Jaakko Hiekkaranta - triathlete

Clearwater...

2009-11-15T16:00:00.003+02:00

3h34min04sec! what an unbelievably fast race by Michael Raelert with a 69min run! Seemed to be a much cleaner race to years past but at least the womens race just seemed really stupid with them being distracted by the mens. Would have been very wrong if Julie Dibens, now a double World Champion this year, hadn't won the race. Speaking of World Champions that's one thing our sport is not short of with at least 8 different World Championships taking place each year, crazy!

I was really burnt out with school by Friday and didn't do anything school related on Saturday, something I hadn't been able to do since August! No wonder I've felt like I have! Tomorrow I'll start a course named "responsible marketing" witch judging by the name and a preview excercise seems to be an interesting one! It's actually a topic relating to which I'll most likely do my masters thesis on. Inspired by this I'll post every couple of days some things I do to be as ecological I can. If you have some good tips feel free to share!

Today is a good day to talk laundry as Sunday is my laundry day. I try to save water and wash only one dose a week and wash everything together. I've never had any issues with colours on clothes being mixed and I really don't understand people that can't wash their underwear with other clothes! Another good water-saving tip especially for athletes is to keep showers as short and cold as possible...great for blood circulation and energy-saving as well!

Training this week was still all about working on movement with 3 swims, 4 rides and 6 runs. I'll hopefully get orthotics for my running shoes tomorrow which should make the running less painful. If only I found a way to make riding pain-free too!

Maybe I should move to Maui...

2009-11-10T18:39:00.004+02:00

A more mellow pace of life might be what I need to get healthy...and better weather!

I got results from last weeks lab tests and T-levels still low at 13 nmol/L but at the "healthy" range (10-38). Earlier value 2 weeks ago was 8 nmol/L but the samples were now taken a couple hours earlier and T-levels are said to be highest in the morning, thus evening values could still be below healthy. (edit: lowest measure for me has been 5,6 nmol/L in March 2007 and highest in August 2007 at 14 nmol/L, during im-build).

Anyways all other markers seem to be OK, though blood sugar after a 12-hour fast was 5,7 mmol/L (healthy range 4,2-6). Don't know what the doc will say about that. Too bad actually we didn't test cortisol levels because that, via high stress levels, is one possible cause for low T.
Consultation with doc isn't until next Tuesday so all I can do now is to try my best to reduce emotional stress...and find cheap flights to Maui :) I could do with a little vacation for, say, a couple years!

searching for the cause

2009-11-08T15:42:00.006+02:00

First prep week is now in the books and as always getting back to a training routine is hard. For that simple reason I have only set myself frequency targets and with 3 swims, 4 trainer rides and 6 runs I hit those. Swimming felt really horrible and basically I'm learning to bike and run from scratch so no much to cheer for there either. I had a PT assessment this week and basically we concluded that my biomechanical issues stem from some severe muscle imbalances and really tight hamstrings, especially on the left. Basically my left leg doesn't work normally at all so I need to work a lot on glute strength and activation. I have also very strange foot structure and will get orthotics to hopefully correct that problem.

I also had another visit to another doctor and got results from last weeks lab tests. T-levels way down again, even after over a month off training. So at least the condition isn't from training. I've been regularly tested since the spring of 2007 when I experienced my first serious burnout and those levels have been low every time: after extended rest, after a high-volume training camp, 3 days after an iron-distance race... So basically either I just have always had low T-levels, I am chronically very stressed or I have some disease that causes it. I got another 5 bottles of blood taken on Wednesday so hopefully something comes out. Though I do have some painful and embarrassing memories from teenage years that could have relate to abnormal production...

Anyways this has naturally had a negative impact on my health and life quality. I want to find out the root of the problem quickly....before it's too late!

P.S. I have some great bestseller triathlon books on sale here

Best dressed Finnish triathlete!

2009-11-05T16:50:00.001+02:00

I recently had the chance to try out some new clothing samples from a custom kit supplier, Carvalho Custom. They make personalized cycling and triathlon clothing for clubs. The clothing feels and looks good. I am going to have my race and training kit made by them this year and will be the best dressed triathlete in Finland :)

Sain äskettäin kokeilla uusia harjoitus- ja kilpailuasuja Carvalho Custom -nimiseltä personalisoituja pyöräily- ja triathlon-asuja valmistavalta firmalta. Koko laaja valikoima vaatteita tuntuu käytössä erinomaisilta ja mikä tärkeintä: ne näyttävät todella hyviltä. Carvalho Custom tulee valmistamaan harjoittelu- ja kilpailuasuni seuraavalle kaudelle ja minulla on ilo tulla olemaan parhaiten pukeutunut suomalainen triathleetti :)

medical self-assessment continued

2009-11-01T09:12:00.002+02:00

It takes often too much time to get to a real doctor so I need to always play my own doc. I removed my last post concerning the possibility of yeast syndrome/diet as the cause for my problems. Well after keeping a food diary for a couple days it just seems foolish to think my diet is rubbish! only maybe lacking too much in energy...

So the self assessment continues and here is where I think keeping this blog helps me...looking back I can see clearly some recurring patterns when my health "crashes". And there always seem to be quite a few similar things contributing.

The combination always seems to come after a period of sitting for a long time accompanied with too much cognitive stress/information overload and some kind of change in climate/time/sunlight. My new theory is that I have sciatica and when I sit for a prolonged time the nerve compression accompanied with the other stresses mentioned just burns all of my energy leading to fatigue and other issues. I will receive results from my last bloodtest on Tuesday and if nothing comes up on that I'll present this therory to the doctor. I'll also have a gait analysis on Wednesday and hopefully I'll get orthotics this time. My left leg is about 1cm longer than my right and both feet hyperpronate so those are likely contributing to the overall picture too, who knows. Human body is quite a complex system!

On another note the beginning of November marks the start of new training season. I will start probably writing more about my training here. I haven't been very good at keeping track of feelings and such in my training diary so maybe writing about training here will get me to evaluate the training better.

Happy (overdue) Halloween!

How's it going?

2009-10-25T11:51:00.006+02:00

First of all if you haven't done so yet please visit the SRM blog and read my article and give me some feedack on it! In fact if you have questions or comments on anything I do, product I use ect. I would like you to get in contact with me! Or if you want to work with me and do something great together or even get on a date with me, we might be able to make that work too... :)

I have some very cool new stuff coming for next year which I will unveil soon after things are being confirmed.

Swimshop Triathlon Challenge for this year has ended. The interest and attention was good, but there could have been a lot more participants. But a big thanks and congrats to those who took part! It just seems that Finnish people are too intimidated to do anything where they can't be completely anonymous! I'm especially disappointed that no one of my friends took part!
Anyways please give feedback on this also so that we can make things better next year!

Oh yeah regarding the lack of feedback: IT KILLS ME!!! seriously people, I have written a 12-article column for a newspaper this year and I have had 2, two, dos, due, två, kaksi!!! people comment on those. If you want me to stop writing please let me know that too. even that would be better than no feedback at all!

Ok, enough ranting (maybe).

No real training happening yet. Just some unstructured excercise for about two hours a day. I need to be super careful with my nutrition when being less active as I seem to have become metabolically quite efficient (don't need a lotof fuel to survive). It's a good thing but I need to be constantly hungry not to gain weight!

I have been thinking why my run has been so sub-par and why I've been injured so much lately and there are some biomechanical issues I need to correct. Please notice that I'm not speking in golf-terms when I say sub-par. So it's not birdies, eagles or albatross I'm speaking about! I'm not that active a golfer anymore (nor a big bird-fan) but of course if someone wants to make a movie of me or want to get me starring in a movie, I'm more than happy to get an invitation to Florida or anywhere for a few rounds!

I've had a ton of schoolwork in the past couple of weeks and I try to get as much done as possible before X-mas so that I can devote more attention to training and recovery again when training starts to ramp up.

Ok, I lied about the ranting. Here's some more:

TO DOG OWNERS: please keep your dogs on a tight leash when walking in public areas! I got bitten to my hamstring yesterday on my run and that damned thing hurt! Fortunately nothing majorly bad happened but next time I might bite back!

Lastly, over the years I have gathered quite a bit of useful stuff that has gone unused and I would like to get rid of all that to ease my (hopefully nearby) move.
So check out my sales page here and you can find good bargains there. It's in Finnish but if you don't understand then ask.

that's all for now,

-JH

Training and racing with power

2009-10-22T09:15:00.003+03:00

I got the honour to be featured on the SRM blog. You can find the article here.

The article is both in English and German (you can change the language by clicking on the flags on top of the page).

Enjoy reading and learning!

School, resetting, planning

2009-10-20T11:42:00.003+03:00

Nothing interesting have been happening lately. A lot of schoolwork almost to the point of exhaustion, watching the weather get worse and worse and days get shorter. This really is a tough part of the year as trying to get re-energized in these conditions is not easy! BUT I'm in a much better space mentally this fall as opposed to years past as I seem to be able to take things more mellow now. And at least I've managed to get on top of my knee issue although with all the sitting in school it requires about half a day of stretching every day!

Planning for 2010 is ongoing although I can't commit to any races yet before I know exactly with what resources I am capable of attacking next year. But one thing is for sure: I will give my absolute everything to make it to Kona in October. I really just NEED to get there no matter what! I was devastated when I learnt that the guy who got the spot before me in Honu 70.3 didn't even race in Kona!

Training-wise I'm taking things really easy until December. One of the biggest mistakes I've made over the past years has been to train too hard too early and it has done no good. So now I'm just trying to keep myself active to be in good mood.

2009 downs and ups (season review)

2009-10-11T10:02:00.008+03:00

Friends,

I started writing this note while watching the 2009 Ironman Hawaii unfold yesterday. I thought this was quite an appropriate time and reminder as my season’s goal was to be there myself. However after a lot of thinking I feel it’s best to leave the Ironman until I can confidently race it and do well there. This race is not a nice nor financially wise one to “only” participate in. There are many nicer events around for that purpose! (though some even seem to go over there for eating contests!)

2009 season didn’t get a very good start as I got a stress fracture to my left shin in the fall last year. This put me off my legs for a couple months and I was only able to start running in December when visiting my parents in Brazil. In the early spring I suffered from more health issues and very low energy periods. To be honest I was scared I had chronic fatigue syndrome as I had been feeling very stale for a long time. However frequent blood tests didn’t reveal anything too serious, though the doc I was consulting really had no knowledge about athletes. In addition I was starting to feel strange hip and back pains probably owing to the crash I had in summer of 2008.

I am not a quitter however and I set myself the goal of qualifying for the Ironman Wold Championships. However with nearly all M-dot races selling out a year in advance one of the only opportunities to try qualify was to race at the Ironman 70.3 Hawaii on the Big Island. At least I was going to get some experience racing in the tough conditions the island offers.

In order to try cram some training in between heavy school schedules I lined myself two training camps: one in Spain and one in San Diego, CA in the states just prior to the Honu 70.3.

My camp in Spain got a very bad start as I hurt my knee and wasn’t able to do the training I wanted. When I came back home I had to take some time off from biking and running and things weren’t going well. Through in the overhyped swine flu that I got in my head, troubles with accommodations and huge stress at school and I was almost cancelling my trip to the US. Fortunately I had began working with MarkyV (coaching relationship ended after Honu 70.3 as the long-distance coaching didn't work for me), who had helped me improve on the swim and bike so I still had some confidence left when I finally left home for almost 2 months to an adventurous trip to the west coast USA.

Almost straight off the plane I raced in my first ever running race and ended winning the race with a CR. However my training in San Marcos near SD didn’t start and go as well as I had planned. In addition about a week before Honu 70.3 I started having issues with my shins and my nevous system was collapsing.

My trip to Hawaii was a great learning experience though my race was not what I wanted thanks to my shins hurting like nothing ever before during the run. I was however very pleased that I didn’t seem to crumble too badly in the wind and heat of Kona despite not being very fit. I only missed qualification for the Ironman by less than 2 minutes and the frustration and anger that followed didn’t do me any good!

When I returned to California I skipped my planned rest and just started training the house down. With the nice weather and cool people around to train and hang with things were going well and I was getting fitter but when I got back home to Finland at the end of June, the race, jetlag, environment change and training fatigue caught up very badly.

I felt totally spent and sick for about a month after which just before the half-iron nationals I hurt my knee and had to pull out of the race. Even more frustrating was the fact that I had to take time off running again. Also I wasn’t able to swim because I didn’t have a wetsuit, lakes were quite cold and pools in the summer were closed. I did increase my bike training however and that was good as I still had a race featuring a very tough bike course awaiting me at the end of September.

Somewhere along the way I just decided to take the risk and run through the runner’s knee issue I was having and I managed to get in a good three week training block before Elbaman 70.3. After all the struggle for a couple years I was pleased to finally have a good race although my run still wasn’t what it was 2 years ago. Though with so much time off running, a max of 2,5h of running in a week this year and the fact that only a few weeks before I was unable to even walk pain-free, a good run would have been a miracle.

So what did I learn this year? First of all there isn’t anything more important than staying healthy and injury-free. This will be my number one goal for the upcoming season. I have missed too much training and racing the past two years and I dearly need that training and racing!

Secondly anger as a training motivator is not a good one. It might work for a while but in the longer run it wears you down. Also building a plan for the year both racing and training wise is something I have to work on in the future.

Finally, despite all the issues (that are quite minor after all) I just have to be very thankful that I am able to do the sport I really love doing!

I would like to get this opportunity to thank my family, friends, sponsors and supporters for making it possible for me to race. Thtanks to Swimshop for awesome Blueseventy suits and other aquatic apparel, Intersport for crucial material support, R-kioski, Hattulan Apteekki and Apteekkiverkko for getting me to races, Kuvapalvelu and Olympus for photographic needs, SRM for making my bike training much more effective and Hämeenlinnan Kaupunkiuutiset for media support!

If anyone wants to join team Lionbeach for 2010 and beyond please do not hesitate to contact me. We will make something great happen together! As we saw in the race yesterday: nothing is impossible!

thanks for reading,

Jaakko

Kona 2009 predictions

2009-10-09T07:23:00.003+03:00

James recently asked me the hardest question there is this week. And in comparison I still have a merchant law exam in a couple hours time!

So here are my predictions for that little race happening in the other side of the World.

Lets start with the girls Top 5 first.

1. Chrissie Wellington (this is a no-brainer)
2. Mirinda Carfrae
3. Rebekah Keat
4. Catriona Morrison
5. Linsey Corbin

And boys side of things (Top 10)

1. Craig Alexander
2. Cameron Brown
3. Chris McCormack
4. Eneko Llanos
5. Terenzo Bozzone
6. Timo Bracht
7. Chris Lieto
8. Mathias Hecth
9. Normann Stadler
10. Luke McKenzie

The mens race isgoing to be an Ironwar threesome between Crowie, Cam Brown and Macca. After swimming and riding together (legally of course in the "main pack") Macca leaves T2 sprinting! leaving Crowie and Cam to catch back up. There's Philip Graves, Lieto, Llanos, Normann and Terenzo up the road battling it through the first 10miles when Macca zooms past shortly followed by Crowie and Cam. By Energy lab the 3 are together and the win is decided on Ali Drive! Places 6 to 15 are also decided in a mass sprint! This will be the most exciting race ever! U heard it hear first!

-JH

Trip photos

2009-10-06T18:07:00.003+03:00

I just love Italy! Can't wait to get back there

Hotel Delle Fiere in Mozzate

Monterosso al Mare

On Giro d'Italia TT route

Views in Elba

Portoferraio from boat

Banana Antarctica by Mamabeach

*photos taken with an Olympus

23 years ago...

2009-10-06T11:31:00.003+03:00

Who would've known back then what a catastrophe had been born to this planet :)

Thank you mom, dad and everyone who has been there for me!

I love you all, peace :) !

-JH

Elbaman 70.3 race report

2009-09-29T14:15:00.011+03:00

I like being around beautiful girls with a bag of IV going to the veins … :)

but let’s start with the race first.

The inaugural Elbaman 70.3 started at 8.30 AM on September 27 from the beach in Marina di Campo. Days leading up to the event went well and I felt good before the race (pre-race stuff can be found here).

It was a beach start and men got a 5min head start. I got a good start and after some non-swimming movements due to low water I was into a good rhythm. The swim course was basically in the form of a triangle and water in the ocean was surprisingly calm and warm. Some fighting near the first turn buoy was needed but fortunately my goggles stayed put and punches weren’t too hard. After the first buoy I found myself swimming in a group that contained maybe 10 or so other triathletes. I saw some guys further in front but just contented on following the group and saving some energy for the challenging day ahead. On the return trip to shore it felt that our group didn’t quite manage to take the shortest possible route and instead zig-zagging was the name of the game. However we hit swim finish in about 29mins and I was quite happy that I was somehow able to show some improvement on the swim.

The run up to T1 was quite long so I got off my wetsuit straight under the showers after exiting water and it made both the run and transition easier. The nice thing with the 70.3 race was that everything was laid next to bikes in transitions so no extra bags were needed. In addition the bike mount line was pretty close so I was able to put my cycling shoes on before hopping on to the bike and thus I managed a pretty smooth T1.

The challenging and scenic 2-loop bike course started with a few km long gradual climb and I managed to find my cycling legs quickly. My HR from the swim was still pretty high and I just tried to stay within my power limits. Before the race I decided to try stay under FTP (270W) for all the climbing and in no situation exceed Vo2 wattage. On the first climb I passed quite a lot of people but most were from the full-distance race that had started 1h30min before the 70.3 race. The bike course in Elba follows the coast for the most part and is almost all either climbing or descending with 1400m of climbing. Some climbs have a decent gradient and the downhills are very technical (not a TT-bike course, something I learned for the 2nd time already!).
The little villages through which the course passed had spectators along the road making the sufferfest all the more enjoyable. Already after just 15km my back and hips started hurting and I realized that changing saddle height the day before the race wasn’t a good choise. I usually need to raise my saddle a bit when going from padded cycling shorts to less padded tri-shorts but this time I had made too big a raise. Fortunately I had the right allen-key in my repair kit and I was able to lower the saddle. I lost some time with the stop but I probably couldn’t have been even able to finish the bike without it. When I resumed riding my hips thanked me and I started hammering back up. On the last long climb on the first lap I was able to catch guys I was near with before my stop but of course on the following long descent I just didn’t have the skills to hang on. At the end of the first lap however I was able to catch the leader of my AG. He appreciated the good draft (maybe a bit too close) and we entered Marina di Campo together to start the second lap. It was nice seeing and hearing my cheering posse of Mom, Dad, Emma and Claudio when I zoomed past.
I was determined to negative split the bike no matter what so I started riding a bit more aggressively. I was also hoping to drop the guy that was following my back wheel but unfortunately he managed to hang on for quite a while. Thus I realized I was going to have let go of my limits and finally after a few surges I got rid of him. Again on the last longer climb I managed to pass people and got myself into 4th or 5th overall at that stage. The following descent proved costly as I lost my only bottle on the bumpy road and I had to ride the last 20km without anything to drink. There wasn’t much I could have done however and continued riding hard and managed to pass one more guy before the end of the bike and I entered T2 in 3rd position overall (1st in my AG) after just over 3 hours of riding (course according to SRM was 96km).

SRM data:

Entire workout (226 watts):
Duration: 3:00:32 (3:01:26)
Work: 2452 kJ
TSS: 254.5 (intensity factor 0.92)
Norm Power: 244
VI: 1.08
Pw:HR: -3.33%
Pa:HR: -3.38%
Distance: 95.935 km
Elevation Gain: 1398 m
Elevation Loss: 1401 m
Grade: -0.0 % (-3 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 536 226 watts
Heart Rate: 97 180 155 bpm
Cadence: 20 211 86 rpm
Speed: 0 60.5 31.9 kph
Pace 0:60 0:00 1:53 min/km
Altitude: 13 371 121 m
Crank Torque: 0 83.3 25.8 N-m
Temperature: 19 28 23.0 Celsius

Again I managed a surprisingly fast transition but got passed by the guy that rode to transition with me.

His pace for a little on the higher side for me so I let him go and just tried to find my own rhythm. I quickly settled into my tempo pace which was around a 160HR. There weren’t any consistent km markers so running had to be done pretty much on feel. The run course was a 2,5 lap out-and-back affair with a long and hot climb up to the first turn around. I was happy to reach the first aid station about 1,5 km into the run by which time I had already been without anything to drink for over 30 minutes. I was about 2 minutes down to the leader after the bike and I managed to hold the gap pretty constant on the first lap. I was in 4th or 5th position and just putting one foot after the other. The hot weather and too little fluids and salt started slowly to take its toll however and my legs started showing some warning signs of cramps. I was trying my best to get something from every aid station but sometimes the contents of the water or cola mug just went everywhere else but in my mouth.

On the second lap I tried to lift my pace a little bit but after a while of faster running I always had to slow down not to overheat. At the end of 2nd lap I had already managed to run myself into 3rd position but then at an aid station a couple kilometres from the finish I had to stop to grab a drink and when I got back running my left quad cramped like never before. At this point I was passed by two guys falling back to 5th place and I just had to try shaking the cramp off. Good thing was I faced the last climb and was able to fight myself to the last turnaround. From there on I just decided that getting to the finish line as fast as possible would be worth no matter how much it was going to hurt. It’s funny how the adrenaline always kicks in the last km of a race with all the spectators cheering and just the thought of finishing makes me run well again. I sprinted like crazy hoping that I would see a back in front but unfortunately everybody in sight were in other laps. I crossed the finish line in 5h18mins as the winner of my age-group and in 5th place overall. (link to the results here)

And I almost passed out. I was taken to the med tent and was apparently very dehydrated. For the first time ever I received an IV bag of fluids. I was a lucky guy I was being treated by a nice and beautiful girl who even burst and cleaned a blood filled blister I had gotten.

I was very pleased with my race as this was by far the most consistent race I’ve ever done, especially as I wasn't even able to walk pain-free 2 months ago. The race was very well organized and I want to thank and congratulate Marco Scotti, his team and of course the wonderful volunteers for putting up such a beautiful, quality event. I’m already planning on returning next year but this time again for the full Elbaman. And with a road bike!!!

Being able to finish a season with a lot of setbacks on a good note is always nice. And for the first time in a couple of years I’m entering the off-season injury free. Now it’s time to enjoy a few days of R&R before tapering for the big one in Hawaii! (as an internet-spectator though :D

A big thanks to my family, friends and sponsors for your support!

thanks for reading!

Thank you to my family, friends and sponsors for enabling me to do what I love doing!

-JH

Journey to Elba (aka "the smile")

2009-09-28T23:51:00.000+03:00

My trip to Italy went well and I was able to fly in some good company. What made the fly all the better was the fact that I didn’t get charged for my bike. I think my beautiful smile at the check-in was working (too bad the check-in person was a guy!) Mom picked me up from the Malpensa airport in Milan and we drew to my parents hotel in Mozzate. After a good dinner at a local restaurant it was off to bed.

On Thursday morning I went for a nice ride around Lombardia routes and then Mom and I went shopping in to Tradate. I went for another ride in the afternoon as I still had some adjustments to make to my position. After yet some more shopping the evening was spent relaxing and eating pizza in our hotel room.

Friday morning it was time to start our journey to the Elba island. Some 500km in the car plus an hour ferry trip later we arrived in our hotel in La Pila near Marina di Campo. Our scenic route alongside the Mediterranean coast took us on the same route that was used in this years Giro d’Italia individual time-trial on 12^th stage. I gotta say that this Cinque terre TT route was epic and hard, no wonder the riders hated it (I guess they aren’t so much into the sightseeing when you have the team director shouting at you behind :)

Anyways after checking in to our hotel I went to the beach for a little swim and got in my third outing in a wetsuit this year. Gotta love buoyant salty ocean water and some good rubber! It’s like no swimming is even needed! In the evening we ate at a nearby restaurant that had excellent swordfish!

On Saturday morning mom and I drove the beautiful bike course of the Elbaman 70.3 and it really appeared even harder and more technical that I remembered. After the course recon I got in a bit of riding and running done and then it was pretty much just time to rest and eat. My dad along with our friends from Rome Emma & Claudio also came to watch the race so it was going to be nice having a big posse as a Jaakko fan clubJ I went to bed feeling very calm, confident and for the very first time before a half I wasn’t feeling any injuries…

Race report and pics to come very soon!

P.S. Didn’t have to pay for the bike on the return trip either! My smile is so sweet and is good enough for Italian women and finnish men :)

getting close

2009-09-20T19:49:00.003+03:00

Less than a week until race day now and I'm very much looking forward to it. Also this last weeks training went well despite once again starting to have problems with my uneven legs and struggling with cleat position. However that is nothing new to worry about. I just have to draw positive energy on race day from the past few weeks of training that has gone really well and execute to the best of my ability on the day of the race. I'm looking forward to this few days trip over to my favourite country.
I'll let you know how the race went as soon as I can.

ciao,

JH

Good changes

2009-09-13T19:33:00.003+03:00

for quite a while things were going in downward spiral. So I needed to change something in order to get back on track. Well in truly Jaakko-fashion I went on to change the whole lineup.

Change number one was obviously getting into a routine with the beginning of school. I always seem to be able to train best when I have something else that defines the structure to my days and building training around school-schedules work well. Even if it's just one class per day I need to drag my ass to school (which I prefer)

Another change was to start actually following a training program. A few weeks back I received in an email (frotunately for free) a taining program from one of the biggest coaching businesses out there and I decided to give it a try with a few tweaks just to get some sort of direction to training again. So far the training has been working really well. I don't want to give the business too much free advertisement but at least for me their method (oops :) has been working.

Another training-related change was to start using a HRM once again to monitor run workouts to make sure I have enough variation in training. I've also been constantly following my resting heart-rate to detect signs of illness and fatigue.

One big change was also to start eating like a man again. And no it doesn't mean eating sausage and drinking beer but to simply eat a lot more of the healthy stuff I've been eating. Not only have I trained and recovered better but actually I've managed to drop some weigth also (hopefully in the form of some babyfat!).

And finally committing myself to flexibility and relaxation work by doing shindo and a lot of self-massage with TP-killing system has worked wonders with some of the breathing issues and back and hip pain I've been suffering.

So with only two short weeks to go until Elbaman 70.3 things are looking good. After three weeks of nearly life-best training I'm feeling confident I can end the season on a good note.

3 weeks to go

2009-09-05T17:01:00.002+03:00

It's been a really big struggle since the end of June to find a good going in training and life. Finally after hitting my head to the wall for over two months I seem to have found a good path again. And it's good timing since Elbaman 70.3 is only 3 short weeks away! My stubborness and overthinking brain are what usually get me in trouble. I believe learning to switch things off every once in a while really help and I hope in the future (as in for now on) I remember this and act upon it. And when my body is overly tired then the best action is to rest rather than try harder. My mind usually just manages to convince me that I'm lazy.

Getting posivite rest has to be the key!

2009-08-29T15:39:00.002+03:00

I have been quite quiet lately on the blog side of things. Not that anyone seem to care anyway but I've been in quite a hole and all spare energy I've tried to channel towards getting out of the hole. Anyways the upside when things go downhill really bad is that it kind of forces to really observe things and find out reasons behind things. So I've been thinking alot.

I can see that for a long time the only real rest I've taken has been when I've been too sick or injured to train. This forced rest is what I call negative rest and in a way it really doesn't do the necessary trick that resting should do. Also feeling guilty when having a rest day from training isn't good rest, so I need to get past the guilt state! Learning how to get positive rest will be an important thing for me to work on from now on.

4 weeks to go before Elbaman 70.3!

Trial and error

2009-08-25T18:31:00.000+03:00

that's what life is all about, right?

Back to busyness

2009-08-13T20:27:00.003+03:00

This week has been very busy as school for me started again on Monday. And straight away it was three 8 hour days sitting in place and my back and knee weren't happy campers. Add to that a cold and rainy day yesterday and I really felt like an old person when I came home from school a bit after 8pm. I was so tired and hungry I almost wasn't able to eat dinner! Me missing a meal would have been something almost comparable to the end of the world :D

Also this time should be for the quality work in regards my seasons last (and only 2nd!!!) race and swim, bike and run are coming along ok. Knee is hurting less and less most of the time although it starts hurting when I sit for too long. It's quite funny but I'm already excited abou next season. My last two seasons have been disastreous and plagued by fatigue and injuries. I don't really recall a period where I would have been at 100% health at any time so this coming winter will be all about getting healthy and then next summer I'll be hopefully be able to get back to training and racing healthy and get competitive again!

Gone anaerobic

2009-08-06T11:48:00.002+03:00

On wednesday I took part in a very short triathlon, the 7th annual Everymantriathlon of Hauho. It was a great opportunity to test my speed and above all the condition my knee was. I spent the day before relaxing with my parents at our family's summer cottage.

The race distances were 200m swim, 10K bike and 3km run. The swim took place in a very muddy water. Fortunately it was short enough that I was able to swim sans wettie (which BTW finally arrived on Tuesday!). I think 200m of swimming should be the absolutely max distance in any triahlon! I have now swam a combined grad total of 1 hour since June, so I was quite happy to survive the swim, out of the water in 7th I think. Quick run to transition and off to the bike.

I spent about 1,5km putting my cyclking shoes on, my fingers were so numb! Quite a few people passed me while I was struggling but once I got the shoes on I hammered past all but one lonely leader, eventual winner Mikko Vastaranta. For the remainder of the bike I pulled a big group behnd me and I wasn't happy to give so many people a free ride! (I don't like draf-legal races!) However sans the amateuring with my shoes my ride was good. Despite totally coasting the beginning of the ride my avg power according to my SRM was about 290W for the 10K.

In T2 I took my time cleaning my feet and putting sock on so I was passed by the whole group. The run was my first hard run of the year really and the first run off the bike in a long time. However I seemed to find good legs and started passing people on the hard 3K cross-country run. I ended running in 10.48 and was quite happy for the effort considering that a week ago I was unable to walk without knee-pain! Despite finishing 4th , I was very happy of my performance of course excluding putting on cycling shoes and T2. Congrats and thanks to the race organisation for putting up a fun event!

Now I have a good 6 weeks to get ready for Elbaman 70.3!

-JH

Back running

2009-07-30T20:10:00.002+03:00

After two weeks of no running at all I've slowly but surely started running again. Closely paying attention to my knee so as to not injure it again. I doubt it it 100% yet but I've done aa couple 30min runs and haven't felt any noticeable pain. I put some arch supports into my running shoes and they seem to work well.

During the Tour de France I did quite a good amount of riding myself too. I'm starting to feel really strong even riding long times on the flats which has been a weakness. Now is time to start some good hilly riding though as my end of season objective, Elbaman 70.3 has quite a bit of climbing on the bike leg!

Swimming is an entire different story though...I've swam a combined 30min since my last swim workout in Carlsbad

On another note the WRC circus has arrived to town. I'm not a motorsport fan but I might drag my ass downtown someday to catch some of the expo action. At least check out the podium girls :P
I'll try to get some photos.

Fear of DNF

2009-07-19T17:54:00.005+03:00

First of all sorry for the lack of posting but I’ve decided not to write so much of the negative whinigs anymore! As I recently wrote on twitter “if life didn't suck a little at times, the good times wouldn't feel so good then, and for 99% life still is awesome!” That’s my opinion of course and you may disagree or agree..

As has been the case the whole time during my athletic career, my biggest obstacles to overcome have been injuries and under-recovery. In the past couple of weeks I have yet again suffered from both. Most recently from yet another injury, a mild case of runners knee. That made me decide not to race at the half-iron nationals this weekend. I have raced (and finished) too many races with injuries and I don’t like to do that too much, especially on races that aren’t THAT important. I would've only either hurt the knee very badly or hurt it and DNFd.

Endurance athletes have said to get better with age (to a certain point) and much has to do with the physical qualities that need (a lot of) time to improve. BUT a very big thing is also the fact that age brings the experience and confidence to make right, smart decisions. Last time I had this exact same injury I wondered for too long of what was wrong and continued to run. It took me a few months before I was able to run pain-free again. This time I decided to take at least a week of rest from running so I could still end the season on a good note.

Meanwhile I have been able to focus more on my riding and I have never felt this good and strong on the bike. That’s the real beauty of triathlon: most injuries don’t mean completely time off from training but some quality can still be done.

So why no swimming? Well pools are closed until August, open waters are quite cold and my wetsuit is still on its way, this time should be pretty close already. I did however receive my Blueseventy pointzero3+ suit (that I was supposed to wear in Hawaii 70.3) this week. And while it’s a very fast suit, it doesn’t make you any warmer swimming that sans suit. I lasted about 0.03 seconds in the water when I tried swimming. So most likely had I raced this weekend I wouldn’t even have survived the swim! The suit does however make me look über hot! Even hotter than Brüno LOL

-JH

so that happened...

2009-07-05T18:18:00.002+03:00

I definitely had trained myself into a good overreached state by the time I left California. What I didn't take into account was that the 2-day travel back home acompanied with the 10 hour time-difference was going to be very hard. Thus when I got home my body completely shut down and decided to take a 2-week summer holiday.

So unable to do any good training for two weeks I feel like starting from scratch again. And to not make things too easy I have some sort of knee-hurt on my left and my left ankle that has been hurting on/off for a couple months is again giving trouble.

But anyways I have about 10 days to try get ready for half-ironman nationals and it seems like I'm only going to ride for training. I still havent received my wetsuit that has been doing its own tour de Scandinavia for a few months so I can't swim either...or I could but getting iced after 5 mins in very cold water isn't that much fun.

It's good to sometimes have a bit of a low period though as the season is still long and there's a nice rae waiting at the end!

-JH

Humour is said to be helping combat fatigue

2009-07-02T18:41:00.000+03:00