Videoblog Lanzarote training camp

Submitted by Christian on Mon, 03/18/2013 - 20:39
I´m back home from the canarian islands since more than a week now and did a little video blog about our training at Sands Beach Resort in Costa Teguise. The conditions were great, except the last 2 days were we had storm and heavy rainfall. But I guess that was quite unusual for Lanzarote. I was so happy that my family could come with me this time. It made it much easier for both me and my wife. For her, because normally the kids got sick right after I left home and she could therefore not work anyway. And for me because they gave me so much additional motivation to train hard! Mostly I did not even have to buy food or do the cooking because everything was done before I got back from training. I guess I am a very lucky guy ;-) . The kids simply loved the warm weather conditions and the pools all around. My son´s favorite word is water, and there was a lot of it ;-) . His next favorite words became “nana” and “ooo” what means Diana and Jo. Both kids insisted every morning to pick up “nana” and “oooo” at their apartment and go to breakfast together, were “ooo” finally was beleaguered from both sides because he could magically peel an egg that had a “peel-hat” left after peeling ;-) . My daughter watched our swim sessions sometimes and sometimes when we were resting more than some seconds in a swim set she was yelling on us “You won´t get faster if you just stand there! Go!” She would make a great coach ;-) … My next blog will be about training under really cold conditions. Because today is the 66th day with snow here at home this winter… Its mid march and in some years we don´t have snow at all!? I think this is pretty unusual too!

well working gimmick!!

Submitted by Christian on Mon, 02/04/2013 - 20:36
It is lousy cold outside. Just above 0°C. It starts to rain. After some minutes wet snow mixed with ice cold rain is pouring down and the wind, which never really stops in this region, is blowing strong from the west or cold from the east. Our child is asking: “Daddy, why are you always running in the dark?” Christian tries if possible to keep the afternoon free of training to spend some time with his kids. To read a book, play with the ball, go cycling outside, paint or just to romp in the children’s room. At 6 pm its time for our children to have their dinner and go to bed afterwards. And now its time for Christian to go out for a run. Which is not that easy at times. And sometimes inner temptation is huge to do more nice stuff than a self sacrificing run in the shit weather… But I have got a well working gimmick. Turn on the PC and click at the link below. It always works ;-). Sometimes I get the answer: “Originally I intend to run easy.” But he´s off for a run within minutes ;-). http://www.clipfish.de/musikvideos/video/3898593/the-script-hall-of-fame-feat-william/

I wish everybody a happy and healthy new year 2013

Submitted by Christian on Wed, 01/02/2013 - 13:24
With sense of detail, but enough overview, with a big gulp of selfconfidence, and to take much pleasure in life and triathlon.

Some days in Norway

Submitted by Christian on Sun, 09/30/2012 - 21:01
After my victory in Cologne I spend some time with my Family in Norway to recover a little bit from the recent races. We had some very relaxing days, moving our bodies as less as possible. I tried to fish some trouts but was not very successful (lost 3 lures and had not one single bite). We picked 10kg of cowberrys, which are very delicious in combination with all kinds of meat, and about 4l of blueberrys. I love blueberrys! I gained 3-4 kg in 10 days ;-). That’s for sure a new personal record too! My car did not like the Norwegian dirt roads. Probably the roads where designed mainly for quads and that stuff of cars and not for a Ford Focus… I ripped of the bottom panel, punctured a wheel and the shock absorbers and some other parts need some repairs. Hope it´s not going to get to expensive… But when you want to be at calm places you need to go to hardly accessible places ;-). Since my Childs are still too young to walk long distances, this was the method of choice. I got the opportunity to help a friend training his sledge dogs. That was really amazing! The unbelievable power of the dogs stunned me! Since there was still no snow (but already late autumn with frost nights) he trained his dogs by hanging a 700kg quad bike behind 15 dogs and they just pulled it away like there was no resistance at all. Even the brakes of the quad need to be renewed every now and than! These animals are in many aspects quite comparable to triathletes, eager to run/train as much as possible. Even the training is comparable in many aspects. Sometimes the sessions are short sometimes long, sometimes fast and sometimes slow. It was very inspiring to see these dogs. To run or to pull something somewhere meant everything to them. Now it is time to restart the engines for me and prepare for some races in the close future !

first at cologne226

Submitted by Christian on Tue, 09/04/2012 - 09:51

Triathlon fascination from my wifes point of view

Submitted by Christian on Tue, 08/07/2012 - 20:00
The day after an iron distance triathlon is kind of weird. I feel like I am able to move mountains. Like I could achieve everything I want in my life. Like I could change the world. I feel very calm, almost easygoing. Kind of unburdened. Everything seemes to be perfect. But why? I have not done this iron distance triathlon. I did not swim, bike and run. I had the same feeling after the german iron distance championchips in cologne last year. And now this feeling is back after the Ostseeman triathlon. I have been present from 3:40 in the morning until the end of the awards ceremony at 30 past midnight. Is this the reason? That I have been as tired in the morning? Sleept as bad during the night? That I stood freezing and nervous in the transition zone in the morning as well? That I took times, cheered for all the athletes? Stood there in every loop, waited, shouted time differences at him, gave him gels? That I jittered of excitement until he finally finished the race? That I welcomed the last athletes at the finish line in the evening with him and enjoied the awards ceremony late at night after the race? Maybe. But I think there are other reasons. While waiting beside the course I heared storys about people that were doing there first triathlon here in Glücksburg! Which effort they put into their goal during the last 365 days. But for excample left the race at the first buoy because of a panic attac. She sat there crying because her dream ended so soon. I saw overwhelming emotions of family members supporting there athletes with funny phrases and encourageing words. How they, like me, ran on adrenaline. How they did hope and tremble for there athletes and suffered with them. Like me. I saw people moving mountains all day long. How they exceed there limits. How they suffer. But also how happy and proud they are. I think these reasons, these efforts of a lot of different people makes me belive that I can achieve any goal in my life. This is it what I love so much about this amazing sport. What the fascination triathlon is all about! I would like to thank all of the athletes of the Ostseeman triathlon, their familly members, friends and of course the race director Reinhard Husen and his great team for this great feeling. Thank you.

Ironman 70.3 Haugesund – I love Norway!

Submitted by Christian on Thu, 07/19/2012 - 20:47

Norway is my favourite country. I think all in all I spend more than two years in that wonderful country. And my Norwegian is a lot better than my poor English ;-). Therefore I was so happy that I finally could visit the country for an Ironman 70.3 race! 70.3 Haugesund was the first WTC event on Scandinavian soil and I was a little bit curious how they managed to organize the race in a relative short period of time (starting in November). But my expectations were definitely exceeded. Already the first time event was perfectly organized! And what might be even more important is the feeling that it already was a race with a soul, created by uncountable extremely motivated volunteers and the race directors who had that dream of an Ironman race in Norway and have now created one of the most beautiful races in the world! The Norwegian crowd was simply unbelievable! Taking into account that Haugesund is a small town, every single person living there must have been cheering at the side of the bike and run course. The bike course is that beautiful that you have to remind yourself that it’s a race almost all the time ;-). Maybe that was the reason why I lost a bit too much on the bike to catch the last spot on the podium? At least I´m very happy with my run, I had the second fastest run split behind the winner Fillp Ospaly. I ran the on-running Cloudracer for the first time and it was a great feeling during the run. 1:15 on a slightly hilly course is also my new personal best! I think it was also the first time I finished a 70.3 race under 4 hrs. Just a little note to the Norwegian at the end: a Bike course with 753m of elevation could at least be called a slightly hilly bike course and not a flat one ;-). Norway means heartily people, fjords, mountains, the open sea, wide forests and now Ironman 70.3 Haugesund.    

Green Hell Triathlon

Submitted by Christian on Fri, 06/29/2012 - 21:10
Sunday I was racing the inaugural Green Hell Triathlon. It is definitely a race that is worth to be called “epic”. In addition to the 2550 m of elevation during 99 km on the bike and 400m in the half marathon the conditions were really hard with just 15°C and heavy winds. Green Hell Triathlon is a very special race with the bike course taking place on the “Nordschleife” which is kind of the most popular motor sport racetrack in Germany. There was a race on Saturday and the noise and speed of the cars was really crazy! Thousands of spectators came to the track and every second seemed to drive a Porsche, Maserati, Lamborgini, Ferarri or something related. Everyone of them seemed to be a wannabe race car driver which made my easy 1hr pre race loop on the bike really, lets say “exciting”, because bikes on the road seemed to be strange for them. On race day I had a good start in the water, thanks to my 2XU wetsuit, and lost just 3min on Per and less than one minute on another little group of favorites. I started the bike course quite conservative because I was not sure how my climbing skills are. I rode the three loops on the racetrack with exactly the same time (+/- 10 sec) and found myself in second position just 30 sec down on Clemens Coenen in transition two. All of the others did slow down significant at the end ;-). The motorcyclist with the camera guy accompanied me during one descent and told me afterwards that I rode 108 km/hr in that downhill… That was definitely a not needed information because it was in my first loop and I had to do that downhill 2 more times! The half marathon was unbelievable hard after such a bike ride. I was running side by side with Per from km 2 to km 6 and had to stop suddenly because of some really nasty cramps. The second half of the run was affected by the fact that I ran totally out of energy. But I think a 1:18 HM with 400m of elevation is still not to bad. I´m happy to have finished the hardest half distance race in the world in second place just 90 sec behind Per who fought strong for another impressive win! Congrats to Per! The race was perfectly organized and there were always people with flags who showed the dangerous parts of the downhill sections. Also the feeling of riding on a racetrack was awesome. It was built for speed and you can feel that in the downhill serpentines! Especially on a cervelo bike which is also built for speed! I found a nice video on youtube from a motorcyclist who rode the 20,8km loop in about 8 min (with a maximum speed of 280km/hr…)! I needed 30 more minutes on the bike ;-). But it was quite helpful to watch this video to get an impression of the race track since it is normally closed for cyclists. Now I look forward to Ironman 70.3 Haugesund on July 8th!
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