I’m sitting in front of the sportsbar in Playitas looking at the finishline for tomorrows “Challenge Fuerteventura”. I’m obviously not racing, as I’m still trying to recover from the stress-fracture that has been bothering me for exactly 16 weeks today.

It has been 16 weeks of frustration, hope, disappointment and lots of time to think. Injuries suck!

I wish that I could write about good news from Fuerteventura, but reality is that the injury is not healing as fast we hope for. After my last camp in Playitas I kept 8 weeks away from cycling to see if that made the difference, and the foot also got a lot better. Then last week, back here in Playitas, I started biking slowly again. The result was, that my foot started hurting again, so now I’m back to only swimming!

We are constantly looking into new things to do to speed up the recovery, but for now I’m just sticking to recovery in a warm climate, so I’m staying down here for maybe up to another month!

Cheers, stay safe and injury-free!

Meanwhile, besides nursing my injury, I have been building up my new Ceepo Stinger road bike that I received a few weeks back! I think the result is awesome and the few rides I have had on it has been great.

The bike is equipped with the best groupset ever made: Shimano Dura Ace Di2! Perfect shifting and the joy of never having to adjust gears anymore

I’m flying down to Playitas in the weekend for a camp. If I get back to full training during the first 2 weeks down there I will extend my stay to put in a good block of training. Hopefully I’ll not be back in Denmark before I’m fit again!

]]> http://jensentri.com/martin/no-im-not-racing-70-3-texas-this-weekend/feed/ 0 http://jensentri.com/martin/2-months-of-silence/ http://jensentri.com/martin/2-months-of-silence/#comments Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:09:54 +0000 Martin Jensen http://jensentri.com/martin/?p=609 Spring is just around the corner and the 2012 season is just about to start. For a lot of people it already has started, and with some very interesting results!

I planned to race in 70.3 Panama last weekend – a race that Lance Armstrong chose as his comeback race – but unfortunately I am once again struggling with an injury.
This is my third stress fracture during my career and is obviously very frustrating. When you are recovering from a stress fracture, there is only one thing to do: patience. So I have been patient, and doing my best to avoid putting any stress to my injured foot.

Unlike last year, where I rushed from my injury to the first race of the season, I have decided to take a more slow approach this year, and give my body the time it needs to fully recover and rebuild from there.
Hopefully this means that I will be even stronger when I do toe the startline and hopefully this will also help me prevent injuries in the future.

So for now my plan is to get free of injury and rebuild fitness. I have some races that I do hope to do this year, but for now I will keep the plan to myself.

Happy training!

Today both my body and mind didn’t work with me, and I was running in strong pain right from the go. My head couldn’t handle having to deal with that pain for 42 km. I’m disappointed, but I THINK it was the right decision. We will never know, though!

I’m going back to Denmark on Tuesday. Older. Wiser. Stronger. 2012 WILL be better.

The last week has been quite different from the usual week 14 days out of an ironman. After the race my legs were incredibly smashed. My quads were sore, my feets were hurting and I was tired! So the first 2 days after the race I didn’t do anything but a short swim set, and on the third day I started out with an easy bike ride and a work out on the cross trainer.

Together with some massage I worked the soreness out of my body, and the last couple of days I have actually been able to do some good workouts! This close to the race it isn’t about building fitness, but more a matter of keeping the body alert and making sure it is ready and recovered for raceday. The World Championships race was a big training day before the ironman race, much harder than what I would usually do for my last hard session before a big race, and we needed to consider that when we are planning the last days before the race.

But I think we have come up with a good plan, and hopefully I’ll be ready for another long day come Sunday!

In the meantime I would like to tell you a bit about my Fusion kit I wore in Las Vegas and that I will wear in Phoenix.

Las Vegas was an ITU World Championships, hence we had to wear the national suit. The national suit is a custom suit by Fusion and comes in a World Cup and Long Distance edition. The Long Distance edition features a zipper on the bag (due to ITU rules), mesh pockets on the legs for nutrition and 1 or 2 layers of COMP3 padding for comfort during the bikeride (it is individually decided whether it should be 1 or 2 layers. The World Cup suit comes with either none or 1 layer of padding). The fabric for the suit has been chosen after lots of testing to find the best suitable fabric for swimming (low weight is a key issue for a non-wetsuit swim), but also trying to maintain the compression that supports the legs during bike and run.
Furthermore the suit is treated with a proofing that sheds water and makes sure that the suits dries instantly after the swim.

Since the weather in Las Vegas was so cold we were allowed to wear an extra layer of clothes on the bike (this was before we knew the swim would be cancelled). This was perfect for me, as I had my custom made aero-top with me. Under normal conditions we would not be allowed to wear this in an ITU race, but due to the cold weather they made an exception in the rules that allowed us to wear extra clothes.
The aero-top is made out of one piece of fabric and has a minimum of stitching, all on the inside of the top. It has 3/4 arm length, which helps to keep you warm in the cooler races, but can also help to keep you cool in the warmer racs (both due to the white color and the possibility of cooling the suit with water). You can see the top on the picture above!

For the ironman next I will wear a 2 piece suit. It will be the pocket-power tights in white and, most likely, the ice-pocket top. Furthermore I will were the aero-top underneath my wetsuit for the swim and keep it on during the bikeride. It has a complete zipper that makes it very easy to get out of, and I will quickly take it off during T2. Since we are expecting quite cool temperatures on race morning, this will serve both to keep me warm and aero during the bikeride!

If you have questions about the Fusion kit I am using you are more than welcome to ask me by writing a comment below! If I can not answer the questions I will direct them to someone that can

Thanks to Kevin Koresky for the pictures. Kevin runs a great triathlon site called finishline-multisport! Check it out and follow him on twitter if you want to stay updated

Happy training!

During the 2 weeks I had been in Las Vegas preparing for the world champs, I had experienced a general temperature drop. When I arrived here temperatures were in the low 30′s during the day and would get down to 15-17 degrees during night! But as the race approached temperatures dropped, and the last few days before the race it was more like 5 degrees at night and 14-18 degrees during the day.

Since the race started 6 minutes before sunrise we were all prepared for a very cold race as we drove down to T1 on race morning, but as soon as we got to transition we realized that the swim had been cancelled due to cold water and air temperature. The race would instead be a 120 km time trial and a 30 km run. Athletes would start 5 sec apart based on their start number (I had number 20, so I should start 95 sec back if everyone shoved up for the race).

Huge disadvantage for me. We already knew, that the course didn’t work to my benefit with all the hills on the bike and run course (considering that I am one of the biggest guys in the race), and now they also took away my strongest discipline in the race…

Coach and I discussed tactics before the race start. Either I should race really hard on the bike and see where that would get me, or I should just do it as a training ride being part of my  preparation for Ironman Arizona in 2 weeks. We went for the “Go Hard” option…

As number 20 I was starting in between the favourites. Jordan Rapp and reigning world champion Sylvain Sudrie was starting as number 11 and 12 respectively, and Michael Raelert and Joe Gambles was number 36 and 37. My tactic was clear, just trying to catch Sudrie and Rapp at the front as fast as possible and then see how things would develope.

I caught Jordan within the first 10 km and then we caught the front with Sudrie and Massimo Cigana (former pro cyclist) about another 10 km into the bikeride. I placed my self at the back of the group and tried to stay with them. At the first turn around, app. 31 km into the ride, we could see that we had a few minutes down to the group with Michael Raelert and Joe Gambles.

Around 50 km we started the 2nd leg of the bike course with a big and fast descent. By then, I had noticed I had the biggest gear on the downhills (55-11), so I surged to the front and pushed 120+ rpm on the downhill… That was enough to establish a 50 m lead when I hit the uphill on the other side. Then I pushed 450+ watts on the opposite uphill trying to maintain my momentum. From then on, I kept them at a distance of about 20-40 seconds until we reached the turnaround at 67 km. Coming back from the last turn around was a very long slight downhill… Now it wasn’t as much about power/weight ratio but more about power and aero dynamics! I tucked my head down between the shoulders and surged away from the others!

At 90 km the lead was 2 min (+ the time I started after the other guys), and eventhough I could see my power numbers decrease significantly on the last 30 km, I managed to put another 3 minutes to the next guys…

I started the run with a actual gap of 5 minutes to Rapp and Sudrie but the actual lead was almost 6 minutes. Coming off the bike my feets were cold, but I was actually feeling good. I had done lots of laps on the run course, so I knew what was waiting.
Coach and I had talked about starting the run @ 4 min/km uphill and 3.20/km going downhill, and after the first lap I had 3.43/km avg so I was pretty spot on…

That’s when I thought it was my day!

I had even gained just a little bit more time on the others on the first lap, and I couldn’t imagine I would loose about 6 minutes on 22 km… That was until I started running uphill for the 2nd time! My legs were gone, and where I was doing 3.55-4.00 uphill on first lap I was now doing 4.20 going up! Going back down, I could barely run sub 4 min/km, and my lead was shrinking drastically fast! I took my last caffeine tablet, hoping for it to give me the power I needed to start pushing hard on the run, but nothing happened.

Quads were heavy and each step was an inferno of pain… Going up the last 2 laps, the pace was more like 4.30-4.40/km and downhill just over 4 min/km.

I lost 1st place just after 20 km into the run, when both Rapp and Sudrie ran by me, and on the last uphill, about 27,5 km, Joe Gambles also came by me (but he also started about a minute after me). I was completely gone – out of the medals, but in lots of pain!

Getting 4th place in a world championships is not a bad performance for me. Without a swim in the race, I am at a huge disadvantage, and still I managed to go out and have a big impact on the race! I’m extremely disappointed, because I was in a position where I could win the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS and I didn’t manage to take advantage of that situation. This year, despite all my injuries, I was way better prepared than I was back in ’08 when I also had a 6 minutes lead coming of the bike.

Chances to win world championships doesn’t come every season, so when there is a chance you have to take it! I propably went to hard on the bike yesterday, but that was MY chance. I took it – but in the end three guys were faster/smarter than me! That’s racing – and I’ll be back racing in 2 weeks in Arizona…

Check out the gallery on the ITU homepage for lots of great photos from the race!  I’ll also try and upload some pictures to the gallery when I get them downloaded during the next couple of days…

The last 2 weeks of training went well, which means I’m free of any injuries and full of self-confidence before the big dance tomorrow.
It has been a long time since I have been in serious competition, so I hope I remember all the routines for tomorrow. But, history shows, that everytime I have had a long block of training I also tend to do  very well in races.

The race itself will be very hard. It’s a tough course with lots of hills on both the bike and run portion. Furthermore it seems like it will be a very cold morning, with temperatures around 5 degrees when we dive in to Lake Las Vegas (7 minutes BEFORE sunrise). Put all those things together with the toughest field in many years, and I think we are in for a hard day tomorrow!

My tactic is pretty clear: Since it is a very tough course, drafting will be very limited and the best thing will pretty much be to do my own race. So I’ll try and find my own rhytm on the bike, and hopefully that will take me to T2 as one of the first guys. Then it’s just a matter of running the fastest possible 30 km!

It seems as there will be updates from the race here.

I’m not quite sure how it will work – maybe it only works for Americans or people with a twitter account! If it doesn’t work, I’ll be back with updates from the race as soon as I get back to the hotel.

The race starts at 7.00 AM (15.00 in Denmark) and I expect about 5.45 – 6 hrs before the winner crosses the finishline!

You can also check out the diary on the Danish Federation page where Michael Krüger (National coach) blogs from the days leading up to the race.

Thursday I did a solid 3hr bikeride with 8×5 minutes of “Kraft Ausdauer” (low cadence, about 55, usually uphill on the big chain ring) building 1-4 from 340 – 370 watts. That went pretty smooth, and I followed it up with a great brick run building the first 5 km: 3.29 – 3.25 – 3.20 – 3.17 – 3.12…

Friday was the day of my attempt to reach the top of Mt. Lemmon, and eventhough it was just supposed to be an easy 5 hr ride, the 40km climb was done with 277 watts avg. but a comfortable avg. HR of 130. The last training session I did in Tucson was my late friday evening swim, a hard 4 km swim set. It was my best set in the pool while I have been in the states, so that was a great way to finish of before I moved on to Las Vegas.

Saturday was pretty much spent in the car

that took me the 600+ km drive from Tucson up to Las Vegas. I left early morning, so I didn’t have to drive during the hottest part of the day. Upon my arrival I went shopping for groceries and found the pool to just move my body a bit after the long journey.

Today was my first training day, and I certainly didn’t waste my time here. Since we pretty much live on the run course, I started the morning with an easy 17 km run including 2 loops on the course for the World Championships…  The run course is a 4 loop course consisting of a 3,75 km out-and-back course. One way is uphill all the way and the opposite way is downhill all the way! I predict sore legs after the race!!

After breakfast I prepared my bike for a long test of the bikecourse. Or at least some of the course, as the last 20-25 km is pretty hard to find (but I’ll do another test tomorrow).
I started out pretty easy riding app. 20 km to T1, where I started the bike course. I did the first 2 hrs solid at 311 watts before I eased  off for the rest of the ride. There has been a lot of talking about the difficulty of this course, and even though the last 30 km are the steepest, the first part of the course isn’t easy either. My 311 watts gave me an avg. speed of 38.6 kmph which off course will be faster with the aero-benefits of race day – but still I doubt that anyone will break 40 kmph avg speed for this race

Now there is only 6 days until the rest of the team – and Mette – arrives here in Vegas, and I’m starting to look forward to some company!

Happy training!

Last block went really well, I did some nice and long bike rides together with some very solid brick runs. It has really heated up here in Tucson, so when I come back from riding temperature is often around 35 degrees… It is also a very dry heat, so if you don’t bring liquid along for the training you are only going to be able to train 10 minutes before your throat is completely dry.
Thursday I did my longest ride here in Tucson so far, app. 170 km with several intensity blocks during the ride. I went out in the middle of the dessert and rode along cactuses, dust and huge rocks. It was extremely hot, so I ended up consuming 7 ltrs of liquid during that ride – thank god they had gas stations in the desert

Today I did my longest run this year, 23 km @ 4 minute pace… The run was an easy build up, so I finished the run significantly under 4 min/km in the end. I ran quite early in the morning, about 7.15, yet I still met hundreds of runners out on the trails.
I ran along the Rillito river, which is a long and currently very dry river that runs through the northern part of the city. You have the option of running both on trails or on the very nice bike lane that goes along the river.

Running in the morning, the temperatures were perfect around 23 degrees and the beautiful landscape just made it a very inspiring run…

After my run I had a nice breakfast before I went to the pool for the last time this week! Tomorrow is a long day, eventhough I only have one session on the programme: 6hrs solid bikeride… Note to self: Bring lots of liquid!

Cheers!