Training camp at Lanzarote

Not experienced – but still much more experienced than a month ago!

Since I am such a newbie, in this sport, I actually on a weekly basic take quantum leaps! Every ride outside gets me more confident with the bike, the shifters, biking with others and suddendly there is also room for actually enjoing the landscape. It is a true pleasure getting out on the country , riding through small villages, see large green fields instead of noise cars and concrete jungles! People were talking all winter during training about hitting the roads – now I know why. Its truely amazing rolling out in the sunshine in the early mornings!

Fitnessdk TRI training camp at Club La santa Sport

My training camp at Club Lasanta Sport / Lanzarote was great. A group of 30 people from Fitnessdk TRI went together to push some limits – train hard with a main focus on bike and swim. I was very excited since it was my first trip to the island and also my first experience with REAL mountains AND heavy wind. And we met both. Hard!

The stunning volcano landscape and sunny weather was fantastic company on the approximately +500 km we drove during the 6 days of biking. Learning to climb those mountains without burning out, cycling fast down the mountains without thinking too much of if ... I realised I would come off better, if I did’nt fear the downhill too much. In the beginning my hole body became stiff going downhill – and it sort of messed it all up. Over the days I became more relaxed, but certainly aware! Putting yourself in aeroposition on the bike and just drive out in the warm sun is addictive!

First open water swim!

Our focus on swimming was more specific on open water swimming. Again a new thing. And as all new things in my life, I want to start of good and well prepared – otherwise I loose my confidence. Unfortunately. That happend.

My first swim in the lagune at Lasanta was around 700m. I did it. Because I was told to do it. But I was not prepared. So getting back at the beach I realised what I just did – and suddenly I became very scared of it. Like reacting afterwards. Imagine. The water was more green than blue. I could NOT see my hands infront of me. Swim against the tide in the water, and not being able to navigate … It was so very salty that it almost made me throw up (but learning me to keep that mouth closed)!

I knew it would be one of the big challenges to do the open water swim … but not in this way with fear! After so many hours in the pool, I knew I could trust my swim skills … But oh no I freaked out! Broke into tears! What happend! So very dissapointed of not having a good beginning, I decided to use my best veapon. Stubbornness.

The day after I put the water checkmate, with help from the kindest people from the team. Could’nt have done it without you! Throwing myself out there again – eventhough the tears filled up my goggles J That damn water should’nt steal my dream!

During the week I had great swims – some milestones passed! Feeling ok with the water – just need to work on not doing the zig zag swimming ;-)

I also got through my first mini-triathlon (... making the real thing very real!)

Swim(400m): 00:07:35 / Bike(18k): 00:34 / Run(4,6k): 00:22:12

All the days in Spain were fantastic! I would do it all again if I was told to :-)

Always something new to learn - bike fit with Fit4bike

As you may know, I have been riding the E114 with more of less the same bike fit or riding position since November 2010. I cut a few spacers out and lowered the handlebar to a pretty aggressive position, which initially caused me some pain in my shoulders. All change takes some time to get used to, so I have been doing many kilometers, training for IM St. George in this position and now finally find that I am almost there. Sunday I was 2.5 hours in aero position in the ICAN Marbella race with no pain and feeling really good, but you can always learn more.

Inspired by Louise, I found out that the Danish branch of Fit4bike was an ex-colleague from my years studying as an Engineer, Kim Visby - former professional triathlete and now co-owner of Fit4bike.

By exchanging a few videos with Kim, I quickly learned that a few changes was required:

1. My left leg is longer than my right leg - compensate by putting spacers under right cycle shoe ... I am now riding with 6mm under that shoe. Also I made sure that the shoes are now as far apart as possible.
2. My elbows needs to be further out in front - Kim suggested 1-2 cm, but will try 3cm as this is the next option the Argon18 E114 bike gives me. This is is somewhat a small weakness on this bike, as it has no stem - frame, handlebar and fork is fully integrated.

So with only 4 weeks to go to Ironman St. George it is of course a calculated risk to play with these settings, but I have full confidence, that the advice will help me. Worst case, I can change it back before race day.

It is truly a pleasure to work with such a competent person as Kim. As we´re both engineers educated from the same institute, its easy to understand and adapt to the Fit4bike-way of seeing the body as a machine, which can work optimally, given the right conditions on the bike!

I can strongly recommend working with Fit4bike which has office in Denmark and Spain (Madrid and Canary Islands) - find all contact details on their web, right here: www.fit4bike.com

Check new comtemporary fit here:

Half Ironman ICAN Marbella - Not a Jedi yet

Finally time for first race in 2011 - important as preparation for Ironman St. George the 7th of May. The company could not be better & jolly, traveling with Monica & Guillermo, arriving to Marbella late Friday night.

Saturday meeting and greeting friends from Denmark, Barcelona and earlier races, some race-thoughts re-established themselves:

1. I have frankly never really given a shit about time. Being serious about the sports in which I have competed, be it: golf, football, climbing or even skateboarding - it has always been more a quality thing over a pressure to push time, race against the clock and the field. This is all new to me, but a crucial necessity to learn and master, if we wanna make it through to the 7 or 8 (i.e. finishing in 7th or 8th place in my age group) slots that will give us a ticket to Ironman Hawaii, Kona. Guillermo is WAY more competitive (with some 300 tri-races completed) than myself on this aspect and I still have a lot to learn.
   
   
2. Triathlon is a fantastic sport when it comes down to meet amazing people. There´s an almost-family-like feeling about the lunches and dinners or even to the "can-i-borrow-your-pump" on race morning. Great to meet Danish pros Jens & Aleksandar- admirable down-to earth attitude and making us proud on Sunday, finishing 5th & 7th respectively! Good work guys - keep it up!
   

Sun hasn´t even gotten up, so its still fairly twilight-ish when we (400 participants) jump onto the 1900m swim. Can´t see much yet, arms and legs everywhere - have to stop a few times, recover my goggles and cap that gets torn off at the 3rd buoy. Honestly feel pretty bad (panic may be the best word) in the water and I never find a good rhythm or fast pair of feet to draft behind, so I guess I can´t complain much about the 32 mins.

On the bike the heavy clouds are lurking over us and we reach a 4 lane highway with rolling hills after about 10km. with only one (1) day of tapering, I am sure I am still fairly tired, but my legs feel like on fire and I easily chase down a big bunch of people, both on the climbs and down-hill. It´s truly a great joy to be on top of the E-114 and just pounding past strong bikers. I fuel well and feel awesome, even after swallowing at least a gallon of seawater in the swim! It´s starts raining, but its all OK, just be more careful in the slippery round-abouts. Uncertain about the total climb, but probably around 800-900m. Off the bike after 2h35m - only 2.50m slower than Guille (aka Obi-Wan), who around this time was in 11th place - amazing, taking the pro-field (of some 25 pros) into consideration.

Pacing pretty hard on the run with a friendly German called Stephan - we make it to around the 12km mark at a pace around 4:10 km/km - faster than I would have imagined, after not running for 3-4 weeks (injury) and pounding so hard on the bike. My hope (of course) was to catch Guille, but with 9 km to go, he was still around 4 mins. in front of me - mission impossible. There´s always a bill to be paid and I dropped the pace to around 4:50 for the last 5km, finding the great excuse that it was "probably the best for my achilles" (which of course is bullshit). The tendon is a bit sore this morning, but I feel OK and I hope I am now fully recovered for last 2-3 weeks of training before tapering for St. George. Finishing in 4h48m!

All in all a great race and experience - and a few news lessons learned:

• Training open water swim before the race would have helped me in the water. Definitely swimming Barceloneta these next few weeks - anybody in?
  
• Pacing better on the run would have given me a slightly better position, but not as much fun (and fear on Guillermo´s face, when we met the first time :-)
• I have learned a lot on the bike - thanks to all the good people who have been bearing with me and waiting on every hill top for the last few years!
• ICAN Triathlon again proves to be amongst the best-in-class, when it comes down to organizing and executing races! Thanks!
  

See all results here:
Photos and videos to be posted soon...

Love - T