I thought i would start writing posts again as I am back rolling and want to get my homepage a little more up to date. I actually have a new one ready but have never got around to switching it onto the server.. so i will blog from here for now.

After a looooong break and a looooooot of physio i am back rolling and feeling like I am ready to go full power. I haven’t so stable and strong in the core since ….. uh.. i was in my 20’s? what’s my age again? Before I go into a long thank you session to all the people who have been helping get healthy and stable again I will get a few good races under my belt, but I must say I was up at Ehrmann Physio almost every second day for several weeks and the diligent team up there was really looking out for me.

So I did one 3 week stint in Fuerte Ventura and everything was very positive, i even did a little aquathlon where i was surprised how well i could run, not having done any hard running whatsoever yet apart from some accelletations.
At the end of 3 weeks I drove the Magic Bus from Fuerte to Crailsheim - 75km drive - 20min ferrry - 40km drive - 35HR ferry - 2500km drive… needless to say, not looking forward to doing that again soon although I may have another go in just over a months time as we will need to restock our Magic Shop at the sport hotel in late January. I actually fly right back to Fuerte this coming monday to keep the training going (germany is not so condusive to training at the moment) and so that i can spend Christmas with my special lady who just so happens to work at the Sport hotel as a fitness instructor.. instructress?..

Race plans.. yep, well Coach Lubos and I have both decided that I need a long gradual build in training to be able to reach top level fitness and to maintain the stability.. so that would mean nothing until April, and I would most likely then Debut at Challenge Fuerte Ventura (half distance) which conveniently enough takes place at the sport hotel I have been staying at. I will most likely follow that up with a few more half distance Challenge Events and cap the first part of the season off at Challenge Roth. This is tentative but more than likely the plan. After that I am thinking of doing the IM qualifying system for Kona 2013 but that means starting to earn point in Sept. this year. This could some travel to the states/canada/australia but how we will decide to attack it will be decided later this year. I was actually considering going for the 2012 qualification but having not raced this fall makes it much more difficult as guys have been after points since Sept. this year.. if you look at the rankings, most of the guys have already got a few races under their belts and 20th place already has 2000pts. (target is generally about 4000pts)
Anyway, that’s all for now.. a basic update, and I will try to keep them coming.
Merry Christmas and hope to see you in the new year!

Got off to a great start this morning. Felt rather good at check in and was soaking up the atmosphere of the thousands of spectators, hot air balloons, you name it. The start area was absolutely buzzing. I got hammered again the swim start.. it was carnage for several hundred meter’s.. but i settled in soon enough but couldn’t how far back I was, just saw a mass of swimmers in front.. I started to pick my way through it and was near the front of the pack going into that last 400m or so.. sort of lost my rhythm at the end but and a few spots but blitzt transition and rode through to what I thought was the front in the first 10km of the bike. I was riding strong off the bat and kept punching the hills to hurt the guys I had passed who were assembling behind me. A few km’s later Konan rode up beside me calling all the guys pussies and I told him i was game if he wanted to launch an attack. So it was on. On ‘Greding hill’, a couple of the km’s long was the we went for it but couldn’t a decent gap but Konan kept pushing over the top and opened up a gap (you all know that these races are NOT draft legal, but everyone wants to stay in the group as there is still an advantage even at 10m distance - although some ride a little tighter than 10m) so I let the gap open up and followed one other guy as he tried to keep him close.. when Konan was about 200m up the rode, I went for it and reeled him in leaving the other guys well behind.. I thought it was on and we would get away but it was not to be as the guys reeled us back in on the decent. After that it was a slinky of about 15 -20 riders and the strong guys would nail the technical parts or hills and string it out so the wheels suckers in the back would have to accelerate to get back in the line up.. eventually the second time up Greding we dropped more than half of the group and opened up about a 4 minute gap in them over the last 60km. It was looking good, we came into t2 7th to 13th and my legs were feeling better than they ever have after 180km of hard riding. I ran my way into 7th and was feeling pretty good, trying to get my rhythm but after a few km’s I stopped gaining on the guys in front. My abs were tight and I still couldn’t find my rhythm I lost two more spots and then around a corner I turned my ankle just slightly but felt a shooting pain through my arch. I tried to run it off but every few steps it would come again and I had to start compensating.. by 12km i tried stopping and stretching and trying to crack my foot and massage my arch. It was to no avail… i tried running on it 5kms further (walking (yes walking)) intermittantly. At the aid station at 17km I decided to pull the pin to avoid a serious injury and a day of torture.
It goes against one of my main slogans ‘finish what you started’ but i really had to rationalize this time. My form is as good as ever right now and if i can get my stability under control and if my foot is not serious I can surely punch out a top result in the next few months or weeks. I am also getting up there and might have 4 or if I am lucky 5 good years left and I can’t afford to risk injury and recovery time to finish a race when I know I can pop a good one … i might only have 5 - 10 pro Iron distance races left. So I just want to apologize to all my supporters for not attempting to gut it out.. It is the spirit of our sport to finish, especially at an event with this magnitude. It was the biggest I have ever scene it in Roth.. which is about 5 x that of any other Iron Distance event.
Don’t count me out yet…

Another fine rendition of the LBS Cup. Slightly unfortunate for geezer’s like me they turned the usual 1300m-44km-10km event into a ‘freindler’ 1100m-30km-7.5km event… more of that later.. The weather decided to NOT make it any easier for us and it pessed all day and was a lovely 14°C to boot. On the start line were the Great Seb Kienle, Olympic Medalist Stefan Vuckovich (for us ;)) top bundesliga athlete Helge Mutchard, U23 German star Maurice Clavel…. to name a few. The Team rank list had the Top 4 teams all 1 point apart so the competition was to be fierce just like the weather. Me and Aussie fellah’s made sure to get a decent swim warm up as it was too cold to get on the bikes, and our feet were freezing from jogging around barefoot. The helped me out cuz I never do enough swim warmup and I got off good and snappy when the gun went off. It was serious ITU style start though and I was slugging it out good with a few guys. Once it calmed down.. (took a good 400m..) I sighted and once again saw a small gap to the lead bunch. and two guys strung out in between. I was feeling strong tho (dividends to upping the k’s to 20-25km a week since the aussies have been here) and reeled the two of them in, but just couldn’t quite close the gap on the leaders. i came out about 20-30 seconds down, did an age group transition and put my bike shoes on so I could clip in for the 400m climb straight out of T1.. it was painful losing those few seconds but I blew by 4-5 guys straight away and was out onto the course in good postion. I worked the bike but was unsure how hard to push as it was inevitable that Kienle would be coming from behind and I would want to stay with when that happened. By the first time up the big hill (3.5km long with 15° punches) so i went for it and Knut (the big norwegian) and one other guy went with me. We picked off 3 stragglers from the lead group at the top the hill and kept the hammer down. Then I noticed a rider in black in orange about 50m back and was pretty sure it was my teamate, aussie James Lewin. I waited at the back and hoped the pace dropped a bit. It did and Jimmy was back on. At the end of the first lap we went over technical cobblestone section with a little ramp in it.. Jimmy dropped of there again and I had to decide whether to leave him or stay in the group. I was starting to feel good so I waited up and rode him back, gave him a good push and went back on the front, to see if we could start making headway on the lead group. Heading into the 2nd time up the dirty &/$&%$& climb Captain Kienle came storming by with teammate Helge Mutchard in tow. Exactly what I had expected only a little later, and rather untimely… I bit down like I haven’t in a race before in years and would NOT let myself get dropped. I made it to the top and was still on with Knut, Kienle, Helge and 1 other guy. Kienle gave me a suprized look when he saw I was still there and was yelling at Knut to start attacking. They ended up getting me on the decent on a fast slipper 360° turn but I wasn’t too concerend and hammered into T2 only 10 sec. down and sitting 7th. My legs were ROCKS going out onto that run. I managed to find some sort of rhythm despite not being able to feel my feet the entire 7.5km. I caught Knut and the ‘other guy’ hahah (it was Freier from Team Sila Hopp) but ended up being caught up in the last 2 kms by a few speedy runners.. and i just couldn’t find the next gear as my legs were so smashed from that %$§$% hill. I rolled into the finish in 9th but only 10sec down from 6th.
I feel pretty good about it. I got a lop more power on the bike than I have had for years and the run was a little off but was an all around good day.. these drafting races can play out for you or againest you.. I think it went a bit against me as Kienle dragged a bunch of guys with him on his trip from 26th spot to 4th, some of which were able to outrun and didn’t have to work quite as hard as I did. I guess I can’t say ‘if it were a pure guts race i am the only one who can win’ -steve prefontaine, but i surely could have been a few spot further up the pod.
Our man Vucko came up with a blinder, rode in breakway group and held on for 4th.. not bad for 39 yr old.. even if he is an Olympic medalist… ;), James, held tough despite the weather and the hill taking a big toll on him, and battled home for 17th, Peter Hein, our grizzly had his first big race of the year and after a lousy swim rode and ran himself into 20th, securing out 2nd place in Team results. Ben had a touph time ont the bike as well but held onfor 22nd which is pretty solid in this league for having had a tough day.
Anyways.. long story short, proud of the Magic Team and VERY optimistic for Challenge Roth 3 weeks from now.

Team Results

Suited up for this race feeling decent and confident with my training. I did recently punch out a 150km run training week so I was not sure if the legs were over that, but it was a much needed week and will increase my stamina for roth.
I got off well in the swim but then go absolutely hammered by someone and lost a body length or two and found myself gasping for air. I moved back up to the front and sighted and saw a breakaway group already about 30m ahead!! ahhhh! missed the boat again!! I led the group I was in the rest of the was and managed to split the group and catch a few stragglers in the last few hundred meters. Unfortunately I caught the french powerhouse Francois Chabaud and had dragged Norman Stadeler with me.. the both left me in their dust pretty quickly on the bike and a few km’s later Kienle came screaming by and I was on my own. I felt a little weak the whole ride despite holding over 150bpm heart rate which is near the right zone for me for a 4 hr race. I managed to catch Jimmy Johnson and Horst Reichel in the last 10km and rode into T2 in 9th position or so. I screamed through and was off running wondering how far ahead the next guys were.. uh! a few minutes later I saw Hellriegel, then Felix Schuman, and Uwe widman already on their way back from the first turnaround..5min! I managed to catch 2 guys but was also caught by Horst and Jimmy and one other guy.. so was sitting in 11th (the worst possible finish!) with 7km still to go.. I managed to stay close to 10th and had my eye on him but was not closing or losing ground. with 4kms to go I made up my mind to go for it cuz I couldn’t bear finishing 11th and would rather blow completely than that.. I bridged the gap and was on his heels. I waited a minute or two, and startedfeeling strong so I went for it.. made a full blast acceleration and dropped him good.. i paid for it the last few kms but I was able to hold on strong and had a good buffer at the line. A top 10 is a top ten.. had I managed to make the front group on the swim, and had my legs been fresher there was surely more in it, but I am happy with the form and with my determination at the end. On the right track.. a few days rest and back on it.
cheers.

Results

Been a while again… We’ve already got the first two liga races under our belts and I’ve been back on some killer training thanks to my new Aussie training partners James Lewin, and Ben Lyons. I met these guys in Aus this past winter when I was visiting my bro and we got to talking about them racing in Europe over the summer. They stayed in touch and Magic was keen so we hooked them up and they are living with me at HQ here in the Crails. It has been fantastic so far as the guys are highly motivated and like to train hard and push there limits. Our first league race was a bit of a disaster as we finished only 5th due to getting held back in T1 for not being grouped together (we were 30m apart from eachother - it was a team time trial event - and I don’t know what the rule book says but Dragstra wasn’t happy to say the least). We were strong though and I was happy with my form after having run very little with the hip issue since Challenge Fuerte Ventura. The second league race in Rheinfelden was a staggered start sprint race with a touph little bike course and we showed our true colours. Stephan Vuckovich suited up for us and was in solid form as usual. The big surprise was Jimmy, who finished 2nd overal, which shocked me as I thought he’d had an outside chance for a top 8 or so.. but he is proving to be a real racer and a smart trainer so I am looking forward to see what he can do the rest of the season. Vucko finished 6th and I was 5th and we edged out Heuchelberg and Sigmaringen for the win. Ben had a bit of bad luck as he led out the swim and ending up missing the current (swim was in the Rhein) and had to play catch up, we are sure he has got a few big performances in him soon. The guys are always game for a challenge and we were talking about proper run training and what I used to do with Sutton and Team TBB so we decided to rip a 150km run week and see how we managed. My hip has been feeling a lot better so it was a good chance to test it out and get some good hard milage in the process. We all managed and pushed eachother and are feeling the gains made.. as well as some tired legs..I
I am backing it off substantially this week and will see what I can do on the weekend at Challenge Kraichgau whick is looking like it might be one of the most compeitive Half-Irondistance races in Europe this summer.
Challenge Kraichgau.
stay tuned.

blew the first race of the season. I had been having the hip problems as I had mentioned, and that is always a bad sign going into a half Ironman-distance race. My hips were way out by the time I hit the run (after a pretty avg. swim bike combo) and had to slow to a jog as the pain in my hip joint started to hurt an my stride wasn’t efficient anymore. I went straight to a specialist (http://www.pohlig.net) on monday and got some things sorted. Better to realize and get on top of these things now rather than 2 months from now. I am pretty lucky to have great supporters who really know their stuff. Still feeling fit and strong and will back off the run until I get the hip issues sorted and hammer the bike and swim in the meantime. The good ones will come.. an old geezer like me needs a few races to get going anyway. It was great to see some familiar faces on the weekend, and to be part of another first inaugural Challenge event. Hope to part of many more before I retire.

It’s been ages since I’ve written a blog.. hmmm.. well. I have been on it lately. Had some great camps in Fuerte and had the honor of training with a old mate and rising superstart sebastian Kienle. This guy has got an arsenal, let me tell you, if you haven’t heard of him, you will.
Anyway, the kid trains bloody hard and through hammering the hard miles with him (mostly following), it sparked something in me. Sort of an epiphany, of which i have had a few in my career, and usually at just the time I needed it. The first one was when I moved out west and started training at our national center. It openned my eyes to what REAL triathlon training was like. The second was when I flew across to San Diego and was looking to make the jump to Half-Iron and Iron distance racing. I had the chance to train with Jurgen Zack back when he was still gunning. I trained with him every day for a week or two and made me realize the type of training the big guys in the sport are doing.
The third of course was when I signed up with Sutto. This was a new level of how hard I found I could train and what I could handle with the motivation of a legendary coach and regular world class training partners. Each of these epiphanies resulted in immediate gains and improved results.
Over the past few years I think I paid for trying to handle too much Sutto-style training and racing without enough rest and backed off training a LOT. It has been a bit of a lull with spotty results.. a few good ones, mostly bad ones, and often a lack of motivation in training. I have had great support from my coach Susanne Buckenlei and she has been very key getting me out of this lull and able to perform. Never the less, training with the machine-le made me realize that there is no easy way to the top, and compromised training is gonna bring compromised results. I def. need more recovery and rest than in the past but the hard gruelling shit has gots to be done. Now my form is up, and despite struggling a little bit with some nagging injuries I am training at a higher level than I have been for years, and enjoying hammering workouts, not dreading it.
Anyway, we will see what it brings this year, but at least I can say I am not going out in a fizzle.. see if I can pull a Raynard Tissink!
wish me luck
l8r
oh by the way.. here is my race schedule.. I have pretty lady putting together a new site design for me and that is why none of the new info is up.. sorry sponsors… coming
soon.

Apr. 30 - Challenge Fuerte Ventura
May 15 - LBS Cup race, Forst
May 22 - LBS Cup race, Rheinfelden
June 6 - Challenge Kraichgau (highlight race)
June 22 - LBS Cup race - Schomberg
June 28 - Lbs Cup Race - Erbach
July 14 - Challenge Roth (hightlight race)
and a few more to come in season, pt 2… including, Challenge Walchsee-Kaiserwinkel where I have dues to pay

- motivational vid and song.. surely you have all seen it.. but you can’t watch this one enough.

Long as flight back to allemagne.

Nice to be back in a way. Helps it feel like a fresh start as it is mid winter and I have months to take care of biznass and get ready for summer.
Yes, of course I am going to keep plugging away, I was pretty devastated after Wanaka but after settling down I put it behind me looking ahead. First, I am off to physio tomorrow, as I still can’t run properly, and try to get that sorted and then a build back into some heavy training and a few camps in Fuerta Ventura this spring. I made some gains in my training while I was away and I’ve got to keep building on where I was… I don’t need much of a break as I didn’t exert myself much in Wanaka as I walk/jogged the second lap.
Anyway, back on my horse and picking up the pieces.
Read a great book about enduring hardship which also helped me put my petty problems in Perspective.. give it a read - Unbroken, by Laura Hildebrand

Still loving these guys!

Another Shocker. I don’t know if I am ready to write about this race as I haven’t really come into terms with it and haven’t put it behind me yet. I think in the end, my body was just not ready for a long distance event. Most who try to console me tell me it was a tough day out there with the wind and choppy water. I am always ready for tough conditions and after 21 long distance races I have seen some pretty gnarly conditions and normally survive them and often thrive in them. The issue was just a power issue and couldn’t seem to get into race mode out there. I felt it in the swim already as I was swimming comfortably in the main bunch but when I the pace picked up and I needed to turn it up I simply couldn’t do it. Normally in a long distance race you are at a comfortably unconfortable effort level and if you need to make a little move it doesn’t take much, and that simply wasn’t the case. On the bike the chase pack of 4 was in sight as I hadn’t lost much at the end of the swim, and again, I simply couldn’t make myself ride up.. it would have taken 5-10 min of concerted effort but that gear just wasn’t there. This continued as I failed to even hold onto some of the top age groupers. At the time I had it in my head that I would work into the ride and start feeling good. It just went the other way around and I simply kept losing time and couldn’t even keep my heart rate over 125 beats. I had basically given up on a good performance and soon enough I reached Cromwell where you cross the river and head back north towards Wanaka. With very little motivation to keep going I turned into the most horrendous headwind I have ever seen. I had to ride in this wind for 65 of the last 70km. I stopped to talk to Felix and Bjorn (Challenge Roth and Kraichgau race directors) who were out cheering on the course. I really wanted to pull the pin and jump into van. The completely understood but I new they would be dissappointed if I did (and I knew I would myself). I mean, I had really giving up on giving my best.. (my best was not very good on this day) but I thought I should at least finish the bike ride and then re-evaluate. I chugged a RED BULL and jumped back on my bike. It was the most uncomfortable discouraging 70kms of my life… The winds were absolutely relentless and at points I was riding well under 20km/hr on the flats.. When I finally got back I took a side trip into the food tent and at some Subway and Subway cookies (one of my favourite foods) and sat there debating with myself about what to do… Even jogging the marathon in my start (more a poor state of mind than body) just seemed unfathomable and pointless. I talked to Vics (Ch-Wanaka race director) and she was very supportive and also completely understood if I wanted to call it a day, but I thought about the work she puts into the race about some of the age groupers who would doing everything they could to finish by midnight and decided to put the shoes on and get out there. I didn’t want to be cheered on or supported out there but there were so many good intentioned volunteers and spectators out there you couldn’t help to feel grateful as to them anyone putting themself through such an grueling endeavour is unreal. I really jogged the second lap as my hip joints had seized up and my left ankle was also locked and not flexing properly.. it was a real sorry sight, I felt so useless out there. at 37km I had basically accepted the situation and was walking/jogging. There were some people spectating from their front yard on the course at this point, grilling out and drinking beer. I asked if they had any spare cold ones and they were happy to oblige and I hung out for a few minutes and pounded it (much to their excitement.) I got back into and caught up to one of the pro girls, Belinda Harper, who’d had a nice stack on the bike (a crosswind knocked her right off) and was also just finishing up (with some nice road rash oozing blood through bandages) and we jogged it in together, a sorry sight.
It is amazing the thought that go through your mind on a day like yesterday. Thoughts of retiring or just raking my mind to think of what I need to do to get going good. It has been a loooong time since my last great race and have had so many poor ones the past few years. Training has felt good and I have been working hard on core strength and flexibility but I can’t seem to be able to race at my potential.
I have plenty of time to get fit before the Euro season starts up but after so much dissappointment I don’t know where I will find the motivation to get all the bases covered and bring the training level high enough to turn things around.
I think that is all I will write for now… as I haven’t come to any conclusions. Thanks to all my readers, freinds and familly for your support and words of encouragement.

Made it across to enzed and got some snappy sessions out on the course in. Other than a few days rain the weather has been perfect…. hope it holds… Watched the Junior Challenge today and had and interview and some wicked pix with the kids on the back of the Battle Truck… pix to come.. or check my FB.. I got it rigged up with a Canadian Flag and it is quite the spectacle.. Town is abuzz and Challenge flags are all over place, on all the street lamps. It is going to a fabulous weekeend.
Race hairdo is also almost finished as well. so not much more to do than wait for Saturday… Can’t wait to light it up!

www.challenge-wanaka.com

Oh.. by the way, the kiwi’s have a really great film industry and I’ve seen about 5 kiwi films I’ve really liked… not bad for a country with only 4mills.
here is the latest:

.. Boy