Triathlon at Retirement

This is a bike race for the public and a few pro bikers in cooperation with the Tour de France organization. They have races in various cities all over the world. The first US race was in San Antonio last year, and as I live within easy driving distance, I joined for the training effect and the fun. This years race day was April 16.  I had first signed up for the long race of 100 miles, but I changed to 60 miles, because later in the year, I learned that the national championship in draft legal sprint triathlon was going to occur only 5 days later. I figured I could recover in time from a 60-mile race, but not a 100-mile. My training up to the race for the last month and half has been entirely focused on the sprint races.   The day was not too hot, but windy, up to 30 miles an hour gusts was in the forecast. I arrived early and got a perfect parking spot next to the venue, I kept all my gear in the car until it was time to line up for the race. Wise from my last race, I took a fairly a

TriDot is an online training program for triathlon that uses data collected from triathletes to customize training schedules for different individuals depending on their goals and fitness levels. I am a big fan of TriDot because the suggested training is based on the evaluation of previous results and knows what works, and what does not work. In January, I took up an offer from TriDot to try their training program for free for 2 months. It is all online. First, I had to put in basic information like my age, height and weight, how long I had been active and my goals and ambitions. Then I was asked to do a fitness evaluation in swim, bike and run and enter the results.  From this information, a detailed training schedule was generated. Each day is different, it is varied, and I think it looks very appropriate for myself. If you have one of the common brands of smart watch, your training data will be automatically uploaded, and depending on how you are doing, the training schedule will be

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