Hawaii was the toughest Ironman I ever did, because the condtitions this year, the usual temperature and humidity are well known, were intense. The pacific with strong currents and waves at the begining of the swim course, the infamouse Mumuku-winds on the bike, only the marathon, except for the altitude difference, I experienced less exhausting because of the clouds and lower tempatrue in the evening.

I arrived on Big Island Kona on September 26th already, to acclimate as fast and effective as possible, since during my triathlon career event with high temprature had never been my strenght. After one week I training very well althought I lost a lot of sweat.

Then the day of the competition was there, starting with waves and currents on the first 1,8km of the swimpart and therefore with big problems. I think I did not have the power and technique to be at the turning point with a good time under these conditions. The way back to the pier I accomplished better, but coming out the water with a time of 1:50 I was very disappointed.

After a fast transition I was on the bikecourse, which was already hard enough because of the altitude difference without the infamouse Mumuku-winds. This wind is changing direction constantly always being headon or sideways no matter if on the way to Hawi, the turning point, or back. But I fought and was albe to pass a couple of my agegroupe opponents.

While in transition from bike to run I had to stop at the aid-station to have my abrased skin medicated. And than my running-gear bag was missing, so I was over 15min in transistion.

On the bike I lost a lot of my power so I decided to portion the marathon wisely from the beginning and to use as good as every refreshment station. So this time I was able to complete the run course without stopping.

After 14:49:38 I was happy to finish the Ironman. And achieve the 13th place out of 30 participants in my agegroupe 65-69.

This accomplishment I owe to the Professional Endurance Team and I would like to say many thanks to Susanne my coach. Who training me very well since the spring of 2008. Without her it would have been a regular Hawaii-vacation merely.

The 24th of August was my third preparation competition. With air temperatures around 12-14°C, wind speed 5 km/h and rain showers during the whole day, some stronger some just drizzel, I was more than happy to finish after 6h:25min:47sec..

Many others competitors had cancelled their start in the early morning. Under these very hard weather conditions the swimming was the hardest. On the 2.2 km swim the wind pushed up waves up to half a meter, making it hard to breathe with a wave right in front of you unless you got lucky. After 53min I climbed out of the Wannsee and headed for the transition area. I put on more clothes then I intended, to keep my muscles warm. On the bike for 90km each athlete had to finish 4 rounds. Each round covered two semi steep hills and otherwise a light welling course with permanent rain. After 3h10min I completed this part looking forward to the running, especially because it had finally stopped raining. It had also gotten a little warmer for the 20km run through the Grunewald Forest. But I had to admit that the swimming had taken a great deal of my strength from me, making the third and fourth round, each 5km long, a really hard finish. I came in as one of the last 20 athletes not completely happy with my performance. But under the given conditions only the toughest triathletes finished this race. It was a bad final test for Hawaii but a good competition!

Friends and I have spent the last two weeks around Rheinsberg in the federal state Brandenburg. My friends were there for holidays - I had two strong training weeks.
This area was very suitable for cycling with little traffic, running in large woods and swimming in many lakes.
The first week was very exhausting with one day 3km progressiv swim plus 90 min running with interval parts. The other day, 4h cycling include interval parts four times 15 min with puls 135-140 and more hards training days followed.
After these two weeks, my physioterapist had to work hard to massage my legs.
Now, I have reduce the training intensity, because the last pre-competition for Hawaii, this will be at August 24th, The Berlin Man at half Ironman distance.
The Training intensity was perfect too, many thanks to my training team. Back in Berlin I choose pool over lake and went for a swim this morning.

Now, we have 30-34°C in Brandenburg, so I can get used to Hawaiian temperatures.
With these temperatures I needed to relocate my swim sessions to somewhere more suitable. So I went swimming in the old Olympic Swim Stadion, an open air pool, used during the Olympic Games in Berlin 1936. Under the observing eyes of my swimming coach Barbara, she was a former GDR top swimmer and now she is, in her AG 45, one of the top of the world in backstroke, I worked on my stroke technique.
After the Spreewaldman/woman I had some strong training weeks but the last week I could reduce the intensity because I will have a cycling and running test tomorrow, conducted by my coach Susanne at the Professional-Endurance-Team in Georgensgmünd.
The training sessions for the last two month before Hawaii will be planed according to the test result. And will be orientated at the upcoming event, the BerlinMan on August 24th.
My feeling is continuously good and I hope I can continue training without problems.

At the weekend of my 26th trainingsweek I finished the half-Ironman distance (2,2km swim, 84 km cycling and 20km run) in 5:41:29. With that time in the agegroup 64-69 I came in 2nd place.
The swimming time 00:48:34 was what I normal, because there was a problem with my nose clip, then the lake was undulating, but  I hope  the next race will be better!! I could improve my cycling time compared to the Spreewald Duathlon by 5 minutes, needing 2:44:15, because the weather was slightly gusty with random showers. The last part is always the difficult part and we had to run 4 laps each 5km. On the first 3 laps I did well averaging 6min/km. But on the last lap I had to reduce speed and could not keep up my performance. The run time stoped at 2:08:40.
That was my second preparation race on my way to Kona. Reporting to my coach Susanne about my result shes said that the overalltime is very good, that was a very  pleasent answer.  She added that training will continue as planed until the Berlin Man, a half-Ironman in Berlin on August 24th.

The Spreewald Duathlon was a first conerstone on may way to Kona, Hawaii. Covering 19km run, 84km bike and an other 5km run I was able to complete the race in 5h:16min:49sec finishing 1st Place my Agegroup. I felt very comfortable throughout the whole event. The results of the previous trainingweeks showed especially during the run sections, which were partly under crosscountry conditions. I completed the first 19km in 1h:55min and finished strong on the second 5km with 32:min:32sec. On the 84km cycling the conditions were fair enough with slightly adverse winds. With an average of 30km/h I was able to go on from my preformance at the Ironman Florida in Oktober 2007 completing the two rounds on the bike within 2h:49min:17sec. Looking forward to Kona I feel confident that I can, based on this first cornerstone, further improve my time.
During my second week of training after the Spreewald Duathlon the intensity will rises to 18h/week. I try to achieve another augmentation of my power until the second prep-competition in four weeks (a mid-distance triahtlon). After 90 km and 3h:30min on the bike this morning I am off to a 30min regenerative swimming session.

Aimig for a personal best at the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, Kona 2008 I chose a two week trainingcamp on the Island of Lanzarote (Febuary 28th to March 8th) to kick off my preparation. There I and the other triathletes put the focus an cycling, having almost the perfect match to the conditions in Kona, Hawaii. Back at home I continued to practise according my schedule prepared by the Professional Endurance Team, who also guided me through my 2007 season and had took a great part in my success at the Ironman Florida. Weekly my sessions ad up to at least 15 hours at this time with focus on the first of three prep-competitions. This will be a Duathlon in the Spreewald at May 24th covering 19km run, 80km cycling and another 5km run.

Currently I feel optimal, physically and psychologically, with my trainings plan. Therefore I am highly motivated to complete my training week after week and push my limits further, looking forward to the first test at the Spreewald Duathlon.