Race Report Halmstad 11.3 (Half IM distance)

BACKGROUND

I was sick a couple of months and my body took a real beating.

I did a race shortly thereafter (SM-Milen which is 10k) and did it in 52 minutes something.

10 minutes slower than last years SM-Milen and this race was harder with an 8bmp increase of my average heart rate topping a new heart rate max of 202bpm.

Safe to say, I’m at an all time low at the moment.

Started working out again and said this year would not be a race year, unless it was a fun race or something I would consider challenging.

A friend told me he was doing the Halmstad 11.3 Triathlon and wanted me to come with him and race.

Obviously I knew I would not have a chance and said no to him.

Some time passed and he told me yet again to come. This was 2 days before the race.

Flaunting that there still was time to sign up as late registration had opened up with some slots.

Now, me and the missus didn’t have anything to do so I called the race responsible to procure a slot.

Called my friend and told him, it’s on!

Now.. I’ve been running once a week and some biking so even if I was slow I knew I could make the distance.

But the swimming part was totally different!

I’ve had 4 swimming sessions the last year. FOUR!

Thankfully the swim part was in the river Nissan and it was downstream.

Tapering

Now, all races must start with a tapering to let your body get into top notch mode.

I started my tapering with a summer party by HiQ at Salt&Brygga the night before the race.

In aftermath, this might not have been the best tapering I’ve done 😉

A drink, some wine and good company.

THE RACE

The SWIM part (1.9k): 37:37min

It was 15.2C Degrees cold and I was the last person to jump in the river.

I put myself out of harms way as I knew I would be real slow.

Started swimming and did not push at all, just let the river take me.

But this was still too much for me so after 1k I had to change from crawl to breaststroke.

I was not last, but the rest of the field was way ahead of me.

Well, this was something I had figured would happen so no worries. I enjoyed the scenery and people cheering from the bridges 🙂

 

Transition 1

Took my time and dried off, put on my bike clothes and talked to a team member who just finished his sprint. Think the transition took 10minutes, oops.

 

The BIKE part (90k): 2:43hours

Came out fresh and started passing people.

Thought I would keep my pulse around 160bpm as what I’ve learned from my workouts the last month, my legs give up before my heart rate goes wild.

The course was very windy with some long hills. I do not like wind. I do not like hills.

But kept on going and passed several persons which was nice.

And I did it on my own. You’d think people obey the rules of no drafting, but no.

And that sucks. Because they get a huge advantage over the people that do not draft.

Oh, and it rained the first 20km. Didn’t bother me at all as I was dressed for success 🙂

 

Transition 2

Off with my bike shoes and on with my running shoes. Had a hard time deciding if to wear my sunglasses or my cap. I decided to wear both like a real triathlete would do.

 

The RUN part (21k): 2:01hours

Plan was to run in intervalls of 10 minutes of so and then walk around 1 minute. That plan was blown to smithereens 🙂

I came out and started running, after 400m my achilles tendon started hurting and I had to start walking. Never had this problem before.

This was really frustrating and it was an on off sort of thing. Started running had to stop, started running and had to stop again.

One time when I stopped it was just in front of a woman with her little son and I heard her say: That man is tired, now we have to cheer harder.

Really cool, but kinda frustrating when I was not tired but my body wouldn’t do what I wanted it to do.

Same thing when other competitors ran passed me shouting: Don’t stop! Always keep your legs going! etc

It warms your heart though and I would not want to be without it.

Anyways, around 6k my achilles tendon started giving in so I could start running a bit more. A bit longer before walking again.

And so it continued until I crossed the finish line.

Quite happy to finish without coming last and that my friend did no lap me on the run part.

My muscles scream for ice cream!

RECOVERY

After a race one should always do recovery.

I had some beers which soothes the muscles.

After this it’s obligatory with an ice cream!

Never heard of the slogan, my muscles scream for ice cream? 😉

Other blogs:

I might be on the down low, but other team members are doing their best ever:

Check out Anna Eriksmo who won the Halmstad 11.3 Triathlon HERE

Fredrik Krantz came third in Halmstad sprint version, read about it HERE

And check out this blog as I’m sure it will be updated very soon by Julia montgomery.

She won silver(!) in her AG at the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP in Motala! Keep tabs about it HERE