Newsletter April 2020
In the following chapters, I describe the last two months. The intensive training has come to an abrupt end.
Dutch Championship 10k Schoorl
My ultimate goal for 2020, was to run a good time on the Dutch Championship 10k in Schoorl on te 10th of February. Last winter, I had the opportunity to train a lot, so I was in good condition and totally ready for the game in Schoorl. The week of the game, the weather in the Netherlands turned. Therefore, it was really exciting if the game could continue. The night before the game, I had everything ready, start numbers pinned, running shoes were ready and I was really looking forward for it.
The morning of the game, I unfortunately got a message that the game was cancelled, because of the bad weather. I was really disappointed, but I could not do anything about it.
I stayed positive, because next morning I was planning to leave to Gerona, for my first training camp. It was also very exciting whether the flight would continue. Unfortunately, the flight was cancelled a couple of hours before departure. Two days later, I still traveled to Gerona.
Training camp Gerona
The goal of training in Gerona, was endurance training. This means, train a lot of hours, especially on the bike. I was situated in an apartment in the center of Gerona with two other triathletes, Milan Brons and Ruben Zepunte. Both are professional Triathletes and we have trained a lot together. We covered a lot of distance in beautiful Catalonia. I would really like to live there, Catalonia has beautiful surroundings. After three weeks of training, it was time to head home for a couple of days, five days home and then Mallorca was on the planning
Lactaat-Test (running)
After training camp in Gerona, it was time to be tested, an exercise test to see how my condition is going. The test was done on the treadmill. On the treadmill, you have to walk 7×6 minutes and after every 6 minutes blood is taken to test the lactate content. The first six minutes I had to start slowly to build up to six minutes on my maximum tempo. The main goal of the test is to determine the acidification limit. The test results were really good, with an acidification limit just under 19 km/ph. This showed, I was in a really good condition! I was on a good track for my first game, on the 4th of April in Oceanside, United States. I had one month to prepare myself.
Training camp Mallorca
Mallorca, Port de Pollenca, is a place that I am very familiar with. This was the fourth year on a row I went there to train for acouple of weeks. The plan was to go there for three weeks and then travel to the United States for the first game of the season. Meanwhile, a disturbing virus broke out in China, but I focused on my training and never thought the effect of the virus would grow this fast. After a week of training in Mallorca, the situation in Europe became worse. The situation within Spain was changing by the minute. Therefore, the game commission decided to cancel upcoming events. Suddenly, everything became very insecure. I did not feel urge to go home yet. I thought, as long as I can train well here, I will stay here. Two days later, the Spanish government decided that Spain will go in a lockdown. The next day the lockdown started. No one could leave their homes, only to go to the supermarket for the necessary groceries or for a visit to the doctor/hospital. The morning the lockdown started, I tried to go for a run, but the police send me back to the hotel. After this incident, I really felt the urge to go home and the next morning I booked a ticket home. Three days later, I was home. In these crazy times, it is always better to be home.
Corona crisis
Every game until may is cancelled. Currently, I am not sure in which games I will participate. I had a very exciting planning for the first part of the season, however this all has been changed. I am very disappointed, but there are scarier things going on in the world. I decided with the help of my coach to take it easy for a while. This is good to keep my resistance as high as possible and therefore I hope I am less prone for the virus. It remains to be seen when the games will start again, but I do expect that the upcoming triathlon season will be from August until December. I will therefore move my peak times to the end of the year. I train from home, because all the sport facilities are closed.
Next to that, I want to wish you and your family a lot of strength and good health in these crazy times!
