Norseman Xtreme Triathlon

Several weeks back was one of the baddest iron-distance races around, the Norseman Xtreme Triathlon.  Maybe I've posted about it before, but it's an iron-distance triathlon with a special twist.  Definitely on my bucket list, here's a sneak peak.

The race takes place in Southwest Norway every August.  It begins with a swim in Hardangerfjord (water 13-15C), then a "hilly" bike which climbs from sea level to 1250m within 40k before rolling and coming back down only to run the marathon leg up Gaustatoppen, 1850m above sea level.  Total climbing, 5000m :)

For safety reasons, the race is limited to 250 people and only 160 of those are allowed to pursue the top of the mountain finish, while the rest finish at the lower plateau.  Summiting the mountain gets you a black t-shirt while the plateau finishers receive a white one.

No idea when I'll go for this one, but hopefully sooner rather than later.  Needless to say, I look better in black :)

Week 12: Kobe Marathon 2013

pic from sportsillustrated.cnn.com

There will be obstacles.

There will be doubters.

There will be mistakes.

But with hard work... THERE ARE NO LIMITS.

- Michael Phelps -

First, a round of applause for my beautiful fiancee who ran over a half marathon for the first time!  YAY!  She covered 24.5k and had enough energy to go out afterward.  Superb!

For me, training was surprisingly good this week.  The surprising part came from one of my best pace runs ever which followed a mere 5hrs of sleep.

Thursday morning started with some resistance, much like most of my sprint or pace sessions.  I can't explain why, I'm always a nervous about the discomfort/ pain that comes with these sessions I guess.

Anyway, I strapped on my 3-4kg bag and headed out.  For this session, I run from home to work and on the way take a 30min detour along one of the rivers where I can push the pace without worrying about traffic.  The river paths typically have a 1% gradient, I try to keep it even but if I have to, I try for more up than down.

I eventually got going and decided not to push as usual but rather focus on posture and breathing.  The first k was 4.35 above my 4.20 target pace.  A bit disappointed, but I stuck to the strategy.  From there, everything just rolled.  The second k was 3.53!  In the end, I covered about 7.5k in 30min at a pace of 4.07.  The best part, it felt really smooth (not easy, but smooth).

Man was I stoked for the rest of the day!

Other than that, I haven't been getting enough sleep this week, so we'll see if that impacts Mon and Tue long runs.

8 weeks to go and feeling good!

Triathlon Championships

Lots of news around the tri world.

First, was the 70.3 Worlds in Henderson, Nevada, where Sebastian Kienle defended his title.  He's had a tough season with a number of injuries but put it all together when it counted.

A lot of commentators were saying he couldn't ride away from the group again this year.  They said the other guys wouldn't let it happen.  Well, I don't think they had a choice.

In the women's race, Melissa Hauschlidt, who won in 2011 and had a tough 2012 due to injury, came storming back to take another title.

Enjoy the clip.

In olympic distance news, the grand final of the ITU season and overall points were taken by Javier Gomez for the men and Non Stanford for the women.

Jonathon Brownlee finished 2nd on the day and the season and brother Alistair Brownlee finished way down on the day due to injury and 4th for the season.  A bit of a bummer having lived in London for so long and followed the Brownlees for a while, but it was an excellent race.

Week 11: Kobe Marathon 2013

In general, running was good this week, if a bit adventurous.

First for the adventure.  I've made a change from all road to two trail runs and two road runs a week.  I'm loving the trails on Mount Rokko and below are a few reasons why.

But the trails come with some new friends.  Among the snakes and spiders, wild boar are also common.  Now, boar are totally new to me, and I've been inching closer to them with each encounter.  Well, there's no getting any closer after my latest encounter.

pic from www.itsnature.org

Coming down a hill, I spotted a boar.  All I hear are crazy stories of bitten hands and lost fingers, so naturally, I stopped.  Coming down the hill behind me was a couple who also stopped.  The man decided there was no threat and kept walking.  So, soon his wife/ girlfriend and I followed.

Only two steps in, the boar spots the lady and I, and starts heading closer.  I froze and the lady freaked out.  By the time she was done flailing, the boar had touched us both with his snout and (I'm assuming) figuring out we had no food, continued on his way.

I can't say I wasn't scared, but this was definitely a lesson that not all wild boars are out for fingers.  Doesn't mean I won't run the opposite way next time!

Other than this, a fairly standard week.

In health news, two things.  One, week 11 will be my last week of open diet.  From now, I'll be cutting sweets and alcohol in order to lean out for eight weeks time.

Second is my calf.  I've been pounding my calves a lot with hills in the mountain and calf jumps in strength sessions.  It seems to be catching up.  My right calf has a slight pain at the top on the outside which tends to go when I'm running and come after I've stretched and rested.

No diagnosis, but I'm planning to ice and do extra stretching/ self-massage everyday for a week and see how it goes.  If it's not getting better by next week, I may take some time from my running shoes to recover.

Finally, I haven't been posting my training program because I'm trying to take this a little easier than previous races.   But, to give everyone an idea of what I've been doing and what's to come, here's a peak.

Ironman Kona: Dirk Bockel

Here's a cool video about Dirk Bockel's season in 2012.  As background, Dirk is a German born pro-triathlete turned Luxembourgian.

He didn't finish where he wanted in Kona, but the video is a nice behind the scenes look at the dedication, pressure and pain these guys go through.

Click HERE to watch.

Catching Up

Apologies for the extreme absence.  Here's a brief run-down of the last two months.

Week 2 - Jul 8th
Building into training, decided to eat more to maintain or even put on some weight before trying to lose it later.  This only gave me stomach problems, so gave up.

Week 3 - Jul 15th
Started doing sprints, 6 by about 350m.  Realization, I can't sprint.  I've known this for a long time, but it's different when it becomes a reality.  More to come.

Week 4 - Jul 22nd
An international business group here in Kobe asked me to give a motivational/ informational speech about endurance racing and particularly MDS.  Excellent!  Speech to be Sep 7th.

Week 5 & 6 - Jul 29th
Caught a summer cold.  Three runs in 2 weeks.  I don't want to put it down to age, but I used to be able to keep training, add a few hours of sleep and recover.  Not this time.  For whatever reason, I felt and feel that I have to listen to my body more.

Week 7 & 8 - Aug 12th
Back into training plus Summer holiday!  We went to Summer Sonic in Osaka and Shikoku Island for rafting!

John Legend rocking Summer Sonic

enjoying the show

Shimanto River, Shikoku

Happy Raft was our guide, highly recommend
they speak Japanese and English

Week 9 - Aug 26
Nailed a sprint session!  10x about 350m and felt on top of the world!  Not able to maintain great form but pushed hard throughout.  Core lacking strength.  Something to work on.

Week 10 - Sep 2nd
Absorb week plus the speech.  Running was fine and speech was excellent!  It didn't go perfectly, but I was comfortable and got a great reception.  A group of folks even invited me out for tea after!  It was a great day.

Hello?!?

Earth to Carlos... Earth to Carlos...

Uh, yeah, sorry for the extreme delay.  It's been a hectic couple of months.  I'll get to that more in a future post, but here's some recent stuff.

Diana Nyad actually did it!  She swam 100+ miles from Cuba to the USA without a shark cage.  Insanely awesome!

Also, this Sunday, Sep 8th is the Ironman 70.3 World Champs in Henderson, Nevada.  Check Ironman.com if you want to watch or follow live.

Lastly, I just gave my first motivational/ informational presentation on MdS to a group of 50 people.  I think it went okay, and I had an awesome time!  I'd love to do more of this in the future.  I'll have to find some tougher stuff to keep the material coming :)