West Lake Sammamish Parkway closed this winter after a mudslide and finally re-opened this week. After celebrating Sofia on her 11th birthday in the morning Charlotte, Caroline and Sofia took of for Swedish school in Seattle and Johanna went back to bed but I prepped my water bottles, 1 with Perpeteum and 1 with water and instead of riding from home I took the car down to Marymoor Park.  I wasn’t alone getting ready to go for a bike ride, there were at least 20 cars on the parking lot with bike racks and even if it was just 915 there were people coming back from their ride and going back home. You have to take the opportunity to ride when the weather is nice here in the PNW.

I had decided to do a 2.5 to 3 hour ride so 2 loops around the lake should be ok and since the loop is basically flat I tried to pedal as hard as I could on the flats. I feel that my climbs and descents are ok but riding on the flat is something different – it takes endurance and technique. I managed to get more power having my hands lower on the handle bar .. hm wonder if I should try putting some aero clips on and get bike fit done.

The ride was really nice with just a little wind and not really that cold which was good since I forgot my gloves.

I averaged about 18mph which is about what I did during races last season and I didn’t feel like I was complete empty when I got back and this is after the 2.5 hours of hill and trail runs yesterday. My ride on Garmin http://connect.garmin.com/activity/168494011 

Next weekend is longish run on Sunday and Saturday hill work on Hollywood hill with tri team followed by a little more bike to get to about 2.5 hours and then a 30 minute run.

Brjann

In November 2009 I was 115 kg and even being goalie in a thirty minute soccer game was really exhausting but Charlotte and I decided that something has to be done so we signed up for a training class at Pro Club Willows Road in Redmond. In 8 weeks I lost 15 kg and the scale wasn’t triple digit for the first time in many years. During 2010 I did some 5k and 10k races and continued to get in shape and loose the weight but of course much slower so during 2011 I maintained the weight at 90-93 pretty much with a few trips below 90 at the peak of Triathlon season that year.

Going into this season I have a year or so behind me with steady training and given that we really don’t like that diet stuff I have been happy with my weight being around 87 kg and not thinking twice about going for a 15k run, a 3000 m swim or a 60km bike ride knowing that I will be ready for another training session the day after.

Now as my 2012 season is kicking into high gear I’m really excited about getting into the season in better endurance shape than last year even if I probably was a bit stronger last year from a a lot of strength and short intense cardio work.

Last year I ended with a unplanned Half Ironman so primary goal this year is to really race the Victoria Half in June. Race for me is to come in well under 6 hours and being able to run the half marathon and not as last year.. cramps the whole run. I will of course do a handful or so of Sprints and Olympics with focus on more Olympic races where I want to shave off about 15 minutes to get in under 2.30.

Key for me to be able to do these improvements will be average speed on the bike and being able to maintain a good pace on the run which means I’m building stronger legs and trying to improve endurance plus would probably not hurt to get down to around 80 kg instead of the 87 or so today.

The question I keep getting is .. when will you do the full Ironman? Next year if I can manage to get a spot in one of the events around here …. would have been fun this year since I’m turning 40.

It´s all about having fun training

Brjann