Soaring Eagle Trail Run Race Report

YEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

The 2014 race season has started and my legs are feeling it. I decided to start this season in the woods. Or to be more accurate, in the local forest park here in Sammamish: Soaring Eagle Park. The Seattle area has a lot of low key trail running competition so I signed up for the 5 mile race.

The last interval workout before the race was awful so I was not sure about my shape.



As a member of the Fearless Racing Team I made sure my race gear was correct. Well, the new kit is in the mail so I went old school with a cotton t-shirt. I raced like everybody else in cotton t-shirts back when I was young and fast, so this most be the slowest race I have done in a regular t-shirt.



The trails at Soaring Eagle Park are full of elevations changes and have a lot of twists and turns. On Saturday I ran through the course but could hardly remember 10% of the terrain, and I have done a lot of running in that park before. The course was challenging and a real trail run course.

Race morning I could feel that I had a race. I always get more nervous for running races than triathlons. But luckily this was a positive nervousness.

The start of the race was a small parking lot, but the organizers had everything us runner needed. I have to say this was a really positive race.



Some last minute reading before start.



Then it was time to get to the start line. And since this is Seattle, no one wanted to stand in the first line. It was kind of funny.



The race organizer counted us down and said go, the 2014 race season had officially started.

I was in the lead after 10 meters. That said a lot about the field of the 5 mile race and not so much about my running abilities. But no matter what, leading a race is really cool. The first kilometer was on a gravel road, before the course started on single track trails with mud and turns. I tried to speed up down hills, look as much forwards as possible without doing face plants and when I had time look back to see what was going on. After 15 minutes I could not see any athletes. I was in front totally alone :-)

I tried to run in an even effort level, but my legs got really tired of shifting directions. I could tell that I got a little more clumsy at the end, but I kept myself on the feet and managed to even sprint for the finish. My time on my watch was 38.22.

 

My big take away. I had a lot of fun and it was a blast to be in the front for a whole race. Now I am looking forward to next race where I most likely will get killed.

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 :-)