Not sure it’s so much of a race plan, but more like a survival plan.

Last year going inte Kalmar I had done an half marathon, 300km bike race, 140km bike race and two 70.3 (half ironman) triathlons. I swam nearly 50km, biked nearly 1000km and ran around 100km a MONTH! 

This year I have two Swimrun races that took about 4.5 hours each. Other than that I have only one other work out over 2 hours. 

On Sunday we arrive to Bödasand camping. I’ll be here with them until Wednesday. On Thursday I’ll head to Kalmar early to check in for the race as well as hotel. 

Today, I drove to Lötorp to get our flat tire fixed. No fun driving on a reserve tire. The rest of the day was spent pool side playing with the girls. I’ll head out for a short jog.

Tuesday, I’ll do a brick pass. A short ride followed by an even shorter run. I’m still not sure what shoes to wear Saturday. I’ve been doing my Swimrun in my Salming Distance and they feel good. And even though I have lots of kilometers in them I’ve never run more than 10km at one time with them. My back up shoes are last year’s Asics DS trainers. We will skip the pool and head to the beach.

Wednesday, I’ll try to go for a slightly longer ride. Öland is pretty biker friendly so it’s no problems biking around here. We will most likely be hanging at the pool again.

Thursday, I’ll pack the car with my stuff. Make the girls breakfast and then head to Kalmar.  There I’m hoping to get into my room early, check in for the race and then mingle before the pre-race meeting dinner at 18:30.

Thursday night, I’ll be packing and re-packing my bike and run bags. And even watch a movie. Packing for the transitions the day before is slightly stressful.

Friday morning, I’ll go out early for a swim around the course before breakfast. After breakfast I’ll go on one last ride to check my bike is ready.

Friday evening, I’ll check in my bike. It will be loaded with two tubes and tools to repair a flat. I’ll have 6 gels and two bottles on my bike. Resorb sport and red bull in the aero bottle, coke on the frame. Depending on the weather I’ll pump my tires to 8 bars. 

In my bike bag I’ll have my helmet, bandana, sunglasses, race number, bike shoes and a gel.

In my run bag I’ll have my shoes, sun visor, socks and a gel. Considering tossing in a bottle of red bull too. Something to carry around.

Not sure I’ll get much sleep, but since I do not have high expectations it should be easier to sleep this year.

Race day

Up at 4:45 for breakfast. Around 5:50 I’ll head to the bike pit and double check everything is as it should be.

Make my way over to the bag drop for after race clothes then stand around the front of the line for the swim start. I plan on standing as far up in the line as possible, but won’t get stressed if I wind up 5m back. 

I plan on swimming my own race. Swim along the left side of everyone. Take it pretty easy the first 300-400m. Once the others are tired and slow down to their race pace I’ll kick it up one level and play catch up with the pros who started 5mim before us. Up on the ramp under an hour.

T1 – even with a slower start the transition tent should still be pretty empty. I’ll take my wetsuit off, sit down, put on my bandana, helmet, sunglasses, race number and shoes. Toss my swim stuff in the bag, throw it into the drop off pile and then squeeze in a gel as I walk/jogto my bike. 

Biking out of Kalmar and over the brigde is exciting. No way I’m going to look at my speed. I’ll just take in the crowd and see if those biking pass me are friends.  With only one 3 hr ride this year I’m not going to be able to dig in and go hard. I’ll be eating bars at the depos and getting a new bottle of sport drink every time.  I’ll take a gel about 10 km out of T2 as well as my last drink. Depending on the wind and my stomach I think I should be able to bike 180km in 6:00-6:30.

T2 – bathroom break, no need to lose time on the run, better to see it in T2. Change shoes, switch helmet for visor and grab a gel or two.

Running will for the obvious reasons be the hardest. Being 14-16kg more this year than last will add to my pain. I know now how hard it is to run slow through the city for the first 3-4km through because of the crowd cheering, but I will do my best to slow down to 6:00-6:10 min/km as soon as I can.  As long as I don’t have to slow down to more than 7:15/km  during the first 20 km it should be ok.  Even I f I slow down to 8:30/km I should be able to manage running in 6 hours. Worst case it takes 9 hrs to walk it 😉

Total time will be anything from 12-14 hours. But finishing unde 16 hours is my only real goal.