Triathlon at Retirement

This year, at age 64 and at the upper end of my age group, I decided to do some sporting events just for the experience.  The Vasaloppet cross-country ski race in Sweden has been on my bucket list for a long time and now I have gone for it. It is the largest cross-country ski race in the world.  It is also a special year 2022, since it is the 100 year jubilee since the first race 1902!  The full race is 90 km (56 miles), but I worried this would be too much for me, so I signed up for half distance, 45 km (28 miles). To prepare myself, I have rented a hut in Sweden for 4 weeks in a location close to the race and I bought equipment, skis, poles and shoes. I did a bit of cross-country skiing when I was young, so I had an idea how to get decent gear that fits my ski style, weight and height. I have now been in Sweden almost two weeks and I am humbled. This is harder than I remember. My Strava segments are telling me the truth; I am slow, slow, slow. Not so impressive to be number 10217 on

I know not to take fitness apps too seriously, but here we go again. Recently, I ran one of my regular routes on a new PR. Great, I might still be improving, despite age being against me. It was a chilly day (for Texas), about 52F (11C).  My first observation is that the Coros watch I am using right now gave me a distance of 2.61 miles and an elevation gain of 627 ft. Strava gave the same distance, but only a 371 ft elevation gain. Previous runs using Garmin have measured the distance to 2.60 mile and 313 ft in elevation. My Fitbit have given me 2.80 miles on the same route. I have got used to the discrepancy in distance, and I use Strava as the arbiter. Strava: 2.61 miles. 371 elev. gain Coros: 2.61 miles, 627 ft elev. gain Garmin: 2.60 miles, 313 ft elev. gain Fitbit: 2.80 miles, elevation gain not recorded This last time (Coros), I ran a PR with 35 seconds! This is a huge improvement, and I was deliberately trying for a new record, meaning that I pushed hard all the way to the end.