For now I am curious how the next few weeks will abide – until my first Triathlon. Will I achieve my goals?

Close call.

Yours

Martin

Changes

The past few weeks I lost my drive to post here. In business and private a lot changed. Soon I am going to be married – YIKES (even me!) and I am self-employed again. Still it is worthless without fitness…

Training

The past few weeks I had some longer runs. Actually I prefer to run at dawn or night and so the city looks a whole lot different. And sometimes – sometimes I have to shoot a picture, even though I didn’t have the drive to post, I still shot those for the blog.

Located in Bad Homburg is a natural fountain, which has been used for a long time. Later on through the park you arrive here…

That run was exhausting but also fulfilling.

Milano

Much later I went on a trip to Milano with my fiance. Somehow I didn’t pack my running shoes and so all that was left was to explore the city day and night and… to go swimming.

Milano was a grand experience, yet swimming im Milano was… an Italian experience. But judge yourself:

So I went to the public bath (I refrain to write about the overall oddities of the bath itself). Once in the pool swimming was well for me, actually I was the fastest swimmer on day 1.

That was not good.

So I was doing some long distance swim on my lane, yet the person in breast stroke I was about to pass didn’t like this. So that one tried to swim faster and kicked to all sides, while I tried to pass.

I couldn’t pass after being kicked twice.

At the end of the lane he immediately swam off in freestyle sprint. Well ok, exactly my speed. Suddenly I couldn’t see any more bubbles in front of me and didn’t see him at the end of the lane. Instead he was on his way back. WTF? That fast or was I that slow?

Again he was swimming breast stroke, again kicking. Again I couldn’t pass him.

At the end of the next lane he was waiting with red head, breathing heavily, apparently about to die, but letting me pass with a smile…

Turns out he cut the previous lane first, just to make sure he stays in front of me.

Italian $%/§&%%& – nuff said.

Back home

Then again swimming regularly helps. Since I returned from Milano I also added daily running in low pulse at dusk and at dawn apart from my regular training plan by Coach Ralf. To make sure I wont be injured like last year, I am massaged almost daily. So I am sure to have no hard, cramped or inflamed muscles at all. Even heavy training only leave me dizzy in worst case, but no more pain.

By now I have the chance to participate in London Triathlon, yet I need to enter by a charity WWF in my case.

Seriously would you donate, so I can participate in London? If some support it, I will.

Yet during all that time there was more.

German duathlon masters

We went there. First to give my fiance an impression of the atmosphere, second since I supported them I felt the need to be there on the day.

The season to come

To face the truth I could have trained more till now, then again I feel happy and good besides the still existing excess kilos. If everything is as expected, I might start my first Triathlon this year in normal weight. The second maybe already in ideal weight.

Preparation

Of course you are right: How do I plan to achieve that target weight? Fair enough I finally changed my eating habits. A normal breakfast, a good and rich lunch and that’s it. Every day. On anything else running at dusk and dawn as well as my normal training plan.

4-5 kg a week works for me right now

And this way I leave you until my next post with the song I enjoy to listen while running

Yours truly

fatsmoker2ironman

Ok, maybe too cold for Challenge right now… then again here we have the bike transition zone:

So on I ran towards the area of Rothsee Triathlon Festival. Rothsee is still covered with thin ice – almost looks like my cold experience on the sprint race last year.

Looking straight forward I look at the bike transition of the Olympic distance race and along the run course:

Returning back to Hilpoltstein I had some interesting talks, met Coach Ralf and his wife afterwards and had a chat with Claudi in the “Zwinger” – if you ever come to Challenge Roth: go there for dinner, have a beer and tell her, where you learnt about her.

And for the Americans looking for medieval flair:

Or some seats for guests:

After all I had nothing to eat today and so I made sure to leave fully sated. Anyway my training today hurt me, but I am happy I finished it nonetheless. What a grand day.

Yours

fatsmoker2ironman

It all started yesterday evening – preparing some Pasta for a friend and me:

It tasted good and in the end I also had an Aperol sour, went back to the Pension, where I sleep and… had a hard time to wake up at 10:00 am, which is way too late for me. Don’t ask me why – seems I needed the sleep.

Off I went to the fitness studio for some spinning classes – this time with  a friend as instructor:

This time training was a horror to me: It was extremely difficult to raise my pulse above 120 bpm and even more beyond 130 bpm. Sweat on my shoulders, my muscles burning, I take some water, see my pulse watch and while still spinning – 105 bpm. OMG, increase speed, stand up, everything hurts, my stomach turns and… 110 bpm, where 120-134 bpm is my target range.

No matter how much  I did, it was almost impossible to get my pulse above 120 bpm and once I sat down on the bike (still pedalling) my pulse dropped like a brick below 110 bpm.

By times it felt as if I am close to faint – still I was determined to finish this one nonetheless. I know for sure it was not due to the instructor, maybe the Aperol sour? Maybe just not feeling ok? No clue but I just felt like thrown into the corner, unable to get up.

Now some Latte Macchiato’s later I am feeling better and think about going for a run. Yet I had nothing to eat so far (afternoon). Yet I also don’t feel like getting something to eat.

This is a weird day. Somehow, somehow I believe it is also an effect of Coach Ralf’s training, which was explicitly aimed at making me have a greater power output at lower pulse rates.

This gonna be interesting – let’s see, if I go for a run – I might shoot a current picture of Challenge Roth transition zone #1 and maybe also of Rothsee Triathlon festival transition zone.

Yours truly

fatsmoker2ironman

Anyway yesterday swimming was due so I set off and had my first session with increased distance, my shoulder still itching from Monday’s paddle training. Coach Ralf added loads of butterfly and that was… exhausting. A 2.5km swim with 600m leg kicks and almost 675m butterfly. Almost since in the end… I decided to be more cautious in butterfly to not hit others by mistake. Let’s assume it was 600m butterfly due to that.

Some things I learned in that session:

1. I am no longer a lame whale in the water in freestyle.
2. Some weaker swimmers on the sports lane were slower in freestyle than I was with my kickboard doing solely leg kicks – that was funny, considering how slow I was when I started with freestyle.
3. Doing leg kicks helps so much – more than I imagined. In my first few months I had moments, where I didn’t move forward at all or – even worse – went backward doing those kicks. *no kidding*
4. In butterfly I learned a lot in becoming faster and more “energy efficient” – that felt cool. Most of all I used my arms in the “pull”  before to get up – out of the water, where it is – of course – much better to push forward and only slightly up on the “pull”. That’s when I started to be faster than other swimmers, when I did butterfly yesterday.
5. A lot is one’s head when swimming freestyle. Picturing van Hazel’s smooth freestyle stroke made me swim faster and more relaxed – gonna stick to picturing it.
6. Increasing distance in swimming helps a lot. Four more weeks I will do this medium length and then I gonna try the long sessions of 4+ km.

I enjoyed the swim yesterday.

Yours truly

Martin

Driving to the bath was annoying since my mountain bike makes noises while driving. I confess I should have cleaned it after the last cross tour:

Yet I arrived and off I went for my swim.

I didn’t swim much but only with paddles – after all it’s a power session. Leaving the pool my shoulders felt like on fire and for the first time in a year my wrist bands felt too tight around my wrists. Actually so much blood pumped through my veins that my first guess was: I have swollen arms. Minutes later it felt ok again and downstairs I prepared to close my biking clothes, preparing for my cold ride through the night.

But I were not me if… well day of confession… I felt an urge to make me feel good and that piece of cake looked just fitting and so…

I ordered it and off with my “loot” – back home…

Hopefully I can soon again lift my arms easily – still feel empty and exhausted.

Yours

Martin

Still uphill coupled with that searing pain I lost all interest in going on. Still I went on. I almost could not sit on the saddle anymore – onward through the pain. I don’t know how often I wanted to turn around and return home – on I went. Passing Usingen I decided to stop and “rearrange” my clothes and suddenly, all felt good. No more uphill, but instead straight ahead or downward with no more pain. The sun came out and suddenly,… suddenly life felt grand. I started to look around and wondered how this area will look like in spring or summer:

I looked straight ahead and shot another photo…

Looking backward it looked like this – just imagine all green and blooming.

I was almost past the rolling hills called “Taunus” and just a few meters away to enter the open. Looking behind me I saw my bike.

So I climbed on my bike and onward into the open, when suddenly it became cold, frozen rain on my skin and without my scarf I started to feel cold *brrrrrr*. Stay focused I told myself and off we go. If not… there was the carnival, which forced me on an Odyssey through badly arranged redirections to avoid the carnival. Bet you can imagine how I cursed in the cold forced to guess where they wanted me to drive to get through that small village.

Finally after passing some…. weirdos, who wanted me to stop since my bike lacks a bell (somehow I managed to stay calm, since race bikes don’t need to),… finally I got out of the home of weirdos until I passed another man and his bike on the side. He had a flat tyre, yet I went on. Only to realize I am not allowed to drive on, forcing me to return. With no idea left on how to find my way  home I met the biker again and asked him for the way.

“No need to help me fix my tyre. Someone is on to pick me up home.” He explained to me an alternate way home (I should have shot a photo I know!!) and off we go – auntie Kate and I. Cold, soaked wet my mood approached another low until the sun came out and it suddenly felt warm. Just 20 minutes away the air felt like spring and the sun warmed me.

Life was grand and happily I went home, realizing the night was soon to come and it slowly became colder. Pedalling I heard a weird noise of my tyre on the road… Just about a mile from home I had a flat tyre. I didn’t know that flat tyres are a disease one can pick up from another biker. Yet here I stood on my bike shoes, unable to walk home on those with a flat tyre and with zero aka nadá interest to fix my tyre myself.

Called my neighbour, who was away and couldn’t help me so I plain called  a taxi to bring me home.

A 2 hour ride was planned, 2:43 it was until I had a flat tyre. Still life is grand. And auntie Kate? I believe she wants to be kicked for her stubbornness:

By now it’s after midnight, I am rested, had dinner and I feel grand except for my muscles aching from yesterday’s core stabilization training.

Still life is grand – I love what I do – just do it!

What do you do?

Yours

fatsmoker2ironman

Today started with my… worst workout, something I try to avoid for days: core stabilization. It’s just…. *ugh* to me. Anyways I did and finished that workout, a lot of sweat and feeling exhausted.

Yet riding my bike was due for today and so I set off in the afternoon. Close to dawn I had to attach my bike lights with a cool view down the road, which looked like this:

I was curious if I can add a run afterwards too. Yet, when I arrived home both training units from today already had me exhausted. So I save that run for *hopefully* tomorrow after tomorrow’s bike ride.

Yours

fatsmoker2ironman

Even worse I have a running session for today. Let’s see what my doctor tells me.

Yet I will do the running, even if it means to crawl the distance.

This annoys the hell out of me.

Yours

fatsmoker2ironman

What I didn’t count on: part of those trails were quite difficult – over some slippery wooden roots, always at risk to fall downhill into the water. Yet I got through safely. Still some of the harder parts made me realize how much work cross courses are (not the trail you see here, this one was more like a paved road than a trail). I realized how much the harder parts shook my body and how much work it was especially in my arms and back.

Later on it happened: I got lost! No kidding! I wanted to slowly return, the night approached and I wanted back along the river. Along a trail, which suddenly ended in a huge field with extremely difficult terrain. No city light could be seen, no houses, nothing. So I pushed on, only to realize that I was in a huge curve around the field with no way out.

On I went in a bee line through the field and felt my back and arms being exhausted and shaken by the difficult terrain. In the end I got home but… running was not an option. In fact I am happy if I can walk straight again soon since my back is just that: exhausted, no power left.

A 2 hour ride but it was cool and enjoyable. Off to my next endeavors.

Yours

fatsmoker2ironman