Triathlon training and lifting heavy weights

(This is the short version, for a more in-depth version, click here. 😉 )

After seven years of training and competing in triathlons, I had to take a break due to an overuse injury in my right foot (plantar fasciitis).
Also, several health issues just became too hard to ignore, and chronic stress made structured triathlon training impossible.

I started focusing more on strength training and "building up my body instead of tearing it down", and eventually discovered powerlifting and lifting heavy. I got hooked on the feeling of becoming strong!

Although I haven't competed in a powerlift meet yet, it is my goal to do so one day.
I LOVE getting stronger.

But during the last year or so (2017) while mostly training for strength and muscle mass, I started to miss the social part of triathlon training and racing. And - I started to feel the need for endorphins again. Swimming, biking and running has always helped me keeping my mental health in proper shape.

So - this year I decided to try and train both. That is, while I want to get back into triathlon racing shape again, I also want to keep getting stronger.
Because I think need both, the endorphins from endurance sports, and the bad-ass-feeling-strong from lifting heavy.

While I earlier was not very happy with training strength, since it "got in the way of all those swim-bike-run workouts" I now simply cannot skip the gym. Lifting heavy is so much fun, and I love to train with the big and strong guys at our local little gym.

I am now trying to fit in swim, bike and run sessions regularly into my strength training sessions. That is quite a challenge. Throughout the last years I lifted regularly four days a week, rotating between sessions of benchpress, squats, deadlifts and accessory work, but combining those with triathlon training would be too much and become quite counterproductive.

Training for endurance while preserving muscle mass and becoming stronger is possible in my opinions, since we are, as human beings, both versatile and quite adaptive, and especially being a woman over 40, I find it more and more important to train a variety of activities and focus on both strenght and endurance.

This project will certainly be a challenge, but I'm ready for it.

We will see how that goes 😊