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Ironman 70.3 Zell am See 2014 Summary

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Friday 29-08-2014:

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Just before departure in Graz with full packed car.

After arriving at my Hotel in Bruck an der Glocknerstraße which is a neighboring place of Zell am See I made myself at home and warmed my precooked noodles for lunch. After that I went by car to Schüttdorf from where I walked to the Ferry Porsche Center in the centre of Zell am See for doing the registration for the Ironman 70.3. After that a friend and I visited the expo and went to the PEWAG lounge to get some coffee.

Fully energized we went back to Schüttdorf to pull our wetsuits on and making ourselves ready to get into the water make a short swim.

In the evening we first went to the “Kasnockenparty” and afterwards back to the hotel where I made some last preparations on the bike and the changing bags so that everything is ready for tomorrows bike check-in.

Saturday 30-08-2014

I had to get up early, about 6:30, so that I have got enough time for breakfast etc. because the race briefing started at 9:00 at Ferry Porsche Center. Fed with information about the course, rules and some other stuff concerning the race weekend I was motivated to do some shopping at the expo. I bought an Ironman t-shirt with the names of all participants on the back, am special Ironman 70.3 Zell am See tea cup and a brighter visor for my Casco Speedairo helmet.

After a second breakfast (small snack or however you call it 😉 ) we inspected the running track in the centre of the city. During the inspection we arrived at the seaside where the PEWAG Ironkids race started. Again it was time for a coffee at the PEWAG lounge where we could meet Marino VanHoenacker, who should win the race on Sunday btw, and take a photo with him.

Around lunchtime my parents and my girlfriend Laura arrived at the Hotel. After unpacking some stuff we went for lunch to a small restaurant on the other side of the street where I had again noodles 🙂 .

 

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Photo shooting with the probably chosen race tricot just before the bike check-in.

Later Laura and I went after a short photo shooting at the balcony of our hotel room, to the bike check-in. Further I showed Laura some of the spots in Schüttdorf and in Zell am See where the athletes will be. During that we made a short stop at the PEWAG lounge. Thereafter I went to bed immediately to be fit for tomorrow!

Sunday 31-08-2014

Raceday…

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Arriving to the start by bus.

 

…the day I have been training for a whole year. At breakfast everything felt normal but later on in the shuttle bus I already felt a little bit nervous. In the transition zone for making a last check on the bike all the excitement was gone.

 

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About 30 minutes until the start!

 

Warm-up time – first onshore afterwards in the lake!!! I was really surprised because since Friday when I was the last time in the water the temperature of the lake decreased a lot. It felt really cold. Not even the cold temperature of the sea could reduce my and the motivation of all other participants.

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Will you find me 😀 … ?

Start for the pros was at 10:00. At exactly 10:05 was the start of my starting block. My first race over this distance…so I had no idea what surprises this race has got for me. Already at the first meter I got a foretaste of what I was waiting for me the next 1.9km in this cold lake. From nearly everywhere I got a hit so that my rhythm got interrupted all the time. Additionally I got a group of slower swimmer in front of me so I could not choose my own speed. After a few minutes it was possible to swim normally – but just until the first buoy where the whole field of swimmers got crowed together again. Here we go again – another round of boxing and fighting and hoping that the time for normal swimming will be soon. After the turning buoy I could finally swim my personal speed although I could not swim in triple strokes because of some (for me unknown) reason the left side of my goggles was filled with water all the time. I came into the transition zone after swimming in about 35 minutes – this was not what I had expected but could have been worse as I had not experience with as many starters.

5:27 in the first transition zone for getting out of the wetsuit and getting into the whole bike suit.

On the bike I tried to have a good speed so that y muscles are warm for the climb to Dienten am Hochkönig. I more or less followed my plan riding with a good speed up to Dienten. After that I tried not to over pace at the climb to Filzensattel because I knew that this is just about the half of the 90km distance. Due to good inspection and a video of the course that we made in summer I knew all the critical turns during the downhill to village Mariaalm. I tried to make a compromise between speed and risk not having an accident. Thankfully the rain started not before I reached the second aid station. All of a sudden I was really happy that I had chosen a warmer suit for the bike course, even though it took some more seconds for getting dressed.

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Transition zone – change from bike to running shoes.

I reached the transition zone after 2:39:40 on the bike. This means even though there was huge climb one the course my mean speed slight below 34km/h.

Second transition took 3:51 which is mostly caused by the fact that I was not able to get out of my bike shoes and leave them on the bike.

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The begin of 21.1km.

My inexperienced plan for the half-marathon was to stay under 1:30. At the beginning I was able to run the pace I wanted to run. Soon I recognised that this goal will not hold. Already during the first of two rounds I had to reduce speed.

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…at the end of the half-marathon/ironman 🙂

At the end I could finished the run in 1:45 and the whole half Ironman in 5:09:48. I did not reach my goal but I earned a lot of experiences. Next time I will again try to finish under 5 hours and hopefully things work better than this time.

Thank’s to the huge support of Laura, Matthias, Robert of my Mum and my Dad and for all the pictures!!! Thank’s also to all the other fans during the Ironman 70.3 in Zell am See. It was a great racing day even though the weather was not on our side.

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Finally its done!!! First half distance finished – with medal and aluminium blanket.

Further details to the results under: Ironman 70.3 Zell am See 2014

 

Just one week to go…

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O my god…my personal highlight of my very first season is just another week away!!! Excitement is increasing but still everything is fine. The feeling that all the long and hard work will finally payoff is really cool.

My plan for this week is pretty simple:

  • Monday: easy running down
  • Tuesday: last session on the bike
  • Wednesday: a last swim in Copacabana Kalsdorf
  • Thursday: resting day and preparing the car for journey
  • Friday: leaving towards Zell am See after lunch
  • Saturday: Race briefing + bike check-in + expo
  • Sunday: race day

Mürzer Oberland triathlon – Olympic distance

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On Saturday 26th of July there was a triathlon over the olympic distance at Mürzer Oberland at Neuberg an der Mürz in and around the Urani pond. Before there were a aquathlon competition and a hobby triathlon.
Exactly at 14:00 the start signal was given for the 1500 meters swim separated into three laps in the larger but still small pond and another shorter lap in the smaller pond which were connected to each other over a channel. First half of the first lap was very tough – in my opinion there were too many athletes at the same time for the size of the pond so I was just able to swim like a water polo player. After the turn at the first buoy it happened that I got pushed towards the shore and all of a sudden it was digging in the ground of the pond. As i was startled I looked out of the water to see where I exactly was and I noticed a nother athlete who was standing in the water and jumping into it with a header. After the second turn the field got separated more and more and it was possible for me to concentrate more on my own swimming skills than on other athletes although I still got some hits on my feet.

© www.tribild.at
© www.tribild.at

After coming out of the water there were still a few meters of running to the transition area

During the 40k biking course it rained several times which had a very pleasant cooling effect but also made the road a bit slippery so you had to take care and not risk too much.

© www.tribild.at
© www.tribild.at

All in all I had no trouble on the road and after an hour I returned into the transition area and back on the running track.
There was a course of about 5k on a path over grass and brash that has to be run twice by every athlete. Due to the rain the meadow was sometimes a little deep, therefore, it was not easy to accelerate all the time. But this could also had its reason because the sun and the before fallen rain made hazy conditions on the track – felt like in the jungle!

© www.tribild.at
© www.tribild.at

In the end I finished my second triathlon over the olympic distance in 2:09:13 on the 50th overall rank, and the 15th place in my class (M-MA24) .

Intensive trainingsweekend finished…

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… after a 4.5 hour  bike tour to the Südsteirische Weinstraße and an easy 2 hour run. This weekend I trained about 13 hours where I did 300km on the bike, 3km swimming and 17km running.

Some pictures of where I have been this weekend.

IMAG0513Great view over south of Styria in Kitzek im Sausal is worth all the pain during the way up tot he small town.

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After a short coffee break in Gleinstätten to gain some more energy for the further way.

On the famous Südsteirische Weinstraße I could also make a short trip to Slovenia as well 🙂

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All in all it was a exhausting but still perfect sunday!

 

The first sponsors

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The very watchful guys of you might have already seen it within my worpress site. I can announce that I have got my first two sponsors. First of all I want to thank both Stadlmann-TEC and Schluga IT very much for supporting me. In triathlon you have got to invest a lot of money for the equipment therefore it is good to get a helpful hand.

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Thank’s once again and maybe you can suggest some other companies supporting me!

Medical check within the preventive medical checkup

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For determining whether everything is working as it should in my body I decided to do a preventive medial checkup before my main race in Zell am See. During this checkup my blood and urine where examined. Due to special conditions (e.g. if you are an athlete) a ECG is written to determine whether the heart is working correctly.
The doctors told me to leave because my results from the first two investigations was no abnormality detected (NAD) and my results from ECG need more time.

A few days later I received an envelope with my ECG results in it. The results said that an extended QT interval was detected. At first I did not know what this results mean so I investigated a little bit in internet. I found out that this medical issue can lead to arrhythmia in the worst case. Therefore, I decided to do some further tests at LKH Graz to see whether I can train and do my sport in the future without concerns.

UPDATE:

 

Todays exploration relieved myself very much. Another ECG said that the situation is not as much concerning as it sounded before. Also the time values are smaller than detected in the first place.
On next Sunday there will be another investigation where an ultrasound exploration of my heart is done and a stress ECG will be done. For now I have to train hard to reach this week’s goals.
Of course I will post all results here.

UPDATE:

 

Today I had an ultrasound investigation at cardiology department of LKH Graz followed by a stress ECG. Both investigations gave me the all-clear. So I can reject all previous results and focus on the race on the weekend in Fürstenfeld and on Ironman 70.3 in Zell am See in August.

Third race – Pago Alpe Adria triathlon in Velden am Wörthersee

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Pago Alpe Adria triathlon (Olympic distance 1,5 * 40 * 10 km) on 14.06.2014 in Velden:
My first triathlon over the olympic distance and I decided to do it in the wonderful country Carinthia. I had a lot of time to think of some questions before this race: how will it be to swim 1,5k within a race, how is the run after all exertion just to name two examples.
At the transition zone at the bike check-in one of the judges told me that my transporting box is way too larger to put it into the area during the race. After putting the box back in the car I finally could concentrate on the race again.
The distance on the swim turned out to be perfect for me because already short time after start I could swim my own tempo. Seemed like nobody else was swimming the same speed I was swimming so I had a boring 1,5k swim. After 26 minutes I got out of the water, where by the way waves were really high for a lake, and had to run some meters with an altitude difference to come into the transition area.
Now I had to do four 10k laps on the bike circuit on the Süduferstraße near the Wörthersee. At first I thought that this might be a boring fact of the race but already in the first lap an Italian athlete overtook me. After he passed me he turned around and shouted at me “Andiamo, andiamo, andiamo….!!!” and waved with his right hand. Immediately I tried to follow him so that I am not alone during the race.
We started our run almost at the same time but at the beginning of the second lap he overtook me and had to let him go. I finish on the 72nd overall rank and 16th rank in my class (MEK1) in 2:17:42.

Second race – Vulkanlandtriathlon

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© http://www.vulkanlandtriathlon.at/

Vulkanlandtriathlon (Sprintdistance 0,75 * 25 * 5 km) on 08.06.2014 at the foot of Riegersburg:
It has been my second triathlon within the last week and I have been a lot more experience that the last one (e.g. for the first time I got a folding box for storing all my stuff). After putting all my stuff into the transition zone I noticed that the temperature increased every minute.
At 10:30 the start signal was given for the whole athletes. It was a start out of the water and all in all there were 2 and a half laps to go in the small lake. The first metre to the first turn towards the right were horrible. I have made the mistake to start in the centre of the field, therefore, I thought that this will be the worst 750 metre ever. But after the first buoy I managed to leave the middle of the field and could swim my own speed.
At the exit of the transition zone I somehow lost a gel, so I just had one left. The first kilometers were quiet nice and I was able to overtake a lot of other athletes. But I was still thinking that I have to keep some rest for the case that the course gets more difficult at some point. On of the athletes I was overtaking told me that there will be an ascent at the end of the course.
After the second time in the transition zone I finally noticed that it is really hot and I was happy that this is just a sprint distance race. Turned out that the run was directed towards the center of Riegersburg and from there back to the lake again. Two laps with a lot of altitude difference. During the ascent I had to walk a short distance as most of the other athletes because this part was too steep.
I finished my second triathlon competition in 1:25:42,20 on the 31st rank in overall and on 9th in my class (elite-I-M).

First race – Apfellandtriathlon at Stubenbergsee

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For the first triathlon competition I tried to chose a short distance somewhere close to my living area so that the effort getting to the start is not too high. First of all this race had for me one reason: getting to know all the “normal” thing s you have to do during a triathlon (e.g. the two times in the transition zone)

Apfellandtriathlon (Sprintdistance 0,75 * 20 * 5 km) on 31.05.2014 at Stubenbergsee:

For some reason was not nervous which was kind of surprising for me because at the half-marathon in Vienna I was very nervous before the start. As most of the triathletes will agree that it is a common mistake starting too fast in the swim because oneself is

Ich war zu Beginn des Rennens komischerweise überhaupt nicht nervös, ganz anders noch als in Wien beim Halbmarathon. Ich habe mich dann aber beim Schwimmen hinreißen lassen am Anfang ein hohes Tempo zu gehen und mich dadurch zwar etwas übernommen, aber danach Recht gut hineingefunden. Nach dem Wechsel aufs Rad hatte ich zu Beginn ein bisschen Schwierigkeiten, weil es gleich am Anfang hügelig losging. Diese  Probleme konnte ich aber auf der doch eher kurzen Strecke schon bald hinter mir lassen. Laufen war dann der krönende Abschluss des ersten Triathlon Events. Mit einer Gesamtzeit von 1:14:15,16 und den Splits 0:13:34,25 fürs Schwimmen, 0:01:54,11 in der Wechselzone 1, 0:36:22,51 am Rad, 0:01:07,44 in der Wechselzone 2 und 0:21:16,85 konnte ich doch sehr zufrieden sein. Mit diesen Zeiten konnte ich in der Klasse Elite-I-M den 12. Rang und in der Gesamtwertung den 51. Platz belegen.