Recent content on Fredrik Loch
Five months after a heart setback forced me to restart from zero, I lined up for Vätternrundan 2026 with an FTP of 190W and a CTL of 31. Here’s how the rebuild played out, how PacePartner helped me adapt through travel and disrupted training, and why finishing in 14 hours and 30 minutes felt like a win.
As we move into June, I wanted to sit down and reflect on the last 3 months of my training and health. It’s been a period of finding my footing again, and I want to share where I’m at before looking ahead to what’s next.
After heart issues derailed the start of my year, I needed a different way to approach building toward Vätternrundan 2026. Here’s how PacePartner changed the way I think about training when the stakes feel higher and the margin for error feels smaller.
February was less about progression and more about cautiously finding consistency again. After the heart issues earlier in the year, I was finally able to return to slightly more regular training in the second half of the month, even as work travel kept disrupting routines and the first version of PacePartner took shape.
A personal look at why I built PacePartner, how it connects with Intervals.icu, and the gap it is trying to close for self-coached athletes.
After two months of forced rest due to heart irritation post-flu, I’m mapping out a cautious return to training—and recalibrating my 2026 goals to prioritize health, durability, and long-term progress.
December was a complete write-off in terms of training, as the flu took hold and forced a necessary, albeit frustrating, break. With almost zero activity, the focus shifted entirely to recovery, family, and reflecting on the year’s journey, ending the year with a lesson in patience.
November was a frustrating month of trying to get back on track, only to be knocked down by lingering fatigue and illness. The data shows a month of low volume and inconsistency, but a late return to some structure offers a glimmer of hope for December.
Illness disrupted most of October, leading to reduced volume and an adjusted outlook. A look at what training I managed, how I’m refocusing for November, and keeping perspective during setbacks.
As I sit down to reflect on my journey towards the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships 2027, I realize how important it is to set realistic and sustainable goals. When I first started this journey, my aim was to finish in the top 100 at the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships 2027. However, as I’ve progressed and learned more about my body and the demands of training, I’ve come to…
September came with a headwind of real life: work turned hectic, both me and my wife took turns traveling which meant solo-parenting shifts, and we kicked off a much‑needed home decluttering project. Add a nagging cold that seemed to loiter for days, and the month became a lesson in adjusting expectations and keeping the wheels turning—sometimes literally, sometimes not.
August has come and gone in a blur of changing routines, steady base training, and some memorable family milestones. As summer draws to a close, I’ve found myself in that familiar transitional space—part reflection, part preparation—balancing training blocks, personal life, and a slow shift toward autumn.
After struggling with knee pain during the final stretch of Vätternrundan 2025, I took a hard look at my training routine and realized I had neglected strength work. In this post, I share how I’ve rebuilt my approach with a two-part strength training program designed to support both endurance cycling and military readiness—blending science, experience, and practical strategies for integrating…
July has been a month of transitions—a gentle ramp down from a busy training block into a period of recovery, a ten-day adventure in the hills combined with team-lead training, and finally a gradual return to structured workouts. On top of that, I’ve just started my last month of parental leave, which means mornings of bike rides with the kids, afternoons at the playground.
After a busy stretch, this week was about pulling back—not just physically, but mentally and emotionally too. The arrival of a new baby has shifted a lot of routines, and it’s been hard to find one-on-one time with my older son. This week, with my wife and the baby away at camp, I had a rare window to focus just on him.
A post-Vätternrundan recovery trip that turned into a quiet lesson in pacing, history, and hydration—plus this week’s recovery metrics and next week’s return to motion.
Returning to blogging with a three-year mission to qualify for the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships 2027. Here’s the structured plan and the mindset behind it.
Despite starting the week with flu symptoms, this year’s Vätternrundan became a meaningful ride focused on family, resilience, and key lessons for future improvement.
A detailed look at my gear and nutrition plan for Vätternrundan 2025, building on lessons learned from last year’s ride.
A long-term review of my Trek Émonda ALR5 2018 after 6000km of riding, both indoors and outdoors. Honest impressions, upgrades, maintenance experience, and lessons learned.
The last few weeks have been all about fine-tuning the engine and dialling in the race plan for Vätternrundan. With the big day right around the corner, here’s a quick recap of the final training block and a deep dive into the fuelling plan that will carry me through 315 kilometers around Lake Vättern.
I found this a very interesting read, despite the fact that it shows it age in both writing style and societal views. Regarding the latter the book seems fairly progressive for it’s publishing date (1952) and it’s storyline avoids some of the more troublesome areas where we have had major upheavals since the time of writing. The story itself is fascinating following the lives of a…
As the final parts of the riftwar saga have been release (for quite some time) I figured it warranted a revisit, especially since this is one of my all time favorite fantasy epics. Given that this is an old favorite I had to contend with the fear of it not living up to my memories, however It continues to be a great read. The book and the series as a whole is a fairly classic fantasy epic…
This is a story about a lost war, told from the perspective of a soldier fighting for a cause, even as that cause is gradually abandoned by the country that sent him. It is a story of suffering and violence and it’s a story about a countries abandonment of the kids sent to fight a lost war. But most of all it is the story of one mans war and his way back home.
This is the first book in a series of freestanding books centering around admiral Morgan a bullish but brilliant American naval officer. The story line, although marginally plausible is more than extravagant enough for it to at points become absurd. In general the book is plagued by an extreme pro-US bias robbing the story of any real challenges and making the eventual success seem inevitable.…
I read this book looking for details regarding one of the most controversial conflicts in history. I was not disappointed the book do offer a lot of information about the conflict and the events leading up to a full scale war. It tries to do justice by two sides which sometimes feels a bit forced. However the fact that the authors made an effort to include the north Vietnamese side makes the book…
Due to the HBO mini series this is a very well known book that follows the 101th airborne through the European champaign in the second world war. Sadly reading the book offered no greater insight than the miniseries did making reading the book seem somewhat unnecessary. I would even go so far as to recommend the tv-series over the book since it’s easier to follow the narrative there.…
This is a three part Swedish series about a war that never happened. it’s written as a collection of stories following multiple main actors along in the main story. This makes sometimes makes it hard to follow a specific character and remember past events that effect there behavior. the story takes place at the end of the cold war. The setting is a Scandinavia harassed by increasing tensions…
Apart from sudden fears of imminent doom this book is a fascinating look into the world after a disaster. It is fiction and makes no claim on correctness but the alternative history it describes is hauntingly plausible. The story revolves around a single relative to a bomber pilot in the cold war. After a short buildup where he gets the responsibility of his brothers family a full scale nuclear…
This is a massive book which dives deep into the personalties and characters of the second world war. It’s written by a journalist with no real claims at being an historian which in itself proves to be a boon to a book this massive. The personal narrative is almost maintained throughout the book with short but relevant lapses into numbers of casualties and statistics. The author worked as a…
This is one of my first forays into sci-fi as a genre and I think I made a good choice. Even though the setting seems somewhat far fetched the story and the way the fictional society evolves is surprisingly relevant. The only major gripe I have with the book is the last quarter which sadly becomes somewhat anticlimactic after a fast paced and interesting beginning. The book is in a way split in…
This is another book that I have listened to instead of reading it. And like the last book The girl with the lower back tattoo it’s a biography read by the author, in this case Bruce Springsteen. This is a very well read book and even though the narrative makes it feel like it was written as an audio play I do believe that the story and the writing is interesting by itself. However since I…
This book is definitely one of the most interesting memoir’s I have ever read. Almost everything about it sparks my interests, it’s a story about glamor, bravery and war. Even though the narrative can be somewhat narcissistic (even for a biography) the main story and the characters make it well worth the read. The book tells the story of a young lady on a quest for adventure, the…
Since starting my paternity leave, I have gotten a lot of audio-book and this was my first book of the year. It’s been hovering on my “to read” list for a few months and since I enjoy Amy Schumer as a comedian I thought that it might be an excellent choice as a audio-book. The author reads the book herself which in this case saves the book, the reading is funny, personal and…
This is a book that left me somewhat confused, it’s filled with equal parts of brilliance and horror. As the title suggest it’s a book about raising children, it’s filled with descriptions of ways to think and prepare for different situations in life as a parent. In many ways the book is filled with interesting views on parenting and the focus on rewards for commitment and…
Zen To Done describes a simplified version of David Allen’s Getting Things Done . I am still having some issues getting to the end of GTD which makes it hard for me to comment on specific simplifications. But the fact that I managed to both read the book and start implementing some of the ideas well before finishing GTD does say something. The system is created by Leo Babauta who runs the…
With my newfound time limitations I have been having major issues with getting myself to the gym. Combine this with the extra stresses that caring for a child seems to induce I was on the fast track to muscle pains. The book Never Gymless by Ross Enamati with it’s focus on bodyweight exercises seemed like a good starting point on the journey to becoming a pain free dad. The fact that the…
A rumor of war by Philip Caputo is a strong memoir of a war that history is trying to forget. The book follows a young soldier during a horrible war of attrition that no-one planned for. War is brutish, inglorious, and a terrible waste. The book feels fairly honest even though you do get a sense that the author is trying to smooth things over. Especially if you consider other horrific stories that…
With the old breed is one of the stories that inspired the HBO miniseries the Pacific . The show like the book focuses on the personal stories in a war of millions. It’s a biography of a solider with little or no say in deployments or tactics. This focus on the individual story makes the book gripping and grim. The author distances himself from horrible the honesty by a detached cold…
This is my first Swedish book review, but as promised I will include a short summary of the book in English. Coq Rouge is the fast paced story about Carl Hamilton a teenager that gets recruited into military intelligence at an early age. But against his wishes he is forced into the Swedish security police. The story unfolds around the murder of a high ranking officer. A murder which turns out to…
Meditations was my first foray into ancient philosophy but I do believe that I struck gold directly. This book offers both a fascinating insight into the life and mind of one of the most powerful men in the history of the world (Marcus Aurelius was a roman emperor) and a refreshing way to look at life. It’s the latter of those two that makes me consider making reading this book a yearly…
Given my fascination with both naval warfare and history this gripping narrative of seldom discussed part of the Guadalcanal offensive struck gold. The author, James D. Hornfischer manages to combine the historical facts with an exiting story in a similar way to the brilliant Stalingrad by Antony Beevor . As the title implies the book focuses on the naval operations surrounding the invasion of…
I’ve had a great deal of trouble deciding on what I think of this short classic by F.Scott Fitzgerald. The story is well written and makes an excellent job at describing the decadent intrigue without leaving the reader with empty characters and false promises. However large parts of the story lacks any coherent plot and could almost be considered an extended prelude or footnote to the fast…