Triathlon at Retirement

There has been a long break in my blogging for two reasons: I have been travelling in the Arctic of Scandinavia and largely been without reliable internet, and I have been sick for over a month stopping any interesting training. These two events are related. In late June, I flew to Sweden where I prefer to spend the summers rather than overheating in Texas. I have a log cabin in the area called Dalecarlia (or Dalarna in Swedish) which is a rural area, hilly and a center for culture and endurance sports.  It started out great, June 29, I did the Vansbro sprint triathlon and had some very fast times for my age. Weather was great too! Then the cold fronts started to move in. This year, I had company with a good friend and triathlete from Texas, and she wanted to do the 3km Vansbroswim, which is one of the world's largest open water swimming events. We braved the cold weather and trained diligently in the local lake with our wetsuits. I also wanted to show my friend the cultural si...

 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 Sp...