Things are starting to hot-up!

I started back at work the day after returning from holiday in France, with a two day meeting in Copenhagen to plan a large grant application for the European Union's (EU) Horizon 2020 funding call. The project, focused on the effects of pregnancy diabetes on the metabolic and cardiovascular health of the offspring, is being led by colleagues at the University of Copenhagen and I've been asked to collaborate, along with other scientists from across Europe. The EU will give a number of grants this year (of around 6 million EUR each) to European scientists working in the public health sector. Our project passed through the first stage recently and within the next couple of weeks we'll need to submit the second stage proposal for full evaluation. Around 170 other projects also passed through to round 2, so there will be fierce competition. Fortunately I'm also involved in three other projects that made it through to the second round (all related to diabetes research in one way or the other), so the odds are reasonably good that at least one will get funded. 

The down-side to being involved in international research (there are many up-sides I should add) is that the Swedish vacation month of July doesn't end-up being much of a vacation. So I've worked full-time since getting back from France. Despite the hectic work schedule, I've also managed to fit in 20 hours of training this week :-) This included running 16 km at 5am on Monday and Thursday mornings, biking  200 km to and from work on Wednesday (early enough to get me to my desk by 8am!!!), and biking and running 150 km and 30 km respectively during this weekend, not to mention several kilometers of swimming in the evenings and a bunch of other shorter runs and bikes slotted in here and there. 

Clearly my Ironman training has gone up a gear - and it needed to, with only 5 weeks left until race day!! - but for now at least I feel strong and motivated, and I've seen tangible improvements in my fitness. The 150 km bike ride yesterday was a bit of a test, with the aim of riding a little below Ironman race pace for the duration (target time 5hrs 15 mins for the 180 km), which I achieved without too much discomfort, followed by a 5 km run as soon as I'd finished the bike session. This morning's 30 km run was another test, to see if I could run a good bit quicker than race pace with tired legs - my target in the Ironman is a 3hr 30 min marathon, and my pace today was around 3hr 19min pace. So for now at least, all seems to be going well. I'll end today with a 3 km sea swim.

Tomorrow is a rest day, and on Tuesday I head up to northern Sweden to work on a huge pile of grant reviews for the Swedish Research Council and to write a paper about a new public health genetics study we have underway called VIKING. When we land, my plan is to bike the 115 km from the airport to where we'll stay for the next week, followed by a 10 km run. Let's see how that goes!!