Reports

Unfortunately there are new records to announce this year too — somehow it was possible to top last year… Mostly by only a little, but still… Swimming 2013 2014 Total km 328 379 Total time 112h 116h 51km more swimming than last season, with only 4 hours more time invested — if only that showed up in race performance too?!?!? Cycling 2013 2014 Total km 12,151km 12,689km Total time 436h 457h Biggest week 722km / 26.5h 607km / 23.4h Biggest month 1,639km / 61h 1,293km / 52h Weekly average 234km / 8.4h 244km / 8.8h Longest session by km 342km / 11.5h 342km / 12h Max 60min average power 256W 280W Max 15min average power 284W 302W Overall average power 181W 185W 20 more hours in the saddle or 528km more than last year — though the biggest weeks weren’t quite as big. Power numbers were also significantly better than last year. ...

Stats and comparisons are a wonderful thing — and as they say, trust no statistic you haven’t fudged yourself… For exactly that reason, here’s the bike split comparison between Hawaii 2013 and 2014. Yellow = 2013, red = 2014. Power output: 2013 2014 Normalized Power 209 210 Avg Cadence 83 85 TSS 273 277 IF 0.745 0.751 VI 1.07 1.05 Time not pedalling 10% 6% The red curve’s consistency is great to see — very few outliers up or down. Exactly as it should be, and the VI value reflects that perfectly: much more even than last year. Also nice to see how evenly the power was sustained over time with no dramatic drop-off toward the end. In 2014 I also had to pedal 13 minutes longer — very interesting. Both TSS values are at the upper end of what you’d recommend to anyone. Speed: ...

Who would have thought I’d ever get to start a race report with a headline like that?!?!??! I earned my World Championship qualification in May at Ironman Lanzarote. Four weeks later I raced Challenge Kraichgau (1.9km – 90km – 21km), and four weeks after that I stood on the start line at Challenge Roth (3.8km – 180km – 42km). After that came a longer break and a significantly longer and better preparation for the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. ...

After a night’s sleep the world doesn’t look quite so bleak anymore. Where yesterday I was pretty disappointed with the race and how it unfolded (especially the marathon), today I’m already happy and satisfied with the result. A clear improvement over last year, in significantly tougher conditions. 20th in the age group, 90th in the overall standings at a World Championship, 14th-best German overall and 7th-best German age grouper. What more could you ask for? ...

2 months have passed since the last post — a lot of time for plenty of highs and lows, training and much more. What happened in the past 8 weeks? First, 2 weeks of recovery from Challenge Roth — including a relay ride leg at Heidelbergman and a 342km cycling marathon. Admittedly not exactly recovery in the traditional sense, but it was fun. Right after that it was back into structured training as preparation for Ironman Hawaii. ...

First it comes differently, and second differently than you’d think… That’s more or less how my 12th long-distance race can be summed up in a nutshell. On Friday before the race I traveled to Roth, and the moment I arrived the special atmosphere was already palpable. By far the best that the triathlon world has to offer. Picking up race registration went smoothly, then back to the hotel to be there in time for the pasta party. Among other things, there was this to eat: ...

Last Sunday I raced Challenge Kraichgau over 1.9km swim, 90km bike and 21.1km run. My 9th start at this event — more than at any other race. In previous years I’ve always used this race as a training tune-up for the main season goal, racing it straight out of a training block. This year the dynamics were different — my season highlight was already 4 weeks ago. To still have some meaningful comparison with previous years I trained fully through the two weeks prior, as preparation for the next race (Challenge Roth). Those two weeks were among the harder ones — not because the training was so different or longer, but simply because I was hitting a wall after about 30-45 minutes in every single session. In short: nothing was working. ...

Before the actual race report I want to briefly explain how I ended up at Ironman Lanzarote — since I got asked about it a lot and the answer usually drew raised eyebrows. As if Ironman races weren’t already hard enough… The decision came almost two years ago, after I’d again missed Hawaii qualification in Frankfurt by just a few seconds. The following year (2013) was supposed to have no Ironman on the schedule — a new qualification attempt was planned for the new age group in 2014. Instead, I only wanted to do Roth in 2013, and for 2014 I was looking for an Ironman with tough conditions and a hard course — figuring I’d have better chances there. With those criteria I went searching — Nice, Wales and Lanzarote were in the final shortlist. Nice was ruled out due to the too-easy run course; Wales would have been the perfect choice but since I’d already raced there, it ended up being Lanzarote. ...

See you in Kona, Hawaii, October 2014: A full race report will follow in the next few days.

…it would have been a new personal best over the half marathon distance, but only just — 3 seconds short. Still, I’m very happy with it. The reasons why: The time came straight out of training — by Saturday I already had 15 training hours in my legs, including a 5-hour brick session the day before I ran the downhill sections noticeably more cautiously than last year and took no risks I almost got lost once, and only a spectator shouting after me and pointing me right saved it (cost about 5 seconds) The “old” PB came from 2010 in Mannheim — famously a completely flat course I improved my old Heidelberg PB from the previous year by 2 minutes and 31 seconds I improved my overall finish position to 16th place The bare numbers: ...