24h swim - Bad Radkersburg

So this friend of mine convinced me to take part at a 24h swimming contest in Bad Radkersburg. No idea how he made me go along. Well I said yes so I had to go.
My plan was to swim about an hour, make 3km and then make a pause for 15min. Funny thing was that I actually was quite fit but swimming in a 50m pool gets to your head. It was quite dull and after 4 hours I had to get out. The pause was quite long but I just could not swim any more it was too boring. Physically everything was fine I was not exhausted, the monotonicity just got to me. Nothing happens in the water and try that one hour long. The only thing one had to do is to overtake the guys in a lane, the only change. If it was not for that I would have gone completely mad. Back in the water after another hour my right shoulder started to hurt like hell and I had to stop. That was it, I already had to stop after 12km. I thought the event was over for me. So I went to bed and slept for 9h. I got out and my friend already did 25km so I really wanted to get back in and try how my shoulders would do. It still hurt but changing my stroke style helped perfectly. Another 14km in about 6h. This day went much better and I started to enjoy it.
Sadly it ended but with my bad shoulder I was happy about getting out of the water.
I just was sad since I only made 26 km (522 laps, each 50m) with a pure swimming time of about 8h30min. Maybe next time? Not yet sure.

update: A picture of me and my friend Hannes after about 20h of the event... still having fun and yes he had no neo and still did 10km more than me.

Kosiak Löwe - chickened out

So I am way behind with writing, but not much to report. I just chickened out of the Kosiak Löwe. I already signed up for the race, which was a 13km bike ride uphill (mountain bike) and then about 3-5km uphill run. The run did not bother me but I am not much of a mountain biker. So the week before I tried it with a friend of mine and the first 8km were normal road and were no trouble. Then it got little bit off road but still no trouble. But the last 3km were horrible, they put rubble on the road and I had real trouble to keep a straight line and the handlebar under control. I got up with just falling off the bike twice, since I had clicks and did not get out of them fast enough. I think that is nothing for me.

Downhill the rubble part was even worse and my natural chickeness of biking did not help so I fell onto the rubble and grazed my leg. But the normal road downhill was great fun, the cars could not even keep up - it was super.
At the bottom I noticed that my leg was hurt worse than I thought and small stones were underneath my skin like splinter so I washed that out. Well for the kosiak it was not fun enough so I cancelled that race.

Save your Freedom

Normally I write about sports but it seems I will not get passed also writing something about politics. For the moment I try to keep away from any comments and just put up some links. Hopefully I will get around to write something on my own.

Lets start off with a video, which is in german. It is called "save your freedom".

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.

Marathon Fürth, nearly DNF

The Fürth-Marathon was already a couple of weeks ago but I just could not write this article. It took some time until I could write this down. I just did not achieved my goal and failed by far....
Well lets start with the beginning. I was confident, I was in good shape, everything was going well and Jonas, a friend of mine even accompanied me on the bike, which was great.
So what happened. After already 1km my stomach told me that he is not joining the run. Well since I was running on my feet I said, well this is not going to be fun but I will manage. At about 10km my thighs stop working, they just cramped up and they were stiff. After 10km!!! this was not good this meant pain, no way I can get a good time. Just running with my lower legs I at least made it to 20-25km but then the legs just stopped all together and pain was all I could feel. Something was wrong, very bad. This was not how I planned it. Jonas who accompanied me on the bike helped me by supporting my willpower which was real close to giving up. My brain even stopped working. I tried to figure out the speed I was running but I just could not remember the time when I last passed the last km-mark - my brain was totally fried.
There was no chance in getting a good time, this was just to know my limits. The body stopped, can I still manage this. Well it went on and as last time, at about 35km the guy with the hammer came, and he hit hard. But now there was no way I would give up, I just kept running.
At the last meters a guy wanted to sprint against me and finish before me. This was not tolerable, I had to give everything and I did. I could not bend my knees anymore so I kept the legs stiff and sprinted over the finish line as if I had casts on the legs.... later I found out that the guy was no marathon runner, he did the relay.

Well I finished 31st with 3:10:05h, little more than 1min less than my last marathon. I was devastated. I had real troubles physically and mentally for quite some time. Only after 1 week I could walk properly again and after 3weeks my head started to get over the big loss.

Big thanks to my fans Ines, Pilz, Kathi and Gunnar from Erlangen. My parents who drove the long way from Prague.
And especially Jonas who came along from Klagenfurt, big thanks I owe you!

Well this just means... this was not the last marathon.