Taking the plunge

The past couple of years i have been dabbling in triathlon with far less than 100% effort and focus. Most of my energy has been put into our house project and our growing family. While I have no regrets choosing this path, it has been non the less frustrating to feel i am missing a real opportunity to reach my full potential and do something special in triathlon.

This autumn i attended an itu coaching clinic to start developing a long term option to stay involved with sport and give back the knowledge I have accumulated through my experiences. During this coaching course I began to realize how little I have applied myself to triathlon and how big room for improvement I have. I spoke with one of the instructures, world renowned running and triathlon coach, Bobby McGee, and asked his opinion on my situation. Not only did Bobby encourage me to commit full-time to triathlon but he also helped to set me up with a great coach in Jesse Kropelnicki, to make it happen. www.qt2systems.com My friend John Spinney also highly recommended Jesse and put me in touch with him.

Jesse has taken a careful look through my past training and race results and constructed a strategy to reach my full potential, which he also agrees is much higher than my current level. Jesse has given me the confidence I can be competitive on the top level of endurance triathlon.

We have build a race calendar of 7-8 half distance events building toward the main goal of the Ironman 70.3 world championships in September. This is a massive commitment not only from myself but from my family and sponsors so my greatest appreciation goes to them.

In the coming days i will rollout a new website and details of this undertaking. Thanks for checking in and look back again soon to see more.

Painful adoption process

Every year about this time begins the painful process of finding a new home for the past season's race bike. This year my magnificent Felt B2 Pro found a caring home not far away that was kind enough to grant visitation rights. Now i can stay in touch with my old steed and make sure it is well taken care of. The new proud owner has already given the bike some special attention that it deserves. Note the fine details around the head tube :)

Frankfurt marathon

I ran my goal of 2:35 almost exactly to the second. Great satisfaction in reaching a goal i set out long in advance. This result has also given me confidence i can reach my other goals in sport. Check back next week when i will outline next year's ambitions.

2 and 2

After taking 18 months away from training and competition, I am very pleased to say I took 2nd place at the 1/2 distance national championships for the third time! Not only that but my 5-month old daughter also got her first two teeth that same day!

Most people would probably be going crazy after coming so close to winning so many times, but for me, this year felt more like a win than perhaps was visible from a spectator's view. Going back to 2009 and my last appearance at Finntriathlon, I was a very focused athlete intent on reaching my goals. Not long after the 2009 race I made the decision to do something for my family and stop racing to build our house. I didn't even know then if that decision would be the end of my racing career or not, but I knew it was something important to me and my family.

---

NOTE: This is quite a long story so if you are interested in skipping to the actual race report, click here. But in my opinion the long story is much more interesting than the actual race...

---

The building project took 10 months or 302 days (actually quite fast by building standards) and I worked over 4000 hours myself on the house, which is a little over 100 hours per week on average. I thought training was tough but after getting done with a house build, I have a new perspective. This same time last year I was sweating my ass off sanding plaster and painting walls in over 30 degree heat thinking about how nice it would be to race in Finntriathlon again.

We moved into our new house in September and I promptly began 'training' for a marathon. What I quickly found out was that my mind and body were not at all ready for any type of training. I managed to do a few long runs to get enough fitness so I could make it to the start line in Frankfurt marathon in October. The race was exciting just because I felt like my life was returning after the house project but the body was not ready and I suffered severely.

The rest of 2010 I spent trying to recover mentally and physically. I decided it was best not to follow any training program but just exercise when I felt good. I did some skiing and running when weather was ok but by April I had still only the bare minimum of fitness to run 10km races.

Despite this very limited fitness I was totally excited to race again and immediately I found the energy to push quite hard in my first races to get quite near to my personal best times. This was very encouraging and put the fuel on my fire to get training again. My motivation was ready and my body was starting to move but I knew it would be tough to simply turn on the power and go.

I was right, my fitness was always a step behind my motivation and I tried very hard to adapt my training to this imbalance. I kept my volume quite low and focused on doing hard training only when I was sure that my body was rested and ready. This meant some weeks I was training only 5 hours per week and others I was able to go up to 12 but nothing more.

As of mid-May I had only been running and cycling as I knew what would be the hardest area to get fitness back to. When the weather turned hot at the end of May or beginning of June, I finally got my feet wet and did my first swim training in more than a year. Surprisingly it felt great even though I knew I was not going very fast.

By the time the first tri races of the year came in June, I was feeling my fitness was strong enough to do more challenging training like I used to do before the house project. Quickly I could feel my body absorbing the training and improving, which really gave me confidence I would eventually get back to my previous form if not better.

---

Race Report:

Going into Finntriathlon I had managed to get about four weeks of what I consider 'real' training. Most athletes would consider this to be much to little and a recipe for failure in an event as tough as 1/2 Ironman, which requires both speed and endurance. However, I was so happy to have the feeling of true fitness back in my body and a positive outlook that I could really picture myself competing for the win.

I made a plan for the race to first survive the swim as best as possible. The bike I would take it a bit easier on the first lap to find my legs and save some energy for the tough 3rd lap. Then on the run I would do the same of increasing the pace as the race progressed.

In the race I did exactly as I planned and was incredibly happy to find my body did exactly as I asked. I could push hard when I wanted to and get the maximum out of my body. Despite pushing to the max and doing perhaps my best 1/2 Ironman performance ever, I was unable to catch a flying Tuukka Miettinen who was simply a step above me on that day. Hats off to Tuukka as he has also been working incredibly hard for many years to win that race. Next year will be another great battle I am sure as my fitness will continue to improve.

Below are a few pictures courtesy of Kaisa Utrianen.

Race Update:

Its been a busy last three weeks with Forssa 1/2 marathon, Juhannus triathlon in Turku, TT national championships and Kisko triathlon. The results are starting to improve but I am feeling about 90% fit now. True race fitness is still lacking but I am quite satisfied with my base now. Swimming is a bit of joke but I can't expect much as I only started training again about a month ago.

Forssa started great with the first 1okm in 33 minutes but then legs went out and ended up with severe cramping and had to jog easy to the finish in the last 5km. A couple days later I was recovered enough to win the Juhannus triathlon, which is always a fun event as it is so short and fast. Then there was the national time trial championships, which ended up being canceled because a bad thunderstorm came through the start area after about 15 guys had started. I was one of the unlucky guys to start but I was told to stop at the 1/2 way mark. Apparently one guy got hit by lightning, so probably good they canceled the race. And finally at the Kisko triathlon I was 2nd behind Teemu Lemmettylä.

A few pictures below curtesy of my good friend Pekka from Juhannus triathlon.

Pepsi Max Addict

My name is Darby and I have been a Pepsi Max addict for five years. While coffee may be my passion and hobby to make the perfect shot of espresso, Pepsi Max I cannot live without. Not so much for its caffeine content but for something not written on the label that allows to increased productivity and concentration in what ever you are doing. Leave me a lone in a room with a 2L bottle and for sure its gone within an hour. And take the Max away from me and I suffer from withdrawal symptoms like headaches, general fatigue, poor motivation and irritability. I am not alone in this battle with Pepsi Max addiction.

My wife was the one who introduced me to this drug and she remains a hardcore junky that loves to push my addiction. I remember the day she introduced me to Pepsi Max... I thought she was joking when she angrily told me to run to the store and get 8L of Pepsi Max before she kicked my ass. Later on I truly understood the power of her addiction when her marathon performance went bad because apparently in Germany they only sell Coke products (yes, there is a difference). And I used to laugh at her addiction until I realized I too had slowly become addicted without noticing. We are not alone in our addictions either, as I can say some of my friends suffer too from Pepsi Max addiction (if your name begins with a P and ends with ekka then I might be talking about you).

Why is Pepsi Max so addicting? I quickly snap off a question to my good friend Google that shows many other stories of Pepsi Max addiction but with no conclusion as to the causes. Perhaps Pepsi is actually stealing a page from the original Coke recipe? I will give one bottle of Pepsi Max to the first person who can explain the addictive powers of Pepsi Max.

Run Happy

Interesting to read a running book lately entitled "Run" by Matt Fitzgerald. The subtitle of the book is "The mind-body method of running by feel." While I have only made it a couple chapters into the book, the basic idea is athletes are able to achieve better results when they learn to listen to their bodies. Also key to success is actually enjoying the training and racing. In short, if you are happy to be training and competing, your results will be better than if you push through tough training programs where motivation is hard to find.

The past few months (before reading the book) I had also begun to finally realize this truth by accident. I took a year away from any serious training and competition and when I started to get back my motivation I knew it had to be balanced with all the other aspects of my life. I decided quite quickly it was better to not follow any specific program because it would only create tension in the rest of my life. My training idea became that if I had time, energy and motivation then I would train, and train hard. I also decided that I would try to race as much as possible, because that is where the real fun is at!

Now a few months on from starting this training philosophy it has really begun to show results. Most people (athletes who train seriously) would probably laugh at the disorganization and minimal amount of training I have done in the past 6 months, however, I have found that my fitness and motivation have come to perhaps higher levels than when I was super-serious and following tightly scheduled training plans. And my results are also showing this training philosophy to be true with pr and near pr times in all distances I have raced so far this year.

Back to the book: I find it interesting that I started to read this book after I had kind of figured out the 'run happy' concept for myself. Now I wonder how my earlier sporting success could have been different if I had read the book or figured out on my own that the first priority in reaching full athletic potential is to actually enjoy what you are doing! Funny (or depressing) to think that for 10 years I have been over-training or fighting through injuries or training through days I wish would not have and basically not enjoying sport.

While I am kind of promoting the idea of not following training programs and doing what ever feels good, when ever it feels good, I do have to say that there does need to be some structure to any athlete's preparation. For example, the Run book mentions that famed US distance runner and now coach of many of the country's top athletes, Alberto Salazar, is using the coaching concept of limited scheduling. Salazar does tell his athletes what their program is but basically only a couple days or even less before the actual training. This means they learn to listen to their bodies, tell the coach how they feel and what they think their body needs, then the coach can decide what is appropriate.

Racing Update:

3rd - GP Rosendahl (bike race)

2nd - SM Duathlon (Finnish championships - Short distance)

4th - PM cross country (regional xc championships 6km)

1st - Salo cross country (really local xc championships!)

49th - Porvoon Ajot (fyi, don't try to do insane stair training a couple days before a 180km bike race! Not going to make the race go any easier :D)

Up Next:

- June 18th - Forssa Suvi-Ilta 1/2 marathon (this will be a good chance to try for new PR as course is fast and legs should be good, assuming I recover from my stair training/180km bike race combo, which hurts like hell right now...

- June 21st - Juhannus triathlon - great sprint triathlon organized by our club

- July 1st - SM tempo - Finnish time-trial championships 50km. good test for the legs

- July 2nd - Kisko triathlon - great local triathlon that is perfect for preparation for Finnish Championships.

- July 16th - Finn Triathlon - The big goal for the year! Try to get my fitness back to a level where I can be competing for the win. A true test of all the ideas I written above...

Double trouble

The Simo Klimscheffskij muistoajo (Memorial Ride) was held just outside of Turku on a rolling 4km loop. While I can count on two hands many times I have ridden a bike during the past year, I was surprised to find my legs were still able to handle racing.

The first bike race of the year (or last two years) started quite well but unfortunately came to an abrupt end after about 50km. During the first 1/2 dozen laps I tried a few times to get up the road in a break away but was unsuccessful. I decided to hangout in the pack for a while longer to wait until the other riders were more fatigued, then try again.

Unfortunately during an easy section of the race, I put both my wheels into a rather deep and narrow crack in the road. The large bang the proceed told me the race was over as both tires were completely blown out. Luckily I was able to keep my bike right side up and avoid crashing as another rider was not so lucky in the same section of road earlier in the race.

Despite having to stop early, I was quite happy to learn my legs remembered how to race. Even if the rest of my body was a bit sluggish (sore back and neck).

The next couple of weeks I will focus on running more and also training my cycling base a bit in order to be ready for GP Rosendahl and SM duathlon later this spring. Looking forward to both!

Getting rolling

After about a year of time away from serious sports, I am finally back into some kind of rhythm again. I spent the majority of last year working on building a house for my family, which was time well spent, how ever, it left little time or energy for pursuing triathlon like I had been in the past.

The house project was completed in September and I quickly set about trying to get into shape for Frankfurt marathon. Unfortunately I only had about 6 weeks to prepare and because the house project had been incredibly tiring, I was mostly interested in getting recovered from that rather than any real training. I managed to do a few 10km races and a few long runs but that was about all the preparation I got done. The first 1/2 actually went quite well in 1:17 but that was short lived. Cramps and general lack of fitness finally got the better of me and I turned cruise control on to try and make it to the finish in one piece. The end time of 2:56 was slightly embarrassing but gives good motivation to get my ass in shape this year!

This past winter I tried to get into some new routine and build back my aerobic fitness. XC skiing was the focus of my training and it did make a big difference in raising my fitness from the low level it started at. Unfortunately the consistency in training was not really there as I took a new job, my wife and I got a 2nd baby in February, and there was a lot of general fatigue associated with the previous year's efforts building our house.

I did manage to get enough running fitness to do a few indoor track races, which turned out to be very fun even if I am not well suited to the speed of them. Managing 4:19 in 1500m and 8:53 in 3000m was quite ok for me and gave some new inspiration to improve my running.

Now spring has arrived and I am really getting motivated to work on returning my fitness to a high level again. I do however, need to keep in mind I don't have a huge base of fitness like I used to and my daily time for training is quite limited with a family and job. Adapting to this different training environment has not been easy but I am slowly learning what works and what doesn't.

Weekdays are mostly about maintaining fitness and not becoming overly tired from work and life in general. Then when it comes to weekends, then I really try to push hard. As my friend Tatu eloquently termed it yesterday, "hero training" is the core of my training strategy on weekends. This usually involves going to a local running race and punishing myself, then hoping on the bike and riding home, no matter how far that is. Last weekend the trip home from an 11km running event turned out to be 160km, hence the 'hero' title.

While my routine is far from perfect and I am enjoying being back on the bike and running a bit. My hope is that by summer time this routine is expanded a bit and refined so I can start to see improvements.

My basic goals for this year are: new PB in 1/2 marathon, good performance in Finnish 1/2 Ironman champs, and run 'A' level marathon in Frankfurt.

I will make an effort to post on this blog frequently and hopefully find something interesting to write about! btw... if you want to read real entertainment.. visit my friends blog www.iamtedking.com he has a special way with words that is hard to explain. Well worth reading regularly!