Multisport Nationals, regular triathlons, cross triathlon and open water swim!

-

A lot has happened since my last post. Training has been going well, and I have been getting stronger and faster. 

In April, I signed up for the Texasman triathlon, serving as the North Texas Championship. During the swim, a storm came in and it became the most difficult swim I have ever done, waves were big! I am comfortable in big waves, but I was not fast. I think the swim got canceled for the Olympic group that had a later start. Fortunately, no one got in serious trouble. I felt strong, won my class and became Grand Master too! Thats quite an achievement as Grand Master is for 55 and older, and I am 68.

In May it was time for Multisport Nationals. I had signed up for two duathlons and one triathlon. It started with supersprint duathlon and considering all my injuries and illnesses, I did very well and secured second place! I think my speedwork on the treadmill gave results. But I was tired, clearly not well trained. I was so tired, I decided to not participate in the supersprint triathlon the next day. Previous years I have done supersprint tri and du on the same day without problems!

Sprint duathlon was heavy; I completed at 5th place. 

Later in May, I did the Muleshoe cross triathlon, which I also won. I have now done two cross triathlons, I think I might continue with this. 

In June I did a regular sprint triathlon in Waco Texas, and yes, I won my class.

Training has been going fabulous, and I was starting to feel like I could reach national elite level again. A little problem with my left leg still, but it was not getting worse. I did some very hard workouts on my bicycle trainer, and my Strava fitness score hit the roof. Life is good...

First of July, I flew to Sweden to compete and train and have a holiday with my family. July 4th was the Vansbroswim, 3km open water. For once the weather was okay, sunshine and water temperature around 70f. I had a great swim, one of my fastest at 1.04.

Unfortunately, I got a cold the day after and it stayed with me for four weeks.

I am now back home in Texas, and I have lost a lot of fitness. Have to build up again... I decided to not go to the Triathlon Nationals in August, and I decided already after Multisport Nationals that I will not go to Worlds in Pontevedra, Spain in September. I had started to regret that decision in June, but after the cold in July it was clear, I am not in shape. Maybe I had been overtraining.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to my blog

-
In 2018, I retired at age 60. I always wanted to do triathlons and it was now or never. I did not know if I could do it, maybe I was just too old, maybe I was starting too late, maybe I would fail?  I trained, I signed up for a competition, I did it, and I have never looked back. I am enjoying my retirement, and with this blog, I want to inspire other closet athletes to have a go.  I am really not a natural athlete. Seriously, if I can do it at 60+, probably you can do a triathlon too.  /Gunilla
Read more

It has to be fun.

-
Image
I often say I would not do triathlon and other endurance sports, if it was not fun. Some people mistake that for not being really serious about my results. That I would stop for photo ops and let friend groups decide my training and other activities.  No, that is not what I mean. I am extremely focused on my performance, and I do (almost) everything I can to be my best. I do want to win, and I push myself very hard almost every day of the year. I research training methods, I eat well, I plan my life around the training and competitions. But I keep in mind that my sporting activity is a hobby and not a job. I have no income from the sport. I have no one expecting results from me, so in the bigger picture, it does not really matter where I place or what my time is. I choose to do sport because I enjoy it. I also make sure I don't injure or damage myself. I would never take performance enhancing drugs. What I mean is that I want to do the training and that it is meaningful, or you can...
Read more

Midnattsloppet, Stockholm, August 17, 2024

-
Image
Stockholm Midnight run!  Still running at midnight! A 10km road race at night around Stockholm one week after the Vasa MTB race. This is a hard, but really fun race with over 30,000 participants.  As my sister's apartment is practically on the racecourse, I had the advantage of walking to start. The evening was perfect, no rain and the right temperature around 18C (65f). The start is very festive with music, fireworks, lasers and everyone wearing the same shirts and being in a good mood. I had a fairly early start group at 10 minutes past 10 in the evening and warmup felt good. I still decided to take it slightly easy as I recently had 5 weeks break in training from illness. Last year I set a load of speed records on this race, and I ended up at 6th place in my age group which is not bad as some of the best runners participate.  I positioned myself in the middle of my start group and I felt like I was cruising all the way until I reached the hills at Katarina church aroun...
Read more