Category Archives: Triathlon

Only handfull passed on bike

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Summer in Seattle brings nice weather and of course Seafair. Today I did the Seafair Olympic triathlon and as Coach Cody said the week before – be ready to step into the hurtlocker. This race wasn’t a full Olympic with only 20 miles bike and slightly longer swim but still a good race and really fun bike course on the I-90 bridge where we hit winds.

Really early start with transition opening at 5.30 and a lot of people in the Olympic and Sprint race so after driving around Seward Park finding parking I managed to get my station setup and ready with a good 30 minutes to go before first wave starts.

Swim was two laps so a bit of slalom between slower swimmers. I started fairly slow and kept out of the fight in the middle as I didn’t want to get the heart rate rush I got when doing the Victoria Half. Swim felt really nice and I managed to push on pretty good with 27:12 finish time on this 1 mile swim. This ended up being slightly faster than I had planned which is kind of nice since I started slow and controlled.

Transition to bike was a straightforward and I was off for 20 miles pushing 100-110%  functional threshold level on my power meter. The ride was nice with a couple of odd transition loops to and from the I-90 bridge where you couldn’t ride fast at all. I kept my power around 100 and made special effort not to push too hard up the hills and I know now that I need to practice riding hard with high power output on slight downhills. I ended up with a PR in races where the average speed was just under 21 mph. The one thing I really was surprised about was that normally I am passed on the bike and run but today only a handful bikers caught me.

I surprised myself and actually ate and drank the right amount on the bike which I didn’t manage to do in Victoria. Felt fresh and strong going out on the run and after a few hundred yards I settled into a 8.30-8.45 tempo which is where I wanted to be. At about 2 miles there is a fairly long hill which was tough and slow. When I ran past the finish line to go out on my second lap I felt really good and the watch showed I had done 1 lap in just under 27 minutes. I decided to push a bit on the second lap and I managed to run my fastest 10K at 52:17

All up a good day with 9th out of 35 in my age group and 73 out of 305 overall with a final time of 2:19

Really happy with the day as I beat my 10k PR, hit my fastest avg race speed both on the bike and the swim.

Year Race Swim  Miles Meters Min/100m
2011 Issaqua Sprint  00:08:39 0.25             400 02:09.8
2011 Cottage Lake Super Sprint 00:06:39 0.25             400 01:39.8
2011 Whidbey Island Sprint 00:14:05 0.50             800 01:45.6
2011 Finish Strong Olympic 00:19:25 0.70         1,120 01:44.0
2011 Lake Sammamish Sprint 00:06:32 0.25             400 01:38.0
2011 Lake Stevens Olympic 00:28:18 1.00         1,600 01:46.1
2011 Black Diamond Half Iron 00:36:23 1.20         1,920 01:53.7
2012 Issaqua Sprint  00:08:15 0.25             400 02:03.8
2012 Victoria Half Iron 00:33:48 1.20         1,920 01:45.6
2013 Victoria Half Iron 00:35:02 1.20         1,920 01:49.5
2013 Sefair Olympic 00:27:12 1.00         1,600 01:42.0
Year Race Bike Miles Meters Mph Kmh
2011 Issaqua Sprint  00:46:29 14.8       23,680 19.10 30.57
2011 Cottage Lake Super Sprint 00:28:21 9.2       14,720 19.47 31.15
2011 Whidbey Island Sprint 01:06:08 19.5       31,200 17.69 28.31
2011 Finish Strong Olympic 01:29:51 28.0       44,800 18.70 29.92
2011 Lake Sammamish Sprint 00:45:18 14.8       23,680 19.60 31.36
2011 Lake Stevens Olympic 01:19:26 25.0       40,000 18.88 30.21
2011 Black Diamond Half Iron 03:03:14 56.0       89,600 18.34 29.34
2012 Issaqua Sprint  00:42:30 14.8       23,680 20.89 33.43
2012 Victoria Half Iron 02:58:52 54.0       86,400 18.11 28.98
2013 Victoria Half Iron 02:49:36 54.0       86,400 19.10 30.57
2013 Sefair Olympic 00:55:23 20.0       32,000 21.67 34.67
Year Race Run Miles Meters Min/Mile Min/Km
2011 Issaqua Sprint  0:28:07 3.2         5,120 08:47.2 05:29.5
2011 Cottage Lake Super Sprint 0:12:51 1.6         2,560 08:01.9 05:01.2
2011 Whidbey Island Sprint 00:30:12 3.8         6,080 07:56.8 04:58.0
2011 Finish Strong Olympic 00:52:25 6.2         9,920 08:27.3 05:17.0
2011 Lake Sammamish Sprint 00:25:41 3.2         5,120 08:01.6 05:01.0
2011 Lake Stevens Olympic 00:52:39 6.2         9,920 08:29.5 05:18.4
2011 Black Diamond Half Iron 02:31:11 13.1       20,960 11:32.4 07:12.8
2012 Issaqua Sprint  00:24:23 3.2         5,120 07:37.2 04:45.7
2012 Victoria Half Iron 01:54:49 12.5       20,000 09:11.1 05:44.5
2013 Victoria Half Iron 02:01:54 12.5       20,000 09:45.1 06:05.7
2013 Sefair Olympic 00:52:17 6.4       10,240 08:10.2 05:06.3
2011 Whidbey Island Sprint 01:54:14 67/219 5/11
2011 Finish Strong Olympic 02:44:33 41/78 5/8
2011 Lake Sammamish Sprint 01:18:29 66/455 4/32
2011 Lake Stevens Olympic 02:43:07 63/160 6/15
2011 Black Diamond Half Iron 06:16:36 105/148 19/24
2012 Issaqua Sprint  01:17:48 109/539 15/65
2012 Victoria Half Iron 05:32:21 112/255 25/35
2013 Victoria Half Iron 05:31:38 114/198 25/36
2013 Seafair Olympic 02:19:16 73/306 9/35

 

Victoria Half Ironman

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I ended last season with a half iron at 6.16 so my goal for this race was to get in under 6 hours and since this race has a 2 mile shorter bike and .6 shorter run I had 5.45 as my goal. I have trained harder and done much more biking than last year so I felt confident that I would at least get close to my goal. I drove to Victoria on Saturday and met with a few in the Pro Club team for a short swim-bike-run and then later on a dinner together. With a 6.45am start it was important to get to bed early so after getting some breakfast at local grocery store I headed back and managed to get a good nights sleep. The 430 wake up was still cruel. I filled all my bottles with the brown Perpetuem mess and checked out. Getting to the race site and setting up transition was easy and I was ready to start. Fast forward for you if you don’t want to read on .. I crushed my goal and after a 33 min 1.9km swim, 2.58 on the 84 km bike and 1.54 on the 20km run I crossed the finish line at 5.32:21.

What happened to the surfing

Very nice swim course in Elk Lake except that the wind made it a little choppy. The swim out would be against the waves and then I planned on surfing the waves and push it for the finish. Mass start with all approx 200 half ironman athletes at the same time but I didn’t have to fight for space more than a couple of times. I‘m not used to the rough waters so decided early to just breathe every other stroke which worked really well, especially on the way back when I thought I was going to surf the waves but disappointing when the waves came in sideways. Didn’t really push it hard on the swim so really surprising to see the time of 33 minutes.

Windy and friendly ride

Transition to the bike was a mess, I had decided to wear my jacket on the bike so had gear in back pockets. I see Coach Covey slip out of transition just as I start fumbling with getting my gear out of the jacket and into my race suit. Bike was a pretty straight forward 2 loop course with rollers and a few tricky turns. Just like every race I spent the first 30 minutes on the bike being passed by slower swimmers but there was something different this time, I was passing some people too. I was passed by a guy with a big smiley on his calf and a girl on a red Cervelo tri bike and turns out these were to be my race buddies. We rode the 86km overtaking each other throughout the whole time, especially the Cervelo girl and I , she had more speed on the downhills and I passed her on the climbs and flats. In the last 20 miles we laughed and – hey its me again, see you in a few minutes. I was hoping to race her on the run as well but turns out she was just doing the bike leg as part of a relay team .. no wonder she was pushing it. 

The small constant uphill battles and the windy condition drained the legs so about 2/3 in I started to get a little worried about the run which resulted in my second lap being a few minutes slower but still finishing the 84k in 2.58.

Nutrition worked really well with 3 hrs worth of Perpetuem in a 16oz bottle together with some extra Swedish fish and Powerbar Gel blasts and then squeeze bottle with Perpetuem for a sip at each aid station on the run. I had my 24oz water bottle and also picked up about 24oz of extra water on two of the bike aid stations.

Trail run and mostly fun

Messed up in transition again, forgot my race number and had to go back through the whole transition area again. I passed the race clock on the way out and it said 3.35 and I thought… hm maybe I can break 5.30. First 6-7 km felt fine but left knee started to hurt and had to slow down and happy face guy ran past me and then at 8 km my team mate Guy passed me. I hurt the most from 7 to 12 km and I ran slow. The run was tough but I had no cramps what so ever which is fantastic proof of the training I have put in this year. 7- 8km left and if I could just speed up a little I would be able to break 5.30. With 3-4 km left I passed happy face and I think I still had a shot if I could get down to 9 min tempo… but of course the more I tried the my body just told me to go jump in the lake and then it told me to sell my shoes and bike for $50. I finished in 5.32 with a 1.54 over the 20km and I am so happy and proud.

Next half iron planned is the The Return To Black Diamond and as I go through training I will set a goal later on but right now I feel like I want to break 5.30 on that course.

Race Results http://www.raceheadquarters.com/results/2012/multi/VictoriaTriHalf2012.html 

//Brjann

Big race coming up

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My training is going really well and my volume is getting quite respectable with 7-10 hours a week with a good mix of swim, bike and run. The most fun right now is that I signed up for Trainingpeaks and my coach adds workouts every week and I realize that he gets an email when I log a workout as complete.

Last weekend was the first tri of the season and I did pretty well shaving off 11 minutes of the result from last year. The swim was just ok but the bike was above 20mph in average and then the run was ok with just under 25 min on a rough uneven trail course. Final time was 1.17 which put me just outside top ten in my age group. 

This coming week is tapering for my big race this season, the Subaru Victoria Island Half Ironman triathlon. Really looking forward to the race and of course trying my very best to beat my time of 6.15 from Black Diamond last season.

Training has been fun so far with good progress on my run speed and a couple of miles per hour faster on the bike. Big this weekend is to see how well my legs hold up after the bike as last year I cramped up early on the bike but then again I had cramp feelings on the longer bricks I did as well which I haven’t felt this season. It is still early in the season so there is time for more improvements but for this next race I am all set and ready to take on a almost 6 hour training session.

Brjann

ps www.trainingpeaks.com/brekkan

Finally – Lake Sammamish loop is open

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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

Looking back at where I was and what my goals are

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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

Kicking off the triathlon season again

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Today was our last day of tri team training in 2011 so what better way to celebrate a really fun year than to register for my 2012 A race right away. This coming season is all about building on all the learnings from last year and of course try to beat my results from the different races. My unexpected final event last year was the Black Diamond half iron, a race I really didnt plan on doing and didnt train for the distance either but I’m glad I did it. I’m really excited about the coming months of hard training and to get things a little interesting I’ve just signed up to do a half ironman on Iceland’s national day, 17 June. I’m going international with Saunders Subaru Victoria Island Triathlon together with a dozen or so team mates from Pro Sports Club Triathlon team.

Time to put a training plan together and this year I’m already ok with doing 15-20 km runs and been doing swim classes twice a week for a few months but I have a long way to race form, especially a form that I want to be in to beat all my times from last year.

Let the fun begin

Brjann

Fantastic end to first triathlon season

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In December 2010 I had never ridden a road bike, had never really done any open water swimming and I had recently done a 10km race for the first time. I wasn’t really planning to get up at 7 every Saturday for many months at that time but I really enjoyed the first Pro Sports Club Triathlon team workout with great coaches and even greater team members. I read as much as I could find on the internet about Triathlon and saw that there are sprint and olympic races in addition to the crazy long triathlons. I spent the next few months getting used to bricks where you do two or more sports after each other as part of your training session. I quickly learned that I needed a road bike so research started to find something that wouldn’t break the bank … I really failed in my research and bought a fantastic ride called Argon 18 Krypton. I had never ridden a road bike before so this was really exciting and I love the bike and just wish I had ridden it more.

When it was time for the ProClub tri teams first brick training with a couple of hours on the bike and then run 3k made I just laughed and thought – that’s nuts! Fact is I really enjoyed training during the weeks and then when I started doing races in May I was hooked – triathlons are just a whole lot of fun.

Sure, getting up at 5am to go for a long outdoor swim doesn’t sound that fun but you forget all about that when you see the beautiful sunrise over Lake Sammamish or Pine Lake.

My season was supposed to be a few sprints and a couple of olympic distance races which you can read about in other race reports on this blog but in late June I had a chat with coach Cody Novak about ending my season with a Half Ironman and after talking to team mates Alan Faulkner and John Brewer a few weeks ago we all three decided to go for it.

Fightclub swim

Black Diamond Long Course triathlon in Enumclaw, WA is the last race of the season and I picked up Alan and John at 6am for the drive toward the majestic Mt Rainier and Nolte State park. Transition station is all setup and ready by 745 so time for a quick warm up run and a few trips to the bathroom. The field was just 190 people in total so only 3 waves as we got started on the swim on a very foggy Deep Lake. The starting waves were pretty big and it took me some time to get into a rhythm after being hit, kicked and swam over a few times. Sighting was hard in the fog and as I was quite aggressive going around the buoys I was hit and kicked a few more times before getting out of the water at after 36:23. I am ok with the time for a 1.2 mile swim.

Strong bike

Biking for 56 miles requires a lot of planning to make sure you get the right amount of nutrition to both make it through the bike feeling strong and also fuel up for the half marathon run. This was a great experience for me in that I think I was pretty ok on nutrition, maybe a little low on calories and carbs but plenty of water and electrolyte drink. The bike course didn’t have any big hills but plenty of rollers where you would struggle to keep cadence and speed on a road that looked!!! pretty flat. I felt really strong on the bike and realized after the first 28 miles at 1:25 that I was going too fast and really tried to preserve some energy on the rest of the ride but as strong as I felt I just kept going and finished in 3:03 which is the same pace as I have had in my sprint and IMG_8253olympic races this year.

Big energy boost in transition 2 when I saw Charlotte, Caroline and Sofia cheering me on.

IMG_8240

The torture

IMG_8257

Wow, cant believe how good I’m feeling but then between mile 2 and 3 my quads just told me they were not going to take this anymore. They must have completely missed the salt tablets and hydration I had taken on the bike… Ok, this is going to get tough but I can do 10 minute miles. Mile 4 and I could barely walk and my average pace was now over 10 minutes per mile so I realize I’m not trying to finish these 13 miles in 2.10 to get under 6 hours. I now focus on surviving and and taking it as slow as necessary to prevent getting injured and to be able to finish the race. Limping around with cramps made my run/walk form really messed and my back started to hurt. When I hit 7 miles I started to dream about getting into the water after finishing the race, mile 9 I walked a little with another cramped up 40 year old and we realized we were so happy to not have 9 miles left when we met a few people in pain on their way out. Miles 12 and 13 took me 35 minutes to complete but I did jog across the finish line and what an amazing feeling to cross the line with my girls and a bunch of Pro Club tri team members cheering me on. I did the half marathon in 2:31 but who cares … 70.3 miles / 113km …

I FINISHED THE HALF IRONMAN

IMG_8301

IMG_8302IMG_8307

Next season training starts next weekend !

Brjann

Beautiful Lake Stevens hosted Olympic triathlon

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Oh my what a nice weekend, feels like middle of the summer with high 80’s or almost 30 C and a nice crayfish party with Swedish Women Educational Association (SWEA) Saturday evening. We had crayfish caught in Lake Washington and sang songs and had a few drinks together with friends. Perfect end to the day that started a couple of hours before the 7am start of the opening 1 mile swim in really warm Lake Stevens.

This event is my last before my A-race so all about testing my nutrition plan and not so much about racing for a good time … well I got into the swim after about 400-500 meters and felt pretty good so thought what the heck. I picked it up a bit and managed to repair my slow start a bit and got out of the water at about 28 minutes which turned out to be 37th overall and 1st in my age group.

Since I’m a pretty strong swimmer I don’t pass a lot of athletes on the bike and run .. correction.. I never pass anyone after I get out of the water so just as my other races I ‘m passed by the “sitting tight in aero over 20 mph in average” group of athletes. Nothing different this time around as the first 10 or so miles was a steady stream of about 50 people swishing by me but when the really fast riders have passed I get stuck in a vacuum where I ride on my own for another 15 or so miles as I manage to keep away from the just under 20mph riders. Lake Stevens was a little different in that they ran the Sprint triathlon on same bike course so when I was on my way back and passed the sprint turning point I started to pass people.. fun!

The fun continued on the run where I felt pretty strong and glad that my nutrition on the bike had worked even if it was starting to get quite warm. The run was 5k out an back loop that we ran twice and the sprint athletes did once so I was able to run past people from the sprint and even quite a few olympic distance runners at least on the second lap. I finished the 10k strong with little over a mile at sub 8 min per mile tempo.

Summary for the day is that I feel I am getting less worried about my half ironman in two weeks .. that is to say I’m pretty confident I will be able to finish it but I ‘m not expecting any sub 8 min miles nor being able to pass a lot of folks.

Official results for this event is that I ended up 63 out of 160 and 6 out of 15 in my age group and I lowered my Olympic PR to 2:43:18 but you cant really compare the different races on time as they distances vary a bit.

  Swim  Seconds Miles Meters Mph Kmh Min/Mile Min/100m T1
Issaqua Sprint 0:08:39 519 0.25            400 1.73 2.77 34:36.0 02:09.8 0:03:38
Cottage Lake Super Sprint 0:06:39 399 0.25            400 2.26 3.61 26:36.0 01:39.8 0:01:31
Whidbey Island
Sprint		 0:14:05 845 0.50            800 2.13 3.41 28:10.0 01:45.6 0:02:48
Finish Strong
Olympic		 0:19:25 1165 0.70         1,120 2.16 3.46 27:44.3 01:44.0 0:01:43
Lake Sammamish Sprint 0:06:32 392 0.25            400 2.30 3.67 26:08.0 01:38.0  
Lake Stevens
Olympic		 0:28:18 1698 1.00         1,600 2.12 3.39 28:18.0 01:46.1 0:01:23
  Bike Seconds Miles Meters Mph Kmh Min/Mile Min/Km T2
Issaqua Sprint 0:46:29 2789 14.8      23,680 19.10 30.57 03:08.4 01:57.8 0:01:27
Cottage Lake Super Sprint 0:28:21 1701 9.2      14,720 19.47 31.15 03:04.9 01:55.6 0:00:44
Whidbey Island
Sprint		 1:06:08 3968 19.5      31,200 17.69 28.31 03:23.5 02:07.2 1:00:00
Finish Strong
Olympic		 1:29:51 5391 28.0      44,800 18.70 29.92 03:12.5 02:00.3 0:01:08
Lake Sammamish Sprint 0:45:18 2718 14.8      23,680 19.60 31.36 03:03.6 01:54.8 0:00:57
Lake Stevens
Olympic		 1:19:26 4766 25.0      40,000 18.88 30.21 03:10.6 01:59.2 0:01:27
  Run Seconds Miles Meters Mph KMh Min/Mile Min/Km  
Issaqua Sprint 0:28:07 1687 3.2         5,120 6.83 10.93 08:47.2 05:29.5  
Cottage Lake Super Sprint 0:12:51 771 1.6         2,560 7.47 11.95 08:01.9 05:01.2  
Whidbey Island
Sprint		 0:30:12 1812 3.8         6,080 7.55 12.08 07:56.8 04:58.0  
Finish Strong
Olympic		 0:52:25 3145 6.2         9,920 7.10 11.36 08:27.3 05:17.0  
Lake Sammamish Sprint 0:25:41 1541 3.2         5,120 7.48 11.96 08:01.6 05:01.0  
Lake Stevens
Olympic		 0:52:39 3159 6.2         9,920 7.07 11.30 08:29.5 05:18.4  
  Time Overall Age group            
Issaqua Sprint 1:28:18 218/374 37/66            
Cottage Lake Super Sprint 0:49:31 13/230 3/11            
Whidbey Island Sprint 1:54:14 67/219 5/11            
Finish Strong Olympic 2:44:33 41/78 5/8            
Lake Sammamish Sprint 1:18:29 66/455 4/32            
Lake Stevens Olympic 2:43:07 63/160 6/15            

Stepping it up a bit and triathlons are contagious

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I’m realizing that I have signed up for a Long Course Triathlon / Half Ironman / 70.3 (US miles) / 11.3 (Metric miles) and with that I also have to step up my training a little bit to at least do what I can to prepare. My basic weekly training with 2 interval runs (short/long), 2 swim (indoor intervals/long open water), 1 bike ride and then either a race or long run on weekend stays the same but with a bit longer intervals and an added weekend long brick (bike and run) session.

This weekend I did a 10 mile run on a really hilly road in the sun and I was actually surprised to feel really fresh throughout the whole run. The half marathon distance is not that scary after that run and the really tough brick I did last Monday with 1.5 hours of race day spinning and then 10k directly after that gave me some confidence as well. I feel pretty confident that I can do each of the distances in a, for me, decent time … the issue will be to do all three but I guess that is the fun part of being a triathlete.

My Brooks Trance 9 that I have been using all season are worn out and I have always felt that they are a bit roomy so I’m testing the Brooks Ghost 3 a few runs this week to see if those will be my new standard shoe .. the Trance has a lot of support for pronation but I actually run pretty much straight so the Neutral support in the Ghost should work but I wont take any chances if they don’t feel good in my first few runs.

Charlotte did her second half marathon today on a warm and sunny Labor day, just little over two months after her shoulder surgery – I ‘m really impressed and proud of her not just finishing the race but basically match her time from Kirkland Half in May.

Not registered for Kirkland Sprint Triathlon but we might form a team with me swimming, Johanna taking care of the 12 mile bike ride and Charlotte crushing the 5K. Caroline and Sofia will probably do the kids tri on Sunday as well.. I’m spreading the triathlon bug.

Brjann

Half Ironman in September

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I really never thought about any type of long Ironman races when I decided I wanted to try triathlon but 7 months into this adventure I have decided to take the next step right away this season. The half ironman is also called 70.3 based on the number of total miles or 11.3 in the metric system where a “mil” is 10 km; you swim 2 km,  bike 90 km and then run 21 km.

The Black Diamond Long Course Triathlon is 24 September and plan on doing that race to learn and have a fun last race of the season. My goal is of course just to finish the race and if that means I will have to walk most of the half marathon then so be it. I will of course do my very best and try to get a decent first time.

Swim

The swim isn’t too scary with 1.2 miles/2km but I have heard that the water is colder than in the lakes we have around here but a reasonable time for me would be about 50 minutes.

Bike

The 56 mile/90k bike ride is very close to my longest ride done so far which was the 100k during 7 Hills of Kirkland and I can remember how tired my legs were and how much my behind hurt. I managed to get through that bike ride in just over 4 hours but I believe the ride is little easier at Black Diamond.

Run

Finally the run is a half marathon which I have done only twice, first time with Charlotte at Kirkland Half where we both ran our first half in 2.02 and then the second time this summer in Sweden where I hit a big wall of heat and jet lag with a final time of 2.34.

Scary

This race is all that on the same day…