Friday tempo

Work week ended with a swift tempo session on a well known route. I've been using Strava for a brief time now and thus far only on a few sessions, but it seems to be a fantastic application. A lot of fun and useful analysis tools, and it is a social media at the same time, you may share your rides with friends. The app picks up road stretches under way and you can make your own PB:s on them and compare to everyone who has ridden them who also are Strava users. I have not had the time to study it in detail before, but after digging into it a bit more today I will use it more for sure! 

Today's ride on Strava

Tuesday swim session was a bit of a disaster as I realized myself being unrecovered. So, after two rest days, following notifications on today's ride: Speed is increasing slowly but steadily, and with it confidence is rising. Luckily the spring came perhaps a bit earlier this year so I have been able to log more miles than at the same time last year, which is fantastic. I am starting to after the winter break again coming used to my old steed, posture on the bike is getting better, more relaxed, cadence swifter and riding technique overall more economic as fitness grows. No more bad back or bottom aching (of course always some though). Good signs!

Tomorrow I am planning on a relaxed spinning session, and on sunday awaits a long ride, should break 100k finally for the first time this year. 

Lovely easter

Easter gave a fantastic opportunity to both train and relax away from the normal. For the whole week it was just me and Tarmo our english bull terrier at home, as my wife was spending the easter in Finland visiting relatives and friends. 

Apart from thursday I think, the weather has also been fabulous, hence I and I guess most of us being busy with triathlon or cycling, have been clocking big hours in the saddle. My week also included a bit of running and a few gym sessions, so no super-long rides still but a few 55-70k rides and a total of approx 300k in the week feels good, not too much but enough for now. A lot of people have travelled to the south to Mallorca etc., and logged a lot bigger volumes, so we'll see some guys in impressive shape come summer's races, that's for sure!

Next weekend as I mentioned in my last post, there's a 10k race which I probably will participate in, despite having had some achilles aches last couple of weeks, and have thus reduced my running to a minimum not to do any more damage. It should get fine with a few more days rest. 

Status quo?

Just as anticipated, end march-start april has been extremeley busy on the work front. That is the situation each and every year in the business I work, and the last three weeks has included some days with almost round-the-clock working and travelling. It is a minor setback for the training, and not optimal even recovery-wise as there were some loong days and a couple of late dinners... but that's life, and I guess common for most of us who are recreational athletes, so we just have to deal with it. 

In the limited time that I had the last two weeks I managed to get 4 hours of training in each. Not much but better than nothing. 

Status quo is: swimming I will continue to go on our club's tuesday sessions, not much more than that, bike volumes have to go up soon and quite a bit so, running seems to be fine, that I have the absolute most confidence in now. Even with a bit of inconsistancy in the training I have no problem in clocking quite fast km:s no matter the distance. In two weeks there is sentrumsløpet 10k run in which I am planning to participate, to find out a bit more of my speed reserves. I am confident to do very near the 40 min mark and will at least give a shot at trying to break that magic mark. 

The real season opener Hove triathlon is 62 days away, so time is running fast now. The objective is to start the season where I ended the last one, by making a new PB, now it is only a matter of some regimented training to be able to toe the start line knowing I am able to do so! 

Standing still

Last couple of weeks have been terrible. Was in an ok flow with the training, when I made the stupidest gym session in a haste in the middle of a hectic work day. 45 minutes of circuit training with weights, and in one of the last deadlift repeats something in my back snapped. I immediately noticed it, and since it has happened sometime before, I calmly waited for the pain to come. Lumbago.

 This happened last tuesday and I was forced to rest of course. Lumbago symptoms ususally heal in 2-4 days, and rightly so on thursday I was already on the treadmill, although the pain was far from over. Exercise, albeit it may be painful as you do it, eases the symptoms afterwards. But they came back the next day. Saturday I still went for a bike ride, the first of the season, just could not resist it as the weather was perfect. The ride went ok, kept it shortish with approx. 1½ hours. But the next day I was dying from back pain again. So I have now had two days totally off, and it is driving me crazy to have had a few un-organized training weeks and now really low hours the last and this week. 

Today however, for the first day, the symptoms are almost all gone, and i shall go to our clubs tuesday swim session. Also swimming has not been on the schedule for about a month now, which really does not bother me that much, but of course I need to increase pool time significantly, but apart from that swimming should be the smartest form of exercise now for my back. 

Time flies by, and we are 3 months away from the first race at Hove triathlon, and only 5 months away from Kalmar Ironman, and it suddenly feels like a really short span of time. But if I get the back healed and the training back on track, with outdoor biking starting seriously, we should be just fine. 

spontaneous 5k PB

Today I went to do a bike-run session at the gym, which was supposed to be an easy one, which it was, until I after some 40 minutes of pedalling went to the treadmill, aiming to finish off with a 20 min run. You know how it often goes.. in 20 min I can do 5k.. and the tempting thing on these treadmills is that there is a fixed "5k"- button.. so I  hit it and speeded up to 16,5 km/h at once. Off we went, sometimes when you just feel like it, you go. "I can make it sub 19min, can't I...?" It was a bit painful but I held on, had to adjust down a bit and then back up again to finish as strongly as I could manage, and finished off in 18:30. I have actually never done a 5k all-out test, so this is now my "official pb", albeit on a threadmill. Would be very hard on the street, on track it should be manageable. Have to try it at some point. 

This was maybe not ideal for my barely recovered legs.. but nice to have one power session made for the week. Rest of the week will be easier, with focus on sunday long run. 

I have been thinking to try a spring marathon at Holmestrand marathon, which is 6 weeks from now. I may not be in record shape but very close. The smart thing to do would be to just run it as a long training session sub-4 hours, did that 2 years ago preparing for Ironman Nice and it worked great. So let's see what the following weeks bring and we'll be smarter about that!

Rest day - at last!

I kicked off the new year with a fair portion of training, as january consisted of 50 hours of activity. Today is the first complete rest day in 36 days..! Last week was scheduled for a lighter recovery week, but as the snow has kept pouring down, there was no leaving the skis unused! Hence this week i skied home from work every day, and last week 4 days out of five. It just is a great deal of fun, plus fantastic all round training for your body and you get to enjoy the nature. We usually do it together with my boss, and nothing beats beating a norwegian on skiis on his home soil :D but this casual after-work skier is a tough nail I can tell you... :) So the last week too the hours stacked up to a bit more than planned, but intensity was kept on the easier side for most part and included some weight work as well. Anyway, this week started a new 3 week building block, but yesterday I felt quite tired on the skiis so today was definitevely time for rest. Tomorrow we're heading out on an easy sunday skitrip with my wife, so starting next week energy levels should be up again. 

I have decided to almost certainly not participate in any crosscountry skiing competition this year. I did the Birkebeinerrennet last year, and Finlandiahiihto the year before, which are both fantastic and massive events, and good tests to see your endurance level this time of the year. This year anyhow, I don't see it necessary in that regard, nor am I that a super-enthusiastic (no to mention skilled..) skiier, so I'll just keep on skiing for the training sake of it. One fun detail, I got to have a brief chat with legend Juha Mieto at Finlandiahiihto two years ago and there should be a photo of us in an earlier post :) what a great man. And he's HUGE!! :) 

Just watched the Ironman TV- episode from Kalmar last year, nice to get a closer look at the venue I will make my second full distance next summer! It sure is flatter and cooler than Nice where I made my debut, but I sure got the goose bumps and the humbling feeling towards the distance again. We've got a long way to go, but as of now, things are really well on track! 

Base period second block: done! + A new challenge never met before..

A successful three weeks ends today and I have managed to get in the planned hours, ending with this week consisting of 13,5 hours of various training. Might be the biggest volume I have ever had in a week's time, and I have managed to balance the training and intensity mix so that I actually feel quite fresh. But next week is recovery week and I hope to already now see a increase in fitness after next week. I think I will include a 5km test run or something similar, plus a weight test another day, and do a follow up 4 weeks later to see the progress.  

I am going to keep this year's training scheme quite simple and go with the 3+1 system throughout the season, only to vary intensity coming towards race season, and of course bearing in mind taper periods leading up to the most important races. 

This weekend there was finally enough snow, and I got to log five hours of cross-country skiing. It just amazes me every time, how effective of training it is, and what a lot of fun too! And being out deep in the forests enjoying the silence and beautiful nature, there just aren't many things that can beat it. Truly rewarding spiritually as physically. 

I just got another task as well. My beloved wife got her first road bike last summer, and is eager to participate in the Lillehammer-Oslo leg of Det store styrkeprøvet, which is by far the biggest one day road bike competition for all ages and levels. It consists of 190km and we will bike it together, but first we have got around 20 weeks to get fit enough to safely manage through the race, which certainly is not a walk in the park, I myself struggled massively in the ending parts of the same race last year, out of energy supplies and being far from my summer peak fitness.. but the motivation seems to be there, and that is half you need, now I will schedule a simple training frame to get her on track and to ease the training by having focus on given tasks and training runs. We'll start with focus on proper technique to get the routine to sink in, then it will be much more comfortable to take the training outdoors once the snow is gone, and she'll have with her a solid fitness base to build on towards the race. A really fun and interesting new challenge actually, as I have no "coaching" experience for others than myself up to now :)   

Old name lives on

It seems I would have to get my own domain if I wish to re-address the blog permanently. Let's see if I ever bother to do that, so for now the url stays unchanged. 

Let's have a brief update on where we are at the moment, and in the near future I'll post some more on my background. The big goal this year is Ironman Kalmar in Sweden. It will be my 2nd full distance after a satisfying debut 2012 at Ironman Nice. It was very much a learning adventure as I at the time still was quite fresh to the sport, and I feel much more confident today, having gained some training routines and knowledge, plus a bunch of olympic- and half-iron races the last season. 

One dream got fulfilled last summer at Ironman 70.3 Haugesund, where I had a sub-5 hour performance as I aimed for. With the smallest of margin, 26 seconds though :) . Anyhow, it was my perfect race to date as I had a carefully thought-through game plan which I managed to execute flawlessly, apart from an awful swim. The result came with quite low training volumes and intensity, I think I made up for the lack with a successful peak and taper period. If I learned something from last season, it would be that you can do A LOT with good planning and thoughtful preparation. 

We are now naturally in base season, where volumes and intensity are slowly increasing. I have included som weight work as well, which I have not done, at least in a proper manner, for years. It seems to give fast results (should run a test soon to see if it really has), and with an emphasis on leg and core workouts, I hope to see some improvement in bike power and endurance, to be transitioned to a smoother run as well. A stronger core hopefully also helps to maintain proper swim technique, but that is more to learning the technique itself first... my biggest weakness by far, still. 

So this week is the third week of a 3+1 block, where ideally you should increase volumes the first three weeks and the last is rest week. Hence the differentiation 3+1. The last two weeks consisted of almost exactly the same hours, 9 in each so the ideal textbook thingie did not work out there but it really is not of big relevance to me, just log the hours needed and listen to your body. That formula seldom fails. Anyhow this week I am aiming for around 14 hours and throwing in some intensity work as well, as motivation is on top and training right now is sinking in really well. Then we have next week to recover with lighter training and muscle maintenance etc. 

My goal for Kalmar Ironman is boldly to go as near as possible and preferably, sub 10 hours. I sure have my work cut out for me, so let's keep it going!! 

Welcome to my renewed blog!

Dear reader,

which at this point will mostly include myself. Hopefully soon others as well, both old and new readers. Welcome.

This blog of mine, formerly known as Project Ironman 2012, has undergone renaissance. As the "project" in the original headline got fulfilled, well, at the year mentioned in the original headline, the headline itself was long overdue aged and of no relevance any longer. Hence the renaming of the blog. The other big change is, obviously that I now am writing in english. This is something I have had on my mind for a long time, and decided to do it to perhaps gain some more readers, and since I am living in Norway since 2 years now and active here, there might be some norwegians who would like to understand my blog. I would really rather write in finnish or norwegian, but I also do want to keep my finnish readers. So the universal world language of our times (blah :p), english it is. And if it would help to attract readers from wherever, that would be nice. But first and foremost this is kind of a "diary" for me and an outlet valve for my thoughts when I get the sudden inspiration to write something. That being said you are free to reference to or share the blog if you so wish. 

I will not detail much more of myself here, as the most of my "bio" can be seen in on the right side box. I would love to have my earlier posts available for you to read, but that obviously requires that I translate each and one of them and I am not sure if I have the time nor motivation for it.. but one thought is to bring up one old post every now and then translated, so to say a "best of" series of the earlier stuff. There are some posts through which you could get a better hold of who I am and what my journey has been thus far in the world of endurance sports and most of all triathlon of course. 

This is the last post which is posted under the old address, to help get you old readers along to the new address in the future. See you all at IronLife.blogspot.com!

Teräksistä uutta vuotta 2014

Sen mukana nopea yhteenveto menneestä vuodesta, ja ajatuksia tulevasta lähinnä urheilullisesta näkökulmasta :) 

2013 oli loppujen lopuksi yhtä suurta menestystarinaa mitä tulee kunnon ylläpitoon ja erilaisista sporttikoitoksista selviytymiseen. Kuten aiemmissa kirjoituksissakin on jo tullut todettua, tuli ennätykset kaikilla eri matkoilla joihin osallistuin. Tänä vuonna ei ollut täysmatkaa, ei myöskään sprinttiä, joten niistä tulevana vuonna seuraavat noteeraukset tiedossa. Alla tänä vuonna syntyneet enkat, myöskin itselle myöhemmin helposti löydettäväksi referanssiksi:

Triathlon perusmatka 2:28:05 (Tuddal triahlon)
puolimatka 4:59:34 (Ironman 70.3 Haugesund)

Puolimaraton 1:32:00 (epävirallinen, oma mittaus)
Maraton 3:23:56 (Oslo maraton)

Lisäksi ohjelmassa oli Lillehammer-Oslo pyöräily 190km ja Birkebeinerrennet 54km hiihto. Kummatkin ohjelmassa myös tulevana vuonna, ensinmainitussa saanen kunnian olla vaimon veturina hänen ensimmäisessä pitemmässä pyörilyssään. Vähän koutsin hommia siis tiedossa myös, mukavaa!

Ajallisesti Garmin Connectiin logattua treeniaikaa kalenterivuonna 2013 302:44 tuntia, joka on 20 tuntia vähemmän kuin 2012. Eritoten tähän suht vähäiseen tuntimäärään peilaten olen erittäin tyytyväinen. Enemmän harjoitustunteja olin kiikaroinut saavani kasaan, 2014 tavoitellaan n. 400 tuntia, joskaan määrä ei minulle koskaan ole itseistarkoitus vaan laatu ja monipuolisuus. Vuodelle 2014 on hyvä tässä taas huudella jotain tavoitteita, niin on takaraivossa sekin motivaattorina :) 

Cooper enkka (ei juostua cooperia 2012-2013, ennätys vuodelta 2011 3270m)
Puolimaraton < 1:30
Maraton < 3:15
Triathlon sprinttimatka < 1:10
Triathlon persumatka < 2:20
Triathlon puolimatka < 4:45 
Triathlon täysmatka < 10h 

Vuosi tuli nippuun erinomaisella joulukuulla johon kuului treeniä hyvin monipuolisesti 37:45 h. Motivaatio on hyvällä tasolla, huolimatta lumen puutteesta, hiihtokauden aloitusta on odoteltu kärsimättömästi, nyt vaan odotellaan, tulee sitä lunta jossain vaiheessa kuitenkin. Olihan jo yksi kiva tunturiviikonloppu jona pääsi vähän fiilistelemään sentään. Voimaharjoittelua ollut myös ohjelmassa marras-joulukuun pikkasen, ja styrkkaa on kyllä tullut ja tulee lisää. Elopaino per tänään 73kg, ei ole ainakaan juoksu- eikä muuhunkaan vauhtiin vaikuttanut negatiivisesti, päinvastoin. Kesän kisahuipuissa lieni 68 kg hujakoilla. 

Todennäköisesti myös blogin nimi + osoite muuttuu piakkoin, ei ihan ole enää ajankohtainen tämä nykyinen :) katsotaan sitä myöhemmin kun hyvä nimi keksitty ja toivottavasti te harvat lukijat löydätte sinnekin! Aina on tervetullutta enempi kommentointi ja keskustelu, täälläpäin kovasti tulee myös suomen tri-sceneä seurattua ja vanhoja kilpakumppaneita tsempattua!

Ei muuta kun hyvää ja menestyksekästä treenivuotta 2014 kaikille!