Whats is your best plan for weekends? Our coaches can’t get enough of summer races which Stockholm offers to any sport addicted person. This time our co-founders Anna and Oxana have participated in Stockholm Triathlon.
The Stockholm triathlon celebrates 10th anniversary this year (2008-2018). As before, the competition was organized in the central parts of town, with only a few minor changes from previous years. The race’s hub with start, finish and meeting places were located at the magnificent town hall at Kungsholmen. The swimming took place in the glittering Riddarfjärden, the cycle along Norr Mälarstrand, across the Västerbron and Söder Mälarstrand. The closing race took place towards the city, across beautiful Norrbro and by the castle.
Stockholm Triathlon offers several different distances, from the beginner-friendly sprint to the more challenging Olympic variant. Last time Anna chose Olympic distance, but last 2 years our coaches didn’t train as much as they would desire, so they opted for the sprint in 2018. It was the first time experience for Oxana and the second time for Anna. Anna tried to do it in 2013, but unfortunately was disqualified for missing a part of cycling. In 2014 Anna did Olympic distance. And in 2015/2016 our coaches did the relay race. In 2017 our girls participated as coaches for our student who came in our Club with no experience in swimming.
This 26th of August was quite cold and windy, so girls were a bit worried about water temperature, but Anna says that finally it was perfect when you are wearing a wet suit.
TIPS for future participants: if you choose to swim free style, try to put yourself in the first line to jump to the water in the swimming start. This time people was starting one by one. And then you waste a lot of time to overtake the athletes who are swimming breaststroke ahead.
Another obstacle was a windy weather, water was really wavy this year, exactly the same as last week in Riddarfjärdssimningen , which is not so common for Baltic Sea.
Biking part has shown that triathletes should train enough series BIKE-RUN, because it was really difficult to run after cycling. Ideally, says Anna, your training should include 10 km biking plus 2,5 km running for sprint distance, and 20 km biking plus 5 km running for Olympic distance.
Anyway the experience was absolutely amazing, our coaches have very similar paces. So they were doing all the parts together, just like in their training. It is really nice and joyful experience. Similar pace makes them think about considering to participate in ÖTILLÖ race where you compete in teams of two, by running across the islands and swimming between them.
We should mention that our coaches participate in races for fun, they don’t look for victories. We suggest it to anyone, because it really helps you to find time for training in your busy life full of work, family and friends.
If you plan to participate in Triathlon, join our Front Crawl swimming course in September and we will share wish you everything we know!