…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. ...

… see you in 2013 … Season’s end 2012 — somewhat unplanned and unexpected, but the alternative was too tempting. I had originally planned to race at the Breisgau Triathlon in Malterdingen, and then take one last shot at Ironman Wales to close out the season. But things don’t always go as planned … The opportunity that came up was simply too good to pass up. So I’ll be heading into a somewhat extended off-season and then throwing myself into prep for Challenge Roth starting in October/November.

… Your registration for Challenge Roth 2013 was successful. We look forward to welcoming you on July 14, 2013 in Roth. See you at the finish line. First hurdle cleared … and to raise the bar right away I checked the “Sub9” box 😉

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. ...

… are behind me — now it can finally start. What have I been doing over the last few days, and what’s still to come? Monday: 45min swimming with a few short intervals Tuesday: 45min running with 4x90sec fast Wednesday: 45min cycling with 4x90sec fast Thursday: 20min swimming, 1h cycling with 2x90sec fast, 30min running with 2x90sec fast Friday: rest day / travel day Saturday: 15min swimming, 30min cycling with 4x30sec fast, 15min running with 4x30sec fast The tension is slowly but surely building — but it’s a positive tension. No nerves yet; the experience lets me approach it all very relaxed. I have respect for the distance and the race, but no fear of it. ...

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. ...