My friend Juerg, he is a triathlet too, asked me to join a Trainings-Camp on Sardinia for two weeks in October. I said yes! Enjoying summer temperature around the little town of Orosei sounded like a welcome change. The focus was cycling, little running and swimming. We went cycling with bike team of the Camp Organizer. The weather and the nature were amazingly beautiful, but the area around Orosei was mountainous, therefore the altitudes were very exhausting.

In the first week we were cycling about 430 km with 5000 HM - altitude difference-. Running and swimming three times, rather for relexation. We could swim sometimes with and sometimes without wetsuits depending on the sun and clouds, because the water temperature was around 23°C.

In the second week the temperature dropped to 15 °C so that we had to cycle with longsleeves and warm suits.

We were on the bike for a total of 840 km climbing over 11.000 HM in two weeks. That was a very good time to increase my cycling performance. There were four days for relaxing and to discover nature and culture in this area of the east cost Sardinia.

Back in Berlin we had a weather-shock for it was really cold and raining. But this will keep neither of us off the bikes.

Two half distance triathlons within two weeks is that possible?

I wanted to find that out. Especially whether the recreation time of fourteen days is sufficient for a new challenge.

After participating in the Müritz-Triathlon on the 25th of July I entered the race in Werbellin on the 8th of August.
The swim part in the Werbellin lake was not so bad, 48:03 for 2 km. But the bike course was very corrugated and the temperature was up to 30°C. After 40 km my feeling said this will be a hard competition today.

With the bike time I was satisfied getting the 90km behind me in 2:51:18. At last as always the run part of 20km with four laps on a forest path with some slopes. It was a very strunous race for about 2:18:35.

I came in third place in my age group with the finish time of 5:57:56.

I think concluding that it wasnt a good idea to have two half distance triathlons within two weeks, but you can make it!

After the Brasil Ironman end of may I participated in Müritz, finishing a 2km swim, 80km bike and 20km run triathlon on 25th of July. The weather was fine, 20°C, windy and rainy, what I prefer over 30°C and humid.
The swim part of the Müritz triathlon begins at the beach of lake Müritz and is a two-loop-course. After the first loop you had to turn around on the beach and hit the water again. Finishing this part in 40:31min, the length was more then 2km, I got out of the water and ran to the transition area to get on the bike. The cycling course was corrugated and the wind did pick up good at times. The last part was also a two-loop-course with many spectators, because of the holidays. They made the running easier with their cheers and motivated the runners to go faster. My first loop was a little harder then the second. I finished the running part in 2:11:00 and the race in 5:29:17. At the end of the race they had a ceremony with a little mistake in my agegroup. The competitionspeaker called me as third in AG 65-69 but the result list said second place. Anyhow I recieved a little present and made my way home.

On May 25, I flew to Florianopolis to participate in the Ironman Brazil. My training during the last two weeks before the race was reduced to recreate right before the start. The event was on the 31 th May and at 7 am we had the swim start. I saw the high wave and knew that swimming in the ocean with 5 feet waves would be difficult. There are the buoys for return only and the race guides didnt work well. Many triathlets were swimming detours.

After 1:55h  I was in the transition changing to the 2nd part the cycling cource. The weather was rainy and windy therefore good for cycling. There were some hills too, but I finished the 180 km in 6:17h, a good time.

After that the run began very difficult, because I couldn't find my frequency during the first 10 km. The first lap also had some hills, one hill I had to walk up. The other both 10,5 km rounds were flat, therefore I could run well. I finished in 14:02 and I was a little dissappointed about my finishing time and the third place. My running time was not too good. It was a hard race and a great experience and yes, fun!

At the end of my 29th training week I finished the Spreewald Duathlon - 19 km run, 84 km cycling and 5 km - in 5:12:50 and I won my agegroup 65 - 69. I was about 4 min. faster than 2008. That was the result of my disciplined training and the improvement of my running part too.

My cycling part was very good too, than the Duathlon was a competition within the hard training weeks with up to 25 hours per week.

The Duathlon was the last preparation for the Ironman Brasil in two weeks on May 31th 2009 in Florianopolis.

Now I have only relaxing training until raceday, because I have to be 100% fit for the Ironman.

I think the Ironman can come, my feeling is good to beat my Ironman Florida time of 12 hours and 58 min.

Click at the right side picture in order to enlarge the article.

After the Triathlon Camp Lanzarote I had many cycling and running kilometers in the very cold weather here in Brandenburg. I had many technic hours in swimming and strength training including stabilization exercise plus stretching in the fitnessclub. My training hours per week are continuesly increasing to 22h.

The strain now is very high therefore I get physiotherapy. The physiotherapeut was a very fast marathon runner with the best time of  2h 8min. The treatments are very hard for me, but so I can increase my performance very well. Now I will have a sports medicine performance diagnostics in Georgsgmünd by the Professional-Endurance-team. The training session for the next weeks till  the pre-competition  Spreewald Duathlon 16 th May will be planed according to the test result

After 7 weeks of training in Brandenburg, I went to Lanzarote for 14 days in the Professional-Endurance  Challenge  Triathlon Camp.

The focus was cycling by temperature around 20°C, typical Lanzarote wind and  now very good streets. I was on the bike for a total of 830 km with 10.000 hm (high meters) : After the cycling I  immediately run  different distances from  7 to 16 km. In the whole time I run around 80 km with many high meters too. For the swim training there was a 40 m pool with seawater and I had to wear a wetsuit, because the water temperature was only 18°C. Stabilization exercise and stretching belongs to the Tri- Camp too.

In the evening  there are lectures about running techniques, eating during training +  competition and  swim techniques.

This Camp was a good possibility to increase my performance.

In the meantime I got a slot at an auction  for the Ironman Brazil on the 13 th May 2009 , so the two weeks were also a perfect preparation for this event.

Now I have 10 days for relaxing before I will continue my training according to the plan.