Last weekend started out great with hill climb run on Saturday and plan was to do 10 miles on Sunday but the trails in Bridle Trails were muddy and in an attempt to jump over some mud and horse s..t I rolled my ankle. Feared for the worst after falling and rolling over on the trail a few times but got up and limped back to the car. It was actually not that bad and after 2-3 days of completely staying off it and taking it really easy for a week I now can walk without any pain so decided to join the team for the first outdoor bike ride of the season

The ride yesterday in the windy and rainy just above freezing Redmond and Woodinville went really well. Easy 22 miles on Sammamish River trail with a nice ride up Hollywood Hill in Woodinville. Coach Cody let me know that it was a good hill to practice your seated climb and I almost made it without getting out of the saddle but going back down was scary at +30mph in the rain.

Riding along the Sammamish river with world-famous St. Michelle Winery and being tempted to stop for refreshments at Redhook Ale brewery is quite nice and I can’t wait for the weather to clear up so I can do the ride again in the sun and perhaps get my girls on their bikes for a ride to Redhook for lunch at least.

Because of the sprained ankle I have to cancel my half marathon in 2 weeks but there are more races to come so doesn’t bother me that much. Next week is all bike and swim before I head down to Las Vegas for a work conference where I hope to get back to running a little bit.

Passing on your left!

Brjann

Spring is in the air … well not really since we have had some snow and really cold weather over here for a week now but in Swedish “springa” is to run. My running has been going quite well in the last few weeks so I signed up for Lake Sammamish half marathon on 26 March. Checked in with my coach and she was a bit surprised but helped me set up a program to add another mile per week to my weekend long run so I will have done at least 11 miles before the race.

She asked me to make sure I back off a bit the last few days before the race which won’t be a problem as I will be in Las Vegas the week before delivering 4 presentations at Microsoft Management Summit. I wonder how long the strip is as I might just run it up and down a few times during the week.

I did get my new bike last weekend but with the cold weather and slippery roads I haven’t been able to take it out for a real ride yet. It just sits there waiting for me to put my tight biking shorts, a colorful shirt and my helmet on. I have promised my daughters that I would never ever go outdoors without wearing normal shorts on top of the biking shorts …I have 2-3 kg left until the 85 kg I want to be when the races start so I wonder what they will say when they see me in my triathlon race one-piece suite.

/Brjann

This last week has been busy for a beginner triathlete ..  I decided what events I will be doing and established a weekly training schedule for the first part of the season together with one of the coaches. The bigger news is that I ordered a bike and I will post pictures more info when I get it early next week.. the link points to a generic page but my bike has some other components and tires.

I plan on doing these triathlon events and maybe a couple of 10k+ running races

May 1^st – Mt.Rainier Duathlon

May 30^th – Mont Lake Park Sprint TRI

June 11^th – Moses Lake Sprint TRI

Not decided what events I will do in June/July

Aug 27^th – Lake Sammamish Sprint TRI

Sept 10^th – Lake Stephens OLYMPIC TRI

Sept 25 – Black Diamond TRI (Sprint or Olympic)

/Brjann

Oops, it has been 2 weeks since my last post.. last week was a bit shorter as we went to Whistler three days but I managed to 4 training sessions including a nice swim session based on an old 2500m program from Kroons swimming team in Uppsala with one of my favorite drills: 8*25m 3-5-7 stroke breathing. This drill is in the middle of the program and you do 25m where you breathe every 3 stroke then 25m  breathing on every 5th … Really nice way to get long powerful strokes and forces you to keep your form in the water. There is one more drill that I can recommend as well and that is to do 8*25 on time and you count your strokes with the goal that every 25m is faster and less arm strokes. 16 strokes is the best I can do right now. I also did strength training, a interval run and a little bit of biking before heading up to Whistler. 

Whistler was a bit wet with rain even high up on the mountain but Johanna, Sofia and I had two days of good skiiing. Charlotte’s fractured foot didn’t like the skiing – she is a really hero for trying but it didn’t work – and Caroline got sick after the first day so C and C didn’t have a great vacation.

This past week I have done 2 strength classes, a 10K run at decent tempo and then today we had triathlon team spinning class – most fun 1200 calories in 1.5 hours I have ever burned

I want to reach out and thanks all of my friends who have given me hints and ideas on what type of heart rate monitor to buy – today I decided to go for the Garmin FR60 with running pod, hrm strap and the bike kit as this watch is something I will use every day in my training without feeling like I am carrying a computer. Really looking forward to starting tracking my training in more detail and learning more about my body and what limits I should be stretching.

Tracking your training? I use Funbeat. Är du medlem på Funbeat? Jag loggar all träning så lägg till mig på kompis listan.
Swedish: http://www.funbeat.se/person/overview.aspx?PersonID=185213 
English: http://www.funbeat.net/person/overview.aspx?PersonID=185213

Best news of the week: I am not prioritizing loosing weight (Nov 2008: 115kg – Jan 2011 89.5kg) but all this training showed up when I did my yearly check up at the doctor this week and my numbers are much better now. Still a bit high blood sugar but everything else is really really good and doctor was confident the blood sugar will drop even more. 

Legs are sore but will go for 5k run tomorrow in my new running tights as I have to get my Vitamin D levels up and there are rumors about chances of sunshine in Redmond

Brjann

Inte helt fel att komma till Köpenhamn en trist grå November torsdag och få höra att jag bara råkar befinna mig där dagen innan de släpper Jul ölen.

Största nyheten på morgon på tv under fredagen var att Lidl hade fuskat och sålt ölen redan en dag för tidigt… Ingen får sälja något innan 20.40 först fredagen i November! Vi lyckades övertyga servitören på Nimb att ge oss en någon timme tidigare .. det var riktigt gott.

Tyvärr hade jag inte mer än två dagar i Köpenhamn utan möjlighet att flyga upp till Uppsala innan jag åkte vidare till Berlin för att tala på TechEd. 

Berlin är kallt! Jogging skorna fick sig en omgång på Måndag morgon i 4 grader och regn .. jogging turen kortades av till 30 minuter men inte helt fel att springa genom Brandenburger Tor två gånger. Jag har lyckats hitta en butik precis bredvid mitt hotell som säljer Lloyd skor så lite extra plats behövs i väskan .. undrar om jag verkligen måste ha med alla sladdar och teknik prylar hem igen

Bara 3 dagar kvar tills jag får komma hem till tjejerna.

— Brjann