... until it's time for the mother of all Duathlons!

This is the 'Kona'  (IronMan Hawaii equivalent)  for Duathletes.  According to some who have done it it is "the sufferfest of all sufferfests....." :-)

What have I gotten myself into now?!?!?????

Hopefully all the training I have done so far this year as well as a few other hard races will carry me through.  

The distances are 10 k run (2 x 5k laps) - 150 k (3 x 50k) bike - 30 k (3 x 10k) run, and it is by no means an easy course, both the runs as well as the bike are quite hilly.  Thankfully not as hilly as the Duathlon Val d Aran in the Pyrenees that we did in July.  That course was just BRUTAL!

You can read more about the race by following this link: http://www.powerman.ch/content.cfm?Latest%20News&pub=2&kat=25

Dragana has decided to not do this race, instead she will cheer, crew, photograph and urge me on to the finish! 

We're flying down Thursday afternoon so we should have plenty of time to check out the course & even do some touristing in & around Zurich! 

...This was a fast week in more ways than one!  Tons of stuff to do at work for both Dragana & me, so that alone made it fly by at supersonic speed...

Fast in that all Swedish tennis players at the US Open disappeared faster than you can go to the bathroom... :-)  Sofia Arvidsson was really close to beating the World nr 2 Jelena Jankovic in the second round, but a bit of bad luck at key moments as well as some inexperience of tight matches against top players tipped the match in Jankovic's favor.

Ou poor friend Anders will not be able to catch any Swedes in action now that he's finally made it up to NYC....  Hopefully staying in a posh pad on Manhattan and all the benefits that it brings will weigh up the disappointment a little bit ;-)

It was also a fast week when it comes to training as this was the first of two 'taper weeks' before PowerMan Zofingen (10k run - 150 k bike - 30 K run.   www.powerman.ch )  in Switzerland on September 7, hence fewer, shorter and faster workouts were on the menu for this week!

Training August 25 through August 31:

Monday, August 25: planned rest day after 30 K run on Sunday.

Tuesday, August 26: 1 hr bike intervals on trainer. ~ 15 min warmup, 1 x 6 min at lactic threshold (had planned 4 x this but felt like crap & changed the plan...), 2 min easy spin,  3 x 6 min  (2 min easy spin)   at loooow cadence with a very heavvvvy gear to build strength. This felt easier than hammering high speed & cadence....  Felt weak today & not fully recovered from Sunday's lon run...  ~ 15 min cool down.  

Wednesday, August 27:  2 hrs easy ride on Cervelo TT bike ~  19 mph avg. Felt good.

Thursday, August 28:  50 min run, intervals on trdamill. 15 min warmup,   6 x 1 km (90 sec jog), 5 x 3.25 min/km ( 34:10 min 10 k pace) & 1 x 3:12 min/km ( 32 min 10 k pace).  Felt a bit sluggish on first interval but then it just got better & better.  Felt really stron during the last two & could have done  couple more but decided to stick with the plan.

Friday, August 29:  1hr 30 min (2 x 45 min commute to work) moderate pace ride on road bike.   Very comfortable.

Saturday, August 30:  2 hr very easy ride on Cervelo TT bike with  Dragana.  Avg ~ 15.5 mph...

Sunday, August 31:  45 min tradmill run.  16 min warmup followed by a     5 k Time Trial / Test Race in ~ 17 min 20 seconds!!!  Had planned to run a 17:30 5k so this was very pleasing especially as it felt like I have plenty more to give if really pushed!!!  6 months ago a sub 17 min 5 k would have felt almost impossible, now it is definitely in reach. 

Tantilizing to think that with some solid interval work I might even get close to the 16 min 15 sec PR that was set waaaaaaaay back in 1991 when I was a freshman in college in Missouri!  Can I do it??????????????

Total training for the week:  8 hrs 5 minutes 

Yesterday when I drove out to Arlanda International Airport in Stockholm, I was momentarily VERY confused when I saw a huge Boeing 747 standing right on top of an overpas leading in to the airport.  There's no runway where it was standing, so why would a huge plane be right there???

Did it overshoot the runway when landing???

Coming closer it looked like a very old scruffy plane and there was no airline branding on it at all.  Very weird indeed...

I was slightly less confused when I read the news today.  Some dude has leased a decomissioned 747 to rebuild and use as a youth hostel at the airport.

Pretty creative!  Will be interesting to see how this turns out.  Copy & paste the link below for pictures...

 http://www.svd.se/resor/nyheter/artikel_1631269.svd

Right now the national Cable TV company here in Sweden is running an absolutely hilarious commercial.

Being used to HD TV as a free part of your Time Warner cable TV package when we lived in Austin, we were in for a rude awakening when we went to get cable TV in Sweden.

Being a high tech country in most regards, Sweden is oddly at the Stone Age level when it comes to High Def TV...

The special HD box that you need was ~ $ 475, and that is ON TOP of your regular cable package!!!!

NOW, however, things ARE CHANGING!

A nationwide commercial is blasting the message that you can now get the glorious box for ONLY ~ $ 0.15, and for that you get a Whopping 7, YES, 7 HD channels to enjoy!!!

How would you have liked to be an early adopter this time having forked over $ 475 to the first guy / gal on the block with HD TV?!?!????????????

This past week we've had the pleasure of hosting our buddy Anders who's come over from Austin to visit family, friends and others.

Easy to tell the dude has been enjoying the nice Austin weather a bit too long.  When we picked him up at the Central Train Station in Stockholm, it was raining & ~ 60 F / 13 C outside and the dude is wearing shorts and a sweatshirt ;-)     

Thankfully he had some 'semi warm' clothes with him, and he was gonna need it!

As we do with most visitors that haven't been in Stockholm ever or not for  some time, we take them to our favorite Thai restaurant, Koh Phagnan.  This always works as you can see from the smile on Anders' face! 

Week of August 11 thru August 17:

Monday, August 11: rest day, drove from Herentals, Belgium to Tidaholm, Sweden. Visiting parents for a few days & to take advantage of the GREAT riding & running this little town has to offer!!!

Tuesday, August 12: 3 hr 5 min easy ride on DA TT rig ca. 59.3 miles, avg ~ 19.5 mph. Surprised that the avg speed was what it was give that I did NOT push at all, not even for a minute as I was still very sore from Sunday's race. Calves were killing me, hence didn't even try to run.... Awesome Sunny day & almost no wind. Rode Ekedalen, Dimbo, Folkabo, Vättak, Härja, Blåhult, Velinga & back to Tidaholm. Nice rolling hills with one long but thankfully not steep climb out from Härja!

Wednesday, August 13: 2hr 3min / 26 Km run (!) slow at ~ 48 min 10 K pace, all on soft trails at Helidsberget (10 + 10 + 5 + 1 km loops). Calves felt WAY better today! still a little sluggish though. Last 1 km was slooooooooow & stiff ;-)

Thursday, August 14: 3hr 56min ride, 71 miles tot ~ 18 mph avg. on DA TT rig. Had planned to ride 5 hours & start early but heavy rain & strong winds kept me at bay... left home @ 2:45 pm with partly Sunny skies but stll very strong winds which made it impossible to ride on the aero bars unless there was a straight head or tail wind. Got dumped on by a couple of strong showers after ~1hrs worth of riding, thakfully this just lasted ~ 40 min. The howling mothe*****ing WIND persisted the entire ride though. 8 mph while pushing HARD into a direct head wind is no fun, hence no 5hrs today....

Friday, August 15: 1 hr 20 min bike intervals, HARD! ~ 20 min warmup, then 5 x 6 min (3 min rest) and ~ 25 min cool down. Did the intervals just under or perhaps right at lactate threshold level, avg. pulse during intervals 166 bpm (bike max pulse is ~ 173 bpm). Average pace during the intervals ~ 26.5 mph / 42.5 km/h. Felt really good the whole workout and was able to get a really consistent workout as I was going up and down, or out & back... on Frojeredsvagen just outside Tidaholm. The two local farmers along the road must have wondered who the bike maniac / stalker was as I passed by their farms no less than 6 times...

Saturday, August 16: NO training, "sick..." just felt really sluggish the whole day. Debated at length on whether to train or not, and in the end opted to go to bed! Bummer as I was entered to race in "Midnattsloppet" which is a 10 k race in the southern part of downtown Stockholm / Sodermalm. Very hilly course but usually a great atmosphere as there are ~ 12,000 runners and even more along the course as this coincides with a 'mini Carnival...'

Sunday, August 17: no training, still felt like CRAP..... slept 11 hours...

Total for the week: 'only' 10 hrs 24 minutes

Week of August 18 thru August 24:

Monday, August 18: 1 hr 55 min moderate trainer ride as the weather sucked, heavy rain & lots of wind. Avg ~ 18.5 mph on the Cervelo P2C Thankfully I felt a LOT better today.

Tuesday, August 19: 50 min intervals on treadmill. Weather still sucked, rained from the left today... Would have ran indoors regardless as I like doing intervals on a treadmill for the consistent pace you get & there's no chance to cheat! Did ~ 15 min warmup then 10 x 400 meters with 60 sec jog in between. First 5 intervals were @ 75 seconds per 400, 6 - 9 were done at 74 sec and the last one was @ ~ 72 seconds. Felt pretty strong the whole workout. Maybe should've done 12 repeats but opted to be a Chicken as I had been a bit ill during the weekend.....

Wednesday, August 20: 2 hrs 3 min bike ride down to Gustavsberg, Norra Lagno etc... Good solid 'easy' ride @ ~ 18.5 mph average. Clouds looked bit ominous the last 30 min or so, but decided to be brave and 'circle' posh Saltsjo Dufnas a couple of times to get a full 2 hrs. Going down the last hill towards where we live some VERY heavy rain drops started falling & just as I put the key in the door, a torrential downpour started coming down...

Thursday, August 21: the plan was to do a 2 1/2 hour run, but with heavy showers circling Stockholm that was NOT an option. What is with the weather in this town????

The 'compromise' workout became a 1 hr 20 min brick workout at the gym. Started with ~ 30 min on a stationary bike (an OLD beater that actually allows you to sit in a decent TT position ;-) ), started out moderate but poured it on a bit the last 10 minutes before transition, on to the treadmill after a 10 second transition. Started out at ~ 38 min 10K pace then cranked it up as the 25 minutes went by. Did a 5 K "Time Trial" in ~ 18:25which felt easy, then ran the last 5 min a bit slower. On to the bike for 15 minutes of hammering at ~ 155 bpm pulse, quick transition for one more run. Did 1 kilometer at 35 min 10 K pace and then jogged it home for about 6 1/2 minute...

Friday, August 22: 1 hr 3 min easy run, mainly trails @ 10 K pace of ~ 47:30 minutes.

Saturday, August 23: 3 hrs 23 min moderate / semi hard ride on DA TT bike. Felt fantastic today, a really good ride out to Ingaro & back.. Beautiful weather and almost no cars on the road! Averaged ~ 21.5 mph not counting roll out & roll in. The last hour before the roll in was pounded out at ~ 23 mph but it felt really easy, did not push at all!

Sunday, August 24: 2 hr 19 min run. Avg ~ 45 min 10 K pace, mainly trails. Twisted my right ankle a little on a rock about halfways throught the run which made me scream like a pig and cuss to make a sailor blush! Thankfully this was in the deep Schwedish Foooreste so no one heard it, I hope...

Felt a bit sluggish in the early part of the run as Dragana jogged with me, but cranked it up a bit the last 30 min where I averaged ~ 40 min 10 K pace. All in all an OK workout & last long run before Zofingen in two weeks.

Total for the week: 12hrs 53min. Not great, but OK. Had hoped to do 15 hrs but I'll take it!

Week of Juy 28 thru August 3; 

Monday, July 28; NO training.  Got back to Nacka, Sweden around 1:30 pm after a 25,5 hour non-stop drive (YES, I did that....) from Luscan, France. 4 hour Power nap in the afternoon, then dinner with Dragana...

Tuesday, July 29;  2 hour easy ride ~ 17.5 mph avg

Wednesday, July 30; 2 hr 40 min run,  ~ 30 km,    ~ 44 min 10K pace on trails & dirt roads / ~ 60 min 10 K pace in forest.  Mostly trails & dirt roads, some off trail, deep forest running...  Had unintended to run 2 hours but got slightly lost in the forest :-)

Thursday, July 31;  2 hr 15 min moderate ride on TT bike ~ 19.5 mph avg.

Friday, August 1:  1 hr run, Fartlek on dirt road. surgtes between 2 to 8 minutes,  ~ 35 min 10K pace

Saturday, August 1: 2 hr easy ride on TT bike @ 18.5 mph.

Sunday, August 3:  2hr 35 min BRICK workout.  2hrs 5 minon TT bike @ ~ 20 mph avg, immediate 30 min 'run off bike'. Hit it pretty good right away on the run and did the first 8 minutes all out @ ~ 35 min 10K pace the just cruised it home nice 'n' slow! 

Total for the week;  12 hrs 30 min

Week of August 4 thru August 10: 

Monday, August 4: planned rest day.  Dragana and I enjoyed a fabulous Thai dinner at Koh Phagnan 'på Sööööööder' with our Austin friends Kurt & Linda who had flown in from their new home in Buenos Aires, Argentina to visit Linda's sister who happens to live in Stockholm!

Tuesday, August 5: ~ 1 hour treadmill run; 12 min warmup then 5 x 1 km w/ 2min jog in between.  avg pace for intervals 3min 22sec (33:40 min 10K pace), last interval was the fastest @ 3min 18 sec.  5 min jog then        4 x 1 min(1 min jog) @ 3:10 min/ km . ~ 15 min cool down jog.

Wednesday, August 6;  2hr moderate ride on the Felt DA TT rig just to check that it was Ok after service & ready to race on Sunday!

Thursday, August 7: rest day. Drove from Nacka to Röde Kro in Southern Denmark.

Friday, August 8:  rest day. Drove from Röde Kro in Southern Denmark to Herentals, Belgium.

Saturday, August 9:  1 hr easy ride in Geel to check out the bike course for Sunday's race.

Sunday, August 10: 4hrs 10min total. ~ 20 min warmup jog then 3hrs 51 min race at 2008 Duathlon Long Course World Championships.  5th place in Men 40 - 44 age group out of 35 something starters.

Total for the week:   8hrs 10min

 Week of August 11 thru August 14 (tbc):

Monday, August 11: rest day, drove from Herentals, Belgium to Tidaholm, Sweden.  Visiting parents for a few days & to take advantage of the GREAT riding & running  this little town has to offer!!!

Tuesday, August 12:  3 hr 5 min easy ride on DA TT  rig ca. 59.3 miles, avg ~ 19.5 mph. Surprised that the avg speed was what it was give that I did NOT push at all, not even for a minute as I was still very sore from Sunday's race. Calves were killing me, hence didn't even try to run....  Awesome Sunny day & almost no wind.  Rode Ekedalen, Dimbo, Folkabo, Vättak, Härja, Blåhult, Velinga & back to Tidaholm.  Nice rolling hills with one long but thankfully not steep climb out from Härja! 

Wednesday, August 13:  2hr 3min /  26 Km run (!) slow at ~ 48 min 10 K pace, all on soft trails at Helidsberget (10 + 10 + 5 + 1 km loops).  Calves felt WAY better today! still a little sluggish though. Last 1 km was slooooooooow & stiff ;-)

Thursday, August 14:  3hr 56min ride, 71 miles tot ~ 18 mph avg. on DA TT rig.  Had planned to ride 5 hours & start early but heavy rain & strong winds kept me at bay...  left home @ 2:45 pm with partly Sunny skies but stll very strong winds which made it impossible to ride on the aero bars unless there was a straight head or tail wind.  Got dumped on by a couple of strong showers after ~1hrs worth of riding, thakfully this just lasted ~ 40 min.  The howling mothe*****ing WIND persisted the entire ride though.  8 mph while pushing HARD into a direct head wind is no fun, hence no 5hrs today....

For this past weekend I drove down from Stockholm to Geel (40 min east of Antwerp), Belgium for the Duathlon Long Course World Championships. 18km run, 74km bike & 9km run.

What I thought was going to be a fairly smooth 12 hour drive turned into a 16 hour "STAU fest...", lots of traffic and torrential rain so not a great start to the weekend.

Once I got to my hotel in Herentals which is 15 minutes west of Geel, things got worse. At check in I was told that "Welcome, you are in Room Nr 13......! " I pleaded to get another room as I didn't want bad luck for the race, but no luck so I had to accept it. How bad can it be right?!? "It will bring you luck..." the desk clerk said....

On Saturday I drove over to Geel to pick up my race packet and also to ride the bike course. It took less than 15 min to drive there, but 45 min to find parking as the locals were having thir Saturday Farmers Market in the town center where all the race facilities were also located... Brilliant!

I missed the roll out by 5 minutes and ws pretty bummed. Since packet pickup hadn't yet opened I hung around and chatted with an Alaskan guy on Team USA. Thnakfully there were more folks than me who'd missed the roll out due to parkingt challenges, so the Race Director decided to do a second lap. Thank you! Amazing to be 25 or so riders with Police escort who shut down every intersection we rolled through!!! Bike course was pretty flat but technical with lots of turns in the Downtown part. Parts of the smaller roads were also a bit rough and bumpy which made it feel like you were riding with flat tires... All in all a good course, and nice sunny weather, perfect for racing.

Sunday morning rolls around, woke up at 5 am, look out the window and it's pretty gloomy, totally overcast. Get to Geel to 'unwrap' my bike which had been covered in plastic bags overnight while parked in Transition the start warming up about 25 min before the 8 am start for the Masters race. Just as I start jogging, it starts to rain, light drizzle at first but as we start a bit heavier. Why couldn't it be like yesterday.... Since this was my first World Cmhampionship my goal was not to embarass myself & try to finish oin the top half of the 35 something guys that started in my age group.

Incredibly enough someone yelled out my name just as I was heading over to the start. Strange as I went alone & definitely knew no one here.... Turns out that Jack Murray, as in Jack of Jack & Adams Bicycles in Austin, Tx was in town as a bike mechanic for Team USA. Great to meet a friend from Austin!!! Better show well as I am racing on a Felt DA bike that Jack sold me this spring before we moved...

As expected the race set off at a very high pace and the lead pack of ~ 25 runners opened up in about 35 min 10 K pace, a French and a British dude even went out a bit faster.... This is a bit too fast for me, especially as we were going to run 18 km (11.2 miles), 4 x 4.5km, and I settled in to what was about a 38:30 min 10K pace and decided to stay at that and not worry about what the others did. Halfways out on the first lap I was already starting to pass a few runners runners, and the further we went the more people I passed. The whole way through the first run i felt very comfortable, running well within my limits. Coming in to T1 the clock said 1hr 10min 49 sec (apparently I was in 9th by now according to the results), still felt good but a bit worried about going out on the bike as it was now raining harder and was going to be very slick.

Strange feeling the first 2 - 3 km or so on the bike as I saw no one in front of me after quickly passing one rider in the first few hundred meters. Even though I had ridden the course yesterday and thought I knew where I was going, there was this worry that I'd taken a wrong turn.... Luckily I soon saw some riders up ahead in the distance and set my sights on catching them. Still hard to really push as the road was very slick but once we got to a long straight where there wa also a bit of respite from the wind which had picked up considerably I was able to start pushing a bigger gear and ride along at ~ 23 - 24 mph. Caught one more guy on the first of 4 laps.

Going out on lap 2 there was now a lot more riders out on the course as the slower runners had come through T1. Kept going at a hard but controled effort on the second lap, passed 2 two French guys who had been drafting off each other for the better part of a whole lap despite the 10 meter rule. These guys were rarely more than 5 meters apart and kept rotating. Once I passed them the split up as one tried to stay with me, but he too soon dropped back. By now I was feeling pretty good about things. That was until this huge German guy just blew by me, pushing 53-11 into a head wind.... Nothing to do there, good on ya' mate! (Turned out this was the eventual winner & his bike split would have beat over half the Pro field....), amazing!

Going out on the third lap I caught this really big Belgian guy racing in the 50 + age group, William, according to the cheers from the crowd. As usual when I pass someone I put in a surge and try to drop the guy. Not this one... He was sticky as a chewing gum and would stay nailed to my wheel for almost a lap and a half, again an obvious drafter... A bit annoying that the referees didn't enforce the rules as strictly as they claimed they would in the pre race briefing the day before. This guy should have gotten a 300 meter Penalty Run lap after T2! Halfways through lap 3 I thought I had a flat on my rear wheel and my mind started to wander a bit... Luckily it was only the rough road that played tricks on me, but I sat up for a bit and probably lost 20 seconds or so on this.

Lap 4 turned out to be my best bike lap, it was still raining quite a bit and very slippery, but as I was a bit irritated with myself for letting my mind wander a bit and also p****d at the Belgian drafter behind I really went after it, and on the one stretch where we rode on a closed down freeway, where a stretch of about 4 km was with a tailwind I was pushing my 53 - 11 up to 29 mp and held steady for 7 - 8 miniutes. Felt great as I just flew by 7 or 8 slower riders !

My bike time fr the 74 km ended up being 2hrs 1mon 17 seconds, good enough for 4th fastest bike split of the day, 1min down on third, 2min down on 2nd but 8:30 down on the German uber biker. All in all an OK, but not great bike leg, wanted sub 2 hrs. Then again I was a bit apprehensive due to the slick roads and opted to try NOT to crash and have a bit of a margin in the corners. If it had been bone dry like when the Pro's and younger age groups raced in the afternoon, the bike split would easily have been 4 - 5 min faster.

Out on to the second run of 9 km (2 x 4.5 km) my legs still felt pretty ok, but I desperately needed to take a whizz.... Not easy when you are running through downtown where there's plenty of people lining the streets, so I had to hobble along in PAIN for about 1.5 km until I found an alley way.

Finally RELIEF!!!

Two guys passed me, but I soon passed one guy back, and the other was not in my age group so it didn't matter. Felt pretty decent, and hearing Jack Murray yell 'C'mon Peter'!!!!! really lifted my spirits! Out onto the last lap I saw a few people ahead of me and decided to try a last gasp effort to try and make a pass.

With 2.5 km I passed an American dude and when I looked at him I couldn't believe it as he was just behind the lead pack on the first run looking super strong!  Now he looked like he way more dead than alive...

Coming in to the last km I just powered all I had so no one would catch me. Approaching the finish line a very excited speaker yelled out "Peter Karlsson from Nacka, Sweden, 5th place in the mens 40 - 44 division"!

WHAT the ????? I could NOT believe it, I had just come in 5th in a World Championship race with a very stong field!!! I was elated with the result, but strangely felt that I could have gone faster if I had had a great day. Turns out that I was just 3min 37 sec out of third place in a total time of 3hrs 51min 36sec.

 Last 9km run was 37min 32sec ~ 41:40 10k pace / 40:55 if we deduct the 45 second whizz stop ;-)   Not that fast, but it impressed the heck out of the American thai I passed towards the end "you were super strong on that last run..."

Podium place & medal next year?!?!??   This has to be the goal!

Very encouraging to see that I can be competitive at this level!!!

Room nr 13 turned out to bring luck indeed ;-)

A few pictures of me below as well as of Joorie vanSteelant of Belgium who blew away the elite field with almost 6 minutes, to take his second World Title in a row in front of an exited home crowd.  What an athlete, wow!!!