Tuesday, July 29, 2008

PEI and stuff

PEI is the next stop for the jr's. I hear the water is going to be cold meaning wetsuit swim! I have worked hard in the last 3 weeks or so. I really need a stand out race (how many times have I said that and I haven't delivered) I am going to just have fun and suffer. I am going back to the basics of racing.

My time trial bike is back home again :) Thank you guru bikes for getting it to me as soon as possible. I look forward to start riding it! I will post pictures of the bike in the coming week.

till next time

Karsten Madsen

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Karstens Tri For Dakota

Its official, I will be racing at Guelph lake 2, but not for myself I am racing for Dakota . I am raising money for The Sunnybrook Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Perinatal Research. If you wish to support my Tri for Dakota Follow the link http://www.trifordakota.com/donations.html (I will have my own donation page soon but for now this is where you donate) You can also look at my page on Tri Dakota http://www.trifordakota.com/karsten.html feel free to leave any comments on my blog or Tri Dakota. For the back ground on Tammy and Colin's daugther Dakota Skye Follow the link below
http://www.trifordakota.com/index.html

Karsten Madsen

Sunday, July 20, 2008

week ahead

We are in week 2 of crazy hard training! Every one in Hamilton is starting to find there grove every workout everyone is giving 100% On Monday we will be doing some what of a hard run work out 5x 1km on 5:30 i may add in one more km hard if i am feeling up to it. I feel like i am behind in my running. later on in the week we have are 400m time trial for Guest for gold standers and are 5km running race too. I think I will have the run slandered but swimming is going to be interesting. My fastest 400m is 4:46 so I have to drop 6 seconds some where.

Karsten Madsen

Race

The Triathlon today went alright. I had a slow swim but I have some swim time trials so I didn't want to push to hard. The 750m swim had some chop to it. On the bike there was a big pack. The bike course was changed to a flat out in back rather then doing the hard hill. There was also very little wind on the course making it impossible to drop people on the bike. I av 38.9 for 24 km.

I came off the bike in about 7 place I started the run out kinda slow but I really started to pick it up. I ended up 4th but I got beat by my buddy Michael Keen who was in a different wave, he got me by only 2 seconds (last year he would beat me by 3-4 minutes). We joked that in Guelph lake 2 its going to be a show down, I will have my time trial bike no more of this draft set up. I ended up 5th overall and I am age group provincial champ for 19 and under...haha.

I went into this race wanting to have a good run. I ran 7km in 25:14 3:37 pace pre km. This is my fastest run in a triathlon yet, If last year is anything like this year I will take another 10 seconds off my km pace by mid August. My running had been but on the back burner due to some ankle pain. My ankle is getting better and i am going to start to run hard again but i will be running with an ankle tenser until my ankle is really strong.

Karsten Madsen

race pics will be added soon

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Niagara Triathlon

So I am going to be racing at the Niagara Triathlon this Sunday. I have yet to have my break out race this year. I really need to show myself that I have the fitness. Niagara is a great race put on by http://www.trisportcanada.com/home.php (tri sport Canada). I am looking forward to a fast and fun day of racing.

The Bike has a really big hill to get your heart rate up into the red zone and the run is really run. Tts a mix of trial, road and bike path. I am going to really rock the swim. I still don't have my time trial bike back yet so I will be on a draft set up again but I am going to have a good bike!!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Race

This weekend was Provincials. It was a big race with 60 plus men on the start line. The race was on Saturday July 12, the race started at 12:30. I did my normal warm up that my coach Len Gushe has set out for me.

I went into this race with alot of nerves and butterfly's, when the gun went off I got down to business I jumped on fast feet and stayed on them as long as I could. I told my self before the race if I come out of the water with a time of 10:00mins for 750m I would be having a good race. As i did my last dolphin dive and stared running out of the water I looked at my watch and it read 9:50 it was about 10:00 by the time I got into the transition area.

I grab ed my bike and headed out on the 4 loop 20km bike course. I got into a pack on the first lap. Everything was good until there was a wheel touch Alexander Hinton went down and 4 or 5 guys went down with him. I hit the breaks and tried to dodge the body's in front. I tipped over. I rushed to get back on the bike and and hammer back up to pack. I pushed myself into the red zone and then paided for it. I stared getting really hot on the bike and there was some good wind to cool me down but it wasn't I knew something wasn't right.

I dismounted of my bike and started running i just knew something wasn't right. I was seeing stars but I was not going to dnf I just kept running threw it, everything was a blur around me. I remember coming to the transition and then the rest was lights out. I woke up to the race doctor and other volunteers dumping water and ice on me. Evey thing was still a blur I couldn't understand what people where asking me. They ended up moving me to some shad and I layed there for another 15mins. I then was helped up to my feet, and in about an hour i was almost back to myself.

On paper I did DNF but in my mind I didn't, I kept pushing until I couldn't anymore.

Karsten Madsen

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

weekend and stuff

well it as a good weekend of racing, I would like to congratulate Sean Bechtel for winning the Peteborough half iron man and Taking the course record from Wolfgang Gumbel (Wolfgang was not at the race to defend is title). I would also like to congratulate R.J. Ross on his awesome race. This was his first half iron man and he came 3rd.

Training in Hamilton is still going good i am getting faster every time i enter the pool. We did a long and hard swim this morning and every thing was going great we worked alot on pulling the water. the thing that stands out in that swim was the 12x200m (long course) 1. first one easy 2. medium 3. easy 4. strong and that was done 4 time.

Yesterday was a hard bike ride it was 30min warm up then 6x 5mins hard and 5mins easy. I ended up doing Hill repeats on a hill that is about 5:00mins to climb. my tims are...

1. didn't get a time
2. 4:45
3. 4:52
4. 4:57
5. 4:43
6. 4:32

After the second last one I felt done and thought i would have a hard time getting up the hill but i pushed hard and went to a dark dark place and just rode as hard as i could.

My running as come back to life my ankle feels great and i am back to running on grass and road, still not running on trials. i don't plane on running on trails till late July.

Karsten Madsen