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...

I am back in Sweden enjoying the lower temperatures in comparison to Texas that is having a heat wave. The trek over the Atlantic is always fairly tiring, so I take it easy the first days. My first training was to be a mountain bike ride on some easy trails (mostly gravel roads) around my log cabin in the province of Dalecarlia, or Dalarna in Swedish. Well, after 4 miles I had a chain drop in an uphill and in my desperate attempts to free my feet, I peddled and twisted until I got the chain stuck. At least I got my feet off and avoided a fall. There was nothing to do but to walk back. Four miles, but I was able to roll downhill! A quick trip to the nearest town where I found a very nice bike shop that fixed the problem by the next morning. Then, I managed to ride 27 miles without problems. But I realize, I will have to tackle harder trails if I am going to have a good time on  the race "Cykelvasan" in August. It is more or less on the same trails where the cross country ski r...