Triathlon at Retirement

My training has fallen behind a little bit lately. First, I took my dog to a dog agility competition over a weekend, losing out on two days of my own training (good training for the dog though). That would have been ok by itself, but right afterwards, we had an ice storm in Texas, and I could not drive anywhere for a few days restricting my training to the treadmill at home. I don't like running several days in a row due to risk of overuse injuries, but considering the circumstances, I did two days of quite decent workouts on the treadmill anyway. Then, my legs told me to take a rest from running and I was out of training options. On a Thursday, I was due to fly to Sweden for cross-country skiing, but I could not reach the airport because of the icy roads, so I had to postpone the flight one day. On the Friday, I actually took the long flight, travelling for three days! This was no training time of course. On the following Monday, I got myself to the ski track, and it was good. Aft...

The anti-inflammatory medication was strong and quickly gave amazing results.  I soon went running, just for a mile, but it felt so good. Life was valuable and urgent.  I was sent to a merry-go-round of various doctors and diagnostics, all with their own tests. Not much came out of that, results were diffuse and mysterious except a back MRI that showed a slipped disc, some degeneration of the spine and pressure on the sciatic nerve, but nothing extreme. I was also sent to physical therapy which did not help. All the medical efforts were time consuming and expensive; general inflammation and back pain is difficult to diagnose and treat. I soon stopped going to specialists. I loved my work as a geologist in the oil industry, (but I am not sure my work always loved me), and I was soon back at full schedule and more. A high manager had heard about my collapse, and he personally contacted me with his own back pain story and advice: to self-treat with McKenzie exercises.  It wo...

Almost 10 years ago, I was carried out to an ambulance in a sheet by four firemen, unable to move and with excruciating pain in my entire body. The condition had escalated fast, mild back ache in the morning got rapidly worse despite ibuprofen and in a few hours, I got completely stuck, unable to move, leaning against a wall at work. Ambulance was called and relief came when a nurse administered a Morphine injection. Blood sample came back: very high levels of C-reactive protein - a marker of inflammation. There had been warnings signs, maybe for years, maybe even since childhood. Powerful headaches on sunny days, lumbago during stressful periods, occasional ulcers in my mouth and nose, body aches and days without energy and excessive sleepiness. But nothing really consistent, and I had sometimes been overexerting myself, I had not always eaten well, life is just stressful with work and children, and this happens to everyone, I reasoned. To be a competitive athlete was not on the map o...

This has been a good athletic year for me. It started with Vasaloppet cross country ski race March 1 in Sweden, an old ambition of mine. Finally, I did it, and it went so well.  In mid-April the Tour de France organization came to Texas and I joined their amateur race/ride, placing 2nd in the 60+ age group on 60 hilly miles.  Then, the inaugural multisport festival in Irving, TX in late April - early May. Three races for me, two of them US national championships, resulting in a bronze medal in mixed sprint triathlon relay and a 7th place in draft legal sprint triathlon, and a 1st on the Olympic distance (non-championship). I hold the mixed sprint relay as the most fun race of the year. In June it was time for World Championship in Montreal, always exciting. A 28th place in individual sprint and 7th place in mixt sprint relay. I enjoyed every minute. Back to Sweden for swimming over the Arctic circle in the midnight sun, and an MTB race on the Vasa trail, both well worth doing....

Back in early October, the triathlon season was almost over, and some of my friends and I decided to take a challenge with an off-season running competition. We signed up for the San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll race. I committed to the 10k, and my friends to the half marathon, (they are a lot younger than me). It looks like I have a hat! Since then, I have focused more on the running doing weekly10k workouts. In order to not get injuries, I only run about every 4th day, alternating the long run with a shorter and faster workout. In October, it was still very hot, so I did 4 loops of about 2.5km from my house, and I kept drinks and gels on a garden wall to pick up as I was lapping. I am realizing more and more how important it is to stay hydrated, but I don't like to carry anything when I am running. Every week, I was a little faster than the week before, going from about 1 hour to 56 minutes in a few weeks on the slightly hilly loop course. Mid November, I tried the local river t...

Smart Watch, Fitness Watch, Pulse Watch, Exercise Watch, Health Watch ... there are many names for watches that track your steps, workouts and health parameters.  So far, I have used three different brands: Fitbit, Garmin and COROS. They all have their advantages and disadvantages, and in this post, I will explain my experiences using them. I am not paid by any company to do this. Fitbit I got my first smartwatch about 2016. My regular wristwatch was broken and when I looked around for a replacement, I realized that I would like a watch that could do more than showing time. I settled for a Fitbit, the price was not too high, and it had an alright look. I can't remember the model's name anymore, but it was a fairly simple version, I think it costed about 120 dollars. It tracked my steps, heartrate and automatically sensed when I was walking and running and gave distance and speed. It also monitored my sleep and gave a daily sleep score.  It was a big help to get this watch, I d...

I have started to use energy gels on longer competitions. I wish I had done that earlier; it really has helped my performance. Previously, I have only relied on energy drinks and apple juice, usually diluted with water. On advice from training buddies, I tested using gels during training a few times. I think it had some effect, but nothing really game changing. In hindsight, I can see I did not take enough. Recommended consumption is one gel every half hour during endurance events.  On my half ironman in April 2021, I only took one energy gel during the whole race, it was in T2. It probably helped me a bit, but the real game changer was Red Bull. On the run, I took a cup of Red Bull by mistake, I thought it was sports drink. The energizing effect was obvious, I felt it right away. Worried about too much caffeine intake, I swapped sports drink and Red Bull on every other drink station for the rest of the run. It was still hard, but the extra stimulant and sugar made it doable, and t...