Triathlon at Retirement

It is now the tail end of winter, and I will write about what I did to complement my training last summer in Sweden:  orienteering.   Orienteering is fairly popular in Sweden. It is so important to enjoy the workouts, and orienteering is perfect for longer runs. Running through forest and on rough trails is hard and demands stability in the ankles. A lot of small muscles are used in the constantly varied terrain. During my last orienteering, I had an average heart rate of 147 and topped at 172, during the 40 minutes race.  Being focused on the map and finding checkpoints, I did hardly notice how hard the body was working.  Of course, if you are a beginner, you may be walking more than running as those controls are hard to find... It is interesting that an average orienteering race in Sweden only costs about 20 dollars to enter. For that you get a professionally drawn special map, a course set in the forest designed for your age group and ability (there are hundreds of different checkpo

What an experience! I am so glad I decided to participate in the original Swedish long distance ski race  Vasaloppet , together with 48000 other people. I had my race of 45 km (28 miles) yesterday, races are occurring over many days to accommodate the demand. Below is a youtube video from the race by Volvo cars where I feature in a yellow jacket. Gunilla Gard - VASALOPPET 45 2022 - 04:08:17 - YouTube The event is very well executed. It is all happening in the little town of Mora in the province of Dalarna (or Dalecarlia in English). Over 500 years ago, Gustav Vasa, a Swedish nobleman, was skiing away from Mora fleeing his enemies. The Dalecarlians decided to get him back and make him king and two ski runners caught up with Vasa in the village of Sälen, 90 km away. The return trip from Sälen to Mora became the Vasaloppet ski race that has been going for 100 years! I did half the race (45km), from the village of Oxberg to Mora because 90km is more than I can safely handle. As I wrote in

This year, at age 64 and at the upper end of my age group, I decided to do some sporting events just for the experience.  The Vasaloppet cross-country ski race in Sweden has been on my bucket list for a long time and now I have gone for it. It is the largest cross-country ski race in the world.  It is also a special year 2022, since it is the 100 year jubilee since the first race 1902!  The full race is 90 km (56 miles), but I worried this would be too much for me, so I signed up for half distance, 45 km (28 miles). To prepare myself, I have rented a hut in Sweden for 4 weeks in a location close to the race and I bought equipment, skis, poles and shoes. I did a bit of cross-country skiing when I was young, so I had an idea how to get decent gear that fits my ski style, weight and height. I have now been in Sweden almost two weeks and I am humbled. This is harder than I remember. My Strava segments are telling me the truth; I am slow, slow, slow. Not so impressive to be number 10217 on

I know not to take fitness apps too seriously, but here we go again. Recently, I ran one of my regular routes on a new PR. Great, I might still be improving, despite age being against me. It was a chilly day (for Texas), about 52F (11C).  My first observation is that the Coros watch I am using right now gave me a distance of 2.61 miles and an elevation gain of 627 ft. Strava gave the same distance, but only a 371 ft elevation gain. Previous runs using Garmin have measured the distance to 2.60 mile and 313 ft in elevation. My Fitbit have given me 2.80 miles on the same route. I have got used to the discrepancy in distance, and I use Strava as the arbiter. Strava: 2.61 miles. 371 elev. gain Coros: 2.61 miles, 627 ft elev. gain Garmin: 2.60 miles, 313 ft elev. gain Fitbit: 2.80 miles, elevation gain not recorded This last time (Coros), I ran a PR with 35 seconds! This is a huge improvement, and I was deliberately trying for a new record, meaning that I pushed hard all the way to the end. 

What works for best performance in a long run or bike ride? Start hard and push it as far as you can, or start in a more comfortable speed and increase at the end? It's the latter, when your mile (or km) times are getting faster as you go (negative splits), you are more likely to reach your best time. This is well known, and I have also tested it for myself on the treadmill.  To the left is an example of negative splits on a recent training run. Starting too hard is always a mistake, you cannot will yourself to keep it up to the end, your body is actually  unable  to respond. I am not going into the physiology of why, but I have enough experience to say that a too ambitious opening will fail to make a good time and it's not a lack of willpower. When I did my half ironman earlier in the year, I was just focused on completing the course, not to reach a specific time or place. I managed the energy well, holding an even pace, and the final run ended up as my best performance for th

The year went more or less as planned. The highpoint was probably that I completed a half Ironman in April on a decent time without incident. In May, I qualified for the World Championships in Bermuda, but it got cancelled in the last minute due to Covid. US Nationals in Milwaukee in August went ok, but not great, I was too slow on the bike. Did a better race on the draft legal championship in Tempe and ended up in 4th place. I had fun on several local competitions, so overall, I am happy with the year. I think my swimming has improved a little but not as much as I had hoped for. My technique is better but my upper body is just too weak. The running is holding more or less steady, biking is difficult to assess, but approximately the same as last year. I am more or less as fast as 2020, despite being a year older, so actually, I am getting a little better. Year 2022, I am 64 in January so I am the oldest in my age group. There is a little loss of ability every year, so my expectations f

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