Triathlon at Retirement

Orienteering is going back to my Swedish roots; it was my first serious sport. I still love it; it is a hard physical challenge with a serious mental component. Orienteering is a big sport in Scandinavia; my American friends fell off their chairs when the world championship was headlined and shown on the national news television. Oringen 5-day competition is one of the most important events for age group racers. This year, over 15,000 participants from 10 years old to over 90 competed every day!  I signed up for the female 65-69 long course, there is also a short course and an easy course in each age group. There were about 120 people overall in my age group. Each day, my course lasted about 45 to 70 minutes for me to complete. Five different finish lanes to accommodate incoming runners. I definitely have lost my edge in pure orienteering skills which is not surprising as I have only practice about twice a year for the last 35 years. Fortunately, I did not make any serious orientee...

This summer, three of my training friends from Texas wanted to take part in my Swedish summer training experience. Especially, the open water swimming competition that goes across the Arctic Circle! In preparation, we have been open water swimming once a week in the Guadalupe River in Kerrville. (This is the same town and river that recently was devastated by floods). At one spot there is a dam, and a quite large lake is formed which is perfect for our swimming practice. Winters in Kerrville can be quite cold, and we kept going with our wetsuits until water temperatures went below 60f. We were well prepared for Arctic swimming! Sweden's weather decided to put my friends through the wringer. The spring and early summer was unusually cold and wet, and every day seemed colder than the previous. Our first practice swim had water temperatures of about 62f, (17C), the next day 61f (16C). We decided to use earplugs and neoprene hats under our swim caps.  First up was the popular Vansbro s...

                                                                                 Multisport, what is that? In the Multisport Festival organized by USA triathlon there is: Triathlon (supersprint 250m swim - 5km bike- 1km run) (sprint triathlon, draft legal, 750m swim - 12mile bike - 5km run) Duathlon (supersprint 1km run - 5km bike - 1km run) (standard 10km run - 40km bike - 5km run) Aquabike (standard 1500m swim - 40km bike)  Aquathlon (standard 2.5km run -1000m swim - 2.5km run) Mixed relay (2 men 2 women) in Triathlon and Duathlon, each person completing a supersprint course I choose to participate in supersprint triathlon, supersprint duathlon, draft legal sprint triathlon and mixed relay triathlon. Because of my recent history of injuries, I was happy to stick to the shorter d...

It took me three weeks to recover from the flu. In early March, I finally felt good enough to take my dog to our weekly agility training class. I had at that time, not started my own training. I had forgotten about the previous knee problems, was just happy to have enough energy to go out. I do compete with my Miniature Schnauzer in dog agility at hobby level. Each dog agility run is less than a minute long but sometimes involves quite vigorous running with sharp turns. Second training run with the dog broke my knee injury up again. I now realize that the dog agility has probably been the source of the knee problem all along. There are too much sideways movements. Back to square one. I started swimming and biking with no problems but had to avoid all running. It was difficult to even walk. My shape was way below what I could do last year.  At the beginning of April, I started using an elliptical which seemed to help. I then increased the load on the legs to about 8 minutes run on a...

I have continued to nurse my knee and been able to do some shorter runs. Times have been decent, around 9 minutes-mile, which is not amazing but good enough after a long break. In February, I went to Breckenridge for cross country ski training and the USA National Championships in Winter Triathlon and Duathlon. As it was my second year in Breckenridge, I quickly came into the swing of things. I know the courses, and I wasted no time hitting the trails. As an extra bonus, my daughter joined me for a few days! I really enjoy cross-country skiing. It is tough, a very good workout for arms, legs and aerobic system. The first day, I burned over 1400 calories according to my smart watch. The altitude, over 9000 feet, also took its toll, but I never felt any altitude sickness, it only showed in my elevated heart rate. Over the 10 days I was there, I added over 20 points to my Strava fitness scores.  I won my age group in both the duathlon and the triathlon again. The duathlon run was very...

This year started well with me winning two national championships in winter triathlon. My form was good; despite getting older, I was improving my times, especially in running where I was getting very competitive. I was feeling good and was injury free. Then I caught covid in early July, followed by a nasty bacterial infection that took me almost three weeks to throw off. Training was down to a minimum during this time, it was mostly rest and try to recover. And recover I did, after about 6 weeks I was finally ok and I ran a competitive 10k in Stockholm, Sweden (Midnattsloppet). Despite the lack of consistent training, I was faster than the year before and nailed a 5th place in this hard field of runners. A week later I ran a duathlon and came 5th overall (including all ages and men) on two very speedy runs. I was planning for a half marathon in December. It was not to be. In early September my right knee gave in without warning, for no apparent reason at all. I have been to doctors, h...

Occasionally, when the weather is bad, my bike is out of order, or I am travelling, I will use an indoor stationary bike. I don't particularly like it, it is boring and hard work. But I realize it is very efficient training as long as you can keep yourself motivated... Recently, I used an indoor bike trainer with the Zwift app. The setup was a racing bike with its back wheel on a Tacx trainer, it was an older model. Then I downloaded the Zwift app on my phone. It allows for a free ride every month, so I was able to test the app risk free. I liked it, it may be a game changer. The trainer gave a very realistic feel of the hill climbs, and the competition with other riders on the screen was fun. I have now done it several times and it is a very hard and efficient workout. I actually enjoy it. I am now looking into buying a permanent setup for my home and pay for a Zwift subscription. I regret not doing this years ago, I suspect it would have made my biking more competitive. I intend ...