIS WAY AS YOU WOULD BE PROBABLY AT THE RANGE OF PRE DIABITIC STATE .... FIRST OF ALL QUALITY OF THE FOOD REALLY MATTERS REMEMBER OF WHAT YOU EAT IS MAKING YOU 70% OF SUCCESS 30 % IS YOUR TRAINING
Hi Mark - As I mentioned in my video every day of fuelling is different to take into consideration my training. Of course, if I didn't train that much I wouldn't eat this much, check out my rest day video to see the difference. This is also when I focus on "high quality" foods as energy density is not as essential. I would also like to add since I have adopted this way of eating - fuelling the work required, which sometimes is very energy-dense snacks, all my blood biomarkers have improved and I am no longer at risk of RED-S - so hormonally much more health too. Thanks for your comment.
Hi . I wrote that in general to the people as plenty of them is taking your side and doing exactly the same thing … It was not to criticised you at all …
As an eating disorders dietitian and sports nutritionist, for me it is absolutely wonderful to see your videos and listen to your approach to your sports nutrition. I hope the people who watch them can take your approach to their eating and relax about their diet.
Thanks for your kind comment. Means a lot as it has definitely taken a long time to realise the power of balance and what works for me is always the best way. 🙏
Hi Eloise, I am only just discovering your channel, but I would just like to thank you for this video. I am an amateur athlete, but I have struggled with anorexia athletica for many years now, resulting in a series of injuries which have increased in severity, to the extent that my current knee injury has kept me out of training for most of this year and left me facing the prospect of surgery. I too struggled with the sense that restriction and excessively 'healthy' eating would improve my athletic performance if I combined it with an increase in my training volume. However, whilst I now have the knowledge that this is fundamentally incorrect (for example, I am qualified PT although I do not work in the industry), breaking the habits and thought processes that have become engrained after so many years is immensely difficult, whilst my inability to train makes attempting to reformulate my relationship with food even harder, as I have developed the mindset that you can only eat if you exercise, rather than eating in order to fuel exercise. I would just like to thank you for this video, as I can understand how emotionally difficult it must have been to film and, for my own part, I hope that I can draw on your experience of recovery in my own life and ultimately get back to the sports that I love.
I've only just seen this comment, sorry Daniel for the very slow reply, but thank you so much for your support. I wish you the best of luck with everything you are doing and every day keep making the choices for your overall health & happiness. You can win. x
Thank you for sharing the down sides as well as the positives. As a relative newbie with no real sports background, it's very validating to hear a pro talk about DNFing, injuries, and prioritizing your health over a race result. I DNFed on my last tri and kept worrying that I'd disappointed my family by quitting. Turns out I had critically low hemoglobin and iron levels and was literally at risk of heart failure. Several hours in the ER and an IV bag of liquid iron and I was on the mend (with several more infusions ahead of me). Listening to our bodies and learning to distinguish true pain for general discomfort is so important. I truly appreciate your willingness to share openly, warts and all.
Thanks Kara for your message. I am sorry to hear about your DNF but yes, there is usually always a very valid reason for why your body is saying no. The very fact we put ourselves through training, have big goals and want to push ourselves, makes us inherently "not weak" - but as we are all human sometimes there is a right time to listen to our bodies and let the ego / pride take a back seat. Good luck with the recovery too and focus on what you can do. There will be so many great races out there once you are fully healthy and ready to go again x
Thanks for the update Eloise! Despite the injury you have already found multiple positives to take from it. Now you can heal and get stronger and prepare for either later this year or next year. Love your attitude ❤
from japanese triathlete. I often injure my leg and shoulder. thats why I want to you to up more physical care video as series. especially,dryneedling therapy and deep tissue massage.
In general, the inability to hold effort is likely either muscular and/or neurological in source. However, inability to hold effort on a single day (especially race day) is more likely stress induced metabolic changes. These can be caused by any aspect of the metabolic process. And, if that is the problem, it is NOT easily solved. Think of this problem as if it was an allergy. Until you rule out those things that do not impact your performance, you can't find the element(s) that do negatively impact your performance. And, that trial and error process is difficult to replicate in training since it is an isolated event based change. That being said, the key culprits I have seen are caused by a "flight-or-fight" stress responses that might show up in your HRV leading up to the event and especially on the day of the event. This low HRV or excessive "flight-or-fight" response effects adrenal and cortisol production. And, that in turn, effects blood flow and the ability to mobilize energy stores. In short, your ability for the body to prepare for activity is stunted. Can this be diet related? Well, maybe... but even if the diet is perfect for the conditions, it will make little difference if the bodies response is to stunt the metabolic balances. However, it could also be a neurological response that might be controlled through HRV adaptation (i.e., raise the variance through diaphragm pressure on the heart region) while also learning to reduce hyperactive mental state. In a way, this would be a form of meditation along with breathing techniques designed to reduce any negative hormone changes before the event. Unfortunately, this does not prevent stress induced metabolic changes during the event. That requires a whole new level of training methodology that is difficult to find without a lot of trial and error along with various "mind games" you will need to learn based on feel. Call it a "mental gauge" of perceived effort added to physical perceived effort. Tying the two perceived efforts could pay a vital role in avoiding stress induced metabolic changes. My guess is you are ignoring one or the other because of something called "competitive drive".
BTW, I am assuming you have had an MRI (typically lower back or glute area) to verify you don't have skeletal/physiological reason for the loss of strength in legs. Such examples would be a cyst, tumor, or protruding disc that becomes inflamed during the race thus places pressure in a way to inhibit blood flow or neurological connections. That being said, if you did have a physiological reason, this problem would not just show up on race day.
Thank you so much@@joemoya9743. This is super insightful and very interesting stuff. I will certainly be looking into this and I do track HRV using an Oura ring so I will look for race prep trends. We are hoping to test if it is muscular in the coming weeks, then I guess we will at least have a direction of which rabbit hole to go down. Thank you.
@@eloisedulu It is less about tracking your HRV but learning to control your HRV... This is kind of controversial since some don't believe this is healthy or of value since the body will shift back it "normal" state relative to the environment. HRV is normally thought of as variance over a longer period of time. HOWEVER, HRV changes in the short term MAY benefit you because of your special situation. Lief Therapeutics makes a wearable HRV monitor that does a constant monitoring of your HRV. The value of this device is that it allows you to learn to control your HRV in real time. Thus you can get instant feedback as to whether or not you are lowering the "flight or flight" response. The thing I hate about Lief Therapeutics is that is a subscription based product. I might be able to save you some money by briefly explaining how to control your HRV during daily life. The key is breathing in a way that forces the diaphragm UP toward your heart. This pressure tricks the heart into thinking it needs to pump harder. This shift from normal rate to harder/faster rate shifts the variance of the heart rate. This is frequently mimic by breathing exercises called "breathing through the diaphragm". Goggle this phrase and you will find easy to follow instructions and charts about breathing (...or you could go an extreme and practice the Wim Hof method). The key point about daily HRV control is to use it to help control of your effort levels (both physiologically and mentally) that may be causing some sort of metabolic response causing the body to "shut down". And, as expected, the body shuts down extremities first. In your case, it is your legs. But, what surprises me is that you don't also have a weak grip as well. Much of this is probably vascular related (think blood pressure and blood circulation) but this may be triggered by a process that is similar to hypothermia (or possibly diabetes). Science knows very little about this uncharacteristic loss of strength so it is always going to be a hit and miss type guess for a solution. This is why you could go to a dozen specialists and likely get a dozen different potential solutions. My solution has been to focus on looking at effort levels prior to the point of muscular weakness. Note this point and look at data. Look at blood glucose level, lactate level/ketosis (optional), HR and (especially) respiratory rate, before it occurred. Then, train at effort levels that are BELOW those threshold marks shown by glucose, lactate, HR and respiratory rate. These could shed light on the cause. Much to my surprise, it appears to me that respiratory rate and HR play the biggest part in triggering metabolic change. Garmin has a few bench marks that do a decent job of combining possible causes. The benchmarks are called - Performance Condition and Stamina. What you will see is these metrics will shift when the respiration rate changes dramatically (...again this references what I previously discussed with regard to HRV and breathing control). BTW, This is not that dissimilar to a discussion by Dr. Stephen Seiler. If you haven't already, look at Dr. Seiler's RU-vid videos (especially those that are 2-3 ys. old). His ideas regarding respiratory rate, decoupling and cardiac drift are important consideration. * Also See, Dr Stephen Seiler interview on Heart Rate Training & Breathing Rate at Foris Gierman's RU-vid channel. This video summarizes a lot of Siler's references to respiration and performance efficiency, plus it is not that dissimilar to what Garmin uses for Realtime Stamina benchmark used in combination with Performance Condition. ** BTW... as a previously mentioned, if there is also pain associated with the weakness then the issue is likely muscular/neurological and you need an MRI and/or PT treatment.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this tough race. It makes me wonder if part of the issue is that you aren't replicating the very hard bike effort at the start of the bike without much warmup. I'm sure u will figure it out!
Keep on going. You’ve done it before and you can do it again. Keep it simple, don’t complicate things and above everything else, smile and enjoy yourself.
