Triathlon at Retirement

As Vasaloppet went fine, I thought I take a few days off and I would recover quickly and be in amazing form. Strava is saying I am in the form of my life, although fatigue factor is quite high. It has not been so straightforward. I rested completely while travelling for two full days. I arrived back in Texas, and on the third day, I thought I do a slow 5k jog to start up again. It was slow, really slow, but my body told me it was racing speed. Afterwards, my legs were dead. It was worrying and I thought I may be getting sick. I rested another day and agreed to do a slow bike ride with my friends. It was slow, too slow, how slow can it be? I took off with a faster group and I felt fine. Great! I am back, I am recovered! Not so fast. After resting one day again (just to be careful) I decided on a bike and run brick repeat, 5km bike and 1 mile hill run, 3 times over. I have done this exercise several times before, and I quite enjoy it. It is hard, but the constant transitions give a bit o

Vasaloppet, a lifelong ambition of mine has been completed! Last year, I practiced on half distance and this year I did the complete trail; 90 km (56 miles). This is the world's largest cross country ski race, or rather it is a collection of various races over 1 week. My race, had almost 8000 participants, starting in Berga By near the village of Sälen in Dalarna (Dalecarlia) Sweden.  My group started at 7.40 am but my day began at 3.30 am when the alarm went. At 5 am, I took a bus from the town of Mora to the start. I felt good and excited. Weather was cool at about 14f, (-10C) but rose during the day to about 30f. (Just below 0C). My ambition was to complete the race, and not to worry about placing or time. Just to have a steady and comfortable pace and last the distance. Before start, I stayed in a heated area a little bit too long and ended up at the very back of my starting group. After leaving the starting field, there is a 1-mile-long hill and with all the skiers in front of

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 worked   and I s

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.  I finis

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