Heart surgery - tried to get fixed up, but no luck today!

In my family, it seems that I am the one who mostly attracts events that requires medical attention. As a boy, I don’t know how many times I had to get stitches in my head after falling and crashing into things. Two eye operations to correct eye sight, appendicitis removed and chipped teeth. Broken collarbone and a thumb as well. And now heart surgery. Thankfully, all has gone well and I have always come out stronger, and my spirit to see how far I can go has not disappeared yet…

Time to fix the heart! Last run before today's procedure.

Winter and Boston Marathon Training

As things have turned out, the main goal for the winter season training will be for Boston Marathon, taking place April 16^th 2018. That is 20 weeks from today, and that makes today the day when my official training program starts for the winter. I do have the intent to also do some triathlon competitions as well in 2018 – most importantly the 2018 Iron Man 70.3 World Championships in South Africa in September. This means that I will keep up in some form or shape the training in swimming and biking during the winter to not loose too much capacity in these areas. Last year I used winter to mainly build up my biking strength and work on my swimming, while maintaining a steady run program. As I will have a slightly different focus for the early season with the marathon being clearly an A-race, I will make some adjustments in the set-up.

Training program and new shoes to start off good!

Last winter my base week training had nine sessions – three runs, three swimming and three bike sessions. The program I will follow requires more running, so the overall plan right now is to do four or five runs per week, and keep two bike and swim sessions, keeping overall volume the same as last year (ten to twelve hours per week during high volume weeks). The good thing is that the Boston Marathon is fairly early in the season, which means that I can already early April start tapering down the running volumes and start increasing the bike training. It will be interesting to see how this shift will play out in my strengths and weaknesses in triathlon, I have so far been fairly equal in all three disciplies. In the end, I do believe that running is the key strength you need in triathlon – be a good and strong runner and you can make up tremendous amount of time and placements as other competitors fade late in the triathlon runs, especially on the longer distances. With that in mind, I think that the tough marathon program will help out in my triathlon development later during the season.

Race Summary 2017 and Looking Ahead to 2018

Race season 2017 is finally (?) over, and I am having major difficulties adapting to not being focused on my training. I had decided to take it easy during October to get some rest, and then restart structured training in November to start preparing for next season, but after two days of rest I just want get started again! It doesn’t make it easier to see my Instagram and Facebook feed get flooded of posts and pictures from Kona and my training buddies working it out in the pool. But I will stay strong and stick to my plan, just need to take a deep breath and enjoy and do things I have put aside during the last eleven months…

Overall, 2017 has been a success when it comes to training and racing. A year ago I put together a very ambitious plan for this year, and started tough training in November to be as prepared as I could. The training plan was set to nine sessions per week – three per discipline – with a volume of about 10-11 hours per week. With a full time job and kids, this was very ambitious and it required total and full focus to manage it and stick to the plan. There were many times during the year where I just wanted to quit and stop, but at the same time, when I have set my eyes on a goal it is not often that I don’t give it 110% to get there, especially if achieving the goal mainly depends on myself. I ended up with ten months of very consistent training, and it gave me the results I wanted.

I want more medals!

The Dreaded Long Distance Run!

Training during spring has progressed great, and except for 10 days with a cold, I have managed to follow my training program. This has meant three weeks with nine sessions per week (three each discipline) with a total of 10-12 hours, followed with one easier week at around 6-7 hours. Compared to last year I have a much more regular training flow, and by skipping cross country skiing this year, a much more consistent training in the triathlon disciplines. I also skipped training camp in Mallorca this year, so total hours is probably less compared to last year. Bike hours are also fewer, but last year my main training set-up during May was a very long group ride on the weekend (4-6 hours) and then only one extra ride per week - this as I then trained for Vätternrundan and was what I could squeeze in. Now I have more sessions and have used the trainer much more for more controlled efforts during training. I believe it is giving good results in power output, and I don’t need the 4+ hours rides for the distances I will compete in this year. I have also managed to keep a consistent swim schedule with three times per week (last year two) and also uninterrupted running since November. The feeling right now is that my overall physical state is slightly better than last year: I set a new PB in 1000m pool swimming in April, good pace on the bike on the longer runs and doing higher wattage indoors, and running feels great with a few PB’s on my training loops. Key – as always – will be to keep the consistency and stay away from injuries, especially while running. I am very happy with the set-up of reducing the effort on my long runs, keeping them at 4:50-5:00 pace, but maintaining high effort on the shorter runs, this seems to allow me to stay away from overtraining symptoms.

New shoes this year - Asics Nimbus

Running Fast in Your 40's - Injuries and Recovery

Around the time you turn 40, running becomes a little more exciting as you seriously must start to take into account the risk of injury. Gone are the days where going out on a run or increasing running load a lot just meant that you had to overcome some initial fatigue and soreness in your thighs afterwards. Around when you turn 40 terms like IT band, Runners Knee, Plantar Fasciit and the dreaded “Gubbvad” (old man’s calves – chronic muscle tear) are phrases you start googling about and try to avoid. I have had close experience with most of them…

As a younger man I did my share of running. A few half marathons at respectable time (1:40?), part of the cross country team in high school (bottom half…) and kept up my running to and fro once or twice a week as I approached my 40’s. In 2013 however (at the age of 42), I drastically change my training regime and increased it a lot, and quickly. My brother was going to run the Stockholm Marathon, so I took up running a little more seriously then at the same time. However, it didn’t take long until during one run I got what in Swedish is called “Gubbvad” (Old Man’s Calf) – a muscle tear in the calf. It feels like someone stabs a knife in your leg, and the only option is to limp back home... My brother told me to google “Gubbvad”, and at first I thought it was a joke… But alas, it was not! No running for a while, but the good thing is that I took up biking instead.

Muscle tear/rupture in the calf.

How to manage 10 hour training weeks

How do you fit in 8-10 hours of training per week in a normal life is a question I get quite often when I talk to non-triathlon friends and tell them what I dedicate my time and energy on. Well, for sure it is not easily done, but let me tell you how I structure my time to manage it.

So first of all, why 8-10 hours per week? Well, for me, a person who really doesn’t have an athletic background or real talent for doing sports (I was at best mediocre at school at athletics), it is the time I see required to build up a strong aerobic ability to do half ironman distance races at good times for my age group. I might maybe get off with less time, but training three disciplines in a constant fashion and getting the speed I look for (1:30 min/100m swim, 4:00 run pace and 36 km/hr bike speed) does require both volume and strength workouts. The training programs I follow means 2-3 sets per week in each discipline in average, which sums up to 7-8 sets per week, thus 8-10 hours per week in average. Some weeks less (5-6 hours), some more (15 hours).

Race schedule 2017 and start of training season

After some half hearted training during November, I have now managed to squeeze in two months of well structured and focused training, averaging about 40 hours per month, which is fairly high for myself. This year I am not doing Vasaloppet (cross country skiing), so I have been able to use that valuable training time to work on the triathlon disciplines. I have a target to improve my bike power mainly, while managing to maintain my run fitness over winter without injuries so I can start of at a good level when the outdoor season starts end of March.

I have also put quiet a lot of time in swimming, increasing to three sessions per week, to see if I can get some improvements in this area as well. That is much more difficult as it depends very much on technique, hence in January I have started swimming with a coach once per week. Lost of things to work on, and as a 45 year old it is difficult to change…
Training wise I am following more strictly now a four week block structure: three weeks of high volume (10 hours per week approximately) and then one week of reduced volume (5-6 hours) to build up strength and compensate. I have gone through three sets now, and can see at least some improvement in the biking with increased wattage, going from 250W to 290W on my 4 minute intervals. By following more strictly the four week structure I also hope the body will use the compensation weeks better to build up endurance and strength after the three weeks of hard workout. Looking at the development of training load/fatuigue and performance I have a much better development this year compared to 2016, so so far, so good!