… Home again ‘cross the sea I am sailing stormy waters … That was the theme of today’s bike session. So much wind, me and my TT bike = an absolute blast!!! If anyone was wondering who was riding back and forth between Dielheim and Balzfeld five times — that was me. I would have happily done it more, but the session was only supposed to be 1.5 hours. Why did I do it? Because I wanted to sail… ...

55 days to Ironman Frankfurt, and the training is getting harder… Training Week 9 was the last in a three-week loading block that pushed the intensity pretty hard at times. Lots of race pace and above — which is brutal, but also incredibly satisfying. The week started with a rest day on Monday. Tuesday morning brought a one-hour run with short sprints, hill repeats, and tempo intervals, followed by a 75-minute bike ride in the evening — fairly easy with a few small intervals. ...

During today’s session I was involuntarily forced to test my new bike’s off-road capabilities. On the way back from the Kraichgau, there was a massive construction site right on my planned route, making it completely impassable. Unfortunately the signs only appeared very close by — otherwise I would have rerouted much earlier. So there I stood, already past the planned session duration, thinking through my options: Option 1: Push through the construction site and risk getting tar on the bike and tires? Option 2: Take a 30-minute detour and make an already hard session even harder? Option 3: Cut through the forest and across fields to bypass the construction site? ...

Last week only had 17.5 training hours, but with other obligations and very little sleep it was right at the edge of what’s manageable. I really needed today’s rest day. Tuesday I kicked things off with an easy run and a short bike session. Wednesday featured one of my favorite sessions: 3.5 hours on the bike with 4x30min at threshold, followed by a 1.5-hour brick run with a hard finish in the last 30 minutes. I’d definitely earned Thursday’s recovery day with a swim session. ...

Today was the first triathlon of the season: 1km swim, 32km bike, and 7.5km run. Not my favorite distance, but a good way to kick off the season. The main goal was to identify where the weaknesses still are. After a fairly demanding training week — including a brutal brick session on Wednesday, a 30km run on Friday, and a 5km swim plus 15km run on Saturday — I raced this one straight out of training with no taper. So it was clear beforehand that I couldn’t pull out my full potential, especially since I’d also spent 2 hours on the bike that Sunday morning before the race. ...

Today’s session was 3 hours of cycling with 4x20min at threshold (GA2) and a 1-hour brick run — race training, basically. Still deeply impressed, I got on the bike — and after 3 hours I got off even more enthusiastic. It was a fairly windy day, and up until now I could only really enjoy a tailwind. Since today, that’s changed, and it’s entirely because of this bike. I never thought headwind and crosswind could be so much fun. Good equipment really is irreplaceable. ...

Incredible, just absolutely incredible… I’m honestly at a loss for words. I’m deeply impressed by this thing. I had high expectations for the bike, and they were blown out of the water. This bike is at least two categories above my previous one, a Kuota Kuenn-K. Tomorrow will be the first longer and faster session.

After a lot of deliberation I had basically decided to ride my Kuota again this season. The bike already has three years and a lot of kilometers on it, plus a crack in the paint at the seat tube/seat stay junction since a crash (whether it’s just the paint or the frame itself is hard to say). I just couldn’t make up my mind whether and which bike to get. The decision was especially tough because there are very few time trial bikes that are fully compatible with Shimano Di2. Once you’ve ridden Di2, you don’t give it up willingly… ...

Today I finally kicked off the new season — later than usual compared to previous years. Bad weather had taken care of cancelling every planned race up to this point. Still, I was feeling pretty confident going in. Training had been going really well, and with a lot of base miles in the legs but no targeted race prep, this half marathon was going to be the first serious fitness check. I only knew part of the course from the Heidelbergman triathlon — in hindsight that turned out to be a slight disadvantage, because the course is genuinely brutal. ...