First Win of 2008
First Win of 2008, Columbia Triathlon – Maryland, USA, May 18.2008
It’s been exactly 20 days since I last posted anything on my blog. And guess what, I’m yet again typing this note from 37,000 ft above the ocean – the Atlantic Ocean this time. Crammed in ’17-E’ and ‘Economy Extra’ on SAS flight XXX to Copenhagen. Everyone else’s asleep while I’m sitting here fighting muscle soreness and general fatigue from the Columbia Maryland triathlon that took place yesterday. And yes(!) I won the damn thing! First win of 2008 under my belt and I’m hoping that performance bodes well for the upcoming World Championships in Canada on June 7th. My time was 2:09 something on a fairly hilly course that took us over the beautiful farmland of Columbia County – about 45 minutes north of Washington, DC. I beat my old record by about 3 minutes, which I was happy about. It’s a classy race (I first did it in 2005) with top world talent in attendance (Chris Lieto won the pro-category with Chris McCormac (2007 Hawaiian IronMan Champion in 3rd place). I forget who took the 3rd slot. Full race results are on the following link:
http://www.championchiptiming.com/Home/tabid/60/Default.aspx?EventID=213
My ‘claim to fame’ was that I had one of the faster bike splits – only +2 minutes slower than Macca’s. I guess “Good Ole’ Steamer” still has some power left in them Nordic trunks. The strange thing was that I actually didn’t feel good on the bike. I had raced the weekend before at Bear Mountain, New York, with my old bike team from up there (Westwood Velo). I also did the Greenbelt, Maryland, training series on Wednesday evening with the speed demons from DC Velo. I was on the ‘rivet’ for 10 of the 16 laps with some of the stronger guys on the local DC bike circuit…..Anyways, both races took quite a bit out of me (got caught by the main field with little left to go in both….argh,,,!) and I really had not recovered fully for Columbia.
But hey, no excuses! I obviously wasn’t suffering as much as the other guys and managed to do a 23.3 mph on a fairly undulated course. My swim surprised me with 21:22 and my run (also hilly) was a strong `39 something….I have to give it to ‘Vigorito,’ the race organizer of both Columbia and EagleMan, who does such a tremendous job organizing these two world class races! He’s a super nice guy and also a staunch advocate of the BlazeMan foundation (see my sponsored link for details on the Blazeman Foundatioin!). I know ‘Vigo’ from having done EagleMan in the Chesapeake Bay quite a few times over the years. Last year, he let me in since I screwed up at St. Croix by running the wrong way (Vigo felt sorry for me and let me do EagleMan to make up for that miss and I ended up doing a 4:16 and PR!) This year, he let me into Columbia because EagleMan (which I had originally signed up for) falls on the same dates as Worlds in Canada where I will be competing for Team USA for the 3rd year in a row.
Anyways, as Chris Lieto said when he received his 1st prize at Columbia: “Find a reason to race other than for your own purpose! Triathlons are so much more rewarding when you race for a cause.”
So, Columbia Triathlon 2008 was a success for me. While I didn’t really enjoy getting up at 4am to meet up at Adrian’s house (mayor of DC), it didn’t take me long to get in the mood with so many positively inclined personalities around. Omar, Chuck, Michelle, Adrian, Jason, Shawn and all the other guys who faithfully show up to enjoy the sport of running and triathlon with Adrian at the helm. As I have said so many times: ‘the world would be so much better off if more people enjoyed an active life style through sports!’ Adrian truly is an inspirational leader in that sense. We need more ‘Adrians’ around the world! By the way, I’m working a separate project to help change that but more on that some other time….
Back to my flight towards Europe at 37,000 ft above Greenland,,,.
Like I said earlier, I’m crammed in the middle seat up here…..blocked in by a snoring Swede on the right, a nice sleeping Indian lady on the left…Welcome to the Global Economy (Class!) of sardine flying humans! The good news is that I’m wearing my ‘skins’ to help prevent my blood from pooling in my legs. Trying to stay hydrated with water so my blood doesn’t thicken and cause me another DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis)…..Which reminds me, I probably ought to tell you guys my story from the Huatulco Half IronMan in Mexico 2003…..
Most people – endurance athletes in particular – have no idea that we are actually more prone to getting them due to our low circulatory blood flow as a result of a low resting heart (bradycardia) rate and a tendency to be dehydrated (thicker blood) from racing…As a result, the blood gets ‘syrup’ like in the veins and can cause clots that later dislodge and get stuck in the longs (pulmonary embolism). They can then travel to the brain to cause a stroke and, way too often, premature death in a person…..Yeah, I actually had one of those DVTs once and ended up spending a full week in the Ridgewood Valley Hospital in New Jersey. In fact, they probably saved my life for discovering it. I had done the Huatulco Half IronMan in Mexico in May of 2003. Due to the extreme heat there, I was convinced by a friend from Atlanta, Georgia, to consume salt tablets…..Back then, they weren’t too common among Triathletes (nowadays, people take ‘electrolyte’ and salt/sodium replacements quite regularly in longer races). I was a total novice at the time and consumed way too many on the 56 mile bike ride. The temperature was like 104 degrees Fahrenheit and extremely humid. I ate like 15 tablets in the span of 2 ½ hrs on the bike….my stomach bloated up and my body was barely perspiring. I didn’t think much of it then but all the salt in my stomach acted as a ‘sponge’ by sucking up all the water in my larger organs…..The result was an extremely bloated stomach (I walked most of the run wondering what the heck was wrong) and a pair of kidneys that went completely haywire from trying to process all the salt…..In fact, I gave myself a ‘kidney stone’ by means of excessive salt, i.e. my kidneys were trying to process salt ‘crystals’…..a very painful experience I don’t wish upon anybody…..Long story short, I ended up in the hospital a week later with all kinds of intravenous catheters hooked up to my body….on heparin blood thinners followed by 3 months of ‘Coumadin’ – also known as ‘rat poison’ because it’s actually used as a rodent killer…..During this time, I came to realize I could indeed pressure myself over the ‘physical limit….’ I also realized that ‘fit’ is NOT synonymous with ‘healthy…..’ – something us Type A Triathletes tend to forget way too often…..So, on that note, may I remind everyone that we are indeed not ‘invincible’ to injury and that ‘more’ is oftentimes not ‘better’ when it comes to training……
Man, I am starting to develop a severe allergic reaction to international travel…..Really, what can be worse for a Type-A personality desperately trying to lead an exemplary active and healthy life style…..Oh well, I have always been the ‘ambitious’ kind so I guess that is nothing new. My only solace right now, is that my good friend Doug Reimer (US ranked Duathlete and international traveler ‘extraordinaire’) is stuck in a French hotel relegated to the ‘life cycle’ machine to get his 1 hr workouts in…. . That will be me in a few hours when I arrive at the Copenhagen airport, red eyed and fatigued….not so much from yesterday’s race but from the fact that I have yet again exposed my body clock to the geographical difference of ‘time……’ At least I’m not in Dubai this time – only 6 hour time difference to adjust to between DC and Denmark….a slow run after 6 hrs of rest when I arrive ought to do the trick…..Yep, I never go anywhere without them Nikes in my bag….
That’s all for now, folks. Next report post-Worlds in Vancouver, Canada….9 hr time difference from Copenhagen….Oh my, the world really has become my Oyster…Oh, and did I tell you how much I miss my little daughter Tuva-Helene Yanli who’s sleeping in California right now….I love her so much….that’s all he wrote for now, my friends
Later’On – in sports,
Espen(USA)
It’s been exactly 20 days since I last posted anything on my blog. And guess what, I’m yet again typing this note from 37,000 ft above the ocean – the Atlantic Ocean this time. Crammed in ’17-E’ and ‘Economy Extra’ on SAS flight XXX to Copenhagen. Everyone else’s asleep while I’m sitting here fighting muscle soreness and general fatigue from the Columbia Maryland triathlon that took place yesterday. And yes(!) I won the damn thing! First win of 2008 under my belt and I’m hoping that performance bodes well for the upcoming World Championships in Canada on June 7th. My time was 2:09 something on a fairly hilly course that took us over the beautiful farmland of Columbia County – about 45 minutes north of Washington, DC. I beat my old record by about 3 minutes, which I was happy about. It’s a classy race (I first did it in 2005) with top world talent in attendance (Chris Lieto won the pro-category with Chris McCormac (2007 Hawaiian IronMan Champion in 3rd place). I forget who took the 3rd slot. Full race results are on the following link:
http://www.championchiptiming.com/Home/tabid/60/Default.aspx?EventID=213
My ‘claim to fame’ was that I had one of the faster bike splits – only +2 minutes slower than Macca’s. I guess “Good Ole’ Steamer” still has some power left in them Nordic trunks. The strange thing was that I actually didn’t feel good on the bike. I had raced the weekend before at Bear Mountain, New York, with my old bike team from up there (Westwood Velo). I also did the Greenbelt, Maryland, training series on Wednesday evening with the speed demons from DC Velo. I was on the ‘rivet’ for 10 of the 16 laps with some of the stronger guys on the local DC bike circuit…..Anyways, both races took quite a bit out of me (got caught by the main field with little left to go in both….argh,,,!) and I really had not recovered fully for Columbia.
But hey, no excuses! I obviously wasn’t suffering as much as the other guys and managed to do a 23.3 mph on a fairly undulated course. My swim surprised me with 21:22 and my run (also hilly) was a strong `39 something….I have to give it to ‘Vigorito,’ the race organizer of both Columbia and EagleMan, who does such a tremendous job organizing these two world class races! He’s a super nice guy and also a staunch advocate of the BlazeMan foundation (see my sponsored link for details on the Blazeman Foundatioin!). I know ‘Vigo’ from having done EagleMan in the Chesapeake Bay quite a few times over the years. Last year, he let me in since I screwed up at St. Croix by running the wrong way (Vigo felt sorry for me and let me do EagleMan to make up for that miss and I ended up doing a 4:16 and PR!) This year, he let me into Columbia because EagleMan (which I had originally signed up for) falls on the same dates as Worlds in Canada where I will be competing for Team USA for the 3rd year in a row.
Anyways, as Chris Lieto said when he received his 1st prize at Columbia: “Find a reason to race other than for your own purpose! Triathlons are so much more rewarding when you race for a cause.”
So, Columbia Triathlon 2008 was a success for me. While I didn’t really enjoy getting up at 4am to meet up at Adrian’s house (mayor of DC), it didn’t take me long to get in the mood with so many positively inclined personalities around. Omar, Chuck, Michelle, Adrian, Jason, Shawn and all the other guys who faithfully show up to enjoy the sport of running and triathlon with Adrian at the helm. As I have said so many times: ‘the world would be so much better off if more people enjoyed an active life style through sports!’ Adrian truly is an inspirational leader in that sense. We need more ‘Adrians’ around the world! By the way, I’m working a separate project to help change that but more on that some other time….
Back to my flight towards Europe at 37,000 ft above Greenland,,,.
Like I said earlier, I’m crammed in the middle seat up here…..blocked in by a snoring Swede on the right, a nice sleeping Indian lady on the left…Welcome to the Global Economy (Class!) of sardine flying humans! The good news is that I’m wearing my ‘skins’ to help prevent my blood from pooling in my legs. Trying to stay hydrated with water so my blood doesn’t thicken and cause me another DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis)…..Which reminds me, I probably ought to tell you guys my story from the Huatulco Half IronMan in Mexico 2003…..
Most people – endurance athletes in particular – have no idea that we are actually more prone to getting them due to our low circulatory blood flow as a result of a low resting heart (bradycardia) rate and a tendency to be dehydrated (thicker blood) from racing…As a result, the blood gets ‘syrup’ like in the veins and can cause clots that later dislodge and get stuck in the longs (pulmonary embolism). They can then travel to the brain to cause a stroke and, way too often, premature death in a person…..Yeah, I actually had one of those DVTs once and ended up spending a full week in the Ridgewood Valley Hospital in New Jersey. In fact, they probably saved my life for discovering it. I had done the Huatulco Half IronMan in Mexico in May of 2003. Due to the extreme heat there, I was convinced by a friend from Atlanta, Georgia, to consume salt tablets…..Back then, they weren’t too common among Triathletes (nowadays, people take ‘electrolyte’ and salt/sodium replacements quite regularly in longer races). I was a total novice at the time and consumed way too many on the 56 mile bike ride. The temperature was like 104 degrees Fahrenheit and extremely humid. I ate like 15 tablets in the span of 2 ½ hrs on the bike….my stomach bloated up and my body was barely perspiring. I didn’t think much of it then but all the salt in my stomach acted as a ‘sponge’ by sucking up all the water in my larger organs…..The result was an extremely bloated stomach (I walked most of the run wondering what the heck was wrong) and a pair of kidneys that went completely haywire from trying to process all the salt…..In fact, I gave myself a ‘kidney stone’ by means of excessive salt, i.e. my kidneys were trying to process salt ‘crystals’…..a very painful experience I don’t wish upon anybody…..Long story short, I ended up in the hospital a week later with all kinds of intravenous catheters hooked up to my body….on heparin blood thinners followed by 3 months of ‘Coumadin’ – also known as ‘rat poison’ because it’s actually used as a rodent killer…..During this time, I came to realize I could indeed pressure myself over the ‘physical limit….’ I also realized that ‘fit’ is NOT synonymous with ‘healthy…..’ – something us Type A Triathletes tend to forget way too often…..So, on that note, may I remind everyone that we are indeed not ‘invincible’ to injury and that ‘more’ is oftentimes not ‘better’ when it comes to training……
Man, I am starting to develop a severe allergic reaction to international travel…..Really, what can be worse for a Type-A personality desperately trying to lead an exemplary active and healthy life style…..Oh well, I have always been the ‘ambitious’ kind so I guess that is nothing new. My only solace right now, is that my good friend Doug Reimer (US ranked Duathlete and international traveler ‘extraordinaire’) is stuck in a French hotel relegated to the ‘life cycle’ machine to get his 1 hr workouts in…. . That will be me in a few hours when I arrive at the Copenhagen airport, red eyed and fatigued….not so much from yesterday’s race but from the fact that I have yet again exposed my body clock to the geographical difference of ‘time……’ At least I’m not in Dubai this time – only 6 hour time difference to adjust to between DC and Denmark….a slow run after 6 hrs of rest when I arrive ought to do the trick…..Yep, I never go anywhere without them Nikes in my bag….
That’s all for now, folks. Next report post-Worlds in Vancouver, Canada….9 hr time difference from Copenhagen….Oh my, the world really has become my Oyster…Oh, and did I tell you how much I miss my little daughter Tuva-Helene Yanli who’s sleeping in California right now….I love her so much….that’s all he wrote for now, my friends
Later’On – in sports,
Espen(USA)
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