Run for Leukämiehilfe 2015 – new 5km personal record

On thursday the great news for this small running event. Although, the performances of all the athletes have been great for all the years but this year one could expect an improvement because the former Hawaii champion Faris Al-Sultan is going to participate in this years’ run.

My goals for the race were:
1. Get a photo with Faris Al-Sultan and
2. Set a new personal record on the 5km track (estimated under 4:00 min/km)

Before the start of 13th run for styrian Leukämiehilfe with Faris Al-Sultan from Pewag Racing Team.
Before the start of 13th run for Styrian Leukämiehilfe with Faris Al-Sultan from Pewag Racing Team.

After I have gotten my photograph about half an hour before start, I could concentrate on my own performance. Right after that I started my 10 minutes warm-up program around the course.
After the start I tried to stay in the top group as long as possible but the speed was enormous (3:15 min/km or less).

Pass of the starting area to begin the second lap around the park of Castle Eggenberg.
Pass of the starting area to begin the second lap around the park of Castle Eggenberg.

Therefore, I had to let them go after the first of five kilometers but still my speed was very good. At the end of the first lap I still felt very good and confident to finish with an overall speed of below 4:00 min/km. The fourth kilometer my feeling turned from good to not-so-good and I really had to fight to hold up the speed.

Feeling exhausted after a short but hard run.
Feeling exhausted after a short but hard run.

At the end I finished with a time of 17:54,65 on 12th position in overall ranking and on 2nd place of my age group (M20).

Satisfied with both my time and my 2nd place.
Satisfied with both my time and my 2nd place.

Further results please click here!

Sprinttriathlon in Stubenberg am See on a rainy Saturday morning

Like the title already tells was the weather not very good when I woke up on Saturday but as I am not allergic to rain I though what else will I do than participating at this triathlon.

At first when I arrived the weather was surprisingly nice and I could see the sun for a few minutes. After some time the weather forecast became true and it started to rain and a slight wind came up.

I did some kilometers on my bike before doing my bike into the transition zone and after a few kilometers running I went to the race briefing.

Exactly at 9:30 the sprint distance started – contrary to last year the start was performed from the ground not from the water. Although I had problems during the swim to keep on a streight direction on the course I could finish the swim after 13:07.

After a short transition from swim to bike I had to go 20km in very tough conditions. Additionally I had some problems with my visor of my helmet – it somehow “broke” so that I could not move it upwards and it did also not click into the place back again. I just hoped that it does not break further and tried to focus on the biking because it was very slippery on the road and I did not want to risk a crash. I arrived in the transition zone back after 36 minutes almost frozen to death but very happy to arrive without an accident.
At the exit of the transition area I was already (too) focused on the running split so that I slipped due to the slither lawn. I tried to keep my pace constant at about 4:00 min/km or below, which was a good decision because I could keep the pace up and finish this rainy race with a time of 1:11:01 on the 13th place of the overall ranking and on the 6th place of my class MK-M25-M.

Further results Click here!

Transition training on holiday

Yesterday I finally did a (from my point of view, as far as I can say) very good performance test on the ergometer (every four minutes increase of 40W) – I made the whole step with 360W.

After this I got a massage to get rid of my very annoing should problems on the right hand side.

20150514_124857Today I had some transition training on my schedule: 6 times 15 minutes on the bike and another 5 minutes run each at different intensity levels.

Competition season opener 2015

Some time has passed since my last post here. The reason for this is simple: I have tried to focus on the training and the preparation for the upcoming competitions. After the camp in Mallorca I went to another doctor to clarify for myself how to proceed with my knee injury. Same as the second, also the third doctor told me not to do a surgery and try to do some running and see how the knee behaves.

Already at the first running attempts I recognised that there is neither pain in the knee nor is there any swelling after the training.

On this saturday afternoon the first competition of this season in Großsteinbach took place – if somebody had told me that 2 months ago I would never have thought of this.

© triaguide.com. I can still laugh so i must be before the start.
© triaguide.com. I can still laugh so i must be before the start.

Twelve minutes after the start of wave number two I got into the transition area for the first time even tough I had some troubles at begin.

© triaguide.com. On the bike after the transition.
© triaguide.com. On the bike after the transition.

The bike course had some very tough parts however, after 40 minutes on the bike I could come to change my equipment for the second.

After finally finding my running shoes I could start the 5k track and see whether my knee endures.

© triaguide.com. Right before the finish line.
© triaguide.com. Right before the finish line.

I finished the run in 21 minutes with a pace of 4:14/km. All in all I finished on the 67th place and in my age group 12th in 1:14:50.

Thank’s a lot to Hans and Triaguide.com for the great pictures. Another will hopefully follow soon.

For results take a look at the PDF file.