Pink goes Gigathlon, Hello from Switzerland

You may wonder how I have been, since the race in South Africa?
When I returned home, I found myself very very tired, but once the fatigue was slept away, I discovered an amazing physical shape. Unlike Whistler, when I returned home winter was gone and spring had arrived. Snow was melting, flowers popped out of the meadows. There were a few powder days, some spring skiing.. but not too much. I simply didn’t feel to do winter sports when the sun was brightly shining on deep green meadows.
My bruises took long to heal, especially there seemed something odd with my left knee. It didn’t disturb me in training, neither during my long runs (usually over 20-30km), nor when skiing, nor cycling and swimming. Yoga exercises were a different thing though, my favorite asanas were simply impossible. Eventually I had an MRI made, and … boy…. I was surprised! The MRI showed evidence of a ruptured anterior crucial ligament, bone bruise, torn menisci. The classical evil triad. It was not me only who was suprised, the doctor and later on the physiotherapist both couldn’t believe how well I felt doing not just a bit, but rather a lot of sports.., 30 or more hours a week. Also my knee didn’t and doesn’t show the typical signs common to such injuries. What to do? Since I felt pain only when doing yoga, or when bending the knee to extreme angles, we decided to wait and see what nature does with the injury. All… I wanted was… to become fit for my next adventure… The Swiss Olympic Gigathlon. For anyone interested, this is the website in French. Unfortunally, no English website is availabe. http://www.gigathlon.ch/fr/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid-4307.
So.. what is the Gigathlon?
The Gigathlon is a competition comprising 5 disciplines: Mountain Bike; Road Bike, Swimming, Running and Inline Skating. It is a 2 days event, and the race can be done in a team of 5 people, team of 2 people (the “couples”) or.. a few people every year challenge themselves by doing it all alone. I am one of these “single” athletes. It is not the first time, I have done it 2 times before (2009 and 2010), both times I finished within the first 8 women (out of about 30)… But you know, the ranking is not so important, to finish is goal and challenge at the same time. Everything is possible in such a long race and it is unpredictable. Typically it’s a 12-14hour racing time per day, all disciplines provide difficulty levels, that are average-challenge for someone expert in the discipline. For instance the Mountain Bike stages are typically 30-50km with about 1500 to 2000 meters of climb, this would be “average”. Often downhills are challenging, yet not too difficult. Swimming typically is 3km, awfully long for someone who’s not a fish by nature but also kind of a challenge for a routine freestyle swimmer. Same is true for the runnings. Running stages are typically around 30km long, this year is very special in as much as they will be short but go uphill only. We will have to climb 1600m and go up to 3200 m above see level to glacier areas. Road bike this year will be very mountaineous, with one stage ressembling a past stage of the Professionals Tour de Romandie.
The following two videos give you a taste of the entire parcour, the length and scenery as well as the region of Switzerland where te event takes place. It is a region with stunning sceneries, a region I would recommend without hesitation to anyone visiting Switzerland. Saturday stage: http://youtu.be/I8FyWyN-zQs Sunday stage: http://youtu.be/2Yh_hl1SEtE
So how to train for such event? As you may know, my regular training involves 3 of the 5 disciplines aleady. I just intensified my runnings in as much as I run up nearly every mountain above the village I am living. Since 2009 I started to regularily go swimming also. I even took lessons in swimming and I improved my technique considerably, even though I am far from being competitive. The obvious challenge of the gigathlon is the length of the total endurance excercise. You need to start at a pace that you can maintain forever.. no hurry, neither in your mind, nor in the body, no bursts of energy, just constant pace. Next important thing is: Constant replenishing of fuel…. At the gigathlon, even me, known as a camel (remember?) will stop at every waterpoint to pick up electrolyte drinks and food. Next specific challenge is: It really matters in which order the disciplines come. It is a nightmare to ride a road bike after having been on inline skates for 60 km (that was the case in 2009). Changing from the 3km Swimming to Inlinke Skates is no fun too: On the first few km you feel like you had been drinking a lot too much. Finally, you cannot do the gigathlon without help. This time I am allowed to have one supporter. It will be stressful for the supporter too. He needs to prepare the gear, the equipment and the food for me to pick up at the next change area. He might need to be a good psychologist too, in case of need. The picture shows my supporter in 2010 working hard to make my little adventure possible.
How can one endure such a long race. Well, first of all it is really fun. There is a very special Gigathlon athmosphere that is difficult to describe. If done as a single athlete, there is so many people who simply are applauding for you believing that you can do it. Finally there is a lot of sympathy among the competitors. It is not so much racing and being top ranked. It is more about being able to realize something that you may have thought impossible. It is about growing a bit through the experience. And finally.. the Gigathlons typically make you see parts of your country, that you didn’t know. Typically the regions selected for the event are FANTASTIC. This year for instance we will run up from Zermatt to the Cornergrat. A place I’d recommend anyone visiting Switzerland. It is breathtakingly beautiful. This picture with the glacier and the bikes below where was taken last fall, when I was there for biking.
So the race starts this weekend. I am prepared, in good physical shape. I’ve done lots of long distance training on the bikes (typically 6-8hours), done lots of swimming. I am looking forward to the event. The knee should be strong, it never hurt me in training. Everything is ready packed, the supporter is briefed, he knows his job exactly (doing it for the 3rd time too). Yeah!!!
And.. what after the gigathlon? After the gigathlon there will be the Mountain Bike Transalp in mid July. More to follow…
The automated slide show underneath shows impressions from training and the Gigathlon 2010. Enjoy.
Thanks for reading.
Sabina