Jetlaged and 10 000 hours

A mellow day with a 1 h run in the morning to kick it of.
Later a swim with 3000 LCM were I felt jetlaged and not to good.
Finished my day with a 1h 45min ride to check my bike after all cabels were replaced @Boulder bike village.
Met a juggler down town Boulder. I asked him how much training he do. His answeer was 2-4 h each day. No easy way! Also when acting as a pro struggler you have to do the work. We were chatting around the 10 000 h mark to get some were :)

Tomorrow I have a 6000 LCM swim.

Livin` the dream 

Why

Does it always need to be a why? My last day’s most frequent question has been why “do you go to US for 3 months. How is that possible to do?” Not an easy question. The question is tricky. When I decided to make my application for UM UK I also decided to go all in to make my best training before the race. I want  to make my “mother” proud of me. At least I want the attention from the people around me that the event like this gives. Of course I could have done an IM or similar, but I have already done that and a UM was something new and bigger also on the paper. I really don’t like racing that much! The process leading up to racing is the part that makes me most happy. From my point of view to make a life time best fitness with a full time job is difficult. Of course I can get fit also when working full time, but not for this race. I need to isolate myself from my normal life. I can’t go big with too much in my mind. Even my e-post is difficult to handle when really tired. My job back home is 24/7 in my mind and creates a lot of thinking even when not at my desk. I have been 4 years with the company and the opportunity my CEO gave me will pay back with a top motivated Viking back in September. The experience form my athletic journey has a lot of value also for my company. What about my family. When away I can’t do anything else than support from distance and do the best training to get as strong as possible and make them proud of me. I will have a ton to catch up on the family side when home again. That’s great – the time before Christmas will be family focused. My family is my sponsor and I have to do the training and secure the outcome to make the time away worth it.. Travel to good wetter, both for daylight and sun. Harstad is not the best place for triathlon. Last season I got in two rides without legwarmers over the summer. I`m not complaining. That’s just a fact. At Christmas time its pitch dark around the clock. There is some kind of a blue light for 2-3 hours each day and the energy level is far way down. This time I wanted to get to a warmer place were the wetter plays with me – then there will be no need to plan around the wetter. Simple but effective. Back home I normal use 20-30 minutes to get my clothes on. Even in the summer I sometimes have to finish my ride on the trainer or go home to change clothes to get the feel in my legs back. Boulder seems like a good option also when it comes to the wetter for the summer.  My coach have kept telling the team that we can learn more with one week alongside him and his team than you will get from distance coaching over time. I can support him on that. Last season I was training with Endurance Corner for 14 days and got a lot more than even I had dreamed for over those days. It will be great to get closer to my team and fine tune my training. Finally It will also save me a lot of money since US I cheaper than Europe. It`s a long travel but for such a long time the travel is no biggie. I just have one life – when I first talked my coach thru my goal who was UM UK he gave me the green light and we have since that day done a lot of training to prepare me for the final training in US. Even my CEO gave me early “go and get them”. A lot of savings will be used over this summer, but I only have one life and want to live it in harmony and happiness. Riding offers me both. What other says doesn’t bother me too much. Nothing makes me more happy than riding my bike… : ) At least nothing I can print here. .. 
All in,
//JH

The swedish primal

Just arrived home after my 7th Colting camp.

Colting is a super star in my world. I love Colting camps and there will be a lot more camping south in Sweden with him and his team. Tomorrow I`m leaving for Boulder, Colorado for 3 months preparation for my UM in UK 3-5th September. The goal for my week is.:

# 1 - Active recovery until departure
# 2 - Arrive US fresh and healty

# 3 - Get the grocery and bike set up in Bo, Co

Todays photo is from my latest Colting camp. The Swedish primal and JH.

Safe travel!

JH

Favorite workout

Warm up with ten minutes build to Steady, then 10x 15s Fast / 45s Easy; then 2x18 minutes as 6 min Steady/Mod-hard/Threshold with 2 min Easy between the sets. Cool Down.

This one is my indoor favorite workout. I have kept asking myself why?

The fact that I`m allowed to build into my threshold suits me very well. I have in very many areas in my life been a slow starter, thats a pattern for sure. Still when I got into it I have always been quit good to push all way thru when allowed too start "slow", better when hitting it from the start. I also guess that all training over the winther has made me fit, but it also mean that my body need long warm ups. Mentally it is better to go with a negative split than a positive. It makes me look strong, at least it tells my mind "you were strong today". Building into things with a increas in effort also means that I`m quit good at pacing my workouts. Thats a good skill too have on race day and in life in general. Good too know when building up my nxt race plan, seasson or when planning the life outside triathlon. Key things too remember for Jan Hugo.:

#1 Long warm up
#2 Slow start
#3 Negative split

 = Strong today :)

//JH

 PAPER RACE 
750 m swim - 20 k bike - 5 k run

7 guys at the start line for our local "training race". My team viking buddy JO offers good feedback since he is a strong trainingpartner and normal a faster runner than me. I took the lead from the start at the swim and was able to ROCK it all way too the finish line. Was ahead the chasing bunch with 2 min and 36 sec at the end. Avg 1:34/100 pace for the swim and 273 W for the ride and 3:58 min pr k for the run. Both swim and bike seasson best performance. Some confusing feedbacks from my brick leading up too the race compared to my run times, but overall I am very happy to nail the swim and bike. The run was a mind game. In sort of a way the pain from a short race is harder to deal with than longer races. kept telling myself when running - keep your head in there, all way thru the finsih line, I love pain and have a lot more of it in my store, so bring it on :)

Finished with 1 h 04 min and f* 1 sec.

Lessons who comes to mind after this race:

Dont excpect better times at your race than done in training.

Don`t do paper races leading up to your event. It want make you happy. (I`m a "paper race expert", so far I have never got it(clock) correct and it alwas makes me look fast(er).   

Free your mind and just RACE :) the clock will take care of it self.  

Still on a low volume calendar, but trust my coach 100% and just love the fact that I`m soon in Boulder for 90 days with preparations before the BIG challange at UM UK.

My first part of the seasson is over and I have learned a ton so far in 2011. More about that later.

February Goals

February goals:

1. Balanced training
2. Run freqvency again - a lot of easy, aiming for 25 runs over 28 days
3. Bike - reducing the length of the trainer sessions to help avoid suffering
4. Swim - nothing fancy, just keep it rolling

A new easy plan to make me ready for "bigger" training closer to my race. The time for "more" will be summer when in Bo, Co. Then I will got a lot more. So February is still about being patient. 

Lesson learned this week.
Fuel up for strong performance, no more counting calories. I`m cheating my self with not eating enough before my key sessions. Every thing is about strong training. When I ask the mirror I can always get leaner, but this game is not about the mirror. Fuel up for spedy recovery and strong performance and the body will adapt. The counting is only leading to sickness and slow recovery. Guys like me from a over weighted background will never get saticfied with what they see in the mirror. From 100 kg to 80 kg today - and still thinking about the numbers.

Be happy, if you smile to those around you they will star to smile back on you. When people around me are happy, my mind gets quit. If my mind is quit it is far easier to go strong and focused on the key sessions. Good performance in every aspect of my life leads also to strong perfermance in training. Stay focused on the task and the pace will take care of it self. When focused on the task I can be a touch introverted and quit.

Today only some easy swimming.:
4 x 100 easy / 400 steady - 10 sec rest all way thru
3 x 100 easy / 300 steady
2 x 100 easy / 200 steady
100 easy / 100 steady

12 x 50 ods are easy, evens are mod hard - rest 15 sec
CD

30 minutes easy skiing in the sun to start up my day.

Nxt week will be a good one
A lot of fun training ahead
Nothing crazy!

Keep it rolling,
Jan Hugo

January summary

A lot is going on in my life, both for my job and tri-life style. I`m comming of 3 weeks with a lot of traveling at my job. Weeks high on stress and traveling is not the best for strong training. To manage my training I have tried to simplify everything. The fact that I have not done any blogging is a sign that I`m on the edge. Still January has been a big sucsess both at the office and training. I have never felt stronger or more sexy. Still there have been some adjustments due to some fatigue over 3-4 days. We have been able to get 2-3 ultraswims under the belt. Monsy`s 60 x 100 is a # 1 hit of mine. Simple, but very effcitve. Leaving on 1:55 - 1:50 - 1:45 - 1:40. Feeling strong, but with at a slow pace. For my next Monsy`s 24 x 100 I will shoot for leaving 5 sec faster for each line. Patience isn`t my best skill but January has been about beeing a rock star at the offic and training daily. Due to a 20 hour job day I had to take one ZERO over the month. I dont like zeros, but my job is paying for the fun.
February is the month of running again. Planning 25 runs over 28 days. Building freqvency witt easy runing  is a safe way to get strong. There is plenty of time to build endurance later if legs have the nessesary powerplatfrom from freqvent easy running. Still going a touch light with my riding to avoid to much suffering at my trainer. Still there is plenty of work in my "easy" plan.

My anchor today.:
Warm-up for 40 minutes and include 20 mins of Power Singles at FTP (10x 1/1) then:
3x25 min on 5 min Easy recovery
#1 -- aim to hold slightly under LT watts (Mod-hard effort)
#2 -- hold the lower of: (a) LT watts; and (b) LTHR (LT Heart Rate)
#3 -- hold LTHR and note avg wattage
If you don't have a powermeter then use perceived effort -- remember not to force HR over perceived effort, especially early -- give yourself room to outperform
Immediately after the last 25 min interval do 20 minutes of 92 rpm riding holding the bottom end of your Steady power range. Let HR come down gradually. Cool down with choice easy spinning.

+++

After a meal, nap and a new meal my pm swim

12x25 Easy on 10s rest
6x50 Steady on 10s rest
4x75 25 Easy, 25 Mod-hard, 25 Steady on 10s rest
3x100 Steady on 10s rest
+++
5x400 on no more than 15s rest
Goal is to Descend the set with each one slightly faster
+++
Then 5 min Easy;
Then 5x200 Descend each one on 10s rest;
+++
Cool Down

+++

After a new meal my evening run - oh yeea a lot of eating - love it
A very easy paced run to promote blood flow. Keep heart rate down.
You will find that increasing your mileage through frequent running is the safest way to build the strength, and durability, required to run well off the bike. Quick cadence, easy effort, low heart rate! Either off the bike or later in the day.

Todays photo - Our crew captain Jason!

Best,
Jan Hugo