Wrap up and forward planning

-

This has been a good athletic year for me. It started with Vasaloppet cross country ski race March 1 in Sweden, an old ambition of mine. Finally, I did it, and it went so well. 

In mid-April the Tour de France organization came to Texas and I joined their amateur race/ride, placing 2nd in the 60+ age group on 60 hilly miles. 

Then, the inaugural multisport festival in Irving, TX in late April - early May. Three races for me, two of them US national championships, resulting in a bronze medal in mixed sprint triathlon relay and a 7th place in draft legal sprint triathlon, and a 1st on the Olympic distance (non-championship). I hold the mixed sprint relay as the most fun race of the year.


In June it was time for World Championship in Montreal, always exciting. A 28th place in individual sprint and 7th place in mixt sprint relay. I enjoyed every minute.

Back to Sweden for swimming over the Arctic circle in the midnight sun, and an MTB race on the Vasa trail, both well worth doing. 

I finished the year by winning my age group in the Rock 'n' Roll 10k road running race in San Antonio (TX) in December.

And these are just the highlights, there was more! I had such a good year, hardly even a single day of illness. It shows in my fitness levels, my run times have improved and Strava fitness scores have hit the roof. 

Planning forward for 2023, I have to be realistic, I hope to repeat the successes, but I realize I might not. The good news is that I am changing age group, from being the oldest (64), I am now going to be the youngest in the 65-69 age group, a small advantage.

First, I have the Vasa ski race in Sweden again, this time the full distance 90k. I am uncertain about this undertaking; it is marginal for me to do it. If the weather goes against me, it might be too much. Then I have the Tour de France bike race again in San Antonio, and the multisport triathlon festival later in April. The main focus of the year is the World Championships in sprint triathlon in Hamburg, Germany in July, I am in both individual and relay.

The above races are the highlights for the year, culminating with the World Championships. Everything after that is purely recreational and for fun. Maybe I do a half ironman, or maybe I create an Ironman relay team for a race or two later in the year. I think I will do the San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll again.

Happy New Year 2023!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do not wait until it is too late!

-
Image
Since my last post, I have not been competing, just training. It has been going well, I think I have improved my swimming a little bit by doing several sessions almost purely focused on speed. It has been intervals of 25, 50, 100, 150 and nothing longer than 200 yards, with the bulk in the shortest range.  But the last few days, I have hit a snag, a new pain in my left hip. At first, I ignored it, I always have pain somewhere, but it nearly always goes away after warmup. Last Saturday, I was going to run 10k in 4 parts of 2.5k, with two minutes rest in between. I warmed up on the treadmill, but the pain just got worse. Then at 9 min mile speed on the treadmill, my left leg gave in, and I almost fell over.  Ok, I thought, best not to push it on the treadmill where I can hurt myself, I will just run my 10k on the road and take it slightly slower than normal. But it was impossible, I was limping, and I had to stop after a few minutes. Ok, calm down, I told myself, no catastrophe if I miss
Read more

Carbon plated running shoes

-
Image
In 2019, Eliud Kipchoge became the first human to run a marathon under 2 hours. On his feet were a pair high tech shoes featuring a carbon fiber plate and air-filled pods. Since then, numerous long-distance records have been shattered by runners wearing these types of shoes. Strava data suggests that a change to carbon plated shoes improves running time over 5%! I have been wondering, is it just a fashion, or are these shoes really faster? Seems hard to believe that shoes could make a noticeable difference today. Can they help me to be faster or is it just for elites? Finally, these shoes are being made by various brands in larger quantities and are available in low enough price for the general public. As I like to try all new shoes in person, I went to town to buy a pair, any brand. That did not go well, all shops were sold out.  I decided to gamble and order on-line. I read a lot of confusing reviews and learned that shoes higher than 40mm mid sole just have been banned for competiti
Read more

Multisport National Championship Festival Irving TX April 19-23

-
Image
This year, I participated in 3 national champion ship events: individual super sprint time trial triathlon, draft legal sprint triathlon and draft-legal mixed relay triathlon. I am now the youngest in my age group (65-69), and I hoped to place top 10, maybe top 5 in something. The first race was the super sprint time trial, which also was my first triathlon competition in 2023. I decided to use bike shoes for the ride (5k), and not try to save time by biking in running shoes as I did last year. I also swam the 250m in wetsuit, I have calculated that despite additional transit time to change, it is faster.  As this time trial has individual start, I had no idea of my position as the race progressed. But it felt ok, I passed people on the bike and on the run (1.2k), I shortened the gap to the runner in front of me. My time was 24.57 and it was enough for a second place in my age group! Way better than expected. Next day was the draft legal sprint triathlon (750m swim, 12-mile bike and 3.
Read more