Wrap up of 2024

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, have had X-rays and MRIs. There is no clear answer, maybe there is no real injury, and the problem is auto immune attacks. Me left knee has also started to act up and the problems have not gone away despite anti-inflammatory medication and almost no running.

I am still biking and swimming and doing strength training. My statistics for the year show that I have trained about 25% less than in 2023, this is of course mainly during the last 5 months when I have been ill and injured. I think I am still in decent shape though. 

My outlook for 2025 is not what I had hoped for. Now goal one is to get well again. I have got an indoor setup for bike training with Zwift that is fun and effective, which is helping. I have signed up for nationals in winter triathlon 2025, I think my knees can take the cross-country skiing. I hope to go back to multi-sport nationals in Omaha again, in the worst case I just do supersprint and aquabike. It will probably be a year where I spend more time on family activities and that is fine!