Author Archives: Rykno

Pushing myself to max is not natural for me.

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One would think, that trying to be the best and pushing my body to its limits and then beyond would come natural to me since I have been competing since I was 6 yrs old. Surprise surprise, no it’s not. I am one of the laziest athletes you will ever meet.

Pushing myself to max is not something that comes naturally for me. I have almost always been that guy who does the minimum needed to get by. Whether it was sports or school, I did what was asked of me, I did it well, but I was not that guy who did that little extra. This became very apparent to me when I started lifting weights in college. I had no problems lifting 70-85% of my max in sets of 12-15 reps. But as we started to go from 90% up to max or a new max, I was not as driven as others. However, if I have a coach standing next to me, I would go that little extra trying not to disappoint my coach.
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O:500 – “What’s the ‘O’ stand for….”

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One of my favorite Robin Williams movie as a kid was “Good morning Vietnam”. When he says that it O 500 and then follows it up with “what’s the O stand for? Oh my god it’s early”

Why would I be thinking of this today. Well simple. It’s been nearly three months since I have woken up early on little sleep to workout. Yes, I have had one morning workout in October but it was only done because it had to be done. Yesterday we started the day at 08:30 and got home at 23:15. Then I had emails to read and reply, and then of course I started watching a movie. So the TV was on until 00:45, and I got a sms from Jeanette around that time so didn’t turn the lights off until just after 01:30.

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An Evil Cirlce – Back pain, missing workouts and junk food = weight gain

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Since the beginning of Aug I have not been 100%.  I slipped on the stairs and landed on my ass and elbow. But at the time I was still in the middle of my Ironman training and it was not enough to slow me down.  I managed through the pain and completed all my workouts and was able to finish all my races with respectable times.

But since Sept 6th and the end of my racing season, I have not been able to ignore the discomfort. I thought that the 3-4 weeks off from training in Sept would help, but when I started up again three weeks ago, it’s still there. So that discomfort in my back started this down hill trend.  I have gone up in weight the last two months.  Why?  Most likely because I am eating out of boredom.  and the more I think about my weight gain, the less motivated I get, the more junk food I eat, the bigger my belly gets and the more my back hurts.

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A fun run with Superloppet and then off to Saudi

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seriefigurer-beskuren

Today was the first annual Superloppet. I was hoping the girls would follow along but Lily was at her first swim camp and Jeanette didn’t want to take a chance with the weather.

I arrive 20min before the start and as I walk to the starting area I see lots of kids dressed up, and the even more parents. Superman and Batman were very popular. Silversurfer, Hulk, kick ass, poisen ivy, spiderman and many more.

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Rykno’s Aquathlon

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So yesterday I finally got off my but and swam a 1500m for time in the morning and attempted to run a fast 5km in the evening.

The swim went better than expected. after 3500m of the normal practice the last set was a 1500 or 15×100.  I chose the 1500. I had two times in my head.  anything over 22:30 would be bad and anything under 21:15 would be good. everything else in between would have been just ok. The first 200-300m I went after feeling. It felt great so I kept my head down and just kept swimming. Around 600m I was too curious so I looked up at the clock and it was just over 8min (8:04).  The thought “way to fast” popped into my head, and I started to slow down. Had I been able to hold that pace I would have been down around 20min.  NOT TODAY. At 1000m I checked my time again and it was 14:04. I had gone from 1:20/100m to 1:30/100m and I was not tired, and had no reason to hold back. I managed to swim the last 500m in 6:54 1:23/100m and was under 21min for the first time since late winter/early spring (20:58). Continue reading →

Sept Summary – Recovery complete

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After nearly 8 months of IM training it was time for me to take a break from planned workouts. Since the morning of my last race Aug 30th I can remember a day that I got out of bed before 6am on a weekday or 7am on the weekends. But my love for food and lack of self control was not a good combination with all this extra free time on my hands. I went up nearly 8kgs (17.6lbs) since July. Most of them coming after Kalmar Ironman (mid Aug). This week I started following a plan again, and it feels great! The following is a summary of my recovery month. Continue reading →

Back to Basics – Pre-season Training Starts Today

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After 4 weeks of sleeping in, and less than 6 hrs of training per week it is time to get into shape for the 2015 racing season. This morning I weighted in at 94.6 kg (208.5 lbs) so I have 10 kg (or 22 lbs) to drop before May.

October is going to be a form of detox for me.  I have not gotten out of bed before 06:00 since Aug 30th so it will take some time getting use to waking up at 4:45. I have been eating all day, and eating what ever was available so it will also be a mental battle to start eating better.  Continue reading →