Från soffan till triathlon

April 03, 2016 by Axel Kanne in Triathlon

"You are an ironman!"

Det trodde jag aldrig att jag skulle höra uttalat om mig. Men i augusti 2014 blev det verklighet. Jag hade då gått i mål på Ironman Kalmar knappt 13 timmar efter start. Det var slutet av en resa som hade startat några år tidigare och början på en helt ny resa.

Under skolåren var jag inte speciellt bra på idrott. Jag var alltid sist, sämst och i närmast total avsaknad av bollsinne. Detta gjorde sig naturligtvis inte speciellt bra i en värld där lagidrott och att kämpa tillsammans var det viktigaste. Mina dåliga idrottsprestationer hindrade mig naturligtvis inte från att vara med i det lokala fotbollslaget ett tag, för det skulle man ju. Det medlemskapet inkluderade ett läger på Åland 1990 där vi fick äran att få spela mot Dynamo Moskva i sovjetisk tappning. Att vi som svenskt kvarterslag fick storstryk var väl mer eller mindre självskrivet..

Under gymnasietiden tränade jag på gym ibland, tyvärr väldigt mycket mindre än vad jag borde ha gjort. Styrketestet på mönstringen föll väl med handen på hjärtat inte speciellt väl ut men eftersom jag tillhörde den lilla skara som faktiskt ville göra lumpen lyckades jag ändå övertala inskrivningsförrättaren att jag var värd tjänstgöring på dåvarande KA1 på Rindö. Trenden med mer soffliggande än träning fortsatte och i lumpen gick jag ner närmare tio kg när alla andra gick upp i vikt.

På KTH fick jag upp ögonen lite grann för styrketräningen och jag gymmade också någorlunda regelbundet under de åren. Att jag körde så pass regelbunder kan jag nog tacka mina träningskompisar för, i början hjälpte det verkligen motivationen att köra tillsammans.
Konditionen var fortfarande usel, kosten bestod mest av skräp och inställningen till alkohol var lovligt liberal. Att jag sedan jobbade natt ett par år gjorde att kroppen tog stryk av det ständiga skruvandet på dygnsrytmen och dåliga kosthållning och vikten gick upp.

Någon gång 2008 hände något. Jag började cykla på en gammal halvrisig mountainbike och cyklade allt längre sträckor. Jag köpte även ett par löparskor och började springa mer och mer. Från det var steget till att även börja simma ganska naturligt och så hade jag plötsligt börjat med triathlon.

Mitt första riktiga idrottsår var 2012. Det året inleddes med en rejäl viktnedgång på ca 10 kg. Därefter sprang jag längre än jag någonsin gjort, trots att Stockholm Marathon det året gjorde sig känd som "vintermaran" eftersom det var varmare på julafton än helgen tävlingen hölls. Men jag kämpade mig i mål på 4:40 och kunde nu känna att jag åstadkommit något!

Det året genomföre jag även mitt första triathlon. Jag körde olympisk distans i Stockholm Triathlon och lyckades bröstsimma mig igenom de 1500 meterna i en tämligen usel surfvåtdräkt och läckande simglasögon, cykla fyra mil på en cyclocross som jag utrustat med racerdäck och sedan hålla reda på om man sprungit det antal varv man skulle springa. Det gav mersmak och 2013 upprepade jag bland annat samma tävling. I ett svagt ögonblick anmälde jag mig till Ironman Kalmar påföljande år, samt till Vätternrundan och lite annat smått och gott. Gott om tid att träna upp sig med andra ord!

2014 inleddes med bra träning, men sedan kom problemen. Något slog om i hjärnan och jag bestämde mig för att lägga mig på ordentliga energiunderskott i syfte att gå ner i vikt för jag tyckte jag hade för hög kroppsfettprocent. Det var inte en speciellt bra idé då den typen av deff fungerar bra när man enbart styrketränar men inte i kombination med hård uthållighetsträning. Jag gick visserligen ner, men all motståndskraft försvann och jag blev sjuk stup i kvarten.

Fick ställa in maran men lyckades bli frisk till Vätternrundan. Sedan gick det upp och ner fram till Kalmar där alltså orden i början av inlägget uttalades. Jag hade oroat mig för simmomentet under flera månader fram till tävlingen trots att jag visste att jag kunde crawla de 3,8 km man ska simma i en Ironman. Tanken var att "bara jag kommer upp på cykeln och klarar reptiden för simningen så är det ingen fara". Det skulle visa sig att jag klarade reptiden med råge, till och med snabbare än jag skulle simma påföljande år. Men så var det också avsevärt mindre sjögång att simma vilse i..

Problemet med maten har kommit och gått sedan dess. Jag har fått en ganska skev kroppsuppfattning och jämför mig hela tiden med där perfekta idealet, där man som min typ av idrottare "ska" ha högst 10% kroppsfett och lagom mycket muskler. När jag får de infallen så sätter jag en massa begränsningar för mig själv, alla möjliga livsmedel hamnar på "förbjudna listan" och kosten består mest av sallad, sallad, sallad. Träningsresultaten uteblir, motståndskraften försvinner och jag mår skit. Allt beror på att jag är livrädd för att se fet ut och sätter mål för mig själv som inte är kompatibla med min genetik. Jag vet inte varför man måste jämföra sig sjäv med andra hela tiden.

2015 bjöd på lite av varje med ett personbästa på maran med strax under fyra timmar och en tämligen blek insats i Kalmar. Om några veckor inleds tävlingssäsongen 2016 och jag får helt enkelt hoppas på bättre resultat i år.

Eller så inser man att man får vara hyfsat nöjd ändå. Formen går alltid upp och ner och man kan inte alltid vara på topp. Men det är lätt att bli perfektionist i alla avseenden och sätta upp så höga krav på sig själv att de blir omöjligt att uppfylla dem och blir stenhård mot sig själv när det sedan inte går.

När jag nu är några veckor från årets träningsläger på Mallorca och även årets första tävling försöker jag att inte låta maten bli fokus för all energi. För då kommer det inte att gå speciellt bra. I stället kanske man skulle njuta lite också och inse att en dag kommer hela livet att ha passerat och man kommer att sitta där och undra varför man inte passade på att leva när man hade tillfälle.

Triple Trainwreck in Ironman Kalmar

August 17, 2015 by Axel Kanne in Triathlon

This year's Ironman Kalmar turned out to be quite a lot tougher than last year's, both due to the weather conditions and the way my body reacted to the mistakes in hydration and nutrition I made on the bike. The weather forecast was beautiful clear skies but with a strong easterly wind at 7-9 m/s. This meant we would have a quite choppy swim and some pretty nasty crosswinds for much of the bike segment.

Swim

With everything prepared according to plan on race morning we made our way to the swim start and donned our wetsuits. IM Kalmar uses a rolling start with self-seeding according to one's expected swim time. I placed myself in the 1:20 group and waited for the long snake of swimmers to finally start making its way towards the ramp into the water. The conditions were choppy indeed, with the first leg of the swim going almost directly into the wind. I almost panicked for a while before getting used to the water and conditions but eventually settled into a decent rhythm. Everything went well enough until the double turn at the northernmost part of the harbor. Suddenly everyone started going the wrong way and I got disoriented and ended up going completely off course. When I finally spotted the orange buoy that marked the point where you're supposed to turn right towards the quay I was all by myself and had to swim quite a bit further than expected. I finally did reach the turning point and made for the quay, followed it for a while and into the canal where the water was much calmer but instead I found myself among slower swimmers (including some breaststrokers) that I kept swimming into. When I finally got out of the water and headed for transition I had swam for almost two hours which is way longer than what I had planned. The fact that the chop made some swimmers struggle was not lost on the media which almost reported more on the less fortunate people who had to abandon the race during the swim than the race itself. I'm not a good swimmer by any means but was able to deal with the chop just fine apart from the first 100 m or so. My main problem is that I'm a terrible navigator and and end up drifting off course, often to the left.

Bike

Heading out of Kalmar the bike course almost immediately turns east and crosses the long bridge towards Öland. With easterly winds the segment across the bridge became super slow and never seemed to end but I finally got towards the point where the course turns south for almost 60 km. I was able to keep a semi-decent speed despite the crosswinds and sudden gusts that took some getting used to since they wanted to blow my front and rear wheels in different directions. I know it's technically not windshear by the strict definition of it but that's what I call it since the effect is similar - a sudden burst of wind that can cause loss of control. Some people didn't have problems with the wind at all but I'm not as used to it so my speed definetly suffered from it. At the southern part of the island the course turns east and then north. Predictably enough the headwinds weren't fun. Heading northwards the crosswinds came in from the right for a change but became even worse as there isn't much to shelter the road from the sea and speed unfortunately dropped even more compared to what I had hoped to maintain. I avoided going into the trap of pushing hard to maintain speed by looking at power and heart rate and realizing I was pretty much where I could afford to be heart rate wise but low in power. This might actually have been the first warning sign that something was wrong with me.. When I finally reached the segment where you head west across the island across "Alvaret" I had the wind at my back (completely opposite to the punishing headwinds we had for the same segment last year) and I enjoyed being able to finally pick up some speed but still had problems maintaining the planned power output at a given heart rate - for some reason my heart was working harder than normal for a given effort. After a short section northwards I reached the bridge and used the wind to really pick up speed. On the way down on the Kalmar side speed had picked up enough to become scary and I even had to brake to slow down a bit as I'm not that used to speeds above 50 km/h and I didn't want to risk becoming unstable and crashing. I also knew that the wheels I'm using exhibited a wobble at around 55 km/h on my road bike, but on my tri bike they actually felt nice and solid so maybe it doesn't have anything to do with the wheels themselves. The 68 km second loop of the bike course was uneventful and winds weren't too bad. Unfortunately I started feeling hotter and hotter and that my power output kept dropping with no corresponding drop in heart rate. I felt really drained as I finally rolled into T2.

Run

Let hell begin. After a long-ish transition that included a much needed visit to the porta-potty I made my way out on the run course just to see one of the top female pros finish. I was able to keep a decent pace a bit faster than 6 minutes per km for the first few kilometers but after about 5 km things started falling apart as my heart rate was going through the roof and I started feeling sick. The only choice was to start walking and also start taking in hydration, electrolytes and energy to try and get the heart rate down to sane levels. At a couple of points spectators were out in force with their garden hoses which proved to be a godsend, providing some much needed cooling. As if the problems with my body weren't enough my watch kept behaving strangely and the pace numbers seemed to jump all over the place. The only data I had that was reliable was heart rate but that was more than enough in the state I was in. After a first lap that took way longer than planned I started being able to pick up the pace again during the second lap and I ran most of the third lap at a very stable 6:00/km pace with legs that felt really good. I even picked it up to 5:30 towards the end with no ill effects at all. I could probably have picked up the pace earlier but I just didn't want to push the envelope too much and risk crashing again. I ended up finishing the marathon just a few seconds shy of 5 hours despite all the walking and the entire race a couple of minutes below the 14 hour mark. Not much to write home about but I'm glad I made it to the finish line at all.

Final thoughts

In an Ironman there's nothing to be taken for granted no matter how well laid out your plans are or how much you trained for it. "Anything is possible" is the motto of Ironman, but "Anything can happen" is just as true. This time it was the inability to take in proper hydration and electrolytes on the bike that killed me, not to mention the navigation error that cost me a lot of time during the swim. Every race does result in a bunch of lessons to learn and a list of things to improve for next time. I need a hydration system for my handlebars, that's for sure. By making it easier to drink I can drink more and I'll also make sure to bring electrolyte tablets to prevent the type of crash I experienced on the run. On the plus side I didn't have any adverse reactions to the Indie Bars, and my strategy to not take in any solids (except for the salted cucumbers I downed en masse to replenish those electrolytes) during the run also paid off.

Overall, I felt like I had won the race even though I came in almost 6 hours after the winner! And of course registration for next year's IM Kalmar is already taken care of..

Swim: 1:50:22
T1: 8:14
Bike: 6:48:27
T2: 11:05
Run: 4:59:54

Countdown to Ironman Sweden

August 10, 2015 by Axel Kanne in Triathlon

As I write this only a few days remain until the biggest race of the year: Ironman Sweden. Most people would cringe at the mere prospect of doing one of the things that are part of a full-Iron distance race, let alone all three one after the other. But I did it last year and here we are again, one year later. Time sure flies.

You think you can prepare for everything, but there is always something you didn't anticipate. Last year my back started hurting on the bike and my stomach gave up on the run. Well, this year I've addressed both of those issues. I have a new triathlon bike, the Cervelo P3, which I really like, it feels like a dream to ride long distances on compared to the Specialized Tarmac with clip-on bars that I rode last year. I also intend to modify my nutrition by sticking to Indie Bars on the bike instead of the Snickers I relied on last year and by trying not to consume anything solid at all during the run.

Other than that, there isn't much that can be done because there's always the possibility for the unforseen to happen. When I did Mallorca 70.3 back in May that unforseen thing was forgetting to put socks in my T2 bag which made for a very uncomfortable 21k and abrasions on my feet that took 3 weeks to heal up. This time, I'll triple check what goes into my transition bags. But what else? As long as I survive the swim I can only hope that the bike holds together and that I don't get any flats. Just get on the bike and pray, sort of. If worse comes to worst I'll have a couple of Pit Stop and CO2 canisters taped to the frame and a spare tire under the saddle. Considering the hours of sweat and cursing I spent getting those tubulars on I sure hope I won't need it.

At least I don't have the extreme anxiety I had last year (especially with regards to the swim). I've done this before, I know I can swim fast enough, I know the course, the frequency of aid stations, what do go for in terms of nutrition and what to stay away from. All this means I can at least be more relaxed and see this as something fun and not an unknown. While I'd certainly prefer to be faster than last year I'll simply settle for finishing. After all, it is a full Ironman and anything can happen to anyone, even being a pro doesn't make you safe!

So, survive the swim, don't overcook those legs on the bike, stay to the nutrition plan and I should run (sort of) through that finish gate around 6pm Saturday after a 12 hour effort. I have bib number 1070 if you want to follow me.