Back online!

Okay, so it has been a while since I last updated my blog...Lots of reasons, lots of excuses, but the fact is that there wasn't much to write.

After the marathon, I took a few weeks off training - both to ensure that I didnøt get injured from training too hard after the race, but also because I didn't really feel like training. The Marathon was the last race of the season, and there is at least 6 month until my next race....I wasn't in a hurry to get back into training...

The training started for real again last week, and I'm slowly getting into the training rhythm. Spinning, running, turbo trainer sessions, swimming and core training... These are all slowly getting organised again.

It is funny how easy it is to loose form... While the running is okay, I'm finding the spinning sessions far harder than before the break...There is a lot of fitness that needs to be build again.

This break has also allowed me to have a good think about my race limiters, and the conclusions have surpriced me a bit. This also means that I will change my focus slightly in the spring to encompas these findings.

What I came up with was, that my two greatest limiters are: Swimming (no surprise) and Cycling endurance (this was a surprise). I have always considered myself to be a strong cyclist - and I still think I am. But, what occured to me was that I lack the endurance required to keep up the pace and form over 112 Miles - and that needs some work. The lack of endurance, I found have meant that I have been struggeling in the latter parts of the bike and on the run.

So, more longer distance - endurance training for me and more turbo training sessions. Swimming - more volume and more technique required.

I have also started looking more closely at what races to enter in 2007. Obviously, the overall goal is still a good performance at the Austrian Ironman, but this race is in July, and I need to find smaller races before that to fine tune the 'race enginee'. I have found a few interesting races - and I will update my racing calendar shortly.

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Technorati Tags: Ironman, 2007, Racing Calendar, Turbo Training, Lost form, Swimming

Ironman Hawaii

Yesterday, I spent most of the day and night watching the Ironman World Championchip transmitted live from Hawaii. The Ironman is probably not the most suitable sport for live television (with a race lasting over 8 hours), but luckily everything was transmitted live on www.ironman.com.

The 6.45 am hawaii time start meant that I had to stay up until 3am local to see the race finish. It become a very close call, with the winner Norman Stadler finishing unly a little more than a minute before the first runner up; Chris McCormack.

This year, I had no pre race favorite, as my usual favorites vere not racing this year (Reid and Sindballe), so it was interesting to follow the race as it unfolded. I enjoyed seeing McCormack finally having a successful race in Hawaii, but as a cyclist myself, seeing Stadler win was also enjoyable, as it proved (again) that the race can be won on the bike..

In the womens race, my pre-race favorite (Badman) did not have a good race and eventually finished outside the top-5 with Michellie Jones winnning (just as most people predicted).


The timing of the World Championchip coudn't be better. With Amsterdam Marathon last week, I had just run the last race of the season, and needed to start focussing on next season. And for this, watching the Ironman World Championchip was perfect.

The A-race next year is Ironman Austria, and watching the transmission yesterday got my thoughts away from last weeks disaster and onto the challenges of next year...

I'll be ready...I have set my sights on it..and is now starting focussing...

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Technorati Tags: Ironman, World Championchip, Stadler, Badman, McCormack, Hawaii

Amsterdam evaluation

:-( that's the best way I can describe my experiences at Amsterdam Marathon.

The plan was to run a marathon about 3:10, but I ended up in 3:37 !!

The first 25k(14M) it was going well, running well and looking at finishing well inside the time limit I had set upon myself. Then the problems started, and just before the 25k mark, I had to slow down dramatically. Within 1k, the speed dropped and I started running 50sec/km slower.

From there, the speed continued to drop, and I eventually ended walking 5 of the last 7 kilometers!! :-(

In the coming days, I will be evaluation more on this. I'm still not sure why this happened. This was my 10th marathon. I had been running more and longer in training then ever before. This time I had also been spared the injuries I usually suffer from.

Looking at the heart-rate dump, it seems that I ran a great deal of the marathon in the black zone - which would explain the problems. What I then need to find an explanation to is why the geart-rate was so high...?

The fitness is there, the training had gone well..what went wrong..?

Perhaps it was the illness that had taken its toll on my body...Perhaps it was the stress leading up to the race (just started a new job and doing a lot of travelling = lack of sleep), or perhaps it was something else...

I'm not quite sure...

I'll upload the heart-rate dump over the weekend and some more thoughts.

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Technorati Tags: Running, calves, massage, Recovery, Amsterdam, Marathon

7 days to Amsterdam Marathon

It has been a quiet couple of weeks on this blog and for a good reason.

I have had a very persistent cold/flu, which has prevented me from training. The last couple of weeks, I have done next to no training at all. This is bad, as there is only 7 days left to Amstredam Marathon - my last race of the season!

The good news is that I managed to get all my planned long runs in before this happned. 4 weeks of long runs between 23-28 kilometers were completed - all with good results. The plan was to taper the last few weeks before the race anyway, but not stop training completely. The runs I missed were shorter, high intensity runs. Hopefully, this won't affect race performance too much, but we'll see.

On the bright side, it seems that the break has enabled my calves to recover from the training. I have been getting calf massages every week, fot the past month - and the calfs have always been very sore. This now seems to have cleared up. Perhaps, this is a sign that my body needed the rest, and is now ready to perform...again, we'll see.

My race number is 118 and the race can be followed on: www.amsterdammarathon.nl

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Technorati Tags: Running, calves, massage, Recovery, Amsterdam, Marathon

Less than 300 days to go

It is already more that 45 days since I entered the Ironman Austria. That means that there is now less than 300 days left until I need to be in top-form! Scary! I haven’t really started focusing on the Ironman yet…the 2006 season is not quite over yet.

300 day status:

Swim: I still haven’t started swimming seriously – I decided that I wanted to wait until after the Marathon. I have done a bit of swimming – but mostly unstructured training with the aim of just getting used to being in the water again.

Bike: The speed towards the end of the season has been satisfactory – although it has sometimes felt as if I had to work harder than usual to get to that speed. Looking at the training plan, I suspect this is due to less mileage early in the season – and possibly also because the training have been easier than in previous years. I did a 40K bike leg with 38.2 km/h in a Triathlon in August on a course with lots of twists and turns.

Run: Running speed is good – I have more mileage in the legs than ever before. The stress fractures that have bugged me for the past 5 years seem to be gone. I’m a little worried about he Achilles inflammation, but it doesn’t seem to be something that will stop me from running. I went out for a short (10k) run yesterday – I could occasionally feel the injury, but not much. I’m going for a long run this weekend – and if the problem doesn’t get worse after that – I’ll be ready for Amsterdam. I comfortably run at speeds above 15km/h, so if I get the long runs in, and pace it correctly in Amsterdam, it looks as if I could be heading for a new pb…

The triathlon season is over – and only a few races remain: A ½ marathon (1. October) and Amsterdam marathon (15 October). After that, the winter comes and I will be forced to move most of my training indoor. Hopefully, this will not affect the training too much, but let’s see….

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Technorati Tags: Swimming, Running, Cycling, Triathlon, Ironman, Amsterdam, Marathon

Ironman Doctor

I rarely visits the official Ironman website - as there is rarely anything interesting to read. The only time I visit is to log-on to the live streaming of events and to check results. I logged on a few days ago to check the results from Madison, and noticed a hilarious article.

It is an article filled with racing and training "advise" - like the following:

Q: I've been riding 5-600 hundred miles a week for nearly a year now. Everything within 18 inches of my groin is completely numb and we're having trouble starting a family. Any idea what could be wrong?

A: Yes. You're not putting on enough miles.

That numbness you're experiencing is a cry of protest from your muscles that you're not giving them enough time to warm up. Just when they're starting to loosen up a little, you get off the bike and shut them back down. That's worse than never having gotten started at all.

As for that failure to start a family, well, that's just anxiety. Happens to a lot of guys, so don't worry about it. Double your bike mileage, work some of that tension down, and everything will be fine.

Q: I was recently diagnosed with multiple stress fractures in both of my tibias. What's the best way to deal with this?

A: Aggressively. Run through the pain.

Look, let's be honest with each other here. Ironman isn't a round of lawn bowling at some seaside resort in Brighton. It's the toughest endurance event in the world. Of course it's going to hurt. It's supposed to hurt! And you need to get used to looking past pain.

The full article can be found here.

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Technorati Tags: Doctor, Running, Training, Triathlon, Ironman, Advise

Doping in Cycling?

New allegations have surfaced after two former US-Postal riders admitted using EPO just prior to the 1999 Tour-de-France. The 1999 Tour was the first Lance Armstrong won. One of the two riders is Frankie Andreu.

This comes at a time when Floyd Landis is fighting to prove his innocence. Personally, I think it is a real shame that drug allegations get so much media attention – as every time something new surfaces, more people loose interest in the sport. It could be argued that “where there is smoke there’s fire” – but many people seem to forget that people are innocent until proven otherwise. The public opinion is quick to convict based on allegations and rumors – and often we only hear one side of the story…

Personally, I think that cycling must be the hardest sport in the world. What these athletes have to endure during a season is unimaginable for most of us. Whether doping is involved or not, I still think cycling is the greatest sport in the world and I have the utmost respect for the athletes.

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Technorati Tags: Cycling, US Postal, Lance Armstrong, Frankie Andreu, Floyd Landis, Doping, Tour de France

The Injury

After surfing the Internet for more information about this potential injury, I realized that the injury could also be Plantar Fasciitis.
With this information I visited a physiotherapist, who quickly put my worries to rest. After examining me, he diagnosed it as a minor inflammation of the Achielles.
This was a relief. This - is his oppinion - is not a showstopper for Amsterdam. He treated it with laser and massage and gave me a few exercises to do.
After the examination, I asked him, wherther it would be okay to go running this weekend. The plan was to run long 25-28k - and he found this to be okay - as long as I remembered to stretch.
So I did. Yesterday, I went out for a 25.2K run in the nearby forrest. I could feel the injury the minute I started running, but after having stopped and stretched, it disappeared.
With only 4+ weeks until the Amsterdam Marathon it is very important that I'm not injured now, as now it the time for the long runs. My feet felt fine after the run, and I haven't felt anything unusual today...so fingers crossed
I am going back to the physiotherapist tuesday for a checkup.

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Technorati Tags: Injury, Running, Training, Triathlon, Ironman, Physiotherapist, Marathon, Amsterdam