I’m still alive!
Apr 15th
I know it’s been a very long time since anything happened on here, but when you’re “just” training every day, it can get hard to think of any interesting updates. Since Urban 2-80-20 Geelong in Feb, I have just been trying to get back into a good training routine. The hardest thing has been to keep my motivation up all the time. When there is over 3½ months in between races it is hard ti stay focused. So there have been some off days recently, but it seems that as soon I there is under 8-9 weeks until race day I can get my head around it all!
After the Urban race I started at back at Buddy’s swim squad at Melbourne Grammer, which means a start time of 5:30am Monday to Friday. It is an early start when you are from Europe, but it is so much easier to get my hard swimming done when I am in a squad.
On the bike side I have also been upgraded with a Argon 18 Gallium Pro road bike, so when I have some easy rides I can go on that one to change it up a little bit. And of course it’s setup with a Shimano gear group, Continental tires, CeramicSpeed bearings, Prologó saddle and bar tape. Big thanks to Asher & Andrew from CyclesSpeedwho put it all together.
Argon18 Gallium Pro
On the training side of things, I have just found out that I have been missing out on alot of good rides to King Lake in Melbourne, there is less traffic and some good long climbs. I also had two great training rides with Jenson Button in the week leading up to his win in the Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix. Since being back in Australia, I have been doing all my run training around Princes Park in Carlton. It’s a 3.2km around and there is always other people training no matter what time of day!
This week Aimee and I did pack the car and drive 1700km north to Lennox Head in NSW. We are going to be here for the next 7 weeks while I prepare for Ironman Cairns. Here I can train with the rest of the Aeromax Team. Some of the team is already in the US getting ready for the season, but have been training with Clayton Fettell who is here for the next two weeks to get me up in gear on the swimming and bike side, then I can push him on the run.
Tim Reed will be here until I leave, and with a new baby at home he is going to be on fire, because it is well known when you get a baby you get 2 extra gears in race speed!
The most recent news in Team Johnsen is just over 24 hours old. While on a 140km ride yesterday I hit a put hole with only 7km to go and came off. The result was bruise on my hip and arm, but there is nothing broken on the bike or me so it could have been much worse. And I was able to run 1½ hours this morning without any big problems so no issue with training this week or my preps for Cairns.
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Urban 2-80-20 Race report
Feb 16th
Being on the starting line at Urban 2-80-20 in Geelong last weekend, I went in knowing that it could go either way. Having raced only 3 weeks ago at Challenge Wanaka, I was a bit unsure if I hd the extra gears for the shorter distance of the 2.80.20. USM Events had arranged a small, but very strong elite field which included Clayton Fettell and Pete Jacobs on the start list so I knew it was going to be tough!
The weather forecast was for a little bit of everything from rain, wind and sun, just like the Danish summer!
When we arrive at race central just before 6am it started to pour with rain and basically didn’t stop. The start of the swim went as expected, there was no one who could follow Clayton and Pete. And I had enough problems with following Leon Griffen, Tim Berkel and Matty White. There was just no power in my arms and I ended up losing 1:15min to Leon’s group, with Clayton and Pete even further up the way.
Urban 2-80-20 Race rapport
Feb 16th
Viste godt at det kunne går begge veje, da jeg i søndags stod på startlinen igen bare 3 uger efter Challenge Wanaka. Var speciel usikker om jeg kun finde det ekstra gear det kræve at køre distancen 2-80-20. Og med Clayton Fettell og Pete Jacobs havde USM Events sørget for en lille, men meget stærkt elite felt.
Vejrudsigten meldte om byger, sol og vind, med andre ord dansk sommer. Starten gik og som forventet var der ingen der kunne Clayton og Pete. Og jeg havde store nok problemer med at følge Leon Griffin, Tim Berkel og Matty White, der var ikke rigtigt fart i armene, og endte med at tabe 1:15min til Tim gruppen, mens Clayton og Pete var endnu længere fremme.
Challenge Wanaka 2012
Jan 27th
It’s nice to have my first race of the year under the belt already and even nicer that I got a decent result. Considering the preparation and training in the lead up, I am very happy to come away with a 5th placing.
In the last few months there has been some major changes in my setup and unlike most previous years, I spent November and December in Denmark attempting to train in the dark winter conditions which meant I wasn’t completely sure how things would go. I also had my first few rides on my new Argon 18 E-118 bike which always takes some time to adjust. More >
