And the season has begun. Still waiting to see the results myself so I know just how poorly I swam.. I swear, I swam the course pretty easy yesterday in 25:30 and don’t know if I went faster today.. uh.. I was just at the back of a small group around the first bouy, didn’t realize the urgency, left a gap.. and presto swam the entire course solo.. didn’t actually feel THAT bad but lost close to 3 min on the leaders which is way too much considering how much and how I well I have been swimming. Then to make things worse I could NOT get going on the bike for the first 10-15kms.. I got it going a rode a stretch with Dutchman Eric Strijk and at the turnaround at 25km realized I was only about 90sec back on the main bunch of guys. Eric dropped me on the steep climb at 35km and I was solo again for the long climb at the back of the course into a brutal headwind. Nice thing was I could see the entire field up ahead and I was slowly catching. I lost a few spots on the following decent as Italian Massimo Cigana (ex-pro biker) and one of the top spaniards ripped by but I was able to manage the gap and by 65km I had them and the rest of the main group who they’d also managed to catch. I did a stupid hero move up the last climb and blew by the entire bunch (at this point, Rasmus Henning and Daniel Hawksworth were away as well as one Spaniard) but I ended up getting caught by all of them on the final decent and then to pour salt on the wound a car tried to make a left turn right in front of me thinking the line of riders had gone by and I had to hit the brakes hard at 70km/hr… fortunately the geezer saw me at the last second.. but once again there was a gap to fill and I rode hard the last 15km and still came down about 20-30sec down. I was feeling ok though and wasn’t too worried as 3rd place was only 3min up the road and 4th less than a minute. My chase didn’t pan out as I was envisioning tho.. I caught one guy but the rest were getting further away and not closer. My hamstring cramped but when i had to hop a curb and I really had to compensate after that and had a hard time striding out. I caught 9th place and tried to make a move but I had nothing and ended up coming home slow for 10th. All around I had hoped for a bit more but not having raced since last september and having done mainly base training up until now, I’ll take the result and work with it.
After recovering from this one, I have a few league races which I will use to get ready for a strong performance in Challenge Kraichgau in 7 weeks time. I had a crap load of people cheering for me here and it almost felt like a hometown race. Thanks for all the support.

cheers.

Only 10 days now to my season debut here in Fuerte. Things are coming all very well and looking forward to a full throttle effort. Has been confidence building seeing some of Lubos’ other athletes Sebastian Kienle and Andi Boecherer killing it at their early season races (Seb-2nd at 70.3 Texas, Andi-4th at Abu Dhabi Triathlon). I have had an incredible off season, strength is up, efficiency is improved in all 3 sports and most importantly my hips and lower back are stable and strong -(i suppose that is where the efficiency is coming from). Anyway, I am hoping for a great season openner and my best season yet. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, got a long season ahead and lots I am a long way from top form, so head down and keep get’ner done.
For race updates and results on Apr. 14, check in at Challenge Fuerte Ventura

So coach Lubos and I both thought it was time to the give the legs a good shot of lactic acid in 10km run to finish off a short run block I’ve done here in Germs before I head back the Island of Strong Winds. I’ve won the race before by over a minute as it is small local one here but being that the was was so marvellous for early march runners came in from slightly wider radius than normal which made it somewhat competitive and I had my hands full. I lost contact to 3 leaders early as there was some confusion as to who was running 5 and who was the 10km… turned out they were all running 10 ;). I think the pace was a little too fast anyway so I saved myself an early pump of lactic acid in the legs and went to work trying to pick them off after about 3km. I picked up 3rd after about 4km (although he thought he’d come along for the ride), and kept eyes on 2nd who looked like he was hurting having been dropped from the leader at about 5km.. I had him down 7 sec and I thought it ineveitable that I’d get him (the leader looked like he wasn’t slowing at was a good 25-30 up the track), but somehow either the last hills were blowing my legs out or he’d got a 2nd wind he seemed to open up the gap again and then to my complete dismay, skinny boy surged past me in the last 800m up a steep incline and I hung on to the pace but didn’t really fight for it, realizing in the last 100m that he was only 3 sec up on me… so finished 4th in 34:10 on a tough hilly course in forest. Pretty happy with the effort, not having hit the track yet for any intervals or speed training. I think on nice flat road course i got a 33 low in the legs already and it is only gonna pick up from here. Coach Lubos is pretty stoked and I more excited about my stability as I ran a 25km long run today (1day after) and felt great at the end, no hip problems or lower back, so definately on the right track for some solid races come summa time.
Next I’m off to fuerte and we probs hit the bike a little harder and see what kind of shape I get into before Challenge Fuerte Ventura on Apr. 14.
cheers

Result from Virngrund

Killer camp with Coach Lubos, Sebb Kienle, Filip Ospaly, a little bit of Dirk Bockel, Andi Boecherer and more. Did some crazy hard sessions, some days of 7-9 hrs but everything under control and every thing feeling rather good. The body is responding will and stability is improving as I go.
woke up in the mornings having to hear Kienle say ‘I’m the best there is! I wake up in the morning and I PISS excellence! These other guys can’t hang with my stuff!… hahhaha.. just kidding, that was Ricky Bobby.. but training with the top guns in Long Distance sport keeps you aware of your limits and helps you understand the type of work that needs to be done to acheive great things.
Since starting with Lubos, I have built a very basic base whick included a lot of athletic and agility training and heaps of stability. The initial block was made to handle the training we die at these camps which is the most crucial training done to prepare for race season.
Super excited for when the races start but I still have a shiz load o’ work to do before then so I am concentrating on the process (as per Simon Whitfield) in the meantime, and this week that means recovering and recharging for the next block. Sometimes that is the hardest thing to do as when you are getting really fit you want to keep it going. When you get a little older and more experienced you learn that you lose no fitness in a few days or a week of little or no training and when you get back into the next block you are that much more hungry and feeling fresh.
I will be hanging in the Crails for 3 weeks or so waiting for my new passport to come in and getting some work done on the Team Magic side of things. Next week I presume coach Lubos will write up a bit of a swimming and running block. I’ll probably run 10km race and then on Mar. 13 assuming my new passport is ready I head back to fuerte for one last heavy block of training before the season starts. I am really enjoying it and feeling stronger then ever. I am very lucky to have my girlfreind working at the sport hotel where we are doing our training camps as she helps keep me down to earth and our appt feels a little bit like a home which is important as I am there so often.

So to start things off right this year, I gots me a new bike sponsor to go along with my new coach and new outlook. I have put in a week on the Scott Foil 10 and let me tell you it is no joke, this bike in un-credible (what me fail in english, that’s unpossible!). After having ridden a decent but rather whippy planet x the past few years it is a massive difference in handling, accellerating and simply feeling power convert directly to speed. I am waiting on my Plasma 3 Time trial bike but am super excited to see what kind of ludicrous speeds I can manage on the old Crailsheim TT loop this spring!
Training is going well.. i have the luxory of having Coach Lubos Bilek here with us and attending our swims and hard runs with stopwatch in hand. Training partners also couldn’t be better.. training with the likes of Seb Kienle, Andi Boecherer, Filip Ospaly, a few young Austrian guns keeps one honest and humble.
So far I have had the best build up in my career and am starting to really feel like I am coming into great shape…. and we are just getting started! Fire Up! YEAR OF THE DRAGON!!!

I thought i would start writing posts again as I am back rolling and want to get my homepage a little more up to date. I actually have a new one ready but have never got around to switching it onto the server.. so i will blog from here for now.

After a looooong break and a looooooot of physio i am back rolling and feeling like I am ready to go full power. I haven’t so stable and strong in the core since ….. uh.. i was in my 20’s? what’s my age again? Before I go into a long thank you session to all the people who have been helping get healthy and stable again I will get a few good races under my belt, but I must say I was up at Ehrmann Physio almost every second day for several weeks and the diligent team up there was really looking out for me.

So I did one 3 week stint in Fuerte Ventura and everything was very positive, i even did a little aquathlon where i was surprised how well i could run, not having done any hard running whatsoever yet apart from some accelletations.
At the end of 3 weeks I drove the Magic Bus from Fuerte to Crailsheim - 75km drive - 20min ferrry - 40km drive - 35HR ferry - 2500km drive… needless to say, not looking forward to doing that again soon although I may have another go in just over a months time as we will need to restock our Magic Shop at the sport hotel in late January. I actually fly right back to Fuerte this coming monday to keep the training going (germany is not so condusive to training at the moment) and so that i can spend Christmas with my special lady who just so happens to work at the Sport hotel as a fitness instructor.. instructress?..

Race plans.. yep, well Coach Lubos and I have both decided that I need a long gradual build in training to be able to reach top level fitness and to maintain the stability.. so that would mean nothing until April, and I would most likely then Debut at Challenge Fuerte Ventura (half distance) which conveniently enough takes place at the sport hotel I have been staying at. I will most likely follow that up with a few more half distance Challenge Events and cap the first part of the season off at Challenge Roth. This is tentative but more than likely the plan. After that I am thinking of doing the IM qualifying system for Kona 2013 but that means starting to earn point in Sept. this year. This could some travel to the states/canada/australia but how we will decide to attack it will be decided later this year. I was actually considering going for the 2012 qualification but having not raced this fall makes it much more difficult as guys have been after points since Sept. this year.. if you look at the rankings, most of the guys have already got a few races under their belts and 20th place already has 2000pts. (target is generally about 4000pts)
Anyway, that’s all for now.. a basic update, and I will try to keep them coming.
Merry Christmas and hope to see you in the new year!

Got off to a great start this morning. Felt rather good at check in and was soaking up the atmosphere of the thousands of spectators, hot air balloons, you name it. The start area was absolutely buzzing. I got hammered again the swim start.. it was carnage for several hundred meter’s.. but i settled in soon enough but couldn’t how far back I was, just saw a mass of swimmers in front.. I started to pick my way through it and was near the front of the pack going into that last 400m or so.. sort of lost my rhythm at the end but and a few spots but blitzt transition and rode through to what I thought was the front in the first 10km of the bike. I was riding strong off the bat and kept punching the hills to hurt the guys I had passed who were assembling behind me. A few km’s later Konan rode up beside me calling all the guys pussies and I told him i was game if he wanted to launch an attack. So it was on. On ‘Greding hill’, a couple of the km’s long was the we went for it but couldn’t a decent gap but Konan kept pushing over the top and opened up a gap (you all know that these races are NOT draft legal, but everyone wants to stay in the group as there is still an advantage even at 10m distance - although some ride a little tighter than 10m) so I let the gap open up and followed one other guy as he tried to keep him close.. when Konan was about 200m up the rode, I went for it and reeled him in leaving the other guys well behind.. I thought it was on and we would get away but it was not to be as the guys reeled us back in on the decent. After that it was a slinky of about 15 -20 riders and the strong guys would nail the technical parts or hills and string it out so the wheels suckers in the back would have to accelerate to get back in the line up.. eventually the second time up Greding we dropped more than half of the group and opened up about a 4 minute gap in them over the last 60km. It was looking good, we came into t2 7th to 13th and my legs were feeling better than they ever have after 180km of hard riding. I ran my way into 7th and was feeling pretty good, trying to get my rhythm but after a few km’s I stopped gaining on the guys in front. My abs were tight and I still couldn’t find my rhythm I lost two more spots and then around a corner I turned my ankle just slightly but felt a shooting pain through my arch. I tried to run it off but every few steps it would come again and I had to start compensating.. by 12km i tried stopping and stretching and trying to crack my foot and massage my arch. It was to no avail… i tried running on it 5kms further (walking (yes walking)) intermittantly. At the aid station at 17km I decided to pull the pin to avoid a serious injury and a day of torture.
It goes against one of my main slogans ‘finish what you started’ but i really had to rationalize this time. My form is as good as ever right now and if i can get my stability under control and if my foot is not serious I can surely punch out a top result in the next few months or weeks. I am also getting up there and might have 4 or if I am lucky 5 good years left and I can’t afford to risk injury and recovery time to finish a race when I know I can pop a good one … i might only have 5 - 10 pro Iron distance races left. So I just want to apologize to all my supporters for not attempting to gut it out.. It is the spirit of our sport to finish, especially at an event with this magnitude. It was the biggest I have ever scene it in Roth.. which is about 5 x that of any other Iron Distance event.
Don’t count me out yet…

Another fine rendition of the LBS Cup. Slightly unfortunate for geezer’s like me they turned the usual 1300m-44km-10km event into a ‘freindler’ 1100m-30km-7.5km event… more of that later.. The weather decided to NOT make it any easier for us and it pessed all day and was a lovely 14°C to boot. On the start line were the Great Seb Kienle, Olympic Medalist Stefan Vuckovich (for us ;)) top bundesliga athlete Helge Mutchard, U23 German star Maurice Clavel…. to name a few. The Team rank list had the Top 4 teams all 1 point apart so the competition was to be fierce just like the weather. Me and Aussie fellah’s made sure to get a decent swim warm up as it was too cold to get on the bikes, and our feet were freezing from jogging around barefoot. The helped me out cuz I never do enough swim warmup and I got off good and snappy when the gun went off. It was serious ITU style start though and I was slugging it out good with a few guys. Once it calmed down.. (took a good 400m..) I sighted and once again saw a small gap to the lead bunch. and two guys strung out in between. I was feeling strong tho (dividends to upping the k’s to 20-25km a week since the aussies have been here) and reeled the two of them in, but just couldn’t quite close the gap on the leaders. i came out about 20-30 seconds down, did an age group transition and put my bike shoes on so I could clip in for the 400m climb straight out of T1.. it was painful losing those few seconds but I blew by 4-5 guys straight away and was out onto the course in good postion. I worked the bike but was unsure how hard to push as it was inevitable that Kienle would be coming from behind and I would want to stay with when that happened. By the first time up the big hill (3.5km long with 15° punches) so i went for it and Knut (the big norwegian) and one other guy went with me. We picked off 3 stragglers from the lead group at the top the hill and kept the hammer down. Then I noticed a rider in black in orange about 50m back and was pretty sure it was my teamate, aussie James Lewin. I waited at the back and hoped the pace dropped a bit. It did and Jimmy was back on. At the end of the first lap we went over technical cobblestone section with a little ramp in it.. Jimmy dropped of there again and I had to decide whether to leave him or stay in the group. I was starting to feel good so I waited up and rode him back, gave him a good push and went back on the front, to see if we could start making headway on the lead group. Heading into the 2nd time up the dirty &/$&%$& climb Captain Kienle came storming by with teammate Helge Mutchard in tow. Exactly what I had expected only a little later, and rather untimely… I bit down like I haven’t in a race before in years and would NOT let myself get dropped. I made it to the top and was still on with Knut, Kienle, Helge and 1 other guy. Kienle gave me a suprized look when he saw I was still there and was yelling at Knut to start attacking. They ended up getting me on the decent on a fast slipper 360° turn but I wasn’t too concerend and hammered into T2 only 10 sec. down and sitting 7th. My legs were ROCKS going out onto that run. I managed to find some sort of rhythm despite not being able to feel my feet the entire 7.5km. I caught Knut and the ‘other guy’ hahah (it was Freier from Team Sila Hopp) but ended up being caught up in the last 2 kms by a few speedy runners.. and i just couldn’t find the next gear as my legs were so smashed from that %$§$% hill. I rolled into the finish in 9th but only 10sec down from 6th.
I feel pretty good about it. I got a lop more power on the bike than I have had for years and the run was a little off but was an all around good day.. these drafting races can play out for you or againest you.. I think it went a bit against me as Kienle dragged a bunch of guys with him on his trip from 26th spot to 4th, some of which were able to outrun and didn’t have to work quite as hard as I did. I guess I can’t say ‘if it were a pure guts race i am the only one who can win’ -steve prefontaine, but i surely could have been a few spot further up the pod.
Our man Vucko came up with a blinder, rode in breakway group and held on for 4th.. not bad for 39 yr old.. even if he is an Olympic medalist… ;), James, held tough despite the weather and the hill taking a big toll on him, and battled home for 17th, Peter Hein, our grizzly had his first big race of the year and after a lousy swim rode and ran himself into 20th, securing out 2nd place in Team results. Ben had a touph time ont the bike as well but held onfor 22nd which is pretty solid in this league for having had a tough day.
Anyways.. long story short, proud of the Magic Team and VERY optimistic for Challenge Roth 3 weeks from now.

Team Results

Suited up for this race feeling decent and confident with my training. I did recently punch out a 150km run training week so I was not sure if the legs were over that, but it was a much needed week and will increase my stamina for roth.
I got off well in the swim but then go absolutely hammered by someone and lost a body length or two and found myself gasping for air. I moved back up to the front and sighted and saw a breakaway group already about 30m ahead!! ahhhh! missed the boat again!! I led the group I was in the rest of the was and managed to split the group and catch a few stragglers in the last few hundred meters. Unfortunately I caught the french powerhouse Francois Chabaud and had dragged Norman Stadeler with me.. the both left me in their dust pretty quickly on the bike and a few km’s later Kienle came screaming by and I was on my own. I felt a little weak the whole ride despite holding over 150bpm heart rate which is near the right zone for me for a 4 hr race. I managed to catch Jimmy Johnson and Horst Reichel in the last 10km and rode into T2 in 9th position or so. I screamed through and was off running wondering how far ahead the next guys were.. uh! a few minutes later I saw Hellriegel, then Felix Schuman, and Uwe widman already on their way back from the first turnaround..5min! I managed to catch 2 guys but was also caught by Horst and Jimmy and one other guy.. so was sitting in 11th (the worst possible finish!) with 7km still to go.. I managed to stay close to 10th and had my eye on him but was not closing or losing ground. with 4kms to go I made up my mind to go for it cuz I couldn’t bear finishing 11th and would rather blow completely than that.. I bridged the gap and was on his heels. I waited a minute or two, and startedfeeling strong so I went for it.. made a full blast acceleration and dropped him good.. i paid for it the last few kms but I was able to hold on strong and had a good buffer at the line. A top 10 is a top ten.. had I managed to make the front group on the swim, and had my legs been fresher there was surely more in it, but I am happy with the form and with my determination at the end. On the right track.. a few days rest and back on it.
cheers.

Results

Been a while again… We’ve already got the first two liga races under our belts and I’ve been back on some killer training thanks to my new Aussie training partners James Lewin, and Ben Lyons. I met these guys in Aus this past winter when I was visiting my bro and we got to talking about them racing in Europe over the summer. They stayed in touch and Magic was keen so we hooked them up and they are living with me at HQ here in the Crails. It has been fantastic so far as the guys are highly motivated and like to train hard and push there limits. Our first league race was a bit of a disaster as we finished only 5th due to getting held back in T1 for not being grouped together (we were 30m apart from eachother - it was a team time trial event - and I don’t know what the rule book says but Dragstra wasn’t happy to say the least). We were strong though and I was happy with my form after having run very little with the hip issue since Challenge Fuerte Ventura. The second league race in Rheinfelden was a staggered start sprint race with a touph little bike course and we showed our true colours. Stephan Vuckovich suited up for us and was in solid form as usual. The big surprise was Jimmy, who finished 2nd overal, which shocked me as I thought he’d had an outside chance for a top 8 or so.. but he is proving to be a real racer and a smart trainer so I am looking forward to see what he can do the rest of the season. Vucko finished 6th and I was 5th and we edged out Heuchelberg and Sigmaringen for the win. Ben had a bit of bad luck as he led out the swim and ending up missing the current (swim was in the Rhein) and had to play catch up, we are sure he has got a few big performances in him soon. The guys are always game for a challenge and we were talking about proper run training and what I used to do with Sutton and Team TBB so we decided to rip a 150km run week and see how we managed. My hip has been feeling a lot better so it was a good chance to test it out and get some good hard milage in the process. We all managed and pushed eachother and are feeling the gains made.. as well as some tired legs..I
I am backing it off substantially this week and will see what I can do on the weekend at Challenge Kraichgau whick is looking like it might be one of the most compeitive Half-Irondistance races in Europe this summer.
Challenge Kraichgau.
stay tuned.