My first ride!

Saturday morning I went out for my first oudoor bikeride on my beautiful Argon18. We were around 12 who drove out to the place called "Tyren" up north. All from the Fitnessdk TRI team. Great group of newbies and experienced. So I felt safe :-)

I have been waiting for so long for this first trip - that my expectations were sky high - and my nerves too! It was around 8 degrees outside - but sunshine! Within less than 10 minutes my fingers were very cold - and gave me a little more challenge on the shifter, than I needed. With questions like: Which one is the front brake? Why change to the big chainring? Where should I put my extra bicycle tube? Uahhhhh how do I easiest get out of the click pedal? I knew it would be a day where I would get best off listening to the experienced bikeriders - and just do my best to follow their pace and advice! And actually. It went really well.

90 km with both flat roads and small hills - great company - just a little snow (!!!! wtf) and lots of fresh air, beautiful landscapes - I had a perfect first ride! Thanks to all of you who made it a good day :-)

Bikefitting

Sunday I had an appointment with Kim Visby from Fit4Bike. He is a professional bikefitter and former pro triathlete.

With my 4 hour drive the day before I knew where the body was sore ... Good start for the perfect fit! He helped me choose aerobars, he mounted them and made my bikefit both for sitting in the aeroposition and normal position. Great job. And good learnings.

The film below shows me before the fitting - and afterwards.

I am looking forward to some amazing rides out in the spring with a lot of kind, helpful, funny, loving people.

See you out there!

Louise

A few lines on a Friday evening - in nerd mode!

Motivation:

With less than 5 months to go - motivation is still huge! Still sooo much to learn! Training is getting more on schedule. I try to train smarter and optimize every session as training volume increases. Now around 10-12 hours a week.

For the last couple of months I have’nt been able to look further than August 14. But suddenly new challenges appears in my mind. ½ IM Lazarote? Marathon somewhere in Europe… time will show. Challenge Copenhagen is not THE mountain to pass any more … but something on my way J I think these new thoughts appear while triathlon training becomes more a lifestyle, than "just" training. Its a good feeling.

Gear:

I feel very geeky! Once a week a box arrives at work... With some nerd gear. This will be my new best friend I hope ...

Swim:

Status. Last TT test. 1000 m with finns: 0:14:22

Improvements sure – but still so much to learn.

Swim stronger, faster and smarter seems to hook me. Swim training increases with 100% for the next weeks. Program says 5 times a week. … Looking forward to some really dry skin …:-/

But since its my weakest disciplin right now I need to build up strength here. Coach Mark Saus expects me to improve my strenght in the core muscles, my mobility in shoulders and lower back. Some few exercises have found their way to my daily evening program...

And they are pretty simple – but since training gives me a strong sleeping heart, I need some reminders, before I take of at night … Rotations and kicking!

Bike:

It has been f****** snowing – AGAIN! Time for outdoor biking has been deferred … Still building up with the indoor classes about 5h a week. In 3 weeks I am leaving for Club La Santa – weheeee - and the training schedule shows a lot of km in the mountains – so I better get my self prepared!

Another preparation is handling a puncture! Oh man! Am I glad that I vent to the “How to change a bike tire … YES”. Fitnessdk TRI team was invited by AH Cykler to come watch and learn. And it was actually a lot of fun. And a big pleasure - in the end - to THROW THAT TIRE ON!! Don’t mess with me, your little impish fellow! What seemed to be SOOOOO easy, when the bike mechanics did it, was very difficult. But we did it!!! And of course. I ended up buying puncture free tires!!

Running:

Nike Marathon test 2 - 15km - with almost a steady pace of 5 min/km. It was my best finish of 15k so fare. Finish time: 1:19:45

The day before I biked for 3h followed by 1ok run - so I was happy and satisfied doing that pace with tired legs.

During the run i got another experience since my watch suddenly stopped! I could´nt see the pace holders so I decided just to listen to my body and run on the feeling. Great learning that I actually followed my pace, just on the feeling.

My sofa misses me - I better take care of it now.

Love, L

Great learnings

Over the past couple of weeks so many great things have happend – but I have had so little time left to write about it. But now the time is back.

With a couple of weeks with really busy workdays, that requires heavy amounts of hours, I have had a challenge doing my trainings. But somehow it all worked out – since I dont mind getting up early for trainings. Training around 10 hours a week seems to give energy – even though they have to be squeezed into som hard workdays. Actually. I think it has become a drug to me.

Good nutritions

A few weeks ago I participated in a 3h indoorbike event with the TRI-team. 70 triathletes side by side working and sweating hard, in a hot smelly room kind of gives me the creeps thinking of it. But once I get onto that bike and gets the engine started I love every single second of it!! Its such a great feeling sitting there – getting stronger, working for the dream! Everybody in that room have a challenge infront of them. And we all somehow participate in eachothers dream. We are racing each other, compairing and racing harder! Thats how we get better! And with coach Rørbæk shouting one more millimeter, keep going and ” now the girls are sprinting” go get them – makes me go even faster!

My main focus that day was to keep an eye on my nutritions – feel the reactions on my body, when my energy was low – and how it felt when it was fully loaded. BIG changes.

In the beginning I thought Rørbæk was crazy – asking the crowd to put in energy every 2o minutes. But I followed. Learning. Believing.

During 3h I consumed:

2L high5 isotonic energy drink, 3L water, 1 redbull, 1 banana, 2 energy bars, 4 gels! It seems impossible to run with those amounts of liquid and food in the stomack – but no. I felt great after 3h hard training – eager to get out in the sun and see how the legs would feel.

We ran 12k afterwards – and if it was’nt so goddammit cold, I guess I would have continued for at least 5 more! I was very surprised. My nutritions must have been well disposed. Succes.

Simulating open water IM swim start

The weekend after we had a ”Ironman openwater swinstart event” in Kildeskovshallen. 45 people in wetsuits – 5 women and 40 REALLY BIG AND TALL MEN! Just a little bit terrifying … I felt REALLY small.

With swim coach Mark Von Vogel and Mark Aaron Saus in the control seat, we were trained like soldiers! Their focus were to get us all breathless, stressed, tired and THEN simulating the swim start. Imagine. Go as fast as you can for 50m, get out of the water, run along the pool side, jump in, and repeat! Repeeeeeat! For 10 minutes. My lungs howled for air. I felt a bit dizzy. But did it. Over and over again. Thinking. Hang in there honey … they must have a reason for this!

By the end of the 60min training session we were split in half. Everybody hanging in the edge of the pool … gasping for air … The coaches asked us to put our heads under water – hold our breath for 20 second!(f***) – and then come up over the water – and put off like if it was the swim start of and IM! People kicked, tore and pulled like crazy! It was wild. Big heavy men swam on top of me, and I could’nt do anything but try to keep myself above water! It was brutal! But, great. Suddenly I understood the former excises. Just go. Dont think. Swim! The day after I had bruises on my body – proving that I gave all I had! Succes. Great learnings. Great experience.

Learning from bad trainings

Last weekend we had another 3h indoorbike event. This time I prepared myself for a minitri. Starting with 1200m swim. Bad swim! Mental challenge, that day. My goggles were broken, and I got lots of water in them. I have never felt this before, but it made me very dizzy and somehow seasick. Dammit. I struggled with my dissapointment. (I had put my mind into swimming 2k), knew I had to go for 3h bike and 15k run.

Unfortunately I got an injury on the front of the thigh – on my way out of the swimming pool!! Doing some sort of stupid jump! So the biking was a little tough. But I could’nt quit! Needed to do it. Thinking of the lecture of the week with the TRI-team: Motivation. There will be bad days, and there will be good days. Learn from the bad days – that will make it easier to do great days and avoiding those things that tricks you mind, and telling you to quit! Always go a little further.

During the 3h I experienced the lack of energy. The first hour I felt tired, powerless … stressed about my leg. Coach Rørbæk told us over and over again to fill up with energy – we needed to get at least 1500 calories during the 3hour session! Thats a lot when one gel is 150 calories! – and those of us who had been swimming was already behind … that answered why I felt tired. I could’nt believe that little swim could eat up that much energy – but it could. Suddenly I understood the importance of a continuously intake of energy, when you are training hard.

New swim coach

The last new great thing in my training is, that my little swimteam have got a new coach, Mark Aaron Saus. Thanks to Mark Von Vogel for training us so fare J – we have learned a lot from you! – and we are happy that you introduced us to Mark Saus – so that we can continue getting better!

Mark Saus is from Australia, have 15 years of coaching and a lot of impressive references that made me think: Why do you want to coach me?!?! I am already a fan of you, and I believe in you philosophy: Swim smarter, stronger, faster!

Out for now – heading for new exciting experiences. Keep going!!!!