Greetings to all using the sunny weather in Switzerland for racing on the bikes!
What did I learn:
- I needed a small cap below the helmet, since it was too cold
- my large air-pump needs a new vlave
- the new helmet is quite comfortable
tri team zugerland & Zytturm-Triathlon Zug
http://www.triteamzugerland.ch/zytt...
Today I did the bike course around the Zuger Lake. Amazing just how many very nice place Switzerland got!
t-IM
Sunday, April 26th - Zurich Marathon my third marathon (see the guy at sec 17th crossing the finish line)- 04:43 h until "Meilen" everything was great, than cramps in the calves. After all 1 minute faster than last year. ;- )
1st May, Friday - Bike Race: "Henninger Turm" / "Frankfurt-Eschborn Loop"
I did the 70km in 2:20h. it was ok. I was the only guy with a "time trial helmet". ;- ) The whole 70 km were fun!
Yesterday a short tour on the bike until the rain started - see the 85 mm rim - really cool ...
The bike investment was prosponed in exchange for a solid city-bike. I want to start biking every morning to work!
This morning I registered for my first bike-race:
http://www.eschborn-frankfurt.de/ The "ex-henninger-turm" velo race. Bring it on.
6 days to zurich marathon. This hits me harder than the ellobow of a fellow triathlete at the first buoy in the zurich lake. Where did all the time go? It just has been February - skiing without end and now we are close to summer already. Have to go for some intervalls...
Absolutely no time to write something here....
....only training counts right now.
Swimming:
- I started to train in a group: http://www.godfrey.ch/
Biking:
- use a bandanna to avoid neck pains from the wind
- mind the heat!
Running:
- training on hard ground is cruel
New bike record. 184.9 km are a really long distance. I learned:
- salt tablets are great to avoid cramps
- at kilometers: 45, 100 and 145 it really got mentally tough to continue
- I ate every half hour in turns powerbar gels and riegels along with drinking water
- I was faster on the hilly part, which I find amazing, since I considered myself slow up and down the hills
The weather conditions were going from bad to very bad, 15°C, rainy, quite freezy. Since it got very dark very soon, I bought a reflecting safety vest at a gas station. It feels good though to have gone through another limit-breaking experience.
27 days to the Ironman. Now I will focus on swimming.
Saturday: 100k 4 hours, it was quite cold, so on the Ironman strecke I stopped at a bicycle shop to buy some sleeve-warmers and another bike-Trikot. It also started raining, so I decided to stopp for today and to do the 180k tomorrow. My knees are getting better. I got new skin and the scab peels away. How marvellous our bodies are made!
Sunday: ... on the road...
today I recieved some competition fotos from the Rapperswil Ironman 70.3: 
The timing is displaying another athlete's time. My time was about 7 hours and some minutes. Awfully slow. "slowmotion" is fitting somehow. ;-)
Hier der Link auf das Einlaufvideo
The bike in the rain is like a wild horse. I fell down two times today. Rain and gravity must have made a plot to punch that stupid triathlete off the bike. Luckily I just had two scratches- each at every knee. I am happy to count this as part of my experience now. Somehow it makes me stronger, though it will be hard to keep up training the next days.
First time I made the half of the whole Ironman-Strecke. It goes two rounds so that I now know the whole course. The "hill" in the middle called "Pfannenstil" is really a huge piece of work. I was impressed. However, on the way back from Forch to Küssnacht I got a flat tire. Luckily not in a race and nothing happened, though I went quite fast downhill. "Pffffffffffffffffff", T-IM
The last weekend I hosted two triathlon-princesses from Frankfurt: Vero the Hill-queen and Alyssa the fastest Kangaroo chaser in the northern hemisphere. We did the Rapperswil-"Strecke", some commercials and wetsuit-testing in the 12° C limmat river. Great time folks! You are always welcome to any "course" or Strecke or Tri-Camp. :- )
Alyssa shortly before she got lost in the Zurich forest:
Vero, the hill-queen and Tim ascending to the frozen cold:
In front of a shield, which says: Your life will be in danger, if you swim here:
Yesterday I attacked the heartbreak hill in Kilchberg, Zuerich. Great view: 
It's a bit steep (18%) up to 485 m above zero starting from 400 m in 500 m something. 2 years ago I had a muscle cramp right at the increase. Since I couldn't do anything about it, I just rode on. 
Today the IM Australia took place. I just saw an interview with Chrissie Wellington in connection with her race there. She said: "... all I can do is train hard and race hard!" Great attitude. With 09:03 hours she just "rolled" across the finish-line in "downunder Aussie-land" being first again.
I wish Zuerich would have the weather of Port Macquarie. Here the temperature dropped down to 4°C with rain and snow. "If it ain't raining - we ain't training." Perfect conditions for my long run today. :- >
the free radical in the rain
A raining, windy day in Zuerich - perfect for skipping the training schedule and go shopping. Since I am leaving Switzerland next friday for flying to Thailand (Krabi) I really have to buy some stuff to be prepared for the Thai-Trainings-Camp. ;- )
I bought the following things:
- Asics running shoes DS Trainer v.12 9.5/43.5, 240 CHF
They will become my competition shoes for 2008. Using the asics "nimbus" as my training shoe, since it is more absorbing. the DS Trainer is quite hard, but very efficient in terms of speed and weight. The guys at the triathlon shop told me, my running style looks good and I am starting to run on the forefood more and more to gain speed.
- Asics running socks 35 CHF
- new batteries for the polar heartrate-monitor-sender
- Booster Socks, Taille 11, Ref. MGG011, 73 CHF (quite expensive)
- Noene - shock absorbing soles, gr. 42, 49 CHF
From the pharmacy (for total: 190 CHF):
Magnesium, Calcium, L-Carnitin, Coral pulver
So, I admit triathlon takes quite some money from you, but I am convinced it is invested aright. I am happily taking care for my health right now, before the old age and the suffering comes along. It is also cost-efficient to invest in soles and medicals - small things with a great leverage.
When I am back from Asia I will check my bike and the equipment therefore. Probably I have to get new biking shoes and pedals. At the same point I should then check the seat-position.
Equipping is fun.
So long,
your free radical.
Today I went to Beat to discuss training issues I experienced while pushing the training for the Ironman. Beat is the shopowner of Santa Monica:
http://www.santamonica.ch/ and I think also founder of erox: http://www.eroxswiss.com/. Despite that, he is a great guy having huge experience for Ironman-Training. Anyone in the triathlone scene in Zürich/ Switzerland knows him. On top he really has the right equipment in his store. We discussed four points:
1.Freezing while on long biking tours
* Beat asked me for my clothing and explained I should change my combination. New layers:
1. net-shirt
2. Frottee/Terry-Fleece
3. New breathing active windstopper jacket for biker.
2. Biking shoes feel uncomfortable while being on the road more than 2 hours
maybe they are too small. due to the long distances the feet start swallowing after a while - for short periods then the foot feels numb and squashed. We will examin this in 2 weeks. Beat needs to have a look at my shoes.
3. Running Shoes
Maybe I need new ones. we will examine them also in two weeks.
4. Nutrition I wonder why I don^t loose any gram weight - although I train like a dog. Beat suggested to hide the scale and only look in the mirrow to see if everything is okay. He said: muscles weight twice than fat and right now I am replacing a lot of fat with muscles. :-( Good and bad - since I have to carry the muscles arround in the competition.
* Kieselerde
During Long swimming sessions I experience sometimes shoulder "adjustment-pains". So I think "Kieselerde" might help. Beat said, maybe I should rest a day or plan for "recovery" training sessions.
* Additionally Beat recommended stuff called "basic balance" from "Sponser". It is a "basic mineral salt" composition. It tastes like dishwater. No joke. It^s medicine- nothing more.
* At the same time Beat said: while training for the Ironman: no milk, but soya and no yoghurt and no cheese! Man, this will be really tough for me.
In the evening I swam 3.3 km - wich is a new swimming distance record for me. 65 turns. Meanwhile I get used to flip turns. :- )
Here an example I found on youtube:
It really helps to look at the knees while turning.
Stay strong folks, the next season is approaching fast!!!
the free radical
Today's weekend training was naff. By bike nice 6k to the swim; 2k Swim in slow 1:06h, but fine technicalwise; then: flat tyre in the rain on the way back. - Switch to the metro and a darkness run for 5k. I am on the blink. Definitely, I am searching now for a spinning class and a magnet-bike-trainer.
A colleague told me he is doing an olympic tri every weekend. Respect. There is much to do for me....
Right now there is awful weather in Zuerich. Heavy wind combined with gentle, but steady rain. Winter is approaching. However, I did 1 h biking and 1 h running right after the biking. Luckily I took some lights along, since the sun sets early. Bad thing: I gained some weight over the last weeks. Good thing: It doesn't seem to be fat only. I have to cut down my daily food rations.
So long
Now mental work is required - 3 days to go until my first half-ironman. I visualized the race a lot the last days and find it sometimes hard to follow the whole course only in the mind.
How can someone strengthen the mental abilities? Check this out at the NewScientist magazin: http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg18625011.900
11 ways to a better brain. Sounds good, doesn't it?
to be prepared and hardened I decided yesterday to swim today in the cold (=16°C) water. No other swimmers, but the ducks were there. They funny enough sneaked up to me, when I slipped in my neoprene. Afterwards they joined me even swimming. Now I am feeling good. Let the competition come...
In the afternoon I did some readjustment to my sattle to get a better 90° angle. My actual bike position is the red line. The blue line shows how it would look like on a triathlon-bike. Much better for the back, for speeding and efficiency. The long distances really require the right equipment. On the left side you can see a nice graph with comments from the website: http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/bikes/karma/thumbs/famegeo.gif They have some good clues on the bike position at their website.
One reason for me to take part in triathlons is that you indulge your senses into the nature, into beautiful places and roads you would miss. To feel the elements of water/rain, wind, earth and sun is like energizing you feeling life.
Today I had the last long bike ride before the competition. It felt all right. 1st lap: 1:40 and 2nd: 1:50.
I have to stretch more!
Today I got my bike back from the santa-monica tri-shop. everything was super adjusted. I got also new wheels: Erox ultra speed 600. With 1490 g really light and speedy. Even today on a ride it was chilly, but the wind didn't interfere with the motion.Tomorrow I will test them at the race course. I wondered before, why does anyone need such wheels - here the reasons:
1. they are more aerodynamic (less crossings and bulgy form)
2. they are stabilized because of the bulgy form, which means shortened crossings).
Today I discussed the topic: Truthfulness in the triathlon. For me, the moment of competition is very truthful. In competition there are no excuses, no I-do-it-later. It is there - fast and real. The truth is revealed.
