I’ve been on this deca-journey for quite some time now, and 2019 has been a year with some great adventures that will help me get there in 2020… The Double in Emsdetten was a great mental test to see how I’d cope with a short course ultra-triathlon, the Lake Zurich Swim was a great learning experience to see how my mind could push my body through it, even when the body really didn’t want to anymore, and then there were all these ‘smaller’ adventures… So many good memories made, new friends met and beautiful places visited!

But the last few weeks it’s all getting really ‘real’… I’ve signed up for the race (which is now officially the Continuous Deca World Championship… no pressure there…), I’ve had a first sit down with my awesome team (which may have raised more questions about logistics than it’s answered, but still helped to remove some of the clouds in my brain…), and the training mileage is slowly increasing…

…long and early rides…

…and long runs to train stations everywhere…

There’s not too much swimming, and cycling mostly ‘feels’ like it’s long rides (but that’s mainly due to temperature… In the summer a 6 hour ride is just so much more comfortable!), but it’s the running that I didn’t expect to be at this level so early in the process… A few 6 hour runs in the winter, and last weekend a ‘double marathon weekend’ (in the cold and rain), and next to the long runs there’s also all the short interval runs… It’s hard work, but I’m enjoying it, even when it’s a huge challenge to fit it all in, mainly because I’m also really busy at work these months…

…it’s getting real now…

Every four weeks or so I have a good talk with coach Jacomina. It’s usually the same format every time; I tell her how the past four weeks have been, how the body is doing, how the mind is coping with the long hours of training, and then she will ask me about rest, nutrition and all those other things that are so important, but not necessarily my strong points… Then we continue for another cup of tea and some social talk, and later that day (or the day after) I receive my schedule for the next few weeks…

This has been going on for a few years now, but today… today it’s different…

I thought I did manage to find a good balance with training and work, until I hear myself talking to Jacomina… I hear words like ‘tired’, ‘complicated’, ‘powering through it’, ‘getting it done with’ and ‘tired’ (I know, that’s 2 ‘tireds’… but believe me; that word was used a lot more than twice today…).
Before Jacomina even asks any follow-up questions she decides it’s time to take a break for the next few weeks; no more long sessions, only shorter ones, and we’ll see how we’ll pick it up in January.

…Saturdays run will be shortened by 5 hours…

Later today I go for a one-hour walk in the forest (replacing my 90minutes hard interval run), and I have some time to reflect on this mornings conversation. I feel a huge relief… I was seriously not looking forward to next weekends training-sessions, and to hear that those are cancelled gets me into a completely relaxed headspace… It’s also a bit of a confusing feeling; I feel happy to take things slow for a few weeks, but I also feel that I ‘need’ those hours of running… Luckily I do know that it’s better to slow down right now for just a few weeks, than to just keep pushing hard, and burn out in a few months…

…a walk and a rest to put things into perspective…

The big challenge on the way towards the deca is to stay injury-free, and make it to the start-line in one piece, and this mornings talk is just one of those reasons why great support on this journey is so important…

So thank you Coach, for making these smart decisions for me!!

…lot’s of things crossed out on coach’s notepad…