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News Tblog is the newest addition to my homepage. The Tblog will be in English and is a result of several requests to write in English. I think this is a fine compromise and in case you prefer Danish please check out Presse
September 19th 2010 I'm in the off season right now. I finished the season in August after the Challenge Copenhagen race. I was quite optimistic ahead of Challenge Copenhagen due to brilliant training. I had never been that well prepared for at race On race day everything turned out reasonably well for me. I did not hit it right on, however, after the race I was very happy with my performance. I hit the finish line 8.20 and a 5th place overall. I was in the lead group out of the water and stayed with the leaders on the bike. This enabled my to hit T2 in second place overall. For a long, long time, I held that position on the run, however after stomach issues and severe cramps in the end I fell back to fifth place. Challenge Copenhagen is a great race and a race I'd would not mind doing it again. The run course was spectacular with lots of people cheering you on. The race course can be fast if the weather permits. I look forward to next
year's race and use the off season to rest my body. June 19th 2010 The list of PRO starters for Challenge Copenhagen has been updated. If you want to check it out, use this link: http://www.challengecopenhagen.com/da/challenge-copenhagen/kompetencer/pro-starters My prep for Challenge Copenhagen is going really well and I'm already back into my usual training routine. I normally take a little more time off training after an ironman, however, this time I have recovered exceptionally fast. This is good news as the main goal of the year is only 56 days away:-) Challenge Copenhagen here I come... June 7th 2010 The first Ironman of the year is always exciting. You don't really know how you'll perform and if you are able to perform at all. That was how I felt right before the start of Wasserstadt Triathlon in Hannover in Germany. Honestly, the competition did not start too well for me. I swam below average and exited the swim close to 52 minutes. Not great at all. I did swim the last 1500m with leg cramps but that does not excuse a poor swim. I need to address this area before my next ironman, Challenge Copenhagen. The bike leg went reasonable well and I did not have to push too hard to cover the 180 k. In fact I ended up leading the race by 10 minutes as I entered T2. During the run I was able to extend the lead with a further 20 minutes. The run was tough, though, due to the warm weather. The run course did not have any shadow at all and with 12 k to go I was pretty toast. I cruised the last few k's but still manage to shatter the course record by more than 20 minutes. The finish time was 8.42.30 and I crossed the finish line in first place. This was was second Ironman victory of my career. This is satisfying as I have been working a lot lately. In fact, I work more than 60 hours a week and this leaves me with less time to train than usually. I expect this to change slightly over the next few weeks and enable me to prepare better for Challenge Copenhagen. May 30th 2010 In about a week I'm ready for the first Ironman af the year. It's going to be in Hannover where I'm going to test a few things in a low key competition. The outcome of this test will determine my gameplan for this year's primary goal, Challenge Copenhagen. The last few weeks of training went well and I hope to do well in Hannover. March 20th 2010 I had a chance to test myself on the CT this week. It went well and although I did not manage 350 watts in my threshold test, I came very close to this number. This really sets me off to a great start to the season. I'm about to start my outdoor riding and look forward to increase my threshold numbers even more. The snow has gone and it's safe to travel the roads again. I don't mind training indoors, however, it's a relief to get outside and do the first spring rides of the year. In fact, these rides are my favourite rides of the year. March 7th 2010 The winter is still very much alive here in Denmark. Snow and ice everywhere! Luckily, I have a Computrainer and some Ergvideos to pull me through the winter time. Like past years, this year time spent on the Computrainer seems like time well spent. Today, I rode over three hours on the CT with 262 watt normalized power. If this continues, it's going to be a great season. Over the past two
weeks I have hosted two running workshops for endurance athletes.
Both went well and I am really anxious to follow the participants'
progress this season. Based on previous year’s results,
the workshop participants can look forward to significant gains. February 7th 2010 Well, it's been a while since my last post. I'm still alive and actually training pretty well. It's been cold, really cold here for a long time. In fact, we have had snow and frosty weather since the middle of December. This obviously makes training a little more challenging than normal and it's hard to do any riding outside at all. Accordingly, I spend a lot of time indoors training on my Computrainer along with several Ergvideos. I honestly do believe that this type of indoor training is a lot more effective than training outside during the winter so I should not complain about the weather! This spring will be another opportunity to test this hypothesis. Since the 1st of January I have been running a lot. I run between 6 and 8 times a week. Not very long at a time, though. I try to strengthen my legs and prepare them for the season ahead. I would really like to have a race season without any injuries and I think this is the way to achieve this. October 11th 2009 I made it to the finish line - just. I got off to a poor start in the swim. I had to take a time out after less than a minute of swimming. I hung onto a surf board for 30 sec to recover from hits, knocks and all the rest of it. Accordingly, I had to swim through the field and wasted a lot of energy to get back into contention again. Once on the bike I had time to recover further. I rode the first part of the course very easy and I did not start to bike hard until I hit the section leading up to Hawi. In fact, that was the only time during the whole ride I pushed the tempo. In accordance with my game plan I hit T2 with a low average wattage but I still managed a fairly fast bike ride. How come? Well, I have worked a lot on aerodynamics this year and it has paid of. I have saved close to 25 watt on the bike and was still able to bike faster than last year.
Obviously I thought under the circumstances that I would be able to run fast. Unfortunately, this did not happen. I suffered throughout the run and only barely made it to the finish line. To get third place on less than perfect day is good and I'm happy with the result. I am especially happy about the way I handled the race. I left everything I had out there on the run course. October 9th 2009 The hay is in the barn. No more training, no more preparing, no more calculating calories, no more nothing. Just a night's sleep and I am ready for my tenth Kona experience. An anniversary of sorts and one I really look forward to. It’s amazing to think back on each and everyone of my campaigns here on the Big Island. The race has changed so much since 1996 and still the core of the event has remained the same. I guess that is why I have kept coming back too. The challenge of this event does not compare to anything else I have ever done. Certainly during those (hopefully) nine hours of competition you feel very much alive. The hurt is there, the good spirit is there and most importantly the challenge is there. Great!
It was nice to get the bike into the transition area. It kind of closes a circle of preparation and signals rest and relaxation ahead. As much as I like the training and the competition, it’s good to know there is an end to it as well. A time to evaluate, set new goals and begin a new meaningful journey, a process towards a new rewarding experience. Who knows it might be another triathlon or maybe something completely different. I feel ready and even though my Achilles still does its best to hold me down, I think, I have a good shot at another podium if things pan out for me tomorrow. Let the show begin! October 8th 2009 The dinner with the Saucony team was great. The food was very, very good and the company extraordinary with past champions and a handful of Kona top 5 finisher among the participants. This morning I attended the Powerbar brunch. It too was a good experience. I'm amazed to see how much this event has grown since I attended for the first time. Back then we were 15 athletes and this morning I'm guessing that perhaps 75 athletes attended the brunch. Great. I had a day off in terms of training and used the day to relax and get my bike ready for the action on Saturday. I feel pretty good and look forward to competing again. October 7th 2009 The morning swim was great today, especially because Coffee of Hawaii served a delicious cup of coffee in the middle of the ocean. Great! I had a short bike and run session before 10 a.m. It went well and my body is responding well to the taper. A few more days like this and I'll be on fire on race-day. Tonight, Helle and I are going to a dinner with Saucony and the rest of the Saucony team toeing the start line on Saturday. I look forward to meeting the other athletes. It should be great fun. The weather has
been quite warm this time around and the weather forecast promise
for a very hot day on Saturday. There is even a chance of trade
winds coming in. This could potentially lead to a tough day. That
is the way Hawaii is supposed to be, so let the wind and heat
come. I'll be ready. October 5th 2009 You need an easy day once in a while. I had one today. I basically had an easy swim in the morning and spent the rest of the day on my back. I hope to regain a bit of freshness this way. I have been a bit tired following my flight from Denmark to Kona. October 4th 2009 Like last year I did the Kukio Blue Water Swim, which is an 1.2 miles long swim in the ocean along the Kona cost. The venue was great and so was the result. I swam 24.30 which was 1.5 minutes faster than last year. Further, I won my age-group and accordingly a great way to begin the Kona compaign 2009. October 2nd 2009 How to prepare for the Kona heat while living in cold Denmark? Well, ideally you'd probably want to travel to the Big Island some three or four weeks early, however, with a fulltime work and four kids that not likely to happen. Accordingly, as I have stated below, I have done a large proportion of my training indoors for the last 12 days. To get an inside view of that training follow the LINK. It seems to have worked fine. Kona does not seem that hot to me this year and my pulse is close to normal even after one hour of running at race pace. October 1st 2009 I'm on the Big Island with my youngest son and my girl friend. It was quite a travel and unfortunately out baggage did not arrive along with us. In fact, there is still no sign of our baggage. It's quite challenging to live out of one set of clothes. Especially, if that set of clothes consists of long pants and a long sleeve shirt in 86 F hot and sunny weather. Anyway, it's nice to be here again and I look forward to competing again. The next couple of days will involve a bit a activity, however, the bulk of exercise is behind me and I look forward to some relaxation. Mahalo. September 25th 2009 The indoor training is going according to my plan. Today I completed a 24k run on the treadmill without any difficulties with my Achilles Tendon. In fact, I feel very well despite four weeks of very hard training. I still have three hard training sessions left in my plan and than I ready the fire on race day:-) September 21st 2009 The training is continuing to go well. On Sunday I did a 6 hour bike ride followed by a 30 minute run. It went very well and at no time did I feel fatigued. In fact, I had to keep myself back on the run to avoid overdoing it too much. I rarely train that long, however, once in a while I have to test my endurance. The coming period will include a lot indoor training in order to start my acclimatization as early as possible. September 19th 2009 Since Cologne 226 my training has progressed a lot and I am running in flat terrain without difficulty now. In fact, last weekend I biked 115k with a 40 km/h average and ran 18k right after averaging 4.03 minutes a k. For me that's a pretty solid effort and shows that I'll be ready for Kona in three weeks. The flight for Kona is booked and I am ready to go. Unfortunately, I won't be in Kona for as long time as I would like to. Work commitments and being away from my family for a long time made it impossible for me to spend several weeks in Kona. I'll arive on October 1st. September 9th 2009 The competition in Cologne went well for my athlete Andreas Borch. He went sub 9 hours and joined three other of my athletes who also got into the exclusive sub 9 hour club this season. For my part, I went on to complete a 22k run along the Rheine without any achilles tendon problems. This was certainly great and right now I feel pretty confident about this year’s Kona campaign. September 5th 2009 I'm in Cologne in Germany this weekend to support one of my athletes in his efforts to hit the podium in Cologne226. An ironman distance race in the heart of Germany. The course seems to pretty fast if conditions don't get too windy. It's great to be able to train in a different area than my usual backyard. While I'm here I hope to be able to run my first 20k run in a long, long time along the river Rhein. Should I be able to complete that run, I should be able to get ready for Kona in time. We'll see... August 26th 2009 It's time for the yearly Kona build-up. Normally I like to be in a medium good shape before I start my 6 week build-up. This year seems to be a bit different as my swim and bike fitness is very good. I have even started to run again after a short period without running at all. This could potentially lead the way to a great Kona experience and certainly a better prep than last year's rather poor excuse of a build-up! To top this off I'll have 5 of my coached athletes competing in Kona this year. In other words I'm ready for my 10th go at Ironman Hawaii. Let it be a good one:-) July 12th 2009 I'm ready for Hawaii for the 10th time. I qualified in Klagenfurt with an 8.49. The time was fast enough for a first place in my AG. Not bad for an injured athlete! The day went well and I was especially pleased with a 3.12 marathon after weeks with no or low run volume. This could lead the way for a great competition in Kona this year. Further, I had four athletes competing in Challenge Roth today and what a day! All four athletes made a PB and two of the guys actually went sub 9 hours. Indeed a good day for Team Torpedo. June 30th 2009 Thunderbear calls it quits. Sad news but a heart failure puts an end to Torbjørn Sindballe's brilliant career. I have to admit that I really looked forward to a big show down between the two Danish Big Wigs: Torbjørn Sindballe and Rasmus Henning in Ironman Hawaii. This is not going to happen now, however, I wish Torbjørn all the best in the future and I hope he'll stay connected to sport somehow.
Ironman Hawaii 2007, one day prior to Thunderbear's breakthrough third place race. June 28th 2009 Finally, a piece of good news from me. Yesterday I ran 21 km without too much difficulty. In fact, I was quite surprise to see how fast I could actually run. However, I'm well aware of the fact I can't possible hold that pace throughout a marathon. Today, I was able to do my last real training before Ironman Austria and it went well for me. I finished a good 2 hour bike ride (80 km) off by running a 10 km in 39 minutes, which was great news. If I stay injury
free next week, I think, I should be able to do alright in Austria
in a week. June 20th 2009 Recent weeks have been a nightmare in terms of training. I'm in incredible good swim and bike form; however, I'm unable to run. The injury that I got in St. Pölten has not healed very well and I'm still not doing any real run training. Accordingly, I'm not sure whether I should start in Ironman Austria or not. I have not done proper run training for 18 months now... On the positive side my son is doing fine and gaining weight by the minute and I mean that literally! Great to follow his progression and that is a real piece of everyday inspiration. AC/DC played a great concert and I tell you: They have still got it! For those about to rock - We salute you! June 19th 2009 Today is a day without training. I'm going to a concert with the Aussie band AC/DC. I have been looking forward to this for a while now. It's more than 20 years ago I saw the band for the first time. I have always regarded AC/DC as the world's premiere live band. Tonight I'll see if they have still got it. May 30th 2009 The first competition of the year is under the belt and it went fine. Well that is from a result point of view as I won the 70.3 Austria M35 age-group. However, the victory was not without a cost as I injured my right calf after 2 k of running. Having built a substantial lead during the swim and bike left me enough time to limp over the finish line ahead of the competition. However, it was a poor run and it does not reflect my current run form. Not that my run form is great right now but I should have been able to run close to 1.22 for the half marathon without the injury. After Austria 70.3 I have unfortunately realized that my injury is worse than anticipated. If I'm lucky I won run for two weeks, however, it’s likely that I won run for four or five weeks. That would be a disaster as I would not be able to compete in Ironman Austria later this summer. The finale verdict will follow on Wednesday... May 15th 2009 This year's first competition is close now. I'm going to 70.3 St. Pölten to do my first injury free race in a year! In fact it is the first time I'm going to race with a reasonable run base in 18 month. I really look forward to this competition and I hope to be able to revenge myself from last year's DNF in the same competition after my achilles injury. One thing that could put my performance in jeopardy is the fact that I crashed quite badly in my bike a week ago. I almost got run over by a car, but survived the accident luckily. Ever since my performance has been weak at least compared to previous weeks’ performance. I still have a week to recover my left knee, hip and shoulder and I hope this is going to be enough to put me back on track. I would really like to do well in St. Pölten this year. May 14th 2009 The baby is doing fine and is gaining weight and increasing in size by the day. We have decided on a name for him and his name is going to be Matt. Recently Matt has been very active during night time and used the daytime for sleeping. Not the most appropriate pattern and I really hope he changes his sleeping pattern soon. I had a little more than 10 hours of sleep over the last four days. A little on the low side, but hey, that is to be expected now and then:-) April 27th 2009 Training is going really well. In fact, I'm hitting my usual September swim and bike benchmark already here in April. It is not a big surprise that the swimming is going really well as I have been swimming with some great swimmers lately. However, my bike power is unusual high for the month of April and the utilization of the power is extraordinary. I probably owe the later to a great bike. The Trek Equinox is such a swift ride; it's difficult to find the right words to describe it. All in all I look forward to my next competition, which is going to be 70.3 Austria. April 20th 2009 A little over a week ago I became a father again to a newborn son. He was 3600 kilograms heavy and 54 centimeters long. So far both mother and son are doing fine. March 16th 2009 I've got this thing with the Olympic Games and the sport of triathlon. I know; old news! The Olympic Games was half a year ago, however, recently a new 'Triathlon' format has been added to the program. It's a kind of a very short relay with two girls and two men in one team. I think it embraces what the Olympic Games is all about not to mention the whole Olympic spirit. The question, though, is: Does it embrace the spirit of triathlon too? I think that's debatable. Why? Well, I'm sitting with the AC/DC box set 'Plug Me In' that includes a booklet which describes it pretty accurately. The text in the booklet starts like this: "AC/DC were not made for television. They were from the start, too loud and lewd for family viewing, too LIVE to fit in any living room..." Exchange the word 'AC/DC' with 'triathlon' and it fits my view on triathlon, television and the Olympic Games pretty darn well. Even though the yearly NBC broadcast of the Ironman Hawaii at times gets some of the emotions of triathlon across the screen, it can never substitute the real feeling of competing, fighting and endure for hours when the body is ready to pack it all in. Times where sheer willpower carries you across the finish line and gives you an outstanding feeling of achievement that stays with you for the rest of your life. OK television is bad for triathlon? Well, not necessarily. In the case of Ironman Hawaii the NBC broadcast does make some justification to the sport and in that case it makes sense. However, as soon as triathlon is altered from its original form to suit for instance the Olympic Games and thereby television, I'm not that pleased anymore. To enhance the problem even more, this relay thing has been added to the program. Since when did triathlon become a team sport? No, label the relay competition for what it is, something different than triathlon. I don’t care about the name as long as it’s not ‘triathlon’ Triathlon should be carried out in action and not watched on television. OK the rant is over. I’ll press play again on the DVD and watch the rest of the Olympic Triathlon and the exciting sprint finish with Jan Frodeno on top. March 4th 2009 My training is coming along fine and I have increased my training volume from 1 hour three weeks ago up to 12 hours last week. I have adopted the training well and I feel a rapid increase in fitness. At the same time my Achilles tendon is improving fast and I'm able to run somewhere from 20 to 40 minutes at a time. Further, I have started to swim competitively with the best swimmers in town. It's one of the best swim squads in the country and they are really able to push me. Great.
February 21st 2009 I have a new bike sponsor - Trek. Yesterday I went to the Danish Trek HQ to have a closer look at the Bontrager and Trek equipment. It was a great day and I had ample opportunity to select the gear, I'll use in the up-coming season. I was primarily focused on the TT gear but I also spent time selecting a mtb and a road bike. Further, it seems likely that I'll be able to get a pair of the brand new Bontrager Aeolus 9.0 prototypes, which would be a major scoop for me. The reason for changing bike sponsor? Well, in the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009 I spent a lot of time gathering information on state-of-the-art TT bike equipment and analyze the information afterwards. Having a solid foundation of information made it easy for me to come to the conclusion that Trek Equinox TTX would give me the edge in time trialing. Having already tried the Equinox in Hawaii in connection with Ironman Hawaii I was pretty sure this would be as good for me as it could possibly get. Supported by the famous 'Trekwhitepaper' I made an agreement with Trek to work closely together with Trek in the 2009 season. Anyway, I really look forward to a season on the Trek TTX Equinox (as well as the Madone 6.9 and the Elite 9.9 mtb). I think a few records are going to fall later this year:-) Will I ride as fast as Chris Lieto? No! Not likely, but any improvement on a personnel level is welcome. Let the season begin! February 17th 2009 The past week I have had the pleasure of having a visit from Dr. Michael Maxwell who also lived with me in Hawaii last year. Michael and I have done several talks together during the last 8 days on injury prevention and running economy. Further, during the weekend we held a running workshop over two days. Michael and I are in the process of creating a running / triathlon DVD with a run focus and we got a lot of footage for this DVD shot over the last 8 days. I really look forward to seeing the final result and I think we are going to deliver a very good product.
In the picture is Dr. Michale Maxwell and my co-host on the TRI226.ORG PODCAST Jesper Hansen discussing the filming set-up. Obviously devoting most of my time to coaching, filming and educating I have not been able to get a lot training in lately. In fact, I only trained 1 hour and 20 minutes last week. I hope I can break the pattern this week. January 18th 2009 It's been way too long since my last post here. The last couple of weeks have been good, however also very, very intense. I held a two-day swimming seminar for a group of triathletes last weekend. It was great fun and more importantly very beneficial for the participants. In fact, a week later 33 % of the participants have already scored themselves a new swimming PB. Not bad for a weekend's training. I can't say the same thing about my own athletically endeavours. In fact the only thing that seems to work just fine is my two weekly indoor bike sessions with Ergvideos. This continues to be great fun and make winter training so much more fun. Running? Well, I'm running or what ever you want to call it. I'm not running fast nor very far, but I'm running and that's a great improvement compared to most of '08! November 2nd 2008 Normally I'm a huge fan of the alarm clock, however, there is one wake up call that I don't like! That is the one, I get the first time I'm out training after Ironman Hawaii. This year it was a short mountain bike just-for-fun-ride today. The only reason it was a short ride was the fact that I was out of breath after only 40 minutes of riding. In reality, I guess, it was not really a wake up call, as I never did get up this season. I have been half awake and half asleep so to speak after my Achilles injury in May. A few times over the last six month I have almost been able to see an end to this injury misery, only to be disappointed once again. When I do regard this first training session as a wake up call after all, it's due to the fact that it reminds me, I need to get serious with my injury prevention training if I'm to compete next year. I have teamed up with Michael Maxwell to get an injury prevention program going. That has worked successfully in the past and I'm convinced it will once again. I am going to compete next season. Ironman Hawaii was a kind of a pad on the back in regards to my athletically ability. I mean, I was able to compete head to head with the fifty best ironman triathletes in the world with an inadequate preparation. I have been going over the data several times in the last two weeks and based on my findings, I believe, I can step up my performance another 3 or 5 percent. Should I succeed in doing this I guess I won't have to do the math here? The result is quite obvious. October 17th 2008 I'm back in Denmark again after more than 40 hours of travelling. The legs still hurt but in a good way:-) Before I left the Big Island I had a chance to interview Michael Maxwell. It's a good interview and Michael gives away a few tips for the endurance athlete and triathlete. Michael worked at the ART tent during Ironman week and helped a lot of athletes getting healthy to the start line. Just like he helped me get there last year and again this year. Listen to the interview here! October 13th 2008 First off, thanks to all you who wrote me in the last couple of days to congratulate me on my finish in Hawaii. I really appreciate it. I had a really good day and exceed my own expectations in the swim and on the bike. However, as was to be expected, I could not stay ahead of the competition in the closing stages of the marathon. My run training simply was not good enough for that. I did not feel any pinching from my Achilles during the race, which was a good thing. The reason, though, that I could not feel any pinching was probably the fact that everything else just hurt more. For once I came out of the swim here early enough to completely rid the packs. I just had to stay ahead of them, which I did. It was a lonely day out there in the lava fields on my own, but it was good at the same time. I was not distracted by people overtaking me or me overtaking others. I just completely rode according to my own plan. I average a little more than 260 watts, which gave me a 4.55 bike split. I started the very strong and I just ran my rhythm and wanted to keep that going for as long as possible. I held on to that pace for 10 miles. Thereafter my legs gave up on me and started to, well you know, hurt like mad! It became a struggle just to make it to the finish line. My legs were not trained for the eccentric load of running downhill, which I could not do in my training due to the Achilles issues. To finish third
under these circumstances is huge. Further to be the fastest Dane
overall is just like an extra! It's btw the fourth time I'm the
fast Dane overall. No doubt that would have liked to win but I
wasn't even close! I think held the lead to about 15 or 16 miles.
The competition was too strong and my prep too weak. Without the
help from ART practitioner Michael Maxwell I doubt I would have
made to the finish line this time around. Thanks Mike! Btw if you want to listen to an interview with Michael Maxwell stay tuned. I will have an interview (Podcast) online within a couple of days here on the Tblog. October 9th 2008 I had another short swim today to try out the new Blue Seventy swimsuit. I swam out to Coffee Of Hawaii's boat and got a cup of coffee from 'The Terminator' Scott Molina. I drank that cup in good company with Simon Lessing! He's not here to compete, though. He is doing some promotional stuff. After the swim I went to the yearly Powerbar Bruch for the Elite triathletes and had a good chat with a few of the other guys. Very cool. Tonight I'm going to the Pasta Party where I'm supposed to wear the Champion's Polo. It's going to interesting... This might be the last update before the competition. I'm running out of time:-) October 8th 2008 The day started off with at great swim. Not that I swam all that well today but I swam more than 5 minutes with dolphins. The dolphins stayed right with me and played around. It was great, great fun. I decided to swim a little later today because the dolphins seem to show like 40 minutes to an hour after I finished my swim. The decision paid off. After the swim I talked to a few of the guys I know around here and everyone seems to be in good spirit. All the bigwigs were down at the swim start and it was very, very crowded. I had another treatment of min lower leg today and it seems to have helped my Achilles quite a lot. I hope I'll finish my run later in the day without problems. October 7th 2008 Kona is filling up fast right now. The town is really crowded and I'm happy to have moved out of town this time. The condo is great and situated right on the rocks with waves breaking on the rocks below our balcony. Michael Maxwell is doing a great job in terms of getting me back on my feet again. There has been progress since yesterday; however, I had to skip running again today. I hope I can do a short run tomorrow. Zipp just delivered a 1080 rear wheel to my condo today. In other words everything is set for a good competition if I get that Achilles working! Jim Scott has done a piece on www.ironman.com
on the age group field. You can read more here.
Just to clarify, I'm not in the 30-34 category, I've aged up to
the 35-39 group:-) October 6th 2008 I was supposed to go for a run today; however, I have been advised by Michael Maxwell to skip the run to heal the Achilles tendon. I did a very easy bike ride instead. The situation is not great. I would love to say that this is no big deal but I'm afraid it is. I will continue to taper as per usual, though, and see how it goes on race day. October 5th 2008 It's finally taper time. I have looked forward to this for quite some time. Although the last bike ride was 'only' like 2.5 hours long, it felt like forever. Having said this though, I do look forward to racing on Saturday. My Achilles tendon does ache a little and I'm concerned about this as the competition is only like 6 days away now! I'm going to pick up Michael Maxwell in the airport tonight. Last year he was able to work wonders on another injury issue I had, so I hope he can do more magic this year. I'll be living with him, Scott Mcnab and Brock Bennet in a Condo 7 miles away from the starting area. I look forward to a little piece and quiet right now and just enjoy my taper. This morning's swim was great. Firstly, I swam a couple of short intervals behind Chris Lieto and a little later I sat on Chris Hauth for a few longer intervals. Perfect match for my swim program. I think my swim from is picking up a little. October 4th 2008 The fifth Annual Kuki'o Blue Water Swim took place today. The field was pretty red hot. Chris 'Macca' Mccormack, Cam 'Wildman' Widorf and Tim Marr along with a Sidney Swim Club participated in the Open Water event. It was great, great fun and a perfect place to hold an event like that. The swim was 1.2 mile long and went from point to point. The weather was great and the swells were not too bad, however the current was a lot more noticeable than in Kona Bay where I usually swim. In traditional triathlon manner Macca and Wildman started ahead of the rest of the field and gained a 5 sec lead thereby! I was never able to bridge that gab and ended up in a second group. The pace was very high in the group and it was great training. In the end of the swim the group spitted up and I started to overtake one swimmer by another. I managed to overtake Cam 'Wildman' Widorf and thereby take second place in the male 30-39 category after Macca. So the two champions from Ironman Hawaii 2007 once again shared the podium, however, this time in a swim contest. I was shattered after the swim which was great! I never train that hard on a daily basis. In fact I can't remember once in the last 5 years I have swum that hard! This shows a potential area for performance improvement. Great:-)
Later in the day I did a long run. Unfortunately my Achilles tendon started to ache again. I hope this is just temporary... October 3rd 2008 We have not had a lot of wind the last couple of days. However, on today's ride we got a taste of the famous trade winds. I rode from Hapuna Beach to Hawi and back and added another 50k to that before I took a nice swim in the ocean. The water and the sand at Hapuna Beach is exceptional and I would have liked to stay there for a little longer but I had to get back to Kailua for an appointment with another Danish participant. All in all another great day in the sun and I believe my form is coming along nicely. October 2nd 2008 Another day in paradise is about to end. Today was action packed with training. First off I had a tough swim session in the Aquatic Centre. I followed that up with a 2 hour bike ride incl. two long intervals at Ironman intensity and with an average of close to 40 km/h. In the end I ran 5k in a little over 20 minutes. A solid day! Later in the day
I hooked up with a few of the Danish participants. We're seven
Danes at about the same level. That should be a great and exiting
competition. I really look forward to that. October 1st 2008 A cool thing about triathlon is the fact that there’s not a great difference between the stars of the sport and the last finisher. Everyone seems to be very down-to-earth. Today I went running on Alii Drive with my buddy Niels-Otto (who won IM Lanzerote M35-39) for an hour. While we were chatting away Cam Brown came towards us and neither of us had noticed him before he said: “Hi there!” We responded: “Hi!” as we both realized who he was. That’s how it is! Everyone greets everyone. We are here for the same thing, the same challenge, and the same goal and while Cam hopes to bring back a pay check to New Zealand, I’m sure he’s here for much more than that! September 30th 2008 Number 34! There's nothing spectacular about the number 34 (That goes for any number for that matter) however this year in Kona bib number 34 is special to me. Firstly it reflexes my overall place last year in Hawaii, my highest ever. On top of this it's the highest seed among this year's age groupers. Not bad going for a guy who basically started out triathlon as Joe Average. It's funny to be defending champion and enter the competition without being a 100% sure if I can even complete the event. I'm well aware that I'll be accused of sandbagging so before you say it out loud let my clarify! 99 % gets you nowhere. I mean have you ever heard of someone who only went 99 % of the way to the toilet? No obviously not. I'm not toeing the line in Kailua Bay for snorkelling nor am I riding 112 miles of lava fields in hot surroundings to get a nice tan. I'm here to compete. If I cross the finish line I will have nothing left. You only live once and I want to feel every second of it! That's why I have travelled half way around the world for this. I'm here to compete and not participate. Let the Kona Blog begin! Aloha. September 29th 2008 I have my feet planted on Hawaiian soil. It's nice to be back again. Let the show begin. September 28th 2008 I have left for Kona with a good feeling. I have done my homework and I feel ready. The last four weeks have been good and the training was really great. If this will be enough to defend the title is uncertain, however, I'll toe the start line and do my best. I look forward to seeing Kona again and enjoy the atmosphere in Kailua. Mahalo. September 21st 2008 In a week I'll be leaving for Kona. I look forward to the trip. I continue to train well and my achilles tendon is improving by the day. Does this indicate a top performance in this year's Ironman Hawaii? Probably not! I cannot ignore the fact that I have been injured throughout most of the season. Although I'm running again, I still lack endurance. This is obviously a major challenge as Kona is very much a runner’s competition. However, I hope to be able to finish in an acceptable manner. With another two weeks of solid training, I might be able to surprise myself! September 14th 2008 Training has been going really well this week. In fact this week looked awfully a lot like last year's training judged on intensity and speed. I ran 20 k this week and I did an 85 miles long bike ride with an average of 25 mph followed by a 10 k run in a little over 40 minutes. I have obviously had to change my training schedule due to the injury leading up to this year's competition but at this point it seems that I'm not losing fitness due to this change. However, on 'judgement day', the 11th of October, I'll know if this is true or not! September 4th 2008 I'm ready to travel to Hawaii. I have finally booked my ticket so I'm definitely going now. I have been in doubt whether to go or not due to my injury. However, in the last 10 days I have run both a 10 mile run as well as a 11 mile run. In other word I have confidence enough to believe that I can make it to the finish line in this year's Ironman Hawaii. I probably won't make the start line in great shape but I will finish the race. I'm already looking forward to the Kona coffee:-) August 16th 2008 I have decided to race again tomorrow. It's only a sprint distance; however, I'm so happy to be able to race again. I want to test my legs and see if my running ability is continuing to improve. This is crucial if I'm going to have a chance to go back to Kona this year. Further I want to test my new bike and evaluate the current settings. Here's a photo of the bike (I like it) August 12th 2008 Back in business! I did my first triathlon in over 3 month today. I did not win, however, at this stage I'm more than happy to settle for 2nd place. It was a close race but in T2 I lost too much time running around like a blind dog! Anyway, just finishing a race was great. I did not feel
any pain in my Achilles tendon and maybe this is a sign that I
can finally start to prepare for my Kona race. It was a short
sprint distance on a hilly course and honestly I did not expect
to be able to run the whole way BUT I DID! Great. Hope to be back
with more positive news soon:-) August 5th 2008 My running is improving slowly. However, it's a long, long way back to form. I'm able to run between 5k and 8k at a time. The result? Very, very sore legs the following two days. This really is an eye-opener in relation to how important continuous training is. A 6 or 7 week break from run training has been enough to completely destroy any run form I had. Having said all this, I'm extremely glad just to be able to run. Although I have no idea as to whether I can compete in Hawaii or not, I am extremely glad to be able to run just a little. July 14th 2008 This past weekend was a busy one for the European Ironman athletes with three great events going on at the same time. I had quite a few athletes competing in both Roth and Austria and they all delivered the goods. Everyone I have trained for these two events can look back on a great competition and a considerable Personnel Record. A great outcome and a big congrats from me to them:-) Niels-Otto, who won his age-group in Ironman Lanzerote this year, once again improved greatly and went SUB-Nine for the first time. His time was 8.55 and he thereby achieved his second goal of the season. Now, only a great result in Ironman Hawaii is left to complete a perfect season for him. Also, congrats to Thunderbear for breaking
the Danish Record over the Iron distance, in 8.16 this weekend! June 29th 2008 Ironman.com has an article on front page right now featuring me. The reason is my age group win last year in Hawaii. If you want to read more follow this link: http://ironman.com/fran-arfaras-profiles-2007-mens-30-34-age-group-winner-tommy-nielsen-of-silkeborg-denmark June 28th 2008 While my swim and bike form is excellent, I still can't run. It's obviously a bit frustration to be in great shape and being able to compete due to an injury. I try to approach this as constructive as I can and use my energy on both swimming and biking. I hope this will pay off once I get to Hawaii (hopefully injury free)! June 11th 2008 I have not run a single step in the last three weeks and I don't think I will run another step in the coming weeks either. The achilles tendon is quite sore, however, I'm still able to bike and swim. In the weekend I finished fourth in a local bike race and further I won a local time trial yesterday. You need something to do when you can't race triathlon:-) I hope somehow to get ready to go back to Kona in October. Time will tell if the achilles tendon will mend in time! May 25th 2008 Late Wednesday night I decided to go to Austria and participate in the 70.3 race. You can talk about misjudgement there! The injured achilles tendon must have been a sign for me to not go. I think just about everything went wrong in that competition, not to mention further upsetting my achilles tendonitis! Well the first wrongdoing was to start in the wrong start wave. That has never happened to me before. It was my own fault, but in my defence, I was given the wrong information upon registration and I was given the wrong colour swim cap (indicating my wave). Anyway, I swam well (leading my wrong start group) and exited the water in 25.59 minutes. I swam the whole way alone but overtook maybe 200 people from the start groups ahead of me! Out on the bike I realised my mistake as I kept overtaking plenty of people from my age group. That didn't stop me and I kept pushing the pace. The bike course was a lot hillier than I had expected but at the same time it was beautiful and I enjoyed most of the ride. Well perhaps except for the two times I had to get off my bike and put the chain back on! The front derailleur had been poor adjusted (by myself, nobody else to blame). I started the run in good shape and felt fine. I did not feel my achilles tendonitis at all, however after less than one k, I had to pay the porta-potty a visit for the first time. Only 2 k's later I paid the porta-potty another visit! Not the best of starts to a run! At 4k I started to feel a little pain from the achilles tendon, but I kept going. At 5k the pain was severe but I was encourage to continue after seeing my spilt for the first 5k was 20 minutes incl. all the stops! This meant I was running quite fast, however after 5.5k of running I could not make another step to save my life. The achilles tendon was bust for good! A terrible way to end a day, but I had no other option left! On the bright side two of my athletes had
great days in their respective competitions. Frantz Andersen achieved
a new PB in Austria and cut 16 minutes off his previous record.
Check out his website at www.tri-and.dk. Further Niels-Otto Silkjær
qualified himself for Ironman Hawaii later this year after a dominating
performance in Ironman Lanzerote. By far his best performance
ever with an AG win and a 16th place overall. Go get'em in Hawaii:-) May 21st 2008 I was supposed to travel to Austria today to participate in 70.3 Austria. However, that is not likely to happen. I've injured my achilles tendon and cannot run. The injury happened Friday last week and I don't think I'll be ready to race in the weekend. It will probably be another 10 or 14 days before I can run again even though I'm doing everything I can to get well again. In fact, the achilles tendon injury is the second injury I have had since Holstebro Triathlon. Along with the achilles injury, I'm also fighting a minor groin injury that prevents me from doing high intensity training... May 6th 2008 The first competition of the season is under the belt. It would be the easiest thing in the world to write: "Short triathlon will never be my thing" and thereby neglect the fact that I was beaten fair and square in a race where I finish 5th overall. It was a stellar field with most of the fast guys from my region behind the start line. I swam surprisingly well and more or less biked to my current level of fitness, however the run was somewhat a nightmare. I'm still a 'bit' on the heavy site and you just can't fake it on the run being 5kg overweight! I knew well before entering the race that this would be a problem and taking this fact into account, I'm actually quite satisfied with my race. The next couple of weeks should see me loosing a little weight and with some more solid training I expect to be ready to race for real in 70.3 Austria in three weeks time. By the way, this is how
a fat boy looks like in competition:-)
April 28th 2008 Finally I had a really good training ride on the bike. For the first time this year I was able to come close to last year's training results in a shorter TT. I averaged a little over 340 watt. I was pleased with this as my CdA is much better this year compared to last year = more speed. Further, it's a 11 % improvement over the same TT two weeks ago. Not bad for two weeks of training. On Thursday it's
time for this year's first competition. It's a kind of equipment
test for me and a nice way to test my current form. I look forward
to the race. Last year the field was quite stellar and I hope
the race attracts a similar field this year. April 21st 2008 It's been a lot harder getting back into shape that I expected after my period of sickness. The fact is that I'm still not at the same level of fitness that I was prior to my sickness in March. The last couple of years I have been injured in March and accordingly could not run, however that was an opportunity to work on my bike fitness and it worked really well. I had a big increase in bike fitness and by the time I could start running again it seemed that my running fitness improved along with my bike fitness. In other words I hit two birds with one stone. This year I have realised that sickness impairs performance a lot more than an injury. Common sense? I know, but often you don't realise the fact of life until you have tried it and with the first competition of the year only a week away I’m under pressure. March 30th 2008 March should be the month that brings spring time, however, this year it brought winter, snow, wind and cold weather. Accordingly, I have been ill a lot more than usual. I had an amazing 12 days of sickness spread out over three weeks. My training plan is pretty ruined after this. I'm currently in recovery mode trying to get upright again with the help of penicillin. Another couple of days and I should be alright again and ready to once again push it in training. The first competition of the season is going to be on May 1st. March 4th 2008 I did not write anything in February for a good reason. I have been busy. I have been doing a lot of coaching lately and at the same time I increased my run volume. In fact, I went from 21 km of running a week to 100 km of running four weeks later! Twice before have I run that much, however, I have never had any success following that regime. Later this season we'll see if I'll benefit from the volume or not. It was a good test, though, and proves that I'm a 100 % injury free now. Since my last entry, I have got a brand new time trial frame from Nishiki. I'm in the process of building that bike and it looks very promising right now. It the only one of its kind and I'm going to test it throughout the year. I really look forward to that, although, it will be hard to let go of the old bike. A bike that has served me well:-) This week I was honoured
by my town. I have been awarded for Best Sport Performance of
the year because of my win in Hawaii. It was great and actually
the second time I had my name engraved on the trophy along with
names like golfer Thomas Bjørn, former mountain bike European
Champion Lennie Kristensen and Olympian gold medallist Eskild
Ebbesen. January 30th 2008 Lately, I have been encouraged to turn pro by friends and people I meet. (Unfortunately my sponsors have not had the same encouragement). Kidding aside, I have not worked along that pathway, anyhow.
December 24th 2007 Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope you'll have an enjoyable time. I have finally found time to sit down and relax after a very busy schedule the past week. I had the great fortune to have 7 days of one-on-one sparring with Michael Maxwell from www.somaticsenses.com. Michael was the guy who got me to the start line in Kona after several treatments leading up to the race and thereby helping me to win in Hawaii. I was immediately impressed by his huge knowledge and his ability to get me straighten out. When the chance to invite him to Denmark appeared, I grabbed it. We have worked on several things throughout the week including talks for one of my sponsors and the creation of a personalized strength and mobility program. I am convinced that the program will break new ground for me and I'm excited to get started for real. December 9th 2007 In the off season and in the winter time most of my bike training takes place indoors. Since I started training with Ergvideo on my Computrainer, I have to admit that training has been a lot more fun. It's not only fun but it's very efficient as well. I have often missed the stochastic nature of cycling when I have trained on the Computrainer, but with Ergvideo it's as stochastic as I want it to be. Great stuff. I can do Criterium rides, base rides, VO2Max intervals or hill repeats exactly as it would be out on the road. I had the cr*p beaten out of me this weekend doing a Level B Criterium ride in my off season. It'll be a while before I do that ride again:-) If there ever was a wonder tool for indoor riding this is it! December 2nd 2007 The injury that held me back on the bike when I raced Ironman Hawaii this year is still there. I have decided that it's an unacceptable situation and I have invited Michael Maxwell, who I worked together with in Hawaii leading up to the race, to come and visit me before Xmas. He is in Europe with the Canadian Oplympic bobsleigh team and he'll take some time off to come and treat me. I am very graceful that this is possible. One thing is the pain in everyday life, however much more painful is the fact that I cannot perform to my best. I hope the cooperation with Mike can improve my performance next year. |
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