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 :)
Sunday, 19 January 2014
Monday, 13 January 2014
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!!
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!!
Sunday, 12 January 2014
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!
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!
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