Always fun with local races

Back in June I did a short sprint in Woodinville. It took me under 30 minutes to drive there. It was small but well organized. A perfect race for both beginners and experienced athletes. The short race report is, swim was bad due to lack of swim, bike OK, run OK. Second overall and I won my age group :-)

Norway, Holmenkoll relay and vacation

May is a perfect time to go to Norway. You have the famous Holmenkoll relay and of course the national day May 17.

The whole family boarded the Icelandair flight here in Seattle May 8. Goal, land in Oslo, Norway mid day May 9.



Henrik ready for the flight.

The pilots at Icelandair had decided to have a 12 hour strike on Friday May 9. So we had to stay in Iceland 12 hours longer than planned. We got a hotel room, but it would be nicer to be in Norway with family.





12 hours later than planned we landed in Norway. So we got to be around 2.30 after a long day. Well Saturday was competition day for me. I had a spot at my brother's running club's team. The team rand in the senior class where you find young, skinny and fast runners. Even without jet lag it would have been hard. The Holmenkoll relay is a 11 miles and 15 stages relay around Oslo. The stages are everything form 600 meters flat to 2,5k. Some are hilly and some are downhill or flat. I had the 5th stage, 1240 meters with uphill in the beginning and end, and flat and downhill in the middle.




Fearless Racing Team at Bislett stadium.

The cool thing about the Holmenkoll relay is that you meet old friends and compete against or around many sports star. I spotted several Olympic medalists.

My run went ok, but nothing more. I had problem getting up to speed, but then again I have not done a lot of speed work either. With some more rest I should have done 5-10 seconds better, but I had fun. 90 minutes after the run, I ran another stage for my brother's employer. This was in the company class so it was mostly for fun. I ran the first leg and did ok. Hard to run fast when your legs are really tired before start.

After the relay I was tired.

Beaver Lake Triathlon Race Report

Beaver Lake Triathlon is a local race close to where I live. It always has a good atmosphere and the course is quite challenging to be a sprint. The swim is 400 meters in the usually warm Beaver Lake. The bike leg is 13 miles with three climbs and the run is 4.3 miles with some rolling terrain. Since the water temperature was nice I decided to race without a wetsuit. As a weak swimmer the wetsuit is good help but sometimes it is good to go outside the comfort zone.

Swim:

I had a good warm-up, then the race start god delayed and all my effort went down the drain. I started in wave 9. The swim went ok. I could feel that my legs did not have any help since I did not used a wetsuit, but overall I am satisfied.

T1:

No wetsuit = fast transition. I had the fastest transition of everybody, even though I had a less than perfect place for my bike.

Bike:

I started passing people right out of T1, used a little time to get warm but then it was no problem. A little bit of traffic slowed me down but the police and volunteers worked hard to get the cars out of the way. I felt strong in the hills, especially the long one. But since I just passed people I did not have any reference point of faster athletes. All the biking in the garage has paid off.

T2:

Had some problem with one shoe, but other than that no problem.

Run:

I had two goals: start slow and keep high cadence. I managed to hold back the first half mile, got into a good rhythm and just focused on keeping the cadence up. I kept passing people and no one passed me. The run was a positive experience; I felt that I was running not just suffering on heavy bike legs. I pushed hard the last half mile and even tried a little sprint. I was fun finishing strong.

Conclusion:

OMG I got 20^th place out of 350. I had a lot of fun and now know I am getting in better shape.

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