21.9.2013 - Kiiminki Marathon

Yesteday I ran my second ever marathon.
Kiiminki is the flattest marathon in Finland. There is only 6m of ascent for each round. The course was 4 rounds of 10 549 m.

Preparing for the race:
The preparation for this marathon was not as good as for Stockholm. We were competing in an Olympic distance Triathlon in Kuopio on the 10th of August. One week of "rest" after the race and then I started to run according to a similar plan as before Stockholm.

"Resting week"

Due to the short period before the run, I made some tweaks. The last 2,5 weeks were pretty much exactly as before Stockholm.

One of the run's 3 weeks before, was 90 min @ marathon pace. 

This felt really good. My heart rate seemed to stabilize at around 160. And I was not rested at all at this state. So I was feeling pretty good about my form.
When comparing the last weeks before race day ( before Stockholm vs. before Kiiminki), my pace was higher and heart rate lower at each training session. I was really confident about my sub 3:30 target. The target was 17 minutes faster than in Stockholm, but Stockholm had a lot more ascent and there was 21700 other runners which made running impossible in the beginning. So the target was tough but I still believed it to be possible.. :-)
The last week I was feeling a bit weak. Most of the family already had some small flu, and I seemed to have gotten my piece of it...  I wasn't really sick but... Suddenly my pace and heart rate was worse than in the sessions before Stockholm...;-/
An Orthostatic heart rate test on Wednesday before the marathon got the same result as one test 2 days after Stockholm...;-/
Still confident I could go sub 3:30 :-)

Race day:
I woke up at 7:45 for breakfast.  Then I still had to go shopping for sports drink that I had forgotten. I decided to run with my drinking belt and own drinks. Niina was following me with a bike so it was possible to fill the empty bottles every now and then.

I got some good advice from experts on why I should run slower than the needed average pace of 5 min/km for the first 2-3 kilometers. I promised my self to follow the advice. TAKE IT EASY...
So how did I succeed in that? Not too good. The first kilometer went at 4:47 and the second at 4:50. Exactly opposite of what I was supposed to!
At 16 kilometers I felt the pain in my legs for the first time. Luckily there was only 26+ kilometers left... I knew at this point that it would be really hard in the end, and I needed to take this as a mental exercise for the Ironman. Pain is temporary but quitting is forever...
At the half point I was exactly at the target. At 30 km I was still running at target pace. At 35 there was a clear turn to the worse... Now it was getting really hard. I had to stop once to stretch my legs (can be seen in the curve below). I knew (thought) that if I had gone the first 2 kilometers at 5:10 min/km, I would have been able to go at least 4 km longer at target pace. (Carbohydrate usage is growing exponentially to speed...). Of course this is just a feeling but this was exactly what the experts said would happen if I go too fast in the beginning. The last few kilometers were really painful...

Not feeling so good anymore...

Finally I crossed the finishing line at 3:34:33. I am happy with the result. It was a 12,5 minute improvement on the first marathon. I knew I was not in perfect form the last week and I did some mistakes with the pace in the beginning. 

Next time I will go for the sub 3:30 again :-) Well at least the next time I run just a marathon. As it looks now, my next full marathon will be in Kalmar Ironman August 2014. Maybe I will not go for a personal best there... ;-)

Today I turned 46. I have been walking like a duck the whole day. My legs are way more tired than after Stockholm.
I feel that my running form was much better in Stockholm than in Kiiminki, which should not have been a surprise. Kiiminki was just way easier to run since there was not so many people and the terrain was easy.

Now we will prepare for Rokua MTB in two weeks. After that I promise to take it easy for 2-3 weeks. Then on to prepare for next year...

Why triathlon - Niinas addition

Jyrki has said almost all of it in the previous post. Some things I can add from my side.

I always liked training in a group. Finding a swim practice that suited us both and where it was possible to take Emma with us to swim and play with her friends while we trained, that was good luck! Immediately from beginning it was clear that I feel like a fish in the water and my technique looks completely fine. But for some strange reason it didn't work. I were the slowest swimmer in the group. It took me all the season until somewhere in the end of spring after I checked all parts of my technique piece by piece, I found what was wrong. My hands were too weak and my stroke looked correct but had no power. When summer came I still had not enough power in my hands, but shirts sleeves started to feel more tight and my speed was increasing. And by the time of Kuopio triathlon I managed to improve my swimming enough to cut of 4,5 minutes from last years result. And I know that I can still improve! So I am really waiting for our swim practices to start.

Less lucky I was with running. I knew it intuitively that my knees "don't like" certain things. But inspired by the new plans, I rushed into marathon school without listening to my body. Well, I think, it was 17th of March, when I run my last run according to the marathon school plan. After running for around 5 hours and 30-40 km a week for half a year, my knees got painful so suddenly that I had to interrupt my last training in the middle of it. Well, I went to a physiotherapist, got a personal exercise program and started to do it every evening. And no running. The rehabilitation brought no result and on the 2nd of May I went to knee MRI. There were found a lot of bad stuff, and I got a prohibition to run. 5 weeks before the half triathlon I started to run. 15 minutes at a time after cycling, once a week. And I went to the half-triathlon with a decision to try to run but being ready to interrupt.

Now I know that I will not try marathon or full triathlon anymore, being Jyrkis support in these events, is enough for me. But yes, I definitely want to compete in Olympic and half-triathlon. It is really addicting!

- Niina

Why Triathlon?

This is a long and booring post. But it is needed to understand where we come from.

How it all started

Some may wonder how we suddenly started to talk about triathlon 18 months ago.

Well it all started at work one day early 2012. A colleague of mine, Tommi, started talking one day during lunch, that we should challenge our selves and finish a 70.3(half distance) triathlon by summer 2013. A half distance triathlon consists of 1.9 km swim, 90 km bike and  21.1 km run.
I have always been an easy target for challenges. It took me about 3 seconds to decide and I said "Sure!".
I texted my wife about this immediately during the lunch, and 5 minutes after I sent the message I got a reply - "Me too!". So the total decision time for us was something around 6 seconds... ;-) (taking out the delay for writing, sending and receiving SMS messages). That was easy!
Now we had a goal to train for. For me having a goal is really important. If I don't have a goal it is really easy for me to just sit on the couch and watch TV. I need a goal! Now I had it.
Immediately we started to train towards achieving the new goal. Tommi, me and Niina decided that we should try it out already in August 2012 with an Olympic distance race to learn about all the things we did not know about in triathlon. More about the race later, but what both me and Niina found out was that we were slow at swimming, good at biking and slow at running.
In my age group there was 146 participants: I was 87th in swimming, 42nd in biking and 82nd in running.
In Niinas group there was 59 participants: Niina was 31st in swimming, 22nd in biking and 39th in running.
Both T1 and T2 times were in the bike part. Our changes were slow but still we were a lot quicker in biking compared to swimming and running.

From the results it was quite clear what we need to improve first... ;-)

We would concentrate on swimming and running. Biking was OK at this stage.

Some background on the different disciplines from our perspective...

Swim
I was never a good swimmer. Niina was a good swimmer. She had even competed in it at some point in her life. But she also needed to get speed. I could not front crawl for more than 25 meters. After 25 meters my heart rate was way over 150. Niina could basically front crawl for several kilometers at a time, but she was slow.
We decided to take up swimming first.
After the summer of 2012 we asked a young swimmer to look at our swimming technique and to give us some pointers on how to learn to swim better. Her first comment was "Well, it wasn't as bad as I feared..." But there was a lot to learn. It is actually not that easy to learn the right technique when you are 45 as I was...
Fortunately there was a lot of wanna-be triathletes among our biking friends. The local swim club decided to arrange a new training group for adults. The target was to learn to swim the front crawl. Almost all persons in this group were training for triathlon. In the fall of 2012 we started going to our new swim training every Sunday at 19:30 - 21:00.
Late spring 2013 it felt great when I actually realized that I can swim the front crawl for 3 km without stopping and the heart rate stayed under 140. Niina had picked up some speed.

Bike
Biking was easy for me and I had already done a lot of long (and sometimes hard) bike rides. Niina had started biking a couple of years earlier and biking was almost the only sport that we did during the previous years. As stated earlier, biking was OK. But we would only take up biking again in the spring.

Run
Running again was not a strong point for either one of us. We had been running every now and then in the past. Every time I started running my heart rate went above 150. I could not take any running steps without my heart rate going too high.
A local medical center has been  arranging a running school (or marathon school)  for years already. We thought that, "Hey, this is exactly what we need right now". The running school had a lot of different lectures on training intensities, nutrition, muscle maintenance, ... We had two running tests to define our aerobic and anaerobic thresholds. One test in the fall and one test in the spring to see if we had any progress during the fall and winter. Periodization of the training was done by a professional coach. We got a new program every 6 weeks. The programs were customized for each participant. Also our feedback from the previous program was taken into account.

What then...?

After the first triathlon competition in August 2012, we were hooked! I knew that I could do the 70.3 distance, the question was only how fast. The target was to do it in 5:30 - 6:00. As a test of what I can do, I knew it was not a big challenge. I have done a lot of 6 hour exercises, even hard ones. That would not test me enough. And this was were I lost it completely. I decided to complete a full distance triathlon before I turn 50...hmmm...let's make it 47 ;-)
When I decided to go for the full distance, I knew that at some point I will have to first run a full marathon. That quickly became the first milestone towards the goal. I selected to run the Stockholm Marathon on the 1st of June 2013. This was now what I was training for.


- Jyrki

20.7.2013 - Finntriathlon Joroinen (70.3, half distance)

This was our main target for this year. We decided about 18 months before that during the summer of 2013 we would complete a half triathlon. A lot of our friends were here the year before and were going again. So it was an easy pick to go here for us.
The evening before the race we went to check-in the bikes. We also had a possibility to check the T1 area.

Jyrki's race:

Swimming
I was quite afraid of the swimming part. Swimming is clearly my weakest dicipline. The swim course was like a diamond shape rectangle.
We started in age groups 3 minutes apart. I started the quite in the back since I knew I would not be among the fastest ;-) The first leg was easy and swimming started to feel not-so-bad. I even caught up on some of the earlier starters. At the same time some competitor from the later group started overtaking me. Anyway, the first turn was ok. My swimming was pulling to the left (as it had all summer) so I was never in the middle of the crew. Made it actually a bit easier.
The second leg was still quite easy but there was some wind that made some waves. Still no big problem. The third leg was horrible. The waves were "really big" - at least to my standards - and swimming the front crawl was not going very well for me. A couple of times I swallowed a lot of water. I had to swim the breast stroke for a couple of hundred meters. The last leg again the wind came more from behind and it was a lot easier. Coming to shore I was thinking about what I need to do and in what order.

1. Press the lap on the training computer to get my T1 time
2. Find my bag
3. Take a gel
4. Remember the number
5. ...

It should have been easy since T1 and T2 were in different places and the bags were separate for both transitions. But as I got to shore I was caught by a familiar reporter who started to take pictures of me really close. Of course I forgot to press the lap... Everything else was easy. I needed everything in the T1 bag.
Swim time was 46 minutes, really slow. But it was expected.

Bike
Biking was my strongest dicipline, so I was feeling quite good. I started off quite hard (a bit too hard) with my heart rate going up to 170. I turned it down a notch and started enjoying. We made two laps on the course. I was overtaking quite a lot of people which of course felt good. I was not in a bad form. Saying hi and cheering our team mates every time we saw each other.  In the end my bike time was 2:28. A little over 36 km/h on average. It was actually surprisingly fast since I had not done many bike rides during the last year.

T2
The second transition was quite a long run from the bike depot to the T2 bags. I found the bag easily and started to change shoes. No surprises here, but it was rather slow.  Then off to the run course.

Run
The running was four laps around the woods and roads close to the finish area. The first lap was not as bad as I had anticipated. Counting out the steep hill in the beginning... Second lap was going quite good as well. The third lap started to feel in the legs. The fourth lap was quite painful. It was a weird feeling, my legs were numb but hurting...? I overtook Niina on my second or third lap. She was one lap behind. Changing some words with the love of my life, made it easier...;-)
Again a lot of cheering on with our team mates.
I tried to make a sprint in the end, but it might not have looked that way. The running time was 1:48 and I am very happy with the result.

When I finished I was really surprised when they called out my name and time. I  was thinking that a perfect time for me would have been around 5:30:00. It was 5:11:53! A good 18 minutes faster than I would ever have though possible.
The feeling was absolutely amazing. I did it!

Immediately after finishing I ran to where I saw some of our friends who were not competing. My first question was: Is Niina still running or did she quit? Niinas knees were so bad in the weeks before the race that she was sure that she couldn't finish the running part. The friend told me that she is still soon starting on the last lap. She is doing great!

Data

 

 

Swim: 45:57
T1: 4:17
Bike: 2:28:36
T2: 5:02
Run: 1:48:03
Total time: 5:11:53
Average Heart rate: 158
kCal: 5445

 

Niina's race:

To be updated soon...

Niinas Joroinen 70.3/ 2013

So, what are my memories about my first experience with half-triathlon in Joroinen 2013?

I had a full travel arrangement, bicycle service and luggage delivery service taken care of by my beloved husband. I just had to arrange Friday free from work (that I forgot to do, and discovered it just a week earlier. It caused me some unpleasant moments while waiting for my superior to decide if they will manage one day without me. They did :-).  And I had to pack my bag.

It was very useful to have the last years experience from Kuopio Olympic distance and to watch the video from the internet about last years competition.

We started our travel early and arrived in time to register peacefully, and place everything on T1 and T2 areas. We were at the T1 area with bikes before they even opened it! Every now and then we were bumping into our friends getting ready too. When everything was done, we went to the stadium area just in time to see some part of the sprint distance competition, while eating some potatos with sausages (pyttipannu). I kept thinking that now I am dry, warm, eating and relaxing, while others run wet and sweaty. And that tomorrow it will be pretty much the other way around.

Our hotel was far away, from social point of view, but it was good to relax there, get everything ready and go to sleep in time. The T1, T2 and extra bag – system made packing for the race clear and simple.

In the evening I wanted to speak but Jyrki was serious and concentrated, so I had to keep silent. In the morning I wanted to be silent and peacefully concentrate on my preparations, and Jyrki wanted to ask some questions, so I had to try to keep calm and concentrated in spite of necessity to interrupt my preparations to concentrate on what he was saying (I don’t like to do two things at a time. My husband claims that I can’t either.).

Due to my knee problem I took one Ibuprofen and taped my knees with nice red kinesthesia tape, that was of so week quality, that I could not stretch my femoral muscles after that without tearing it in pieces. Luckily it worked well until the end of competition, no need to stretch during the race.

I felt nervous but not too much. We came to the race area in time. Parked the car, took one of the early busses to the T1/start area and were there very early.

So there was a lot of time to stretch a little. I did no real warm up. That I should do next time may be it will really improve my performance. I wandered around, had nice chats with friends  and went to the toilet about 4 times in 1 hour (that reveals that I must have been a bit nervous).

 When we were entering the water, my heart rate was around 125. I tried to relax and swim peacefully. There was not so much of a crowd. I passed some pink hats (older gentlemen that started before us) and some white hats passed us (relay). It was relaxed to swim. A bit of a fun when the waves came, but it never interfered with my swimming or breathing. I remember that on the last straight before the end I thought that it’s boring, I don’t want to swim anymore. Then I gathered myself, concentrated and run fast out of the water and to changing area. I remember that Ilkka was there shouting to me that Jyrki is fine and is already out of water.

I grabbed my bag and sat down to change. Next moment Siru was there, sitting in front of me. She said that we both are very muddy, and that was true. So I picked two napkins that I had hidden in the T1 bag due to my tradition to always have napkin at my reach and we cleaned our faces. Than I run away.  The run to the end of T1 went well, but in the end, trying to get on bike and change lap in my Polar I hit a stone of the fence with my front wheel almost falling. In my imagination I saw hope in the eyes of the first aid team that was standing near. “We get a first client!” But I disappointed them end kept my balance thus they didn’t yet get work to do.

I mounted my bike and of I went. I was so happy and excited! The road was disappearing under my wheels, my muscles were full of power, body full of energy, sun was shining and I felt flying. Luckily I had my Polar, telling me that my heart rate is too high for the beginning of a 90 km ride. So I calmed down and got a nice cycling rhythm. I was mumbling a song while riding, which is not usual for me, but it felt so good! I flied and passed one after another a lot of bikers. Up hill and down hill! It was such a fun! Some professional looking guys passed me, and I didn’t mind.

I didn’t mind uphill’s because it always meant downhill after, didn’t mind head wind, because it always meant tail wind later.

I remember shouting to a guy I passed during last 2 km-s: “Keep going fast! Its time to push the maximum during last kilometers!” And the guy answering: “But we have to run also!”.

Well, I have to admit that my plan was that my knee will probably get painful and I will have to interrupt running. But it didn’t get painful and I managed to run to the end.

It was painful, sweaty and hard physically and mentally to fulfill the distance but in the end the experience was incredible! It felt so great that as soon as we got home, I registered to the Mallorca 70.3 race.

Niina

Stockholm Marathon 1.6.2013 - Vajokit Tukholmassa (Finnish only)

Vajokit lähdössä Tukholmaan. Päätin alkaa kirjoittaman reissusta ja tunnelmista.

Perjantai 31.5. 12:00 Oulun lentoasema

Ihme kyllä mutta viimeinen yö ennen matka Jyrki jopa nukkui. Herätys vähän klo 08 jälkeen ilman herätyskelloa.

Mannapuuro ja kaksi kuppia kahvia Emmerdalea katsoessa – vapaan päivän nautintoa.

Jyrki on ollut hieman levoton, kerkisi käydä Verkkokaupassa ostamassa uuden kotelon kännykälle. Taas!

Vaatetus: farkut, mustat Pyöräily&Triathlon paidat Mallorcalta, Ray-banit. Niin kuin vanha pariskunta samanlaisissa verkkareissa. Tasan 3 vuotta siitä kun muutettiin yhteiseen taloon.

Nyt me istutaan lentoasemalla odottamassa pääsyä koneeseen. No minä istun ja kirjoitan tätä ja sähköposteja ja odnoklassniki(venäjänkielinen ”luokkakaverit”) viestejä. Jyrki pyörii paikalla, kävelee, liikuskelee, toistaa mitä hän on tehnyt, mitä ei ole tehnyt, seuraa säätiedotuksia huomisesta. Miten minä olisin käyttäytynyt jos minä olisin lähdössä juoksemaan? Itselläni nyt on hyvin leppoisa olo. Matkustaminen on niin mukavaa. Minä en tykkää olla pitkään paikallaan. Sen sijan tykkään seikkailuista, uusien paikkojen ja tilanteiden kokemisesta.

Perjantai 31.5. Klo 13:16. Lentokoneessa

Jyrkiä ei jännittää yhtään. Ei minuakaan. Ai niin, minä en juokse ;-)

Kentällä oli joku kuuden hengen seurue Kuusamosta ja pari muuta urheilullisennäköistä miestä jotka näyttivät maratoniin lähtijöiltä. Mutta yllättäen meille jutteli vieressä istuva herrasmies pikkutakissa, joka myös oli menossa juoksemaan tyttären kanssa. Ja neljättä kertaa Tukholmaan.

Perjantai 31.5. Klo 17:26. Scandic Ariadne

Kentältä hotellille mentiin taksilla. 520 SEK. Kuski onnitteli minua ettei minun tarvitsee juosta. Hotelli on nähnyt parempia aikoja, mutta on silmänpistävä. Ja kaunis näköala satamalle ja ilmeisesti merelle.

Hotellilta käveltiin 1,5 km Expolle. Matkalla loggattin melkein vahingossa yksi kätkö. Kävimme hakemassa pussit ja ilmoittautujien kirjekuoret.  Expossa esiteltiin erilaisia maratoneja mutta vaan yksi Tukholman olympiamatkan triatloni. Asics myi kauniita Stockholm Marathon paitoja. Mutta minä en saanut osta L

"Elämäni kallein pasta"

Seda-pasta party oli muuta kuin ajateltiin. Ensiksi Seda ei ole sama kuin SETA, vaan joku oliiviöljy merkki. Tylsää… Toiseksi pasta oli hyvä mutta määrä vaatimaton.  Mutta oli siellä lava ja live laulaja joka lauloi Erik Claptonin ja Chris Rean covereita.

Tsekattin maalin paikka. Sovittiin missä tavataan juoksun jälkeen. Etsittiin tuloksetta yhtä kätköä ja käveltiin hotellille. Matkalla nähtiin pusikossa pieni Gatukök jossa syötiin järkyttävät annokset Falukorvia potatismos:illa munan kanssa. Siellä oli monta akvaariota erilaisilla fisuilla. Niina tykkäsi. Mutta puolet ruoasta päätyi roskiksen. Nälkä lähti, käytännössä vaihtui ähkyyn.

Nyt pieni tauko hotellilla ja ruokakauppareissu. Herkkuja tartui mukaan. Joka paikka täynnä maratoonareita, kaikki ostavat suklaa...

Niinalle tuli heikkouskohtaus ja kuntosalin sijaan hän makasi peiton alla vaatteissa ja popsi suklaata ja kaikkea muuta mitä tarttui käteen kaupasta. Jyrki kävi juoksemassa ja palasi takaisin iloisena ja inspiroituneena. Juoksu tuntui hyvältä!

Pakko oli käydä vielä kerran kaupassa koska Jyrki oli levoton. Onko juotavaa riittävästi vai ei?

Illalla yksi GT Niinalle ja Cokis Jyrkille Sky baarissa joka oli täynnä A-kalja vetäviä maratoonareita ja isoja lapsiperheitä. Vaikka auringonlasku oli kaunis, paikka oli meluisa ja levoton. Huoneessa aika pian mentiin nukkumaan. Uni ei tullut heti, mutta kutakuinkin nukuttiin, Niina paremmin kuin Jyrki.

1.6.2013  09:17 Hotellilla

Herättiin ennen herätyskelloa ja Jyrki lähti heti aamupalalle. Niina valui alas hitaasti niin että kerkesi nähdä Jyrkin nousemassa pöydästä banaani kädessä. Aamupalalla oli runsaasti maratoonareita. Ruoka ahmittiin niin ettei sitä keretty kantaa tilalle, kahville ja mehulle oli pitkä jono.Onneksi banaaneja hotelli hoksasi tarjota ulko-oven vieressä isoista koreista. Monella oli päällä erilaisten maratonien paitoja.  Yhdellä perheen kanssa aamupalaa nauttivalla maratoonarilla oli keltainen 2013 Boston Marathon paita.

Rauhallinen olo ennen lähtöä

Klo 09:23. Jyrki sängyllä siemailemassa urheilujuomaa, laastarit varpaiden ympäri laitettu. Uusi laastarimalli eka kertaa, mutta istuu hyvin. Jyrki väittää että fiilis on hyvä, olo on rauhallinen. Vatsa on ok. Niinalla taas toinen kerta MRI:n jälkeen meinasi tulla vähän itkuinen olo, kuin oli yksin aamupalalla maratoonareiden kesken. Aamupalasali muistutti pyöräilyleirien ravintoloita aamuisin. Kaikki syö hyvin, tankkaa ja sitten lähtee yhdessä tai erillään pyöräilemään. Mutta kun nyt Niina ei pääse muiden kanssa lähtemään. Ei koskaan, ehkä. Onneksi on pyöräily ja triathlon. Vaikka olisi se kiva päästä kerran kokeilemaan maratonia. Tuntu niin turhauttavalta kun mihinkään ei satu, kunto on erittäin hyvä mutta ei voi lähteä juoksemaan. Onneksi ei ole lenkkareita mukana, muuten ehkä olisin lähtenyt lähtöviivalle. Kokeilemaan.

09:59 jännitys tiivistyy. Jyrki pukee… Nännilaastarit meinasi unohtua… Niina sopimassa tapaamisen Ulrikan kanssa.

Jyrki: pikkujännitys, mutta yllättävän rauhallinen. Hermoileminen on hermoiltu aiemmin. Nyt on vaan suorittaminen. Ei ole mitään mitä jännittä enää. Tästä eteenpäin asiat jatkuvat omalla painolla. Ja on vaan positiivista jännitystä edessä. Tavoite silti on, mutta sitä vaihtoehtoa ettei menisi tavoitteeseen ei ole. Sitä ei mieti ollenkaan.

1,5 km kävely maaliviivalle. Jättää kassin jossa lämpimät vaatteet säilytykseen. Ja lähtöviivalle. Uusi tapaamispaikka sovittu…

12:10 - 15:57

Kirkkaan siniset säärystimet...

Juokseminen sateessa viimeisten 15 km aikana ei ollut tuntunut pahalta. Mutta kaatosateessa käveleminen pitkä matka maalilta paitojen/patukoiden hakupaikalle, jonottaminen siellä, tavarapussin hakeminen ei ollut hauskaa. Niina näki ja kuvasi Jyrkin maalin tulon mutta juoksijat olivat niin eristetty muusta porukasta kassien noutamiseen asti, että Niina löysi Jyrkin vasta vaatteiden hakupaikalla. Eli vaikka Ninalla olisi ollut lämpimät vaatteet niin siitä ei olisi mitään hyötyä, koska ei niitä olisi saanut ojennettua sen aikaisemmin. 

Se on nyt tehty. 03:46:51.

F – ryhmästä lähtö tarkoitti että juoksu alkoi hitaiden amatöörien keskuudessa ja meidän reipas vajokki joutui ohittamaan, pujottelemaan ja livahtelemaan koko matkan aikana, ja alussa kuulemma ihan kävelemään.

Niina ei kyennyt shoppailemaan. Koko aika meni siirtyessä paikasta toiseen yrittäessä löytää mahdollisimman hyvä paikka josta huutaa rakkaalle: Juokse, läski, juokse! Toki tunteroisen Niina istui aukiolla 100 m etäisyydellä juoksureitiltä kahvion terassilla Ulrikan kanssa. "Pohjoismaiden Polvivammaiset lastenneurokirurgit ry" kokous J

Juoksun jälkeen...

"Ei tuntunut missään..."

Matkalla hotelliin Jyrkillä alkoi vääntämään vatsassa. Jotain tuntui juoksun aikana mutta ei niin pahasti ilmeisesti. Hotelliin kerittiin. Mutta alkoi tulemaan aaltomaisia vatsakipuja. Kuitenkin hotelliin baariin kaljalle selvittiin hyvin. Niina myötätunnosta myös nautti kaljasta ja ylikorvasi oman kalorikulutuksen reippaasti. Syötiin hotellin alakerrassa olevassa pitseriassa. Se meni ok, mutta sieltä Jyrki lähti suoraan huoneeseen vatsakivun vuoksi. Niina kävi vielä pienen jätskin itselle hakemassa. Jyrkillä vatsakipu ja vessassa laukkaaminen jatkui. Ruoka ei enää maistunut. Juomaksi meni alas vain pelkkää vettä ja sitäkin vähän. Buranaa naamaan ja lopulta Jyrki nukahti. Heräsi jo ennen 7 yllättävän pirteänä, jalat ei kovin jumissa ja vatsa kunnossa.

Aamupalan kautta busines loungen Arlandaan.

Sunnuntai 2.6 10:22. Arlandan lentokenttä, Menzies lounge.

Jyrki lukee ja juo "palautusjuomaa" ja vaimo kirjoittaa tunnelmia tietokoneelle (blogia varten) 

Jyrkin fiilis: jättäisi jo se vaimo mut rauhassa lukemaan!

Ei ole mikään mieletön fiilis, ihan  ok, mutta ei mikään mieletön ”high”. Ylpeänä kuitenkin finisher paita päällä. Väsynyt olo, tietää antaneensa kaikki. Kun hieroin eilen Jyrkin jalat niin pohkeet oli löysät ja tuntuivat ihan oikeasti ”tyhjiltä”, oudon veltot ja kuihtunet. Passiivisen venytyksen Jyrkille myös tehtiin juoksun jälkeen.

Jalat eivät kuulemma ole yhtään kipeät. Kävely sujuu aivan normaalisti, myös rappusissa...

Lento viivästyy 1:20 verran. Matkaliput kesälomaa varten Tallinnaan ja Ruotsiin ostettu.

Mitä tästä opittiin?

• -       henkilökohtainen huoltaja on hyödyksi
• -       henkilökohtainen huoltaja ei kerkiä tehdä mitään omaa ohjelmaa
• -       sen sijan henkilökohtainen huoltaja syö liikaa (eläytyy mukaan tunnelmaan ja hermoilee?)
• -       hieronta ennen suoritusta ei ole hyvä, koska 24 tunnin kuluttua siitä jalat on tosi kipeät
• -       Ei kannata kuunnella kaikkien vauhdinjako kommentteja vaan ”Listen to your body”
• -       Hyvä sija lähtiessä juoksemaan on tosi tärkeä!

Nyt aletaan sitten yhdessä valmistautumaan kohti Joroista...

- Niina

New beginning - Uusi aloitus

New beginning 

Let's try to start the blogging again from the start. We will be adding some info of the events this summer, and then try to write about our preparations for Mallorca Ironman 70.3 and a possible full distance Ironman.
Some texts may be in Finnish only, English only, Russian only, Estonian only or any of the above combined :-)

Uusi aloitus

Edellinen yritys bloggata harjoittelusta erinäisistä kiireistä johtuviin syihin... Jos nyt aloittaisi puhtaalta pöydältä. Tämä Blogger.com vaikuttaisi vähän helpommalta ylläpitää kuin mitä omalla serverillä. Olihan se ihan mielenkiintoista laittaa tuollainen blogi omalle sivulle mutta ylläpidon kannalta tämä on paljon helpompaa. Vähän voi olla haastavampaa erotella Niinan ja minun kirjoitukset, mutta eiköhän sekin tässä onnistu riittävällä tasolla.

Laitetaan vähän viime kesän tapahtumista tänne muistinvaraisesti ja jatkossa aletaan kirjoittamaan siitä miten suunnitellaan harjoitusohjelmaa molemmille Mallorca Ironman 70.3 kisaan ja ehkä tulevaan Ironman täysmatkaan.
Harjoitussuunnitelmiin saa toki kommentoida ja tuoda omia näkemyksiä ja kokemuksia siitä mikä toimii ja mikä ei. Ollaan Niinan kanssa täysin noviiseja tässä mutta olemme erittäin innoissamme ja  nopeita oppimaan ;-)

- Jyrki and Niina