Triathlon at Retirement

 The last few days, I have migrated over to Sweden again. The travel was difficult, I got caught up in the recent flight cancellation chaos, caused by bad weather in New York area, air traffic control shortage and I don’t know what. I got stuck in Houston for over 24 hours and stood in a line trying to get new flights for over 4.5 hours. This was at night. Overall, the travel was not good for my fitness level. Eventually I did reach Sweden, bone tired of course. On the positive side, I did not get sick. I tried to catch up on training right away, but sensibly. I do not want to get sick or injured, and after a major exhaustion event like this, the risk is high. First day, I tested my Swedish road bike, a Trek Madone I bought in 2010, a very good bike. A short 12-mile ride at a slow pace proved that I, and the bike, was still working. Then I put on my wetsuit and swam for about 15 minutes in the local lake. Saturday July 1, 3 days after arriving, I raced in Challenge Vansbro Sprint

This year, USA Triathlon collected several multisport national championships into a multi-day event. Great for efficiency, no need to travel all over the USA to different venues, but it also makes for a tight and exhausting competition schedule. April 28 opened with Nationals in Super Sprint Triathlon and a non-championship open water swim competition. April 29 had Nationals in Draft Legal Sprint Triathlon and Aquathlon. April 30 Nationals in Duathlon and Age Group Mixed Relay (a first!). May 1 Nationals in Standard Aquabike and Draft Legal Duathlon and a non-championship (but qualifier for the World Championship 2023) in Olympic Distance Triathlon. Wow, a lot! If you signed up for 5 races or more, you received a special award, and many people did. A few signed up for the maximum possible: 8 events (2 a day). I restricted myself to the Draft Legal Sprint Triathlon, the Relay and the world qualifier in Olympic Triathlon. There was so much going on, I will make several posts of this fest

For the first time, a US National Championship in remote racing was held during a week in November. Remote racing is not the same as virtual racing, key difference is that all results are being converted to a standardized course. Software by RaceX is applied in an attempt to take away real differences in the participants various courses and conditions.  It is a bit confusing, but   Remote Racing is powered by  RaceX  which  is a division of   Predictive Fitness , which uses data to improve training efficiency, and is in turn used by   TriDot , a company that offers triathlon training. For those who want to learn more, I attach links at the end of this text. I saw the invitation on my Facebook feed and for 50 dollars signup fee, I decided to give it a go. First, I thought carefully about where I could race safely at full speed. Swim had to be in a standard-length pool, and bike and run starting and ending at the same spot. After I had chosen my location, I did a trial where I also mappe

This was the biggest triathlon competition ever in the USA, maybe the whole world with over six thousand competitors over two days. The athletic village and transition area dominated the pretty sea front near the Art Museum and Discovery Center. I did the sprint distance. Women's age group 60-64 was completely full at 100 qualified athletes! I did not feel particularly nervous, I knew I would not have anything to do with the top. I did a business like swim at 16.50 for 750m coming in at 32nd place. Swimming is not my forte, and if I try too hard, I just get tired without swimming faster. Getting out of the water, I was not exhausted and I passed several people on the run between water and bike.  Rather than pressing the leg time button on my smartwatch, I pressed finish. On the bike, I fiddled with the watch trying to restart, and I was not totally focused on the ride from the beginning. I passed people on the uphills, and they passed me on the downhills, even though I peddled like

An all female supersprint competition! I really enjoyed it. Distances were a little shorter, swim 500m, bike ride 10 miles and run 2.5 miles. While this was an opportunity for first timers to try triathlon, it was also a hard competition with nationally ranked athletes.  Because  it was a marginally shorter than a regular triathlon, I pushed hard all the way. I had a good race, my transitions were fast and I managed my energy well. I opted to swim without wetsuit (it was optional) and I think it was the right choice. Hardly worth the hassle to take it off for such a short course and it was going to be a very hot day. On the final run, I was head to head with one of my training friends; we battled each other for 2 miles, sometimes she was ahead, sometimes I was. Our final time was almost the same! She got first in her class, I got second place. I think this was one of my most enjoyable competitions for a long time.

This 2nd of May competition was a qualifier for the draft legal sprint World Championships in Bermuda later this year. Many hopefuls, including myself traveled to Virginia trying to capture one of the coveted Team USA spots, juniors and seniors included. Perfect weather and a fine location with smooth arrangements made this draft legal sprint a great competition.   My race was in the afternoon and wind had picked up quite a bit. I thought I did a good swim, I certainly pushed myself, but it was over a minute slower than the practice swim the previous day! I don't understand why it was slower. Bike course was 4 loops with a hairpin turn-around and a few tight turns. The only long straight stretch had headwind, and the tailwind was on the technical part of the ride so it was not that much of help. I pushed myself too hard on the bike course and got very tired. Starting the run leg, I hit my head on the racking tubing standing up after putting on my shoes, and felt very confused for a

It is now time to plan for the 2021 competition season. This is a good idea for both the more serious competitors and the beginners.  I go to the competition and events calendars and search for competitions I like to do. Note that the Ironman events are on a separate website.  I type up all potential events on a spreadsheet with dates and location. From there I choose the key competitions, for example a championship, and this year I may try a half Ironman. These will be the focus, and the other events will serve as preparation. By making a plan, I ensure I get adequate training and rest before major competitions which helps performance on the day. I also plan travel dates and vacations away from home with the competition schedule in mind.  Here in Texas, the season opens already in March and I am signing up to a sprint to get an early start. A few competitions really help in sharpening up routines and speed. I do not want to be flustered on an important competition, best to have a few

The Kiwanis triathlon in McKinney (near Dallas) September 20, was the first competition this year for me! Everything else that I have signed up for have been cancelled due to COVID-19. It was fun to see some real action again after all the training. The arrangements seemed very safe with minimal contact between people. The sprint course started with a 275yd pool swim with quite a long run to transition. Bike 10.25 miles in two laps and run 3.1 miles. I finished with a time of 1.14.43, place 1 in my age group and 28th of all women.  I took a wrong turn during the bike leg, just had my eyes on the person in front of me that went into transition while I had a second lap to do. No biggie, but it showed I was out of competition practice. Hopefully, a mistake I will not repeat again! It is important to compete regularly to avoid such mistakes. /Gunilla