The Big Day

After some advises of a good friend, who has some experiences with the long distance competitions, I got up at 4.30am had a good breakfast and got ready to leave to the competition. We arrived there at 6.00am I went to my bike checked everything and prepared the rest so I could find everything and put it on easily.

The start at 7.30am was just normal. Swimming went just perfect for me I found a group to swim with very fast and had no problems with the short run over the beach for the second lap. When we swam to the harbor there were a lot waves coming from many different directions. I had several times water in my nose and mouth at the same time… what a nice feeling just when you need the breath. Nevertheless I arrived the after one hour.

The change went way to slow. I spent almost 6 minutes at the change because I thought to do it very relaxed because I will spend enough time on the bike anyway. I put the wetsuit off with all the patients and ran in fast walking style to my bike. I will definitely change this in the future.

The cycling was the most difficult part for me as I already assumed before. Not that I became tiered just to keep the speed high and me motivated. As another friend told me before the start; Niko, just enjoy the landscape and take care to be fresh from the bike for a good run.

We had to cycle three rounds and each round was 60km. I said that I plan six hours for this so I did. I think that I could have gone faster but there were two issues. The first was the weather, I came wet on the bike and it took me around one hour to get my muscles on a good temperature . Then a really heavy rain shower came and cooled me completely down. This repeated two more times. The second reason was not knowing how it is to ran a complete marathon after 3.8km swimming and 180km cycling. Thus I thought not to go to my limits because I thought that it would be better to be surely finishing the first full triathlon instead of risking anything to get a better finish time.

The running! Again I changed very slow :S (no comment…) I prepared a granate belt with drinking stuff and food to supply myself after 100metres running I felt that it did not felt right thus I throw the belt back to my bike and thought whatever there will be enough food and drinking on the way. The running went just perfect. I ran with an average heartbeat of 150. The legs felt perfect and I had every round a chatting partner to talk to. The first round my father, who accompanied me by bike. The second round a friend, who participated at the competition as well. The third round my sister volunteered and cycled next to me. Every round there were amazing good supporters! Thanks guys again! It really pushed me.

Arriving at the finish I saw first my supporters. It just felt amazingly good to cross the finish. I definitely will do some more competitions of this distance.

Last Week for the big day

The last week was one of the most difficult parts for me. Questioning myself if I have trained enough or shall I train more even though knowing that this would not help, in contrary it would make it worse.

Thus I just trained very little; just to keep the muscles going with some short intervals.

2 weeks to go

It is clearly to see and feel the difference of the weeks before and the last weeks. You really feel more energy during the training because of the different training which is nevertheless still very close at the same amount of hours in comparison with the other weeks. The last week training schedule was very much alike to the one of the week before when I just look at the sports fields. During the week is running and the weekend it is cycling and cycling. In between there is a little swimming just to keep it going. The interval training is done and now it was just the objective to keep it going.

I really start to feel nervous. Sometimes I just ask myself how crazy do I get in the future? How crazy can it get J. In my opinion the full triathlon is at the moment the most craziest thing I do and have done so far. Actually I forced myself to do it because I really said to too many people that I will do it some when until somebody has nailed me with the question when and where will you do it… and unfortunately I answered it faster than thought about it… But looking back I do not regret anything. The training experience was just awesome. I even consider doing another one in the next year depending how it goes in over two weeks. It was hard to change the social activity and even some friends are looking forward to it when the winter comes or at least after Almere so I am more available than before, which is not that difficult J.

The coming 2 weeks will be very nice and stressful at the same time. Physically it will be very nice but psychically it will be so stressful. This week I will go back to my roots a little bit. I will swim in the swimming pool where I used to learn swim and swam a lot back then when I was young ;). In addition to that I can run in the forest and the hills (ok, now I will call it mountains because I am not used to the hills anymore). That is so relaxing, to go for a run and do not meet anybody if you do not want it; the air and the feeling when you run there.

Groningen is an awesome city but it would be perfect with the forest and the ‘hills’ from the “Drielanden punt” (Three-country-point; Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands).

But you cannot have it all otherwise live would be boring J. So I am enjoying what I have J.

3 more weeks to go

Today I looked at the training schedule and the count-down reached 18days :S. I do not have bad feeling actually I am really looking forward to it. I think that it will be a very nice experience in addition to what I have learnt in the past year about me and a lot more about attitudes, food and just pure stubbornness :).

As some friends have already commented in the last two reports there is a lack of running in these weeks. That is true. But the training schedule had a peak with 160km cycling and 3 hours of running which was a little bit more than 30km. After that the schedule focused on my weak part and strengthened my strong part of Triathlon, the weak part in my opinion cycling and the strong part swimming. The last week in contrast to this focused more on the combination training (thus 2 units per day) and a lot of running.

The week starts nowadays always with the worst and most difficult part and most important part - THE REST. Damn it, it is so difficult on the one hand but on the other it is such a good feeling to start training after a day of rest.
Tuesday there was a quick run in the morning (at 5 o'clock) for 1.5 hours and then after work some fitness to prevent me of having injuries.
Wednesday was an extended run of 3 hours with a very low heart beat. Fortunately a friend accompanied me for the last hour :). It is always easies if you can just talk to somebody and see the time flying by.
Thursday I relaxed the legs a little bit with swimming and after that I went running again for an hour.
Friday and the rest of the weekend I could not finish my complete training schedule because my parents visited me and I really enjoy it. Thus it was on Friday directly after work a quick combination training of 2hours cycling a 1hour running.
Does it actually count as training to guide the parents through the city and walk almost all day long? If so I had one of the toughest training sessions ;). Saturday I went just 1.5hours cycling. Sunday I went cycling for 3hours in the active recovery zone with several sprints in between to recover from Saturday. All weekend it was just great weather... raining when you want to go for training or you are training.
When I look on my schedule I see that the longest units are pretty much done, one more to go on Sunday.
Wow, there will be so much free time :) Vacation and less training!!! I am just looking forward to read 2 books. I have to finish one and the other one is waiting there as well for a pretty long time.

I will try to make some pictures this week to post them.

4 more weeks to go (last month)

It is getting closer -finally! The training sessions are becoming easier with the same intensity thus I hope that is a good sign for my training.
Nevertheless even that week I learned something new which is a friend saying a lot ("If I would get a euro for every time I am saying slow down a little bit, I would be a millionaire"), not only towards me :). I still have to cycle a lot at the moment because it is my weakest part of triathlon in my opinion. During the week I try to go swimming 3 times a week for about an hour, just to keep the status. Additionally to this I go 4 times a week cycling on average. Last week I really had to admit that one cycling group is going too hard for my purpose of training. They have a complete different objective than I have. Their objective is to be completely "dead" after training. Then they have a day or couple of days to recover. Different to me, my Tuesday training is normally active recovery that means to do sport with a very low heart rate to support the muscles to recover. With this group it is way higher than my active recovery zone is. Last week my body really signalized to have a break on Wednesday -so I did.

Actually y while I write this I have learnt 2 things. First, to slow down a little (which is not my strength) and second to stick with my training zones or with the training breaks which are scheduled.

Thursday I continued with the normal training rhythm and went swimming. The rest of the week was the focus to make hours on the bike. Friday 2 hours, Saturday 3.5 hours and Sunday 4.5 hours.

Saturday I cycled the Peter Weening tour which was actually very nice except the rainy weather. Sunday I explored the north of Groningen and a little bit of Friesland.

First I followed the LF14 from Groningen to the Lauwersmeer. Then I followed the boards to Leeuwarden over the many little villages which are probably still cities as Friesland has more cities as Groningen ;). Just before Leeuwarden I turned back to Groningen. So have 4.5. hours cycling alone and even enjoy it, I came happy back :)

For an overview a little map:

The competition is getting closer and so is my training time getting less. I am really looking forward to it.

5 more weeks to go

The last week was the focus on cycling again plus the change from the bike to running. I ran constantly more and more after the cycling. Until the max on Saturday, there is has been almost 6 hours on the bike and more than 2 hours running.

I continuously feel that I get fitter and fitter. I recover faster and can ask more and more from my body with the lower heart beat. It is just amazing to follow it on my diary of my watch how much my body has been changed and is changing since I start with triathlon, which is almost 2 years. From the beginning on I enter all data to the diary of my watch and upload it. So I see the difference from an 84kg guy how used to smoke and drink; to a guy of 72kg, who is not smoking and drinking anymore. Additionally there is a very noticeable change of my increased power and speed according to the heartbeat. Yesterday I looked at the diary and saw the increase and was just blasted away. I know it is normal to be able to see such a difference if you just have started with a sport and it gets more difficult with the time but it is still very nice to see it and to know that it is you that has changed :)

But let me start first with the start of the week :) here want still to document the weeks before the Triathlon ;).
Last week I focused on endurance and cycling. I started with 1.5 hours swimming on Monday. Tuesday I did two different cycle units, first, 2.5 hours a little bit faster and then 1 hour of touring and just on a low heart beat. Thus it got 100km on Tuesday.
Wednesday there was just the normal running training of the club for 2.5 hours with some intervals in it.
Thursday I went swimming again for 1.5 hours. I could see that I become better but on the other side my body let me know on Friday that I should make a day rest and chill a little bit.
Friday... toughest training of the week!!! Trying to stay at home and doing nothing... OMG...it became so difficult!!! But what I have learnt from last year is that rest is really important! So I stayed home.

Saturday morning I started first with a long breakfast (that is what I really enjoy at the weekend). Then I went to the fitness training for 2 hours and afterwards I quickly went running for 2 hours with a very low heartbeat just to get the muscles moving.
Sunday was just an amazing day.
It was the first time that I cycled a big group (this time almost 20 people) for a longer distance. This group stayed together for 115km and it was just great.






I had a low heart beat for me with an average speed of 34km/h (thanks to the group ;), and no I was not all the time at the very end :P).
The last hours were just a group of 4 people left who just wanted to spent some more time on the bike. After the long cycle tour I still felt for a run :). So I went running but I learnt again something, never forget the damn drinking belt or go back and get it!!! BUT NO, of course I did not :S. Arrived home I was thirsty as hell - strange...

Running with the new shoes is without any muscle pain. I can run now as long as I want. I still have my doubts if I should run the marathon with these shoes or not. The speed is higher, no muscle main and the heartbeat lower...hmmm...I do not know - we will see. It was worth the investment. I really enjoy running with the shoes.

After a lot of noodles and a short rest on the couch I went to BBQ with some friends and quick round board games, accompanied with some ice cream.

The new week has started and I feel confident that I will follow pretty much a similar schedule as last week. Except that the cycling and running on Sundays will become shorter every week.

6 more weeks to go

Saturday 17th July it has been exactly 42 days to go!

Last week I learned again something very useful for life. For almost 10years I am not living at my parents place anymore but I still did not know this! ONLY eat fresh spinach :S. Now I know this :). But for my training it was crucial. The Tuesdays training (cycling & running) did not go that well and I skipped running as well. Wednesday (running) I preferred to stay home and have a rest day since I had the full enjoyment of eating non fresh spinach.

Yes, I know sometimes it is just difficult to follow the collector and hunter philosophy but for these days I made an exception and ate bread and everything which just could help me to get better as soon as possible - the clock is ticking ;).

The rest of the week I trained more moderate. Thursday I swam a little bit in open water for 1.5 hours. Friday I went to the gym for 2 hours and went running for an hour. Saturday and Sunday were my cycling days. On both days I cycled pretty long. On Saturday I went running as well.
Sunday I skipped running because I felt pretty tired after cycling. You may think that it was because of the training or still some consequences of the spinach, but no I do not think so. In my opinion it was the reason that 2 people of the group out of 4 went couple of times very hard (too hard for me) and of course I could not let it to try at least and stick to them :S but above the 45 km/h I really can feel that I need more training to keep the speed above the 45 km/h for longer than 5 minutes. Nevertheless I think it was the nice tour and a good training.

The rest of the day was just great. Just chilling in the city having a big ice cream with friends and drinking tea, fanta or whatever comes on the roof terrace :)