Plans keep changing all the time...

... but all roads lead to Amsterdam. Hopefully.

Planned races are getting canceled and new races are entering the schedule. I decided not to participate in Os Triathlon. I have now completed two official test races of the full course; they were great fun, and I think I had a good training effect of them. But I cannot motivate myself to do the actual race itself. It will take me off my marathon training for several days, and I have no chance of improving my time from last year's race.  The problem is my bike. I do not have a proper race bike. I have a Trek hybrid, which is perfect for pretty much anything other than going fast on asphalt. Last year, my kind friend Irene lent me her road bike for about a month before the race, as she was about to have a baby. This year, there were no natural candidates to ask, I had not time to concentrate on buying a new bike, so I just decided to go with my hybrid. After all, how much difference could it make in just 20 km?

Well, comparing with my training times of last year, the difference is substantial. About 7 minutes! And although my swim and run times are a bit better this year, there is no way I can make up for the lost bike time. It is a bit annoying that equipment has that much to say. After the last test race, it became suddenly very clear to me that I do not want to do the race. If I had the same bike last year and this year, then I would be competing with my last-year self, which would be motivating. But now the time I'd get at the race would have no meaning. Amsterdam is the big goal, and on the way there I will only do the races that I feel motivated for. After coming back from Amsterdam, I will immediately start "project road bike". I will get a proper road bike, and start training with it. 2017 is already long time ago planned to be the triathlon year.

OK, so motivation for Os disappeared. However, motivation for new races suddenly appeared: 5 km and 10 km road running. After running really slowly in the heat for the last couple of months in Turkey, it felt hard to start picking up speed. So Frank and I figured that entering the last races of the Fana summer circuit would be a good way to push ourselves.  The first 5 km race was three days after coming home, and my time was terrible. I started out way too fast, I managed to keep pace 5 for about 3 km, but then got really slow towards the end. The 10 km race was this week, two weeks after the 5 km, and then everything suddenly seemed to start working. I decided to try to go for a steady 5:15 pace throughout the race. It's not a big deal, it was my Oslo half marathon pace, but I want to take one step at a time. I watched the time very carefully not to start faster than 5:15, although I felt very light and strong in the beginning. I felt in control all the time, and just 100 meters before the finish I managed to speed up and pass a lady who turned out to be in my class. The final average pace turned to be 5:16, very even split, and it felt like a good beginning.

The road to Amsterdam is winding. Not everything goes as planned, and I am constantly in doubt whether I am training correctly, running enough, resting enough. I am so afraid of getting injured that I am perhaps resting too much. But they say restitution is the most important part, and there is always some small pain here and there. I should be doing more stretching, more strength training... The list is long. Fortunately, I am really enjoying the training itself. Well perhaps not towards the end of a 30 km run, but the accomplishment of completing a planned training, slowly getting the long runs longer, slowly getting a little bit faster.

7 weeks left now...