For all stats fans, here are some numbers and facts. The season was unusually long for me at exactly 52 weeks, so all those big numbers need to be viewed in that context. Three Ironmans and the necessary training leave their marks… That said, I’ve never swum, ridden or run this much in a single year before — 742 hours total. That’s an average of about 14 hours of sport per week, with the biggest week clocking in at 32 hours and the easiest at just 7. ...
Unfortunately the wonderful time on Hawaii is already over. These lines are being written on the flight back to San Francisco, where I’ll be spending the next 1.5 weeks. One thing is certain: I have to come back here. Physically I’m doing a bit better than a few days ago — the nasty sunburn has finally faded, though it’s left behind a few minor burns. The muscle soreness is mostly gone, but the incredible joy of having been “allowed to be there” has stayed 🙂 I’ve already set another record: 4 days in a row without any sport, and more will follow… I didn’t bring any athletic gear with me — it’s all in my bike case, still on Hawaii, flying back Saturday (thanks Alex & Sandra). ...
So there it was — Ironman Hawaii, the Triathlon World Championship. Right in the thick of it… A detailed report with photos will follow sometime in the next few days. Right now I’m too wrecked to form clear thoughts. The race in brief: Up at 4:30am, caught a shuttle right away, at body marking by 4:45. Stood in the wrong line three times, oh well. Then prepped the bike Had plenty of time to watch and experience the pro start live. Note to self: don’t stand right next to the start cannon — it gets loud Lined up right after to get into the water Positioned myself in the middle and fairly far back — I wanted a relaxed swim and to enjoy the atmosphere. That worked out perfectly, no big scuffles, drafted in someone’s wake all the way back After 1:10h I climbed out of the Pacific, right on schedule In the first transition I took my time — showering, sunscreen etc. The first few kilometers on the bike through town were very very crowded On the highway things improved, but there were still a lot of groups riding together and things got pretty unfair at times Almost no wind going to Hawi, the return as far as Kawaihae also very very pleasant After that it got noticeably windier with crosswind Lost four water bottles along the way — definite room for improvement there Bike time is absolutely satisfactory Despite SPF 50+ sunscreen I got the worst sunburn of my life — it’s really burning On the run, Alii Drive in town was the hottest section — the Queen-K and the Energy Lab were much more pleasant by comparison The first half marathon went reasonably well, after that it got progressively harder. The missing training and prior races became more and more noticeable After km 35 things got really rough — in the end I was just glad I didn’t have to walk The hardest part was Palani downhill around km 40/41 — that really hurt The finish line was absolutely sensational — the reward for years of hard work (and yes, I teared up with joy for a moment :)) ...
…or what’s been a long time coming finally works out… Ever since I switched from pure cyclist to triathlete about 8 years ago, I’ve had this dream of the legendary Hawaii — the mecca of all triathletes and venue of the annual Ironman Triathlon World Championship. My goal was to get there within five years, but I hadn’t counted on so much bad luck and such fierce competition: My first long-distance start in 2007 at Challenge Roth went according to plan — sub-10 was the goal and I hit it almost exactly with a total time of 9:59:39h The second long-distance year was marked by lots of running injuries and correspondingly little run training, which made the time of 10:12:58h at Challenge Roth all the more remarkable 2009 was similarly injury-plagued as the year before, again with plenty of running injuries. A DNF at Challenge Kraichgau and a failed first serious Hawaii qualification attempt at Ironman Austria were the results After recovering from those injuries, 2010 was my best year yet — at Ironman Frankfurt I improved my personal best to 9:36:19h. And that’s when the strong competition thing kicked in… I missed qualification for Hawaii by about 90 seconds. I spent the rest of the year running my very first solo marathon in 2:56:15h 2011 was actually a perfect year — no injuries, new personal bests, everything just clicked. New PBs at the Heidelberg Half Marathon, Challenge Kraichgau and Ironman Frankfurt. I improved my previous year’s time by another 18 minutes to 9:18:55h, but still didn’t qualify — missing by a ridiculous 13 seconds. Another qualification attempt at Ironman Wales failed thanks to three flat tires on the bike 2012 was plagued by running injuries and lots of missed training again. I just barely got my act together for Ironman Frankfurt and was in reasonably decent shape at the start, but then rode myself into the ground on the bike and had to pay for it on the run. Despite everything, I still improved my PB by another three minutes to 9:15:39h. And as you can probably guess — again about 30 seconds too slow for Hawaii. After all of that, I had actually decided not to make another qualification attempt this year and to focus fully on Challenge Roth. Back to the roots, back home to what I consider the best triathlon event in the world. I boldly checked the “Sub-9” box when registering — the goal was clear. Preparation went really well, aside from a small weakness in swimming. That was factored in and not unexpected given the training load. ...
Last weekend I raced at Ironman Frankfurt — my 7th race over the full distance of 3.8km swimming, 180km cycling, and 42.2km running. It turned out to be my best race in terms of time, but one of my worst in terms of execution. How did it come to that? In early October 2011 I started the direct build for the race, with the focus on running and cycling. For running, my primary goal was to run every single day. I kept that up for nearly 40 days — at least 15 minutes every day, with one longer session per week. After that I scaled back to 3–5 times a week. On the bike I worked fairly intensively in the early phase to push my threshold power up. That was relatively successful and I’d already made good progress in both running and cycling. ...
… but I’m not really satisfied just yet … It was neither great nor terrible — somewhere in between. The swim went according to plan and I broke the 1h mark for the second time: 59:43. The first time I could still excuse it by saying we ran the first 500 meters — now I can’t do that anymore and need to learn the flip turn … not exactly thrilled about that yet … ...
Yesterday Friday, fully loaded, we headed toward Frankfurt. First stop: picking up the race kit, which went quickly with no wait times. Right after that it was off to the athlete briefing at the ice rink, straight across Frankfurt. Which reminded me again why I can’t stand big cities — driving there is just terrible. Right after that it was hotel time, returning a few hours later for the pasta party. This time by subway — completely stress-free. ...
And last but not least — the marathon, naturally only after you’ve properly warmed up 😉 Running has become my absolute favorite discipline. On one hand because it’s probably the most honest of the three sports — on the other because I’m just pretty good at it now and it gives me a huge amount of joy. After setting the bar pretty high last year with a marathon of 3:09:20h, I’ll need to work a bit harder this year to top it … ...
Part 2 of the race preview covers the second discipline in triathlon: cycling. A lot depends on equipment here, and to avoid falling behind I’ve upgraded again … but more on that later. First things first though — form. Without it, the best equipment is worthless. Thanks to my almost 4-week training break in February/March I’m missing about 1,000km compared to last year — yet the form doesn’t seem too bad. Or to put it differently: I’m at least at last year’s level. The recent races and training results suggest that at minimum. ...
Swimming — the discipline with perhaps the biggest question marks? Good question, next question. For me it’s still the biggest mystery box — some days it goes really well for my standards, other days not at all. I honestly don’t know why, otherwise I’d have fixed it by now. Let’s hope Sunday is a case-1 day and I have a good one. If I do, a time just under 1h should be possible. My swim form is similar to last year, where I managed just over 1h. ...