4th at Superfrog Triathlon on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 2011

Superfrog Triathlon... sounds strage to a German ear but it's been around for a while (it was created in 1978 by the Navy Seals as their preparation race for the Kona Ironman). And you don't mess with those guys because, not even over race names... well you know why!

My host here in San Diego – Flo – suggested doing the race when we talked me staying at his place for my Kona prep. Awsome, down to the roots, fair and challenging were some of the terms he used to describe the race. Well I thought, even if it’s the day after the day that I fly in to San Diego, I’ll give it a try. And it was worth it. Even if on the day before the race I was awake for a continuous 27 hours I still had a blast.

Race morning: Oh, overslept!

The day began with a shocker: Flo and I had agreed to get up at four o’clock in order to have some breakfast before heading out to Imperial Beach and the late check in from 5:15. Thanks to our neighbours here even I did not sleep well and, when I woke up for an umpteenth time that night thought… is it really only four o’clock? It was exactly five o’clock and that meant: Red Alert. With in 10 minutes we had packed our things I had grabbed two bagles and off we were. In the end we were fine because the Navy base the race is on doesn’t open before 5:15 an we arrived at 5:38 am. I grabbed my race number at the late check in and racked my bike. On the way to the bike I was introduced to race director Eric Rehberg and after a little chat he found out that I would have rather registered for the elite category but as that was named “PRO” in the online registration process had not dared to do so as I don’t own a German Pro License. Well, it took Eric five minutes to check with the timing people and off the bike rack I took my QR cd 0.1 and racked it with to Pros. Strange feeling that by the way. So now I had to deliver.

Whitewash!

he 7am swim start of the first wave saw some 7ft high waves at breaking about 150 meters off the shore. Had I mentioned that my last ocean swim dated back to last years Ironman Florida and that I am not familiar with how to dive through under those bastard waves. Well, I had my first lesson today – the hard way. Twice on the way out and before I had even reached the first buoy the whitewash crashed into me.

At roughly 65°F the water was not too warm and to be submerges for 3-4 seconds without being therefore prepared is nothing the I really liked. After the second time and exactly 1:47min into the race I seriously thought about quitting. I was hyperventilating and had a really hard time. Nonetheless what would Flo say if I called it quits no two minutes into the race. So I kept on trying and made it to the shore after lap one. Not though with out learning the had way that also on the way back to the shore you should at times look back to check if the next wave sucks you up or not.

This is how it looked from the shore. I am sure that this guy initially also wore swimming goggles.


In the end the swim time of 28min flat was not too bad but the course might have been a bit short. I didn’t mind though, today. To my astonishment there were even a few guys that exited the water after me so I did not embarrass myself too bad.

Where are those watts?

Once on my noble steed I let the real race begin – or so I thought. The adrenalin might be pumping in my veins but you just can’t wipe away the quite strenuous travel from Frankfurt to San Diego. So some numbers were low and some high. Regrettably it was the wattage that was low and the heart rate that was high. Nonetheless I kept overtaking people and made steady progress on the four lap course that is quite pancake flat. For a rouleur like me that’s usually ideal but after some 10km I was overtaken. That does not happen too often and in even rarer case I am not to keep up with those people at all. In the end the guy turned out to be the overall winner of the race, Josef Major from Hungary. So I continued on and saw the wattage get lower and lower but was in the and able to accept the fact that today was going to be just a hard training session with supplied nutrition. When I exited the loop to transition Flo told me that I was in fifth place and I was a bit surprised at that. But still a bike time of 2:10h for those 90km was not too bad in the end.

The sandbox!

They had told me before the race that about haft of the run course would be on the beach. Not the beach promenade but the beach itself. That meant running in part through deep sand an gradually make your way to the hardpack section that the water forms when it washed ashore. Still it’s a lot slower that concrete or even gravel tracks. And it was strenuous. Nonetheless that’s what I like: challenging courses and conditions. At the first turnaround I checked the distance to 4^th and to 6^th place respectively. 4^th place was way out of reach an ran a lot faster than I did. 6^th though was some five minutes back immediately followed by 7^th place. So there might be a chance to make it to the finish without surrendering my spot. A first that would have been in 2011. But when the course went off the beach again and I had to cross the loose sand again and run uphill I really suffered. And at that point I made the decision to leave the race at that and to really continue it as a long brick session. So I ran about 4:40min/km on the gravel and paved sections from then on. When I hit the beach for the second time it was time take splits again and surprisingly 6^th and 7^th place were still more that two minutes back. Still they had made up more than three minutes on the first lap and I was expecting them to surely catch me before the finish line. But in the end money was only up for grabs for the top three finishers and I was in fifth place. What the heck did I care! What the hell did I care until I reached mile marker 12! At that point neither the Navy guy nor the fellow TCSD member had run past and I began to think the Top5 had a nice ring to it after all. So I accelerated to approximately six minute miles to perhaps make it after all. At the last aid station though I heard the staff cheering on somebody no ten seconds after they had stopped cheering me on. Still able to do a little math I suspected it to be one of my two followers. And as I could check at the last turn around about half a kilometre from the finish line I war right. The Tri Clubber who goes by the name Dave McMahon was no more than 10 seconds back. So it came down to sprint after all. I hit the pedal to the metal and went to sub six minute miles. A few frightened looks confirmed that Dave dropped back. So with a half marathon of around 1:38hrs I allegedly in 5^th place I crossed the line. Total time something at 4:18hrs.

4th not 5th in the end!

It turned out a few minutes later that the first guy across the line was a runner from a relay team so I had actually finished in 4^th place… grrrrr…. Once again no awards for me in the USA. The cowboy was a little frustrated. ;)






In a way that fits as finished 6^th in my age group for three times already (IM 70.3 CA & Wildflower 2007 as well as at Ironman Florida last year.

Nonetheless I had a great day at a really great race. Honest course, though conditions, great people good food afterwards. Innovative trophies in the shape of a detonator (see pic) that regrettably did not get one of.







And as a quite wise guy I know once said: There is not much I demand off of a race: Correct distances, a fair and well policed the course and enough to eat & drink for everyone are really enough.. Today that was the case and I appreciated that very much. I can really only recommend this race to anyone searching (a) a race for their Kona perp in California and (b) those that want to experience something completely different than WTC races.

Thanx to you Navy guys!

Tim

8th @ Leage Race # 3 & AG podium at Westerwald-Triathlon

I’ve not done too many races this year due to injuries and the Kona prep but as team captain I try to do each league race. The one last Saturday was race number three and late but hopefully not too late I seem to get back into shape.

Even though Westerwald Triathlon only had some 200 participants the field was stacked with potential and we were in the middle of it. It was the sprint tri state champs of Rhi-neland-Palatinate and they had EUR 500 for the winner so a few very fast guys showed up.

Regrettably two team members were out due to injury. So all we could hope for was a middle of the pack result with two of our backup crew racing. In the middle of my Kona prep I could not do much of any tapering. The day before the race saw me running 2:30h at IM pace and Saturday morning two hours of easy spinning on the bike so I did not ex-pect much. But the race was only a print (500m swim – 20k bike, 5k run) so I thought it might work out.

Once we were off, all mayhem broke lose as 150 guys tried to make the first 90 degree turn only 150m from the start line as fast as possible. My black left eye is testament to the brawl. I exited the water in just over 7:30min and was quite pleased. Once on my QR CD 0.1 I started to play catch up, as always. The bike course had some 1000 foot of ver-tical climbing on just 20k so it seemed fair where I was in the race. Behind me it seems to have been a different story though. Right before we hit T2 I caught rode past local pro Benjamin Rossmann. I thought: Hey that’s not too bad! I could hear the announcer say something about me being in 4th place overall. At 35:43min for the hilly course I had posted the third fastest bike split of the day and hit off onto the run. A quite hilly run though and even though it was only 5k I really suffered and had to surrender three spots to finish in 8th place overall. Even though I made the podium of my age group (2nd) we could not stay for the awards presentation as the race had only started at 5pm and we still had an invitation for dinner.

My teammates also did a good job and in the end we finished 7th of 12 teams and after three of four races of the season we are “Safe!” and can plan for another season in Ger-many’s third tier triathlon league.

Sunday then had another quite strenuous workout waiting: four hours of IM bike effort followed by 30min of running. Damn am I happy for my rest day today!

Cheers

Tim

Rothsee Triathlon: Getting back in shape with a 3rd place

Roth!

For German triathletes it’s a magic word! It has the ring of Germany’s first Ironman and since 2002 it’s the home of the Challenge Series of iron distance events. But in addi-tion to the world’s biggest long distance triathlon Roth also hosts Germany’s second larg-est Olympic distance triathlon, Rothsee Triathlon. For 23 years now, usually two weeks prior to the big one, some 2.000 athletes gather at Rothsee for one of Germany’s classic races. You swim right next to Main-Donau-Channel where the swim of Challenge Roth is held and the majority of the bike course also takes place on the Challenge course.





I did my first Ironman in Roth 2001 and since then have been in Roth counts for at least ten times either to again participate in the Ironman/Challenge race (2002, 2004 & 2008) or to watch the big guns play. For just as many years I was looking at doing Rothsee tri-athlon but it was only this year that I finally made it.

Due a public holiday we arrived in the area three days before the race and I was able to put in quite a few miles of bike training out on the Roth course. On Friday I met up with Clemens Coenen, newbie professional triathlete and fastest age grouper at the 2008 Kona race. You might remember him from that years NBC coverage: He was the guy to readily step back to give center stage to Chrissie Wellington even though he arrived at the finish chute first. Riding this course always gives me goose bumps and doing this with such a great guy: just awesome! We chatted about 81 of the 83 kilometers that make up one lap of the Roth course. Clemens then headed out for a faster loop, I met up with another friend to ride my second one. Two days prior to race day riding hard with Clemens might have spoiled my race on Sunday.

Well, Sunday!
The weather forecast was not too good, not too bad. And when we got up it was still rain-ing. Luckily that stopped two hours before the start and we had safe conditions. My race report is a quite short one, actually: I had a decent swim, a great bike and an acceptable run. No, not that short.

Last week’s swim in Edersee was really bad due to the waved caused by 50 miles of wind. This time the water was absolutely calm… until the gun went off. Then it was a little tight on the 1,5k swim course. That hit home to me at the first turn around when the heel of another athlete struck my left eye. I am humming “Blue Eyes” since then. Out of the wa-ter at about four minutes behind 1997 Hawaii champion Thomas Hellriegel aka Helle I was right where I wanted to be. I took my time in transition to put on my socks and road bike shoes I am going to wear in Kona, too.



(Entering T1)

The first five kilometers on the bike I took it a little easy as I did not know how my lungs would take an immediate full throttle effort. When my lungs just did their work and did not close their valves I put the pedal to the metal. I gauged my effort on the noble steed that is my black Quintana Roo CD 0.1 by power: The flats at around 300 watts, the hills at 350. This works out quite well and after the first half of the bike leg I still found myself within five minutes of the lead.


I then overtook a loosely riding group of five athletes and tried really hard to get rid of them. At kilometer 30 I had achieved that and was really enjoying the ride as there was quite a tail wind from then onwards. With Thomas Hellriegel in the race the best bike split of the day was out of reach from the start but I still had my eyes on that second place among this days bike riders.

I reached T2 after 39:09min for 40k. More than 25mls/h on a course that has a total climbing of some 1.200 feet that’s quite alright.



(Entering T2)



Only after the race and from the properties of the pictures my girlfriend took did I learn that I had really posted the third fastest bike split of the day, only 1:18min slower than Helle and a mere 8sec slower than Coenen.

In T2 though my racing as such was just about over. With no more than 200 miles of running under my belt in 2011 I was in survival mode yet again. Six-minute-miles is the maximum I am able to do these days and with the hilly terrain on Sunday I was not able to keep this pace up.



(One more run lap to go)



I had quite a few guys overtake my on the 10k run course but not too many. With my bib number of 33 I ended up in 33th of more than 1.500 participants. The run time was 41:20min and I was very pleased. The only drawback of the day was that it took ages for the results to be released and we still had to check out of our hotel and drive back to Frankfurt that same day. So we headed off without so much as a glance at the swim and bike splits. That then was no great idea because with that I missed the face that I had placed 3rd in my age group and would thus have been entitled to step on that always cherished thing called podium.

Then again that takes away nothing from a rear perfect weekend that shows that pa-tience with my foot slowly pays off and

One thing for you Americans reading this RR: Imagine an Olympic distance race with a carbo loading dinner the day before the race, roads closed for traffic good marshalling, feed stations every kilometer on the run and a giant finish line buffet and free post mas-sage service as well as a sports fabric finisher shirt. And now imagine what such a race would cost? Well divide this number by three and you might get to the ball park we are talking about here. Yes, you get all this for less than $ 50, € 35 to be precise. So when-ever you come over to Germany to do Challenge Roth or Ironman Germany and can spare the time: Do this race!





(Post race chat with Clemens Coenen, 2nd place overall)




Yours

Tim

Edersee Triathlon - You reap what you sow

I did not expect too much of this weekends race as neither my swimming nor my running are on par with last years form. With running it's the nagging plantar fasciitis that kept me from running up until mid May. With swimming... well to be honest it's a lack of motivation due to not being able to run.

Saturday was my first in Germany's 3rd tier league and man was it tough. Winds with gusts reaching 40 miles made for a quite choppy swim and an adventurous bike leg. Nonetheless: The tougher the conditions on the bike, the better for me. The swim left me in the back of the pack at about 30th place. Due to the asthma problems that let me DNF the first reace of the season I started the bike conservatively trying not to put too much stress on my lungs. At the first hill of the day I figured out that a heart rate of 165, about ten beats lower than my usual race heart rate was save and carried on.

Then after about 10 kilometers the real fun started: I was going downhill and if not for the low 13°C it felt like Kona. Cross winds of 40 miles really let me hang on tough to the aerobars as I had put on the deep dish 808 front wheel. I still kept on overtaking and soon found myself in second place of our team. Only our Uberbiker Alex who had passed me in T1 was nowhere in sight. As the kilometers went by I continued to pass guys and after 44km and some 2100 feet of vertical climbing I reached T2 right up there in 9th place overall. My bike split on the brave CD 0.1 was the second fastest of the day. Good job, noble steed and no bad result if you figure that I was operating 10 beats under normal race intensity. This meant an average power output of some 301 watts at a weight of 75kg. With time my lungs will hopefully permit full throttle biking again and then: "It’s on like Donkey Kong!"

On Saturday though I was not at the peak of my abilities and the worst was still to come. My running is far from good these days, see above. My run training this year amounts up to the ultra high number of 200k. So it was just about damage control from kilometer one. In training I had not run one of the 200 kilometers in under 4:30min so I was a bit nervous as to how my foot would take the target speed of 4:00min/km. In the end it worked out all right and I was able to complete the run leg in just over 41 minutes. In the end I places 23rd out of some 50 league competitors which was fine. Alex placed 8th , right in front of Flo in 9th. Joern came in 25th and in the end we just missed the team podium and finished in 4th place.

My next stop will be one of Germany’s classic races, Rothsee Triathlon near Nuremberg next weekend. I am thrilled to find out how my CD 0.1 is going to fare against the likes of 1997 Kona Champ Thomas Hellriegel.

Will keep you posted!

Tim