Faakersee Triathlon

Finally, my first, and as it seems only, triathlon this year. Due to some bad planning of my Marathon I skipped some triathlon, which I regret. Well, now was the time to see what I learned on the bike.
The weather forecast was contradictory, some said it would rain other said it was going to be a sunny day. Never trusting the guys/girls doing the weather forecast I trusted my instinct and prepared for bad weather. I bought arm warmers, since I thought it was going to be cold after I got out of the water. The arm warmers helped Daniela ryf a lot in Hamburg so I thought I give it a try. All my stuff, shoes, helmet, glasses.. where put underneath a plastic bag just in case.
Into the water, I started way back and had to fight my way to the front which was hard work and caught up with the lead group. I did not believe it and it went well. All went good to 750m of swimming. Then I looked up and it rained, which is no problem in the water except for the sight. I looked up again to see the next buoy but it was too far away and the rain drops on the lake blurred the vision. As long as the guy in front of me knew where we were going everything was ok. Well nothing was ok, my goggles started to fill up with water and I could not see jack. Damn, if I empty them now I will lose the group. I flipped on my back and emptied them, as soon as I turned back again the goggles filled up again and I had real trouble concentrating, finding the right direction and keeping up. I just wanted to get out of here. For the next 600m I had to empty my goggles 5 times and I lost a lot of time. Furthermore, since my eyesight is not the best I nearly mised the swim finish line, if it had not been for the crowd who yelled to get me into the right direction. So out of the water, off with my goggles and the cap. I lost the goggles on the way, but who cares. The rain had stopped and due to the plastic bags helmet, glasses and sleeves were dry - onto the bike. It was quite lonely, two people passed me, but that was it. But since it was a 4 round race, the second round got crowed and even more with the next rounds. The slippery roads and 700 bike riders on a 10km stretch needed a lot of concentration, but all went well. Off the bike and into my running shoes. I started slowly but got up to a pace of 4:05, which was not too good.
Result was a great triathlon, it was super fun, even if the swimming part was a struggle. I had an overall time of 2:17:36 h (26:56 / 1:05:25 / 0:41:23 - 1.5km / 38.4km / 9.6km). As usual, I have to get better, especially my bike time needs some polishing. And here I am on my way home, happy about a great triathlon.

Kärtnen Läuft - Carinthia Runs

This was my first half marathon an since I was so disappointed with my marathon I needed a proper time. Worse than 1:30h was not an option, but not too easy. The day before it rained so it was nice and cold, the perfect weather for me, so no excuse there. I was in a good mood an confident, warmed up a little and then went to the start. With about 3200 starters it was cramped. In between all these runners the usual question arose: "why am I doing this again" and as usual there was no answer, that just came later. Well lets get going, which was not easy since it was so full. I needed about 2km to get out of the masses of runners. And then I saw the official 1:30h runner he stayed about 200m ahead of me and I could not get him. I was hungry and still not warm enough, damn. With about a 4:20min pace I was just too slow. But then came the first food station and I got a banana. I squeezed it into my mouth and like a hamster kept it in my cheeks pouches. Slowly I could then eat it which was not quite easy due to the heavy breathing. So the hunger was cured, after 5km I was finally warm and so I could finally start running. I picked up the pace and got to the 1:30h runner. Everything was going well so I stayed at about 4:07min but then I noticed there is still some energy left and only 3km to go. So I went for it. I had troubles with my watch, but it had to be a pace under 4min and it was going great. Why did I not start earlier with this speed. Well with a nice sprint I got to the finish line at 1:28:04h which is ok, but I knew I could do better.

My New Bike

Finally, I got a proper picture of my new bike. The bike is just great and makes bike riding much more fun. My old bike started to flutter at about 45km/h which was quite dangerous. With a bad surface even earlier. There was something wrong with the weight distribution. Once I had a big backpack on my back, at about 14kg which made the bike much easier to ride.
Well that is all history and I can enjoy my Sione bike.