I'm Back

I am starting to get back to normal! I did a great run workout today.

7km tempo
5xhill repeats...
1. 53.21
2. 50.24
3. 50.46
4. 50.68
5. 48.28 ...new record up that hill
3km easy

When I did the 48.28 I passed the line and hit my watch. I had nothing left and I just could not stand up I had to lay on the ground for a bit before i started to walk it off. Overall I as feeling at 85% during the workout. I just have to keep training smart. I am now going to start to taper for the Milton triathlon.

Karsten

Something other then Triahtlon!

I wanted to talk about something other then triathlon/training. Stanly cup finals started yesterday with a great win by the Red wings 4-0 over the penguins. You can't take any thing away from the penguins they played well till mid 3rd period. I am cheering for the red wings because I have money down for them to win! The wings and penguins are very close when it comes the talent. The difference in the first game was Detroit went into the game thinking they where going to win and didn't give up on any battles. They finished there hits and went to the net more then the penguins. Also don't forget Detroit's defence and goalie Osgood, with out them the game would not have been a shutout. Its pretty hard to shut down guys like Sidney Crosby, Marian Hossa, and Evgeni Malken. In the end I think we will see Detroit lifting the cup.

Sick :(

Quick Update

I am now sick from a bad case of over train. I have been working really hard to get my self in the best shape I can that I forgot how to train smart! I am going to get this cold out of my system and take another look at what I'm doing and what I need to fix it. Then I'll get right back into things!

Karsten Madsen

Duahtlon

Today I raced at the Brick Duahtlon in Waterloo. It was a very cold day, there was lots of wind. There was off and on rain, and when I went for my warm up on my bike it started to hail. The wind was just unreal.

The race started at 11:00. The first run was 4km and I started out strong leading the way. Taylor Reid ran with me for most of the run. We paced one another till I gave a kick at the end of the run. I ended up with 3:19 pace and I wasn't working to hard. I entered into T1 in 3rd and came out on the bike in first(fast transitions).

I pushed hard to stay in the lead but there was a crazy head wind. David Sharratt passed me around the 6km mark of the race and shortly after I got passed again. I was still fighting a crazy head wind and as I hit the turn around I got the bike up to high 50's and never looked back after that. On some of the down hill's I pushed the bike speed up to 75-80kmh, I was riding on 808's so I didn't stay in my aero bars for down hills(wind was pushing me around).

As I was coming back to the transition area I saw David Sharratt leaving onto the run. I had another fast transition and as I took my first steps on the run it felt like I was standing still. I stared to warm up as I hit the 1km mark. On the turn around I ran into a hard head wind so that slowed me down. I kept pushing to the finish and ended up 3rd overall and 1st in my age group.

All in all the day went well. The only thing I want to work on is running off the bike. I think with out the wind I would have av 40km on the bike and in the second run I think I could have been running 3:30 pace. I look forward to my first triathlon of the year on june 1st.

Karsten Madsen

ALMOST GOT IT!

I had my first and last Ontario cup Mountain bike race yesterday. I was feeling Ready and pumped to ride hard. I was no longer in 15-16 I was now 17-19, instead of 2 small laps I was doing 3 big laps (The big laps are longer, way more technical, and have bigger climbs).

I got to the start line at 11:15 for a 11:30 start. I was very nerves going into this race, I looked around to size every one up. As we started all I could think about was how bad this first climb was going to hurt. I rode hard to stay in front of the race but a kid in green just hammer. I worked hard to keep on his wheel and as we went on are first flat section I put in a devastating surge to drop as many people as I could (video shows right where I went for it). As I hit the last lap I was lapping other people in my race. I thought this race was raped up for me but I was wrong, I'm not used to riding that long on a mountain bike. I started to hurt and when your tired in mountain biking you get stupid. You start to fall a lot and make dumb mistakes that cost you seconds and seconds add up. I went into the last monster climb of the race I hurt so bad I thought my head was going to pop off. I was working so hard that my heart rate was at 200 I was now over heating. As I thought I couldn't go any faster two guys from my race go flying right past me. At this point I had given every thing I had and it put me in 3rd.

I am very happy with a top 3 finish. I don't mountain bike as much as I used to and I still can ride with the best of the sport! I was also in my first race where you are doing 3 big laps. I am very happy with my fitness right now, I am 3 times faster on a bike then I was last year!

Start of the race ^

My surge I talked about ^

Going into the last lap and lapping people.

Always Wear your Helmet!

My face After the crash...i cleaned it up good! :)


Today was the first time on the mountain bike since provincials last year. It started OK I was riding with good flow and control. I entered into this swap section of the course and they made a funky bridge thing that was about a foot wide. As I was coming to the end it had a incline to get over a log. As I went up I kinda freaked out and slammed my breaks I was three feet from the ground and I was now off balance. I try to ride out of it but ended up falling off. I know its such a dumb little mistake that you would think it wouldn't hurt but it was the way I feel. I feel in a way that my face took 90% of the fall onto a big rock. My new $200 Giro Atmos was cracked in 2 places but I'm not to mad because it did save me a trip to the hospital! With out it you never know what could have happened.

I still plane to race My Mountain bike race this weekend!

Keep your helmets on
Karsten

2000m steeple chase!!

Lets just start it off saying its the funnest race in track! For anyone that doesn't know The, steeple chase is a race that is 2000m long and you jump over 4 wooden boards that are about 4 feet off the ground and 1 water pit. Its a hard race but you tent to forget how much you hurt because your having so much fun jumping all over the place!

Now for the race, I took control of the race right away. I set myself up so I was first over the water pit, it was a perfect jump one foot in the water! As I stared to get back up to speed I looked back and there was no one, I was thinking that I took it out a little to hard but I kept running the same pace and every lap my lead got bigger and bigger! All in all it was a good race finished with a time of 6:50, I know I can go 6:40 next time! I proved to myself again that I have what it takes to win, just have to have the right mind set going in! It also helps when you shave your head!! (picture above)

Transitions!

I have a video of my transitions.

5km + 200m = 16:45

My 5km this morning went well. The weather was cold and really windy. The Big head winds didn't slow me down to much I ran throw the first 1km at 3:07 right where I should be. I was sitting right behind 1 place till about 3km mark that's when there was a gap. My 3km time was 9:45. All in all I had a good day, beside almost being hit my a car!

I am in way better shape then I was last year and I didn't start to slow down till that last km. The race was 200m long so my 5km time was 16:02 but my 5.2km time is 16:47. I ended up 3rd over all and I'm up $50 cash and a new 4GB ipod nano! I'm staring to feel like a pro! haha

3000m

Thats me in the blue and white singlet at the front.

3000m

It was the first race that basically every thing went wrong! The track meet started around 3, my race wasn't till 6:00 but it ended up being 7:30ish. I played a game with my friends call high or low. For anyone that doesn't know, in the races coming up you call who is going to win and who is going to come last. Its a fun game! Anyways I started to warm up at 6:15 and knowing it would be really late I went for a light and easy jog to get warm again. You know when its only 8 and its windy and overcast you get kinda cold!!

Well another problem I had was I felt like a bag of garbage, since my parents came to watch I sucked it up and carried on with the warm up. As we lined up for the start of the 3000m race the clouds were dark as if we were going to get a thunderstorm. The gun went off and I ran hard to the front, As we where rounding are first corner it started to not rain but hail. Not the little ones too I'm talked big nut filled mm sized ones. As I was leading out the race at about a 9:30 pace the hail was coming down hard! It was going in are eyes and pelting are faces. I also didn't wear track spikes for the race I just put on running flats so it was super slippy for me. As we hit 4 laps to go thats when things turned for the worst. I stared to feel the cramped feeling again that I had all day and My arms felt like ice cubs. I got dropped off the pace big time. I finshed with a crap time of 9:59. But there is hope with all the weather cramp and ice problems I had, I think i can get back to my 9:15 or my goal of 9:00.

thanks for reading!