CLICK here to view the 2016 Greek Triathlon Calendar

CLICK here to view the 2016
Brevets (long distance) Road Bike Events in Greece

The Motivation: If not now, then when? Life is too short to stay inactive.
The Challenge: If you are not willing to suffer, then you shouldn't be racing
The Dream: Staying fit and feeling younger day by day!




Showing posts with label training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label training. Show all posts

08 March 2016

2016 Brevets (long distance) Road Bike Events in Greece

Brevets 2016


09-01 200 km "Tour Evros - Rodopi" - Alexandroupolis (Ble Cycling Club)

 24-01 200km Elefsina - Xylokastro - Elefsina (AO Aeolus) 
30-01 200km Elefsina - Nemea - Elefsina (P.E.P.A.) 
07-02 200km "Chios ... easy" (Ble Cycling Club) 
21-02 300km 'Atalanta' '- Agios Stefanos (Ble Cycling Club) 
27-02 300km Elefsina - Lake Glory - Elefsina (AO Aeolus) 
05-03 300km "Tour of Evros" - Alexandroupolis (Ble Cycling Club) 
19-03 400km 'Leonidio' '- Elefsina (Ble Cycling Club) 
26-03 200km South Evoikos (P.E.P.A.) 
01-04 400km Elefsina - Patras - Elefsina (AO Aeolus) 
15-04 600km Elefsina - Katakolon - Elefsina (AO Aeolus) 
16-04 200km Thermo (Thermo LE.M.A.)

Greek Triathlon Calendar 2016

Greek Triathlon Calendar 2016
 
- 02.14.2016, Biathlon, Schinias, "Energy Duathlon Attiki & National Championships Biathlon" (Distance: Sprint), www.energyraces.gr 

- 03.13.16, Biathlon, Kyparissia, "National Championship small classes", www.triathlon-hellas.com 
- 03.04.2016, Biathlon, Schinias, www.transitionsports.gr
-
04.10.2016, Triathlon, Marathon-Schinias, "Energy Triathlon Attiki & 1os Football Greek Cup", www.energyraces.gr

- 04.17.2016, Triathlon, Schinias (Distance: Sprint), www.transitionsports.gr
-
7/05/16, Off Road-Triathlon, Vouliagmeni, "XTERRA Greece Championship" (distances: Sprint & Olympic), www.xterragreece.com


24 December 2013

2014 - Brevet (long distance >200km..) Road Bike Races in Greece

PLEASE, CLICK ON THE TAB AT THE TOP OF THIS BLOG (titled:
' 2014 - Brevet (long distance >200km..) Road Bike Race Calendar in Greece  ') FOR THE MOST RECENT UPDATE OF THE BREVET ROAD BIKE RACE CALENDAR.
THE  POST BELOW IS NOT UPDATED ANYMORE AND IT IS ONLY KEPT HERE AS A REFERENCE. THANK YOU!


19 December 2013

What has happened to my 'rowing' blog space? The start of a new season.

As the name of this blog suggests, it includes topics about triathlon and rowing. But, the title of the blog has now changed into 'Triathlon and Cycling in Greece'. Why is that?

Firstly, I would like to say that I am a huge fan of rowing. The sport of rowing fits me exceptionally well. I have the right body shape for this sport and it's a perfect exercise too, as it's a sport that trains the entire body (one rowing stroke uses about 80% of your body muscles! Which other gym machine do you know that can do this?). In addition, I have performed pretty well as a part-time rower: I've participated in 4 Greek indoor rowing championships, I've managed two first places and two second places, plus a national record that I set in 2009. I also raced in the European Championship in 2012 finishing a respectable 7th place between top rowers all across the continent. I loved and I still love rowing a lot, it gives me a complete satisfaction and fulfilment when I train, race and improve my conditioning on this machine.

But, the main obstacle is equipment provision. Indoor rowing is not popular in Greece. I really straggled a lot to identify a gym near my home, which can provide an indoor rower. Between about a dozen of gyms, only 1 of them had an indoor rower - just one machine and yet that was an old make model that did not give correct and accurate readings anymore.. On top of this the subscription fees to this particular gym were exceptionally high - I was paying around EUR 180 for a three month subscription..back then (to give you an idea, an annual gym subscription in Greece costs on average around EUR 250). But, I didn't mind, as I was so excited about it and I was willing to take off cash out of my pocket for indoor rowing.

Now this has changed and it's a kind of luxury for me to keep doing this. In addition, I couldn't find any partners interested to share training sessions and keep myself motivated. I was fine training on my own during the first 2 years about 5 times a week, but I gradually realised that I needed a kind of a team to keep my excitement going forwards. Furthermore, there were not many (only 1 actually..) indoor races organised in Greece. Apart from the main indoor rowing championship held every December in Athens, there wasn't anything particularly going on around this sport in general. I was training hard and consistently for 5 months only to race a 3 minutes event once a year. This wasn't what I was looking for. I wanted some more action and competition around me, which I couldn't find.. I had huge reserves of energy to put into rowing, but there was only one event every year that gave me the chance to release it. Not enough for me.

So, during this year ( Aug. 2013), I decided to switch into different sports with the hope to involve myself in races all year around and in addition to find some training partners. In these terms, triathlon was always a very exciting idea at the back of my mind. I was racing triathlon events during my indoor rowing season, as a means to cross-train and refresh my mind. I soon realised that triathlon provided more or less what I was looking for: Action, competition, many events, chance to meet other athletes easily, train with others, direct access to commonly found equipment/facilities (bike, track field, swimming pool), challenges and a very variable mixture of three different sports all in one...etc .etc...

So, 2013 has been the turning point for me in terms of sports. I leave indoor rowing behind (sadly) to welcome triathlon and cycling too! Both sports have exploded in popularity in Greece especially during the last 2 years. There are now more than 30 annual race events in Greece all together for triathlon and cycling. Every time I take my bike and cycle out, there would be at least one person that I will join or know from somewhere. My training and fitness have also improved dramatically since August, when I finalised my decision to make the change into triathlon and cycling.

I feel refreshed and motivated now. A nice way to welcome 2014 too!

See you out there and wish you all a happy 2014 with plenty of sports action, health and race events! :)



 (my bike dressed up for Xmas! On the background: the shiny cover bag of my windsurf race board)










23 October 2013

From no training to achieving a PB finish time in Olympic triathlon distance: My quick story for the 2013 tri-racing

A recap of the last and major triathlon events of the year: my story


I know that I've been pretty quite this year on my blog. If you see the new posts uploaded during 2013 you will notice that you can count them in the fingers of your one hand. Well, there are many reasons for this, mainly because I've been too busy with my full-time job and on top of this I've been dedicating almost my entire free time towards a potential job hunt all across Europe (applications, interviews, travelling, CVs, calls..).

It's the first time after many years that I realise my active participation into sports is at its minimum. In 2013, after 4 successful years into indoor rowing and systematic training, I decided to shift into triathlon. I have changed many sports in the past from basketball, into windsurfing, into rowing and now into triathlon, I like trying new things! However, for 2013 it was only during May-June and September-October when I managed to follow a rough training schedule - and still during those more active periods I didn't perform athletically in a structured manner. So, all in all, 2013 was a kind of 'time off-sports' for me as I had to sacrifice my sports for the things I mentioned above.

(shown on the left: Jan.2013, London from London-eye tourist attraction)

However, sports, training and racing has always been something inseparable from my life. I believe that sports must be integrated within everyone's routine, regardless how busy or free time you have available. Sports have always helped me to organise my mind and put things of life into an order.

In May 2013, after 4 months of complete absence from any real training due to an intense preparation of an important business trip to Ireland, I signed up for 2 Sprint distances and 1 Olympic distance triathlon races, which were to take place within a 5-week period! This sounds crazy, as everyone knows that triathlon in particular requires significant training in terms of volume and intensity. I will never forget my first ever tri-race in 2010, which left me with a huge surprise as to the amount of effort and pressure it is required to complete even a sprint triathlon race. But, for some unusual reason, this time I felt it was possible to go through this time-squeezed 3 race schedule - probably I've missed racing for triathlon and I felt that I was full of energy (mainly mentally) to accept the challenge.


12 September 2013

The first ever Ironman Event in Greece - scheduled for the 20th September 2014


http://www.threelevelpower.com/images/stories/posters/2013/poster_tlp_2258_lg.jpg

So far, the existing Triathlon Races in Greece have been for distances up to Half-Ironman.
This is a huge achievement, considering that triathlon in this country is still a relatively new concept for the majority of sports people.
To have an Ironman event being organised seemed an impossibility , until recently.

The first ever Ironman even in Greece is to take place on Monday 20 September 2014 (correct at the time of writing) by 3 Level Power. For more info you can click this link: http://www.threelevelpower.com/index.php?lang=en .

On Monday 14 October 2013 the Three Level Power organisation will initiate pre-event summits for the technical side of this event.

Well done guys, keep up the good job.

17 December 2012

Indoor Rowing energy expenditure: How many calories can you burn while on indoor rower?

An excellent calorie calculator, which estimates the amount of calories burned based on your body weight and activity is provided here: http://concept2.co.uk/training/bmr_calculator.
You will be amazed on how many calories can an indoor rower burn!

This is also an excellent way to find out how much training you need to complete to get rid of unnecessary weight!

Notice that indoor rower is a great calorie-burner! Below I quote the results for my body characteristics inputting 3 indoor rowing sessions (note, that I normally execute separately each of those training sessions, but for illustration purposes I've added them together on a single day to outline their calorie expenditure).

Example - Basal Metabolic Rate Calculator(s) for a 105kg active person


The BMR for a 105 kg Male, 30-59 years old, is 2080.5 kcal.

Your energy expenditure for the day (excluding exercise) is your BMR (2080.5) multipled by your activity level (2.0)2080.5 x 2.0 = 4,161.0

Your hourly metabolic rate (HMR) is 2080.5 divided by 24.HMR = 2080.5/24 = 86.7

The training cost in activity of each exercise is calculated as your HMR multiplied by the Physical Activity Ratio of the exercise multiplied by their time in hours. See the Energy Costs page for a table of the different PARs for each pace.

ROWING SESSIONS considered:
Session 1 = 86.7 x 14.2 x (45/60) = 923 kcals (45min at 2:00/500m)
Session 1 = 86.7 x 21 x (8/60) = 243 kcals (8min at 1:45/500m)
Session 1 = 86.7 x 33.6 x (6/60) = 291 kcals (6min at 1:30/500m)

The total energy cost of your day is, therefore 5,618 (that is to say, your overall BMR plus all your exercise sessions).

 

Food Groups

The process outline here is a guide to your energy output and is a good place to start if you are interested in weight management. The other aspect is knowing the calorie balance. Energy is provided by three food groups, carbohydrates, protein and fats. The relative balance between these groups is 60% carbohydrates, 17% protein and 23% fats. Carbohydrates and protein provide 4.3 calories per gram and fat provides 9 calories.

The dietary requirements for a daily output of 5,618 kcals is therefore:
Carbohydrates = 5618.427 multiplied by (60/100) divided by 4.3 = 784.0 grams
Proteins = 5618.427 multiplied by (17/100) divided by 4.3 = 222.1 grams
Fats = 5618.427 multiplied by (23/100) divided by 9 = 143.6 grams

19 August 2012

My indoor rowing gym - a quick presentation!




Demonstrating a 1000m indoor rowing training session. Pace 1:45/500m, 28s/m.

I'm 1.93m tall, 102 kg, 34 YO. I am into indoor rowing for about 3 years now. On the water rowing for about 3 months.

Personal best times:
- 500m: 1:22.3 (training - March 2012)
- 1000m: 3:00.4 (2011 Greek Indoor Rowing Championship, 30-39)
- 2000m: 6:21.1 (2012 BIRC and Euro Open IRC, 30-34 HWT)

Indoor Rower used: Model E with PM4 monitor.
Equipment: Courtesy of AASports, Greece ( http://www.aasport.gr/main/ )
(background music from www.di.fm )

Popular blog articles...