Ironman St. George - Mormon Waterloo?

So, after 3 weeks of tapering (yuk I hate tapering), a big trip through San Francisco, & Las Vegas we finally arrived in our mega SUV to our mega condo in St. George Wednesday before the race. Mood was high, we rested and hydrated well. Got kinda scared when we drove the race course and checked-in - got numbers painted on the arms.

I had good really sensations, and it appears that I finally got rid of the pains in the achilles & calves, so was anxious to get started on Saturday morning, though temperatures where rising towards 35 degrees in the blazing desert-sun!

The swim was in a big and beautiful water reservoir - water temp. 17 degrees, blue skies and 2000 athletes in the water. I actually like the water start and I must say that the Americans was amazing - some people even stopped to say "sorry" if they hit you during the swim. So quickly found a good rhythm just outside of the main front pack. Already after around 500m I started to feel a bit too exhausted, which was strange... my breath and stroke was controlled, though I was kinda cold. Shortly after the first cramps kicked in, but I discarded it, kept swimming. More exhaustion and much more cramps had me stop to stretch a few times - got a bit off track and felt very tired and unmotivated. Exited the water and got shocked realizing that I had spend a record 1h18m swimming, more than 15 minutes more than expected - got the mood a bit further down!

Good transition and nice start on the bike... for around 20km. Hurling down one of the first hills at around 80km/h I realize that my handlebar is loose!! But the support and organization around the race was amazing so quickyl found a allen-key and continued. Hydrated well in the extremely warm & dry conditions, but really felt no power coming from my legs. Kept around 35km/h for the first 50km and then more cramps entered before the first climbs. Had nausea all the way through the bike, with no appetite and couldn´t take any gels or bars, so stuck to bananas. Loads of people passing me on the hills of the scenic route - I couldn't even maintain the aero-position on the flat parts on the course. It was honestly a tough struggle to even get through the first 100km, where I met Anders & Monica(cheering), who let me know that Guillermo was as bad as myself. The last round was a joke - I had elderly, overweight women (sorry, no pun intended) overtaking me on even smaller climbs - almost throwing up when I hydrated or ate and cramped the most weird places (hips, lower arms). Tried to enjoy the show, but coming down the last hill I could see the runners and the thought of a marathon in 40 degrees and 700m climbs was unbearable. Anders told me that Guillermo had decided to drop out, which was somewhat a relief. Coming into T2 he greeted me with a smile and we brought the refs the bad news and picked up our bags.

Of course a huge disappointment, but one that I can live with. Today I am still as exhausted as after a full e.g. IM Lanzarote, so feel I did what I could. We trained well and rested and tapered, following the same recipes as any other IM. I can´t find one good explanation of the lack of power and really prefer to leave it behind as an experience and lesson learned! Could be the dry climate, the heat, maybe jetlag... who knows.

The race was won at a new male record 8h32m and my age group improved its Kona qualifying time by almost 30 minutes, which will probably be around 10h05m.

Now another week of vacation in Las Vegas & California road trip awaits, so the mood is all good! IM Zurich awaits the 10th of July. Take care and enjoy this weekend!

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

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!!!!

Just a heap of crap carbon

Photo from yesterday´s time trial training. 4 hours with two 20km pushes at full throttle.
Must admit I was pretty burned on the second interval - after 7 hours on the bike the day before.

8 beautiful Argon 18 bikes. Mostly E114 but also a few E112