Triathlon at Retirement

Yes, Vadstena Triathlon August 27 in Sweden used the courtyard of a medieval castle for transition. It is probably the most beautiful triathlon I have participated in. This post will partly read like tourist information. The city of Vadstena is old, picturesque and pretty with a castle built by king Gustaf Wasa around 1545, and a nunnery and monastery inaugurated already 1384. I arrived a day early and walked in the city and then biked on small roads, looking at old churches and a stone age burial site. Would not mind returning and do a longer bike tour around lake Vättern. This competition also served as the Swedish Championship on Olympic Distance. I had signed up two years earlier for a competition in Stockholm, but due to covid, the event got postponed two years and new construction in Stockholm forced the event to Vadstena. Now I found myself at the top of my age group on a distance that is not my best. Well, I compete to enjoy, and although I was far from medals, it was one of my

The look of exhaustion... A few weeks ago, I was feeling more and more exhausted during, and after training. I still performed, but pain levels seemed harder. I really noticed it on the Fort Worth olympic distance triathlon, my legs were tired right at the start of the bike course. I pushed through in a businesslike manner, but it all felt hard, mechanical and uninspired. The run (10k) was not fun and it got worse along the way. After the competition, I was faint. At the time, I thought I had eaten poorly before the competition, compounded by sports drink not being offered on the run course. Not my best race. The following week I cut down on my normal training dose to about half, I wanted to recover. But training still felt harder than normal, in fact, it did not feel fun at all. Bottom was hit one day when I ran one mile at a fast pace, but just could not continue. My legs could not move at any decent pace. I checked my heart rate, max had only been 127 bpm. I regularly reach 170 bpm

Rain and thunderstorms in the forecast for this Fort Worth Olympic distance triathlon. I had misgivings while driving five hours the day before; maybe the event would be canceled due to weather. But I had signed up, I had paid and I went. Good job, I did. It was a gray day, but hardly a drop of rain!  For the 1500m lake swim, I positioned myself in the middle of the field. I am not a great swimmer, and often I take a humble position in the back only to find that people are slow and blocking my progress. This time, I was not the slowest in my group, probably most people were faster. It made me feel like I had a bad swim when people passed, but I did what I am good at; swallowing my pride and push on. I could not believe my eyes when I came out of the water; clock said 33 minutes! That is fast for me.  Transition 1 included a long uphill, I ran all the way and started to peel off the wetsuit. The bike leg consisted of two loops of about 12.5 miles, I had almost the same time on both loop