Triathlon at Retirement

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

It is not great to be old and find your physique declining every year. On the other hand, with time, I have gathered some helpful experiences.  For one, I am convinced that our environment and relationship to people around us shape our success far more than most people think. Too many setbacks and put downs make us shrink, mentally and physically. Yes, physically too. We grow on success. I guess too much success can destroy people, it is not something I have personal experience from. I have noticed that easy early success for children can be negative for them, they do not value what they can achieve and throw their talent away. How can it be valuable, it was so easy, right?  photo by George Becker (Pexels) Here is a scenario I have seen time and time again: A slower cyclist/runner falls behind in a friendly training session, the gap just gets bigger and bigger. It is not fun for anyone, but especially not for the person behind. They are struggling and suffering on the edge of their cap

Well, almost, L'Etape San Antonio by Tour de France is part of a worldwide amateur cycling series designed by Tour de France experts. San Antonio, Texas was chosen for the only USA race at April 10!  L'Etape San Antonio included a pro bicycle race featuring two-time Tour de France and Giro de Italia winner Alberto Contador and the amateurs race/ride the same course behind. When I heard about it, I signed up as I live nearby. I choose a slightly shortened version of the pro race "only" 60 miles and 3689 feet of climbing... Pro race and the longer option was 100 miles and over 6000 feet of climbing. There was also a shorter race of only 25 miles. This is a great motivator and training. It was a little crowded the first few miles, but not too bad. My race plan was to not rush and exhaust myself at any point, but to hold a steady pace and make sure energy lasted to the end. During the first 30 miles, it was not too hot and there was no wind, plenty of people to draft on a

Sometimes you can end up in a situation where you definitely are the least able athlete. In every event, someone is last. It does not have to mean they are out of their depth; they can be the slowest person in a strong field. The world championship for example, even the lowest place competitor is a great athlete. As I am older, I have to accept that I may be the slowest athlete sometimes. But I have a rule; I never sign up for anything where I think there is a risk I will become a burden to the organizers or other competitors. I make sure that I am adequately prepared for every event I enter. Noone should for example sign up for an Ironman without a long period of training beforehand. But still, an Ironman may be in your capacity, you just know that you will be far behind the winner. Maybe they don't offer your age group and you have to compete against younger athletes. Don't let the worry about being last stop you. I have seen people being so worried about being last that they

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