Training in Maui + I am now a Fearless Racer

Few things are better to get away for some days and recharge. Also, when the get away place is Maui you have no reason to complain. I was so lucky last week. A good friend of mine invited us to her wedding at Maui and my wife and I said yes.


First stop at Maui is always the store, and another reminder of where we was. The local coffee is nice.



As always I have big plans for all the workouts I will do. But luckily for me and my wife I was there to relax. I got some really nice runs in. But I also got a chance to just relax, read, walk around, eat great food and attend a wedding.





I am now also a member of Fearless Racing Team presented by XLR8 SportsMed under the head viking Lars Finanger. Lars is a stand up guy in the triathlon community and I feel lucky being part of the team.



http://valhallasportsgroup.com/

Was triathlon better before?

If you are active on any message boards you will quite often read about that the sport of triathlon was better before. That the sport has changed from a tight knit group of friends to this new “thing”. But was triathlon better before?



First of all, any sport was better when you just found it either alone or with your friends and had great pleasure doing the racing and training. This is not unique to triathlon. But it has nothing to do with the sport, just how an individual appreciate the moment.

 

I did my first triathlon at the end of the 80s. I did it with the same group of people I did cross country skiing with. The sport was not new for us, we had been exposed to triathlon since a long distance race had been organized in our area since the mid 80s (Hof). We also had don multisport as part of cross country skiing training, swim-run, swim-run-rollerskiing, so the thought of multisport was not new. Was triathlon fun, yes. Was it hard, yes. Was the sport better than now? No.

 

These days the races are better organized, they are safer and you can even get equipment. A friend of mine did Hof triathlon (Ironman distance) without a wetsuit. 17 degree water and 3.8k swimming was cold. He started the bike with a feather jacket to warm up. These days you can get a good wet suit for $200.

 

Conclusion: every time you find something new and you are really enjoying it, it will soon be the good old times. You maybe had more fun, but the arena you did your sport in did not matter as much as you think.

What we should do is keep focusing on why we are doing the sport, the enjoyment of the challenge.

100 hours of training

Time is flying and it is mid March already. I can feel spring is in the air, I have allergy and the next months will be loud and interesting. On days with a lot of pollen I run or bike indoor to make sure I can get the workout done properly. But I am use to having allergy so this is my normal :-)

Training is going OK. Of course I wish that I could have done more, but to be honest I am happy with what I have done so far this year. I just passed 100 hours of training.



 

As you can see my training is polarized.



 

I feel that I am getting better, stronger and fitter. Not only because of my polarized training, but also that I now have several years of consistent training behind me.



 

With the weather getting better I can get some longer bike rides in, but I will try to maintain focus on running. Running is the best training for the endurance engine.

Are triathletes stupid customers?

The definition of a stupid customer is a person that buy everything in hope that it will solve a problem. A typical customer will buy some item that solve no problem, but it looked like a really good buy 3.30 at night on TV after too many beers, or even worse, anything from the Skymall catalog.

What about a fat burning creme.....



Then, what about triathletes. Are triathletes stupid customers? To use a line from the movie Singles, "Sometimes". How can I say that? I can say that after watching triathletes in action. But here you have some products that have been in the triathlon spotlight over the last years, compression socks, Vibram fivefingers, mid/front foot shoes, no gluten, no carbohydrates, ice baths, solid food on the bike, magic bracelets etc. These are just some of the fabs the last years.

But one thing is true about the sport of triathlon. It is a first adapter sport. Nothing gets untested. But not all things should be tested at all and that is my point.

For anything related to the body, trust science. If the product has claims, how can the claims be proven. Do not trust anyone saying; test it and find out. You can say that science does not know everything, and that is true. If science knew everything it could stop. But claims should be backed up by verifiable facts, not stories.

There are no shortcuts or secrets to success. No magic blue pill (doping is cheating, remember), no hidden secret that will make you to a speed machine. A good example is the result of the fictional book Born to run. Many got caught in the wave of minimalistic shoes and had to find out that they were not 10 years old, 80 pounds Kenyans running to schools. Sorry, the running without cushioning is just stupid.

But on thing actual can improve your training and make you go faster. It is also free. Get more sleep :-)



 

 

Post Olympic stress syndrom

The Olympic is over and now it is back no a normal day and night routine. It is hard to sleep when all of my favorite events starts around 2 AM. So how did my two countries Norway and the USA. Norway did OK, got a lot of medals but had problem with skis and the male cross country skiing team. The US did not have the games they had expected after a strong start of their up and coming cross country team. But luckily the sport is more than the Olympics.

A friend of mine from Drammen and my cross country days sent over some pictures. Those were the days.











This is my friend Anders who became Junior Norwegian Champion in relay, he was on the same team as Ole Einar Bjorndalen. That is cool :-)

And yes I am still training and it is going just fine. I am easy when I am suppose to be and now manage to push the intervals.



But I am trying to be fearless in my training (or at least in my choice of t-shirt)

The joy of the polarized training

I am starting to get into a good rhythm when it comes to training. My easy run and bike sessions are now easy, and I am more ready to push on the hard sessions. The most interesting thing is that it is harder to go easy then hard. I think it is grained into us age groupers that no pain is no gain. But I am getting better at just focus on effort and not speed.



My running is getting better and I am enjoying the long easy runs. Knowing that I can look around and enjoy the scenery without constantly looking at a GPS watch to hit a zone is nice. And even better, I know I get a better workout. Also, I now run my intervals faster so I maybe not have my running legs from my youth, but I will get some running legs before the summer.



Other than enjoying training I am also enjoying the Olympics. Norway is doing good according to American media, and is just horrible according to Norwegian media. I guess the truth is something in between.





And in was Valentin's day, I did not forget :-)



 

 

Training in January, back to the future

I kept moving the months after Norseman, but it was more to keep moving than to get fitter. Fall is also the busiest time at work for me combined with a diet full of cookies around Christmas, January could not come at a better time. And January has been good.

Since I am my own coach now I have the pleasure to find out how I will work out. Should I be the TSS and threshold king, a Strava master or a boring Norwegian. I will be a boring Norwegian and it is a reason for that, it is science. I am actually going back to the way of training that I did when I was young, had speed and hair. I am going to be polarized.

I will follow the structure of polarized training, easy on easy days and hard on long intervals days, two hard days a week. If you wonder how this model works check out this presentation from Stephen Seiler, you get it http://www.canal-insep.fr/fr/training-periodization-deep-root-cultural-heritage-and-innovative-paradigms-2013/ei_13_10_va_pr_stephen_seiler-mov

Also I will recommend the discussion on Slowtwich http://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/Polarized_Training_-_Interesting_Lecture_Video__P4931310



Trying to look smart on the treadmill.

With the polarized model it is important to keep the effort down on easy days, and up on hard days. I am now doing 4x8 both on the bike and running. It is hard, but I know it will work. So how did I do in January? Not bad according to this.



I have start using the training diary from Olympiatoppen. It fits this kind of training better than Trainingpeaks.

 

 

Running in Sammamish

Today was such a nice day, so I took my IPhone with me on my run. Sammamish has a lot of nice places.

Even before I started everything was just good. I got myself a new pair of running shoes, New Balance 890. They did a good job.



And then I started to run.















I am lucky to have all these nice places just outside my door.

Training and competing is FUN

I have taking part in a discussion about what role triathlon has for individuals. And guess what, not everybody agreed. For me, training and competing is fun. Being a triathlete is not what I am. I am a person who also competing in triathlon. But I am also a husband, a dad, an employee and a geek.



I have a feeling that many of the most serious age groupers newer competed in endurance sports when they were 12 – 20 years old and now are trying to catch up. This is of course just a guess. But I think that if you have trained on a high level before you can relax a little more since you put the sport in a bigger picture. The sport is not the picture.



I like to run in the rain, in the cold and in warm weather. Why? Because I like to run, it is enjoyable. If I did not like to swim I would have done duathlon.

 

In the end for me competing and training for triathlon is an activity, not my life. So I have fun doing it, I have fun when the pain sets in, I have fun when I pass someone on a race, and I try to get back to the fun zone when someone pass me. Triathlon is not a description of my life, how I live my life is.

 

[caption id="attachment_363" align="alignnone" width="640"] This is how I have been feeling the last two weeks, being in a fog.[/caption]

Is technology killing the fun of working out?

If you participate in a race today you will see a lot of people wearing at least one device with the ability to give at least hear rate, but most likely speed and other information too. In the old days we only had a stop watch if we were lucky. Is technology killing the fun?

Technology will always keep progressing and the prices will go down. This is a fact. I sold Polar HR monitors in the nineties and to say it mildly, you get a lot more for your money these days. I have to say that the biggest step in sports technology has been GPS in combination with other data. Now we can get a really good picture of what we did, were we did it at what speed, heart rate and cadence. But, is technology killing the fun?

 

My short answer is no. Technology is optional. It should be used to improve the experience; help with motivation and help people get their but out the door. If you are a slave to your device, maybe you should try to adjust your relationship. But overall I have no problem with technology. We all are different and some like to look at nature when they are running, some like to look at their watch. The most important thing is that they are out running.

I have an on/off relationship to technology. Sometimes I use it to push myself and other times I just want to do everything on feelings.



Maybe a bigger question is, have technology made us faster? Well we still have to push ourselves and do the job, so I guess for some people yes and for other no.



My advice, do what works for you.

Can a tech t-shirt be technical, a review of Fusion PRF Pro T-Shirt

I remember when I first start paying attention to the term technical t-shirt. It was in the nineties and I was working in a running store. Nike has start coming out with their Coolmax technology and it was suppose to be so much better than cotton. Now almost 20 years later I have gotten used to not pay attention to the term tech t-shirt. Why? since the term tech t-shirt is used for all shirts made of a synthetic material. An trust me, nothing is technical with most of those shirts. They cannot be used for any training and not like a cotton shirt, for cleaning your bike or to polish shoes.

Luckily you will find manufactures out there who actually wants to create a good product, and that is where the Danish company Fusion comes in. Fusion is making quality clothing for running, cycling and triathlon, but is that true? Well, so far I have to agree. Fusion is a typical Danish company they blend function first with good design and choice of materials. Everything on the t-shirt is there for a reason, and it looks good also.

What is nice with the Fusion PRF Pro t-shirt is the fit and materials. The t-shirt is made for athletes and endurance sports. Also the t-shirt has a different material on the back on under the arms. That is genius. This shirt is not a synthetic heat tap, it is working. It is nice to finally use a shirt that lives up to what is promised. After using this product I have finally found a technical t-shirt that is technical. Now I have to do the easy part, train.

So check out this gem of a Danish brand. You can find it here http://www.fusionsportsusa.com/

So how is training going Halvard?

It is almost Thanksgiving and then Christmas. This is the busiest time for me at work and my wife has been traveling a lot this fall for her work. As you can see I have all the excuses lined up already. But luckily my off season training has not been too bad.

I am not reinventing the wheel when it comes to my training. I am trying to build on the training I did with Coach Tony DeBoom. He got me from the sofa to the top of Gaustatoppen in less than two years so it would be stupid to not learn from it.



Here you have my principles:

• Learn to know yourself


• It is about endurance strength


• Have fun

Learn to know yourself

What does that mean? I am trying to get a good understanding of my body and use that as a data point for decisions making. I am not blindly following any measurement devices but try to use them as a supplement to training, mostly to keep the effort down when I have easy training. It will take time, but I feel that I am starting to get to know my body better now.

 

It is all about endurance strength

Let us be real. I am not swimming fast, bike fast or run like a runner during a long distance triathlon. It is not about the speed, but the strength to keep going. So my running intervals are usually 5x5 minutes uphill, I will also do threshold runs. The goal is to build endurance, not so much the capability to run fast with a lot of acid in the legs like a 1,500 meters runner. On the bike I do two sessions of low revolutions a week. I have good experience with those from my build up to Norseman. Swimming – let’s get back to that in 2014.

Have fun

Training and competitions are about having fun. Yes I can have goal, but the most important is the fun factor. If you take what you do too seriously when it comes to sport, being afraid of failure will be the most dominate thought and suck all life out of the experience.

An article about me on www.skiaktiv.no

Saturday I had a nice talk with Ingeborg Scheve from the Norwegian endurance web site www.skiaktiv.no. Skiaktiv is focusing on endurance sports like cycling, running cross country skiing and have started with more triathlon coverage. Since I got interviewed it is quite obvious that the site is also covering more average age groupers and not only the fast ones.

You can read my interview here

Running form, speed and how a fast run looks like

Triathlon is like all endurance sport hard. Long distance triathlon is a slow and long fight against fatigue and slower speed. For some (like me) the fatigue start early on the running leg, but for others later. But it will come and it will be painful.

After every Kona you will find a discussion about running speed. Especially this year when the men run slower and the fastest women ran a 2.50 marathon, third fastest overall. But the big question is; can you look at a runner and then tell how fast they are.

Here you have a good collections of running styles and speed. Without knowing the splits, how easy is it to know who will be faster over 42 kilometers. Maybe not everybody should run like a runner, since this is triathlon and not every athlete has a runner to pull out after all the biking?



Looking at the videos, reading all the articles and listening to the broadcast and all the podcasts talking about Kona made me go back to one of the best videos about running in triathlon. Todd Kenyon has pointed out a lot of specific about the run and the potential for more than just one technique.

My new coach is: ME

I have now hired the worst and most rude coach ever, myself. Why? Was I unhappy with my old coach? No, I have nothing but good thing to say about coach Tony DeBoom. He is not only a really knowledgeable coach, but he is a good guy. Tony took me from a coach potato to the black t-shirt at Norseman in under two years. And he did it with a lot of time constrains on my side. Best of all, Tony explained why he wanted me to do the different workouts, me made me a smarter athletes.  But for 2014 I do not have a big goal, so I will coach myself.



So what is my plan for this winter?

I have limited of time so I will focus on VO2max training in the week and hopefully some longer rides/run in the weekend. When I know what races I will participate in I can make a more targeted plan. But now my goal is to increase VO2max and then add longer stuff in the spring.

One thing I will do is running hill intervals on the treadmill having this picture in my head. That hill kicked my butt so it is good to use for motivating.

 



 

I will also try to get some swimming instruction. A good swim will always set you up for a good day in triathlon. I will never be a fast swimmer, but I have room for improvements.



But most of all I will have fun. Training is fun. Getting my but kicked in competition is fun. Feeling in shape is a good feeling. And I might even get faster. It is easier now since I have two years of training in the bank.



 

Norseman is done, now what?

When your bucket lists just has one race and you have done it, it is time to start thinking about what is next. What do I want to do with my triathlon/sport life in 2014? Should I get some new goals or is it time to just enjoy being active and race for fun?



Why should I have a goal in the first place? A goal not only helps making training more structured, it adds motivation and it simplify the athlete experience by taking out noise. All of that is good, but it can only be as good at the goal itself (God I am getting philosophical here). So the next question is; what is a good goal? Norseman was a good goal for me. That race had several factor of my life incorporated so it was easy to get excited about and motivated for. Now I need to find other races with qualities that are interesting and make the heart rate increase.



So far I am looking into Wildflowers in California, Pacific Crest in Bend Oregon or maybe I should do a triathlon camp with a lot of trading at a nice and challenging place. For 2014 I will not work out more, but I will race happy and enjoy being active. My list is not finished, so right now I do not know what I will do in 2014.