Back in business

Many months have passed since my last post. Maybe some of you thought I had put my plans away. Nothing could be further from the truth. Over the past few months, I have been working out and exercising a lot, with trial and error.

Pretty soon after my surgery for my collarbone fracture, I was able to resume training. On the bike and rollers, though. Only in June was I able to get back on the road with my bike. And it wasn't until early July that I was back on roller skis for the first time. Afterwards, in July and August, I started building further towards my first big goal of the year. The Kromme Rijn Loppet in the Netherlands on 26 October. Unfortunately, this was again accompanied by a fall on roller skis. On a descent at the Nordic Ski Centre in Oberstdorf, I did not make it through a fast turn and crashed. At first, the damage seemed limited to scrapes. But after a few hours, I began to notice that the left shoulder was also internally battered this time. No fracture, fortunately. But it did include a strain of the upper biceps tendon and some tendons in the rotator cuff. To this day, I still suffer from this. But fortunately not when training on the roller skis and cross-country skis.

Because indeed. Since 1 September, I have been training every Sunday morning on cross-country skis at SnowWorld Landgraaf with the Nordic Sports 4 All association. An enthusiastic group of cross-country skiers who don't mind being on skis on Sundays from 7:30 to 9:00. Meanwhile, I also learned cross-country skiing on skate skis there. And I must say I like this very much. There is still a lot of work to refine the technique of both classic and freestyle cross-country skiing. Especially when skiing uphill for a long time. But I notice improvement every week and am having a great time. I am then surrounded by some very experienced skiers who have already run several Vasaloppets, Birkebeiners and other Marcialongas.

Despite the shoulder injury, I managed to continue training well. I did cross-country skiing, roller skiing, and cycling. I mainly focused on shifting the length of time I exercised, both in endurance training and intensity training. All to finish the 30 km Kromme Rijn Loppet within 3 hours on 26 October. Whether I succeeded? I will tell you more later.

Meanwhile, the training counter is on:

• Cycling: 307,02 km

• Cycling on rollers: 9:17:03

• Walking: 453.14 km

• Strength training: 22:29:02

• Core @ home: 7:37:24

• Roller skiing: 411.70 km

• Cross-country skiing - classic: 57,13 km (9:40:27 – Due to lack of GPS connection in the indoor venue only the time on skis is shown here)

• Cross-country skiing - skate: 11:48:39 – Due to lack of GPS connection in the indoor venue only the time on skis is shown here

• Alpine skiing: 149,91 km