In typical fashion for this time of the year when the weather turns increasingly 'nasty' and the days get darker & gloomier, I tend to get a few hits of cold symptoms that last 3 - 4 days and then go away. Nothing serious but just enough to keep me from training. Arghhhhh.... 

Thus not much to report on the training fron for the past week;

Week of October 20 - 26: 

Monday, Oct. 20: planned rest day

Tuesday, Oct. 21:    1 hr trainer ride, medium hard avg ca 21 mph.  Felt fine.

Wednesday, Oct. 22:  1 hr moderate trainer ride ca 18 mph. Felt fine...

Thursday, Oct. 23:   "sick"

Friday, Oct. 24:        "sick"

Saturday, Oct. 25:   "sick"  slept 13 hrs

Sunday, Oct. 26:      "sick"  slept 10 hrs

Total for the week: 2 hrs....

Hoping to start back up on Tuesday!

Rather than go out for dinner last night we decided to stay in and watch Goodfellas (Mafia Brothers in Swedish...) with Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci & coas it was a particularly nasty evening with driving rain & hard winds...

Thankfully we didn't succumb to the urge of eating junk food like pizza or so but rather made a pretty healthy dinner sandwich, a fruit smoothie and had 1 glass of wine. Mmmm, yummie!

The sandwich is really easy to make, all you need is a slice of thin 'arctic' bread, cover with a thin layer of Kalles Kaviar (a Swedish delicacy available at your nearest IKEA ;-) ). Then you cover the bread with a thin layer of ruccola salad, add 1 medium boiled egg, sliced thinly, 15 - 20 small yellow onion slices, crawfish & shrimp tails, 1 slice of boiled ham and top off with a little snippet of parsley for decoration & taste!  All in all this takes about 5 minutes to make.

The smoothie is just as easy & fast to make. Put 1/2 pound of blueberry, 1/2 pound of mango and about 12 oz of Soy Blueberry youghurt in a mixer and mix the ingredients for about 2 - 3 minutes. Enjoy!

No, I don't want to take out my weather related frustrations on the Triathlon community.... but...

... I did read a very interesting article in Outside Magazine yesterday where they have an interview with Australian Tri Guru / Coach Brett Sutton, the controversial coach of the 2 x Ironman Hawaii Champ Chrissie Wellington and 5 x Powerman Zofingen Champ Erika Csomor, just to name a few...

It's well worth a read and puts things in to perspective when you think you train HARD!

"At an off-limits facility in the Philippines, multisport coach Brett Sutton treats humans like horses and isn't above the occasional screaming fit. Works for some people—including Chrissie Wellington, the reigning Hawaii Ironman titleholder—but his critics say he breaks more champions than he makes."

Full article available on

http://outside.away.com/outside/bodywork/200810/brett-sutton-triathlon-coach-1.html

Today I'm in Gothenburg on the far western side of Sweden, and it is literally raining from the left and it's windy as h**l, arrrghhhhh!!!  

Shouldn't have said anything about the unseasonably good weather yesterday..........

The unseasonably sunny & mild fall weather continues here in the Stockholm area!  Good thing to have something positive to think about in the midst of the "Gloabl Financial Meltdown..." & rising mortgage interest rates!

This week on of the Swedish Morning TV shows on TV4 took the unusual approach of cold calling / prank calling CEO's, Presidents and other big wigs at the major banks and mortgage institutes asking them to Please Lower the interest rates now, people are hurting...!!!  Some lauged this off and a few hinted that we may see a slight drop in the not too distant future...  We would NOT argue against this!

Other than this, the week went by in a blur of looong and intense work days. Hence the week was mainly eat, sleep, work, train (a little..) rinse & repeat :-)

Training in the week of Oct. 13 - Oct. 19:

Monday, Oct 13: planned rest day

Tuesday, Oct 14: 1hr 15min bike intervals on the trainer.  15 min warmup, 5 x 5 min (2 min easy) at just under lactic threshold, 3 X 2 min (1min) at 53/11 and ~ 55 rpm cadence, 10 min cool down.

Wednesday, Oct 15: 1hr 5min trainer ride at moderate pace. Ca 17.5 mph which roughly equates 19.5 mph on the road.

Thursday, Oct. 16: ca 1hr 15min bike intervals on the trainer.  15 min warmup then 6 x 5 min (2 min) @ 53/13 and ~ 60 rpm cadence, 4 x 2 min (1 min) @ 53/11 ~ 55 rpm, 10 min cool down.

 Friday, Oct 17: 1hr 10 min tot, 10 min warmup on rowing machine, 50 min weight training. Focus on upper body (or rather lack thereof ;-)  ) using lots of reps & fairly low weights. Finished with 10 min on the Cross Country Ski Machine...

Saturday, Oct 18:  2hr 5min very easy bike ride with Dragana. Avg ca 14.7 mph.  Very nice & sunny day which made for a lovely ride out to Norra Lagno where we turned around at the ferry stop. See pic's above!

Sunday, Oct 19:  2hr 31min run  ca 47:30 min 10k pace. Felt strong but veeery difficult to get any kind of pace going where I ran...

Did a Muddy Buddy Dirt Derby in Hellasgarden!  Ran, slid, splashed and climbed my way around the 10k trail which is partly in miserable condition for running, also did a lap on the 5k trail which is much nicer to run right now!   I looked like I had swam in a mud puddle when I got home. Dragana was wondering where the f**k I had been :-)

Total for the week:  9hrs 21min  (of which  8hrs 31min cardio)

... Is what I got when I stayed up all night last night to watch the webcast from the Hawaii Ironman World Championships!

Even though I am a Duathlete and NOT a triathlete, this is an absolutely electrifying event! Dragana and I were glued to the big screen already from the start. Half the screen on the live video feed and the other half for the comprehensive text updates & standings.

Dragana cruised off to bed around 1 am local time but I, the nerd, stayed up until 3:45 am to watch when the first men crossed the finishline.

We were cheering hard for the Austin Pros in the race, but unfortunately none of them featured high enough in the standings to get any TV time.  We'll have to claim Michael Lovato as an Austinite as he has lived there before & I met him at Jack & Adams.  Super nice dude and he got 9th yesterday, GREAT JOB! 

This week I have slowly been getting back to training. Very low intensity & even less volume, BUT that's intentional. I will continue to go relatively easy and also do some 'cross training' in the next few weeks before getting back to more serious & structured training before the first A race of 2009.  More on what race that is in a few days...

Training in the week of Sept. 29 - Oct. 5:

Sunday, Oct. 5:  2hrs 30min run, ca 33 km (20.6 miles).  Started at North Beach in San Francisco, ran towards the Golden Gate, over the Golden Gate, in & through Sausalito before I turned around and ran more or less the same way back.  Felt OK, pace veeery comfortable but a little stiff in the end.

Training in the week of Oct. 6  -  Oct 12:

Wednesday, Oct. 8: 63 min morning run, ca 12,5 km (7.5 miles).  Ran down Gear St & Market St. down to the Embarcadero and all the way down to the Presidio and back. Again very comfortable pace.

Friday, Oct. 10:  20 min run (13 min warmup & 7 min cooldown), 60 min weight (!!!..........) training in between. Went thru prety much the whole body!

Saturday, Oct. 11:  1hr 40 min bike ride back at home in Nacka to Gustavsberg & back.  Ca 18 mph avg speed.  Nice fall day & only had a long sleeve jersey, NO JACKET!!!  Not bad for Sweden in October...

Sunday, Oct 12:  1 hr 53 min run, ca. 24 km.  Ran first 12 min with Dragana at ca 56 min 10K pace, before she ran off & did her thing. Gradually picked things up throughout the run and ran ca 41:30 min / 10 K pace in the end.  Most of the run on trails & fairly hilly. Another very nice fall day!

Total for the week:  4 hrs 56 minutes

...aaahhhhhhh....

When I finally had some free time after work this evening, I was a man on a mission.  A mission from god to find a Chipotle restaurant & indulge in a HEALTHY (!) Veggie Burrito.

Yes, this sounds weird if you live in the US, but for us who now live in the Burrito starved nation of Sweden, Chipotle is a gift from god!

Mmmmmm it was goooood & also healthy as Chipotle only uses fresh ingredients!!!  

Right after I had finished the monster burrito from hell, I hopped in my rental car and drove down to North Beach and then went off on a 2 1/2 hour run.  Headed west towards Golden Gate Park, up & over the Golden Gate and on to Sausalito, and back the same way. All in all ca 21 miles / 33.5 km.

Stopped briefly in Sausalito for a fresh bottle of water and also took some pictures of a bunch of awsome classic cars that were on display in a little park next to the marina.  All of them are owned by Vijay Mallya, the owner of Kingfisher Beer, Kingfisher Airlines & the Force India F1 team!

Even after this awsome run, one of the most beautiful & spectacular ones ever, I still had no apetite. The burrito from hell was still talking to me.  Ended the day with a dinner consisting of 2 small bananas......