Ok, fair enough - we have been a little out of touch lately but boy did the last year suck. Moved a couple of times, switched jobs twice and the performance went down, down, down.
A 5:37 with brutal cramps and a 1:55 half marathon at the Challenge Kraichgau Half Distance is not exactly a race to brag about. At least I screwed up my knee properly so I had to cancel the entire season now.
Whilst I am spending most of my time at the gym Lutz is at least trying to improve his running performance to run a personal best marathon at Berlin Marathon in September.
I know, I know, it all sounds a little depressed but hey - it's all about what we make out of it. It gives me a lot of time to analyse last years training, work on my base and strength for at least 6 months without the pressure of racing for personal bests and even more time to try and test cool new gear and gadgets.
I just recently switched over to Tri11 Wetsuits - and hell boy - they rock. Super fast and even more comfortable. (Admittingly, in a world in which rich tourists can fly to the moon it kinda sucks that I still have to swim myself rather than pushing the 'auto pilot button' on my wetsuit - but nothing I can do about it :-))
Well, basically wanted to say hi again and let you know that we are back - don't forget to check back in. I will be posting a couple of test reviews here over the next few days and get you ready and rocking for the ITU World Championship Race in Hamburg.
Rock n' Roll folks.
Till
A couple of days back I started of my 3 race triathlon sprint mini series with a 500m swim, 20k bike ride and following 5k run at the Stadtpark Triathlon Hamburg. It was raining cats and dogs.
The swim was a little bumby, as expected. I am just not in the right swimming form yet. That’s gotta change until Antwerpes in August.
Besides not being fit on the swim, it was hard to navigate through the pouring rain and I added some unwanted meters to the route.
Transition one wasn’t exactly a highlight either but whats bothering me even more is the fact that I didn’t find my rhythm on the 5 loop bike course. Yet another time. Just like at Ironman 70.3 Switzlerland in Rapperswil I had to accept the fact the I am missing the punch on the bike at the moment. The rain and windy, cold conditions didn’t exactly contribute to the performance. A positive side effect of the cold temperatures was that my feet were deep frozen by the time I hit transition 2 and therefore I at least didn’t feel the stones cutting wholes in my feet whilst running for the bike rack.
Transition 2 – finally a positive moment of my race. T2 seems to become my favorite specialty in racing. Thanks to the help of my beloved Zoot Ultra shoe☺. Helmet off, quick change of shoes and off I was. If only triathlon would consis of T2 only and my ticket to Hawaii would be booked already.
At least on the run I am getting there – much in comparison to the race in Switzerland. I logged the 11th best run time of the day at 18:57 – only 2 seconds of a top ten result. I can see the light! There is even more possible if only the bike rides wouldn’t take that much toll on my body at the moment.
For the final stretch of the race the sun kindly decided to show up and I crossed the finish line at 01:05:35h. Overall 19th and 6th in my age group.
To sum it up: Especially on the first to legs of a triathlon there is a lot to improve for myself but the running raises some optimism fort he qualifiers at Antwerpes. At some point I’ll catch a good day to race – maybe next Sunday at the Grossensee Sprint. Lets wait and see....
Bring it on!
Lutz
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