Åsa Tengblad is racing on Saturday with her husband Patric Tengblad as Team Envol Combat MS. She shares a few thoughts with us.
The preparations for WC and a s print like the final 15 are in my mind completely different. For WC the preparations started almost a year ago, to make sure you build up your endurance to be able to stay in constant movement for 12-14hr without breaking down physically or mentally! For the sprint, you do not not need to push so many hours of training, but it also depends on your goal for the different competitions.
My aim has never been to be on the podium, but to be the best I can be with my ability and time I have decided to put down on training.
For the WC I prepare nutrition intake seriously and look like a Big Mama at the start with loads of gels and nutrition in my wetsuit. At a sprint race I can keep this to a minimal, which is great. But for both competitions I aim to sleep well and make sure I have eaten well before the start.
Me and my husband are racing the 15K together while my other racing partner, Veronica is taking care of our kids since it’s only a short competition and nearby. We are talking about teamwork over the family borders here! It’s a familiy thing 😉 We love the extended swimrun family!
Communication is key
Not sure I can recommend racing with your real life partner to everybody. I think it all depends on your relationship and what it can endure. We have raced quite a few races now and understand well how we work in competition mode, which is totally different. I’m the talkative person and Patric likes his earplugs. Communication is key as they say! But we have adapted, I talk and he nods.
What is fun when we races is that he pulls on the swims and I try to pull him on the runs, since we are strong in different disciplines. For us, racing is like date nights – so we are happy to do it!
Amazing
My expectations on this race is that we both try our best and hopefully this will go as quick as possible and I’m not able to talk while running. Then we have reached our potential I would say! 🙂 I have high expectations on the course since I have heard its gonna be amazing both on the swim legs and on the cliff running.
