Road to Roth 2017 – Page 2

Gimbsheim Sprint Triathlon 2017 – 3rd place, won age group

I found it a little strange, but the Gimbsheim Sprint Triathlon, that only has a 500m swim in a outdoor 50m pool, lets you swim in a wetsuit! I only found that out the night before the race, so washed my wetsuit and was ready.

Silly o’ clock again – Triathlon version

I got up at 6am and ate my normal breakfast. That is 3 weeks in a row that I have had a 6am Sunday morning alarm! I had to meet Michael at 7:30 in Gau-Bischofsheim to ride to Gimbsheim, so there wasn’t much dilly dallying time. Continue reading “Gimbsheim Sprint Triathlon 2017 – 3rd place, won age group”

The Road to Roth – Week 9 – Gimbsheim

Coming into week 9 I am feeling better than I was last week. My calves are still a bit sore, mainly my right calf, so I will be careful with faster running. I have 18.5h planned this week, ending on Sunday with a sprint triathlon in Gimbsheim. I may or may not go to Langen on Thursday for the Swim nights, I can imagine that the water is cold, but some open water swimming experience would probably be a good thing. Continue reading “The Road to Roth – Week 9 – Gimbsheim”

Wörrstadt Time Trial 2017

The Wörrstadt Time Trial has been on my radar for a while now. I rode it in 2015 and was pretty happy with my time and effort. I was hoping to be able to better that time. Maybe by over a minute, even if that only comes from a better fit and set-up.

Silly o’ clock

I got up early and rode to Wörrstadt at 7am, so that I would be there before the first riders set off at 8am, and in good time for my 8:26 start time. In 2015 I started very early on, overtook lots of people and wasn’t overtaken. This year I was in the middle of a tough group. The 2 people before me were very good riders, and there were plenty of good riders just behind me too.

I used my new HED Disc for the first time in ernst for the time trial, but I bottled out of using the latex tubes, I was too scared of having a blow out and crashing. My legs were tired and still a bit sore/injured from the Mainz half marathon last weekend, but I still felt like I would be able to put out my power when push came to shove. Continue reading “Wörrstadt Time Trial 2017”

The Road to Roth 2017 – Week 8 – Wörrstadt TT

I will start by saying, I am not going to try to get back the 1.5h I missed last week. They are gone now and I am back on plan. I have 17.5h planned this week, that is more than enough without add ons.

Monday

76.6kg – Cycled to swimming and swam for 70 mins. It was crazily full for some reason. People don’t do the full 400m warm-up so I actually had to start at the very back and work my way through the 15 person lane throughout the session. It wasn’t a tough swimming day, there was too much traffic for that. Cycled home after. Continue reading “The Road to Roth 2017 – Week 8 – Wörrstadt TT”

The Road to Roth – Week 7 – Mainz Half Marathon

With Mainz Half Marathon planned, I wanted to kick start the week with a longer ride on the bank holiday Monday. That would mean I could do less later in the week, like a mini-taper. I have a strange feeling that a 1:20 HM might be possible on Sunday.

Monday

I got up (78kg) and looked at the weather radar.

Weather Radar Continue reading “The Road to Roth – Week 7 – Mainz Half Marathon”

Mainz Half Marathon 2017

I haven’t been in full run training for quite a while now. My last couple of 10k races were also not the best, so I was kind of worried that Mainz Half Marathon wouldn’t go well for me. Well I say that, but I have lost so much weight that I also kind of expected to run really well! I had set 1h20 as my goal time, even though that is faster than my recent 10k paces, but for 2.1x the distance!

No team photos

The Mainz Marathon TCEC team photo didn’t happen because no one brought a camera. The senior members all left. Apparently forgetting that we could just use a camera phone. I got to the toilet and felt ready after 1 quick 5min warm up jog. Continue reading “Mainz Half Marathon 2017”

The Road to Roth – Week 6 – Close call on the crash

After another 17h week last week, I was quite tired starting week 6. It wasn’t bad though, I just felt like a needed a few days to get back into it. I weighed 80kg on Monday morning, but was holding water (and other things) from the weekend still.

Monday

Cycled to swimming, legs felt good. Swam for 1h05 and cycled home. I’m not sure why we swam shorter than normal, I would have rathered do another 10 mins, but we had to get out at about 9pm.

400m in, 6x100m flippers, 8x50m drills, 100m easy, 6x150m arms, 100m out. 2500m? Continue reading “The Road to Roth – Week 6 – Close call on the crash”

Liege Bastogne Liege 2017 – 272km Sportive

Liege Bastogne Liege Long Route

I have been a bit worried about Liege Bastogne Liege. 272km is a very long way to ride in a day. The weather forecast started off decent, but got gradually worse and worse until rain, wind and cold was forecast for the first 6h, perfect!

We signed in on Friday, it was a low key affair, much smaller than the Maratona last year. Then we hung around a bit until Dimi arrived and we were ready for the ride.

nice weather the day before the ride — Blue skies, the day before the ride!

The ‘Start’

At 5am the alarm clocks went off, the apartment was cold enough, I was pretty worried. I wore everything I had and we set off at 6am to the start. Now I say the start, I mean the start area. Although it says that we can start between 6:30 and 7:30, there was no official start, or even start line! We cycled the first 800m, then asked around, then went back to the start where we learned that there is no start, so we set off. Continue reading “Liege Bastogne Liege 2017 – 272km Sportive”

The Road to Roth – Project 2017 – Week 5

The last time I weighed in I was 77.7kg. Week 5 is Liege Bastogne Liege week, so everything will be a bit different to the norm.

(Easter) Monday

I just did an easy 11.4km run. It was cold and windy and generally unpleasant. My stomach was also unhappy, so I just ran at 5min/km and was done. Went to Pizza Dato instead of swimming, will swim tomorrow. Continue reading “The Road to Roth – Project 2017 – Week 5”

The Road to Roth – Project 2017 – Week 4

Week 4 of training already! I seem to have lost a little weight last week, I had a couple of weigh ins at about 78.4kg, hopefully I will see 77.x soon. My knee is sore during and after my faster/longer runs, which is aggravating me. I wore my knee brace to bed last night but it hurt a bit still! I will try to sort it out before the season starts.

Monday

Cycled to the pool, we swam lots of kicking drills, I tried the push and pull kick method I had seen online. 400 in, 4×100 kicking, 5x100m arms, 4×250 with 150m crawl 50 other, 5x100m flippers 100m out. 2900m?

Cycled home with the wind, was fun. Continue reading “The Road to Roth – Project 2017 – Week 4”