2010 - season - time out & heading to 2011

2010 season was a recovery, now being in Singapore I signed up for the 2011 Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore.

Singapore is a vibrant city, where people from all nations come together. It is very interesting. Even as I am writing in my hotel room - about 17 levels below at the street - the Singapore Marathon is going on. If I only would have known, than I had started training earlier.

Looking forward, I will have only three months to prepare decently. No time to waste,
t-IM

first week - great training

for the 2010 start not too bad after all nearly every day some kind of sport

mo - circle training, basketball 2h
tu - swimming 1k
& spinning 1 h
we - running 1 h
th - spinning 1 h
fr - swimming 1 h
sa - break
su - running in the new snow with the x-trail shoes. fun, fun, fun

triathlete since 4 years - thinking ahead

When I signed up for the IM Switzerland for next year, one of the fields to fill out was: "Triathlete since XX years". I was surprised, that I already compete since 4 years in triathlons. It feels I only started last year or maybe two years ago - but 4 years.

Interestingly I was not yet able to improve my results. So Getting ready for next year I definitely want to make a step ahead. Originally I thought I even could participate in Hawaii in 2010 - hahahaha . Three leverages I see to improve:
1. my weight
2. go to trainings of my tri-club
3. start now for 2010

let's see how that will work out

bring it on - a little bit more competition

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...

2009 strategy

Hi folks out there, hope you have a good time?!
Eventually I find this year some time to do a proper training planning for 2009.

1. Current Situation I lost some considerable fitness due to unbelieveable lazyness after my first IM (Switzerland 2008). I basically didn't move for three months.

2. The Goals 2009 are to do another IM and 1/2 IM; this time with reduced time needed:
- IM: sub 14 to 13:30 h
- 1/2: sub 6:30

3. How to make it
- training, training, training
- Some short competitions to get in shape before
- swim: intensive courses before the competitions plus another total immersion course in the beginning of 01/2009
- bike: intensive spinning and a new bike? - not sure yet by all means I am planning to paricipate in a road bike competition
- run: some more joggs as 2008, throwing in some local races? marathon zurich?
- after all: only rest for a month after the IM to prevent the lazyness from taking over!

A lot to go for...
let's rock!

wintertraining

despite coldish weather, I keep up the training. Nowadays I started spinning again in the migros (puls 5) fitness center , going to the swim hall (Zürich City-bad) combined with running outside along the limmat. My trainingsprogram 2Peak is saying: "Tage bis zum nächsten Wettkampf: 192" - Only 192 days left to the next competition. Time is running...

Trainings revival

This week was the first since the IM Zurich, I started to train again. Meanwhile I gained too much weight and lost some endurance power. Time to change and speed up.

Monday: Running
Tuesday: Swimming
Wednesday: Running
Thursday & Friday: off
Saturday: Running
Sunday: Swimming

Zueri Marathon

Today I got registered for the Zueri-Marathon: 20.04.2008

Moving on...

Last test @ the university & light-training

10 times training at the university. biking until the lactat is running through the venes. alright, done. today was the last test.

Meanwhile training is not really peaking right now. I have to change my thoughts. I need to be challenged....

wearing training

Still I struggle to get my training togehter. See the records of the last two weeks:

Weekly report

After the first week engaging in the job again, I am struggling to keep the training going. However, I did some swimming, running and today I am looking forward to spending some more time running. At least my weight is tumbling further on - right now: 85 kg.

Here you may find a short video about the best endless pool in the world: the Limmat river in Zuerich:



Here are my training results - recorded by www.2peak.com:

time concept

as I am approaching my first half-ironman-race my view of time changes. time becomes more valueable. It is really interesting to see how my attitude changes. I constantly focus on more important matters. I just cancel unnecessary stuff out of my life. Triathlon is a great tool to become more effective and efficient!

Here are some Ironman Training online services for next year:
http://www.active.com/active/

http://www.markallenonline.com/maodefault.asp
http://www.trainingsmartonline.com/triathlon_training_programs.php#
http://www.tri2b.com/123-tri2bcom_Trainingsplan_Abo_2007_Auf_zu_neuen_Tat-,e_19731,r_3566.htm
Even free: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=441

Updated 2007.06.17: I think I found the best one with a "dynamic training plan": www.2peak.com - check it out - 2 weeks are free - you can even upload polar-data.

Last time riding Jl. Sudirman Bike: 2 hrs, 50 k

This time some triathletes met at the Sudirman and we rode some rounds with the bicycles. Nice workout. Lesson Learned: contact triathletes the earliest time you are at a new place! I got the contact from the ITU Triathlon Federation.

It would have been nice to do more together. Now there is even a website: http://www.triathlonindonesia.org/

=> I am really looking forward training with the free radicals again! :- )

Rest, Research & Training swim: 2.7k 1:34h | run: 7k 0:42h

My body feels still weak after a workout. I guess it is because I had the major event (full 70.3 distance) last week. Besides training at the borobudur-hotel yesterday, I found a very good triathlon website ("tri gators" - university of florida) posting a training pyramid and explaining nutrition cycles.



Quote: "This is Bob's training pyramid. It defines how long one should spend in each period of training. For our training plan it means we should spend 2-3 months doing overdistance and endurance training, 4-6 weeks of tempo training along with technical and tactical work, and 4-6 weeks of lactic acid threshold (LT) and V02 max (maximum volume of oxygen) training."
And here is the picture of the nutrition cycle, quote: "Nutrition can also be optimized by periodization":

planning 4 tappering

After the last two hard weeks I am planning for reduced training. It's the cooldown-ready-for-action phase. No weight training at all. Slimming down another 2 -4 kg (weight now: 86.2 kg). Getting the feeling for the speed & intervall training. Here we go. Actually it is kind of hard to reduce the training intensity, since I started to like the long swims, rides & runs. I am trying also for some different sports. Yesterday 2 hrs. indoor-soccer (6-8pm) at the "planet futsal" at the festival pazar in kuningan. Was great!

What does it mean to triathlete? = Swim, Bike, Run, Diet, Core, Strength Train, Stretch, Sleep, Read, Blog, Transition, Race-travel, Mental-training, Repair, Adjust, Research, shopping gadgets, ...

(based on a nice blog-entry: http://neoprenewedgie.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_archive.html

).

Training - the integration of plans

Today I made some research about training: "Training = from Latin *traginare; akin to Latin trahere to draw; to undergo instruction, discipline, or drill" http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/training

"Training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies (...) Physical training is more mechanistic: planned suites of regimes develop specific skills or muscles with a view to peaking at a particular time. (...) Training differs from exercise in that exercise may be a one of occasional activity for fun. Training is specific and done to improve one's capability, capacity, and performance." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Training

I bought a 6-month service of http://www.tri2b.com. There you can get a very nice training plan since it can be individualized. I enhance the trainingsplan with: a) the current plan from the "triathlon magazine" b) the book: "Trainingsprogram Triathlon", Huddle/Frey/Murphy and c) the book: "Ironman" from Ole Peterson. After integrating these plans, determing the goal of each week and setting personal goals I find myself with an exciting training-plan. I like the fact, that training should lead to a peak of performance. Somehow I can feel that with my own training plan. E.g. today I was at my personal best for 1.9 k swimming = 41 min. Still lame as a duck, but really fast for "where I came from". :- )

Other dimensions of training can be:
- autogenic training
- fartlek training = Swedish; meaning 'speed-play'
- learning to improve performance
- militarily: gaining the physical ability to perform and survive in combat
- religiously: purifying mind, heart, understanding and actions to obtain spiritual goals

Swimming like flying - watched by batman

Training again: 45 min swim 1km. The lower-back-pain is fading away, so that I could do some legs swimming. After the forced break swimming felt like flying through the water. All the power released. Interestingly a bat would watch me crawling in the house-pool.

Besides the swimming I integrated all training-plans I got -from a professional triathlete, from the "triathlon-magazine" & from http://www.beginnertriathlete.com. I put everything in one excelsheet. Hopefully it will do some good.

Stretching & Loosing Weight

http://70.3ironman.ch/

Today I got my order from amazon: "The 12-Week Triathlete" written by Tom Holland. Seems to be a nice balanced book, since there are a lot of exercises and a "Triathlon Resistance Training Program" included. I will have something to read on my way to Indonesia next wednesday. However, I set my training periods so far:

• 4 weeks "base training" (March)
• 3 weeks "build phase" (April)
• 3 weeks "peak" (April/May) and
• 2 weeks "taper" (May)

I am willing to sacrifice to get ready. Two Lessons learned for today:
1. Weight: Too much is too much to endure the half-ironman. I definitely need to loose on that extra-kg. Carrying some "extra" might be my highest risk not to finish.
2. Stretching is sooooo important. Through my itensified training my sinews got shortened and I had pain in the calves. :- ( It got much better with stretching. :- )