Newsletter August 2020
In this document, the newsletter about the past months is shown. The last six months, have been a strange time without competitions, but I have been able to remain the focus and made a lot of progress.
The corona period
From April, I started to gradually build up training again. There were no competitions, that’s why, my trainer and I have fully focused on training and getting better. I was unable to do much swimming during this period, because all the swimming pools were closed. Therefore, the focus was mainly on running and consistent training. In this period, I did the same for +/- 12 weeks, week in week out, this was quite boring. Normally, I would test myself by racing, because then I can see where I stand in relation to my competitors. Unfortunately, I have not been able to do that in the past months.
Generally, it was not a bad period for me! I am still young and a relative newcomer in the triathlon sport, so there is a lot to gain. This means, that I have to train a lot and make hours. The past couple of months, I have been able to keep the focus with an eye on the future!
Altitude training Livigno (Italy)
Fortunately, there was another nice prospect: from July 30, I was in Italy for an altitude training camp. The plan was to stay there until August 28 and then travel to Davos for a race. I stayed at an altitude of 2000m with 3 other Dutch professional triathletes. The purpose of the altitude training, was to prepare myself for Challenge Davos (Switzerland) and for the other competitions. This was my first time at “altitude”; the first days I had to get used to the altitude. At altitude, there is less oxygen, the body has to work much harder. Therefore, it took some time to acclimatize and I had to gasp for breath the first days. After a few days, it was getting better and my body started to get used to the altitude. The environment in the Italian Alps was very beautiful, very high mountains, beautiful lakes and a lot of sun. The main focus here was swimming, because I have not been able to swim recent months. In Livigno, I swam +/-35km a week. Cycling and running in the Alps was very tough, but it made me better. The life there was very monotonous: train, eat and sleep. We had long training days and slept a lot to recover.
INFO: Why altitude training?
The higher you train, the lower the oxygen pressure will be. Lower air pressure reduces oxygen uptake in the lungs. This creates a state of hypoxia (lack of oxygen). The body responds to this by making more erythropoietin (EPO) in the kidneys. EPO stimulates the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells. You need these red bloods cells for the transport of oxygen to the lungs. A larger amount of red blood cells, improves oxygen transport to the lungs
Challenge Davos
Almost all races have been cancelled, there is just one race that seems to be going ahead, Challenge Davos. Challenge Davos, will be my first race in a while. Challenge Davos is on August 29 and it is a race with 1.9 km swimming, 55 km of cycling with 1800 altimeters and 21 km of running. The race is known as one of the toughest, due to the extreme bike course. The entire top field from Europe starts this race, so it is an very occupied race. This makes sense, because this is the only race that seems to be going on and everyone wants to compete. I am extremely motivated for this race and I am really looking forward to it! Finally, I have a moment to measure myself to the international top field.
