Winter Triathlon US National Championship and Empire State Winter Games in Lake Placid 2026

-

It has been a while, but I have not been idle. Despite infections and injuries, I have continued to train and race as best as I can. I did have a course of antibiotics in January when another cold continued to a chest infection. Due to problems with running, I have started to work on the elliptical in the gym, and I can get a fairly effective workout with the right resistance. It saves my running legs, and it also imitates cross country skiing, so a double benefit!

The big goal was the winter triathlon in early February. It was actually two events in one, as it combined with the Empire State Winter Games (ESWG) which is like a mini winter Olympics at Lake Placid, where the real winter Olympics have been held 1934 and 1970! There is lot of infrastructure, ice rinks, skating oval, ski jumping, bob sled and luge tracks. And of course, tons of snow and skiing opportunities, both downhill and cross country.

Games took place February 6-9 and winter triathlon Friday the 6th at 9 am, followed by winter duathlon in the afternoon. I only felt strong enough to participate in the triathlon. Distances were just short of 4 miles running (two loops) followed by two laps of biking on the same loops and finishing with about 4 miles of cross counter skiing.

I arrived a week early to train on the tracks. The arena and facilities at Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid are very nice and there was no shortage of snow. Due to repeated injury and illness, I was far from my best shape. At the run, I could not keep up with the main pack, which I have done previous years, so I knew this was not going to be a winning pace. 

I had only tried the bike rental for a short while the previous day, and I had some problems changing gears. On the first lap I could not gear down enough in an uphill or two and had to get off the bike. After a while, I understood that I had to push really hard and I managed to get in the right gears for the second loop. The gear shifting was so hard it hurt my hand (see picture).

I looked forward to the skiing. The week had been cold, and waxing had not been a problem at all. I prefer to do mainly classical style, but I break out in skate style on some of the flatter bits. It is just too hard for me to skate all the way. I waxed as normal, but I should have tested race morning, which I did not do. Probably, all the faster skier in front of me had made the tracks hard and shiny, because I had no grip at all. It did not matter; I had no chance in reaching the winner in my class and I was way ahead of number three. So, it was fun to ski on the world-famous arena!

And I got to compete against a former Olympic torch bearer.

The awesome women of age group 65 - 69.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wrap up of 2024

-
Image
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...
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 an...
Read more

Winter Triathlon

-
Image
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...
Read more