Lisa Norden

Recent Lisa Norden Videos:

Grown up in a smaller Swedish town I was the typical horse girl who was good at sport. I rode my bike everywhere (most times quicker than the bus) and learnt about hard work and responsibility in the stable. I wanted to go places with my competing but with limited finances horseriding proved to be a difficult venue.

In the summer of 2000 I rode my bike to Italy together with my mum. The day she turned 40 we put our feet in the Mediterranean having been on the bike for 19 days, most of these in a heavy rain... I had an old steel bike 5 sizes to big, gears down on the frame and bags attached both front and back. It did the work, but I can't say I was sold on the sport.

The turnaround was a few weeks after the return to Sweden when I signed up for a local triathlon event in my hometown. I had to breastswim all the 400m in the pool and was 2nd last out of the water... With a solid bike base in my legs I managed to overtake a whole bunch of people and win my age group.

Another year down the road my horse got injured and I made the decision to learn to swim and put some more time into my own training. This paid off and in 2002 I won the Swedish Junior Champs, the Nordic Junior Champs and qualified for Europeans. FUN! Finally I found a sport where you get rewarded for your training and commitment , not by the size of your familys wallet. ]

I still have all my family and friends back in Sweden. The horses are swoped for dogs but my mum is still active and have done three IM's since the cycling trip to Italy.

I'm currently based in Australia training with Darren Smith, my coach since 2007. I'm living the dream, riding my bike and training hard day after day. My ultimate goal is to found out how good I can be and how fast I can get.

The challenge will be to time this with the day if the triathlon event in London 2012...

Weekend adventures...and hickups!

March 8, 2010

It's been a quite eventful weekend this time. On top of the normal training [coach] Darren had managed to add a 3k track event for us on Saturday night. Track race. Jeeze. As the normal philosophy in our training sounds: offroad, trails and lots of hills...the smooth red surface of a track felt very foreign for me. Also the fact that I due to a cranky knee haven't done too much speed work yet this year, the 3k started to look pretty scary as Saturday night drew closer.

But, I should know by now pain is not a reason good enough to be scared.

Once into the run I realized I was quite enjoying myslef. Even with lactate up to my ears...

And it's comforting to know that the fitter I get the more enjoy the hurtfactor...

So, how did I go..? Well I got smashed by Vinnie [Vendula Frintova] is my squad who ran a 9:30something. But I'm proud to say that I went under 10mins off my limited running (I wont give you any times.. :)) And I keep reminding myself Vinnie is the current World Duathlon Champ... and she has alreaday proved to be fit and ready to tackle all sorts of races.

As the track race started at 7:40 it was late when I got back, even later after having spoken to my dad on the phone, showered and had dinner... Only hours until it was time to get on the bike and head out for the weekly long ride...

As everyone [in the squad] are in slightly different phases, down with colds or in taper mode, we were only 3 girls heading out for the long ride. I enjoyed a slight sleepin (thats what I call a 6:45 wakeup) and a very large übersized strong coffee before Jenna and Barbara rolled up to the house.

Pump, tube, Garmin Edge, coffee money -check.

Another 4 mins down the road Jennas tyre EXPLODED, a 5cm long cut which proved to be very unrideable (ofcourse she wasn't riding specialized tyres..) Phonecall, pick up and 2 girls were left for the long ride...

We managed to get trough another set of lights before Barb's bike started wheezing and she stopped to pull out the nail that was pointing out of the tyre...

I couldn't believe it! We hadn't even got 10mins into the ride and already had managed to get two punctures!

As bad turned to worse Barbara didn't have a spare with a long velve so we had to ride back to the start point again...

1 hour later we were finally on the way, spirits up high again but tummys aching to get back to breakfast...

It ended up being a really nice ride down and past Cotter followed by a post ride coffee in O'Connor. And the breakfast had sadly had turned into lunch before I got back home again...

Stats for Lisa Norden are coming soon.
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