It was supposed to be a rest week — and at least sports-wise, it was. “Fully occupied due to various external factors” describes it a lot better though… The week started with a complete rest day on Monday — the first one in three weeks. Tuesday I went for an easy 45-minute run, but the legs weren’t great. Nothing was really clicking. I’ve noticed this often after a complete rest day. At this point I’ve reached a stage where I recover much better with light movement than without. ...

The week started as always with a Monday morning swim. For once it went really well — no surprise, since I’d barely trained the day before. Tuesday started very early with a 1.5-hour easy bike ride and ended very late with a 1.5-hour fast run. The 10s were back on the program — they start out fairly easy but get increasingly brutal as they go on. They did their job: the next day not much was working. ...

Probably the best news after a very hard training week: I get to start in Wave 1 at Ironman Frankfurt!!!! That’s really, really, really great news — only about 500 people are swimming at the same time in Wave 1, compared to 2,000 in Wave 2. That’s the best possible setup for a good race. Let the games begin…

Last week started Monday morning with a one-hour swim that got harder toward the end than originally planned. Not surprising — I was nowhere near fully recovered from the efforts of the day before. On Tuesday I tried a run format I’d never done before: 100 minutes split into 10 blocks of 10 minutes each. Every block consisted of an easy portion and a tempo run segment, with the duration varying throughout. I started with 9 minutes easy and 1 minute at tempo, the second block was 8 minutes easy and 2 minutes tempo… all the way to the final block: 1 minute easy and 9 minutes at tempo. That was pretty brutal toward the end, due in part to the weather. The last 30 minutes I got absolutely drenched and arrived home soaked through. The 1.5-hour bike ride later that day was doable in dry conditions — more of a recovery spin. ...

Yesterday was the second middle-distance (half-iron) race within a week — the Triathlon in Maxdorf: 2km swim, 85km bike, 20km run. Raced straight out of training, no taper, so a performance as strong as the previous week at Kraichgau wasn’t exactly expected. I somehow got up on the wrong side of the bed — spilled milk at breakfast, changed clothes after brushing my teeth. A bad omen, and more mishaps were to follow… ...

The week started Monday with an easy swim — legs and arms were still pretty beat from Challenge Kraichgau. In hindsight I could have saved myself the trip, since I lost my swim cap, goggles, and swim watch at the pool. The first two I can live with — I have more than enough swim caps and the goggles were already well-worn… but the good swim watch, that really wasn’t necessary. ...

After two very busy days I finally got around to digging into my SRM data from the bike leg at Challenge Kraichgau. I mainly wanted to understand why, despite higher watt output, I was slower than last year. My questions were answered — more on that in a moment. First, a look at the power comparison between 2010 and 2011. The yellow curve shows 2010 values, the red curve 2011. The curves are about 3 minutes apart — mentally shift the red one slightly to the left. ...

… or me and the race marshals… It already started on Saturday at bike check-in, when my TT helmet failed inspection — more on that in the post about the bad omen. Today was the sequel: I picked up my very first time penalty in my triathlon career. More on that below. Conditions today were significantly tougher than last year — fairly windy (last year was calm). This showed up in the swim as choppiness, and later on the bike with wind from every conceivable direction. ...

The race marshals at the Challenge Kraichgau bike check-in were very thorough — and they found something. My TT helmet is defective and I’m not allowed to race with it tomorrow. The reason: two approximately 5mm-long “cracks in the outer shell” (direct quote from the marshal), which can no longer guarantee safety… The initial shock was significant, especially because I don’t quite see it the way the marshal does. In principle he’s right — there’s a crack, and that’s against the rules. BUT: the underlying material is completely undamaged and just as solid as before the crack. It really is just a crack in that 1mm-thick outer shell… ...

Sunday is one of my favorite races: Challenge Kraichgau. The distance is 1.9km swimming in the Hardtsee lake in Ubstadt-Weiher, 90km cycling on challenging and scenic routes through the Kraichgau, and 21.1km running on a 7km loop in Bad Schönborn. I was only a spectator at the first edition of the Kraichgau Triathlon, but I’ve raced every edition since — across different distances and with mixed results. Everything from new PRs to DNFs has been in there. ...