Sigmaringen Week 4

Guten Tag!

Time for the weekly Sigmaringen update.

Schwimmen has been going ok, I swam about 4 times last week with a long schwim of 4.5km – schnitzel von crumm!  Not sure whether my swimming has improved but my speedo tan certainly has. 

We had some good radfahren weather and have found a few new hills to ride.  I am starting to become well aware of the fact that I will be racing up l’Alpe d’Huez rather soon so have started doing some hill reps and need to step up the longer rides.

I have got my laufen mojo back and am laufen 45km per week with no problems (keine problem).  Most of it is still done in the forest which is good for the leggies and I spotted Bambi and his mother and brother the other day so the interest levels stay high.  I have even started incorporating some speed work into my runs which I haven’t been able to do in a while.

The second Liga race was set to take place last weekend in a nearbyish town.  It was a 1.5km non-wetsuit schwimm, ~40km drafting radfahren and 10km laufen.  Our coach/manager Elmer was having a difficult time with the second men’s team so decided to put me in it as the women’s team was sorted.  In the men’s league 5 men (occasionally women…) start and the top 4 times count so I was more of a back up in case someone didn’t finish – less than 4 finishing means no points which is worse than not many points for a bad finish.  I was mostly concerned about my slow swimming which could lead to not having anyone to ride with and being well down onto the run.  I wasn’t so keen on racing but saw myself more as an insurance policy in case one of the other 4 didn’t finish.

The weather leading up to the race had been great during the day but lots of thunderstorms at night which kept everyone awake.  Something about hot fronts which come together and create electrical activity.  The forecast for race day was for overcast and the occasional thunderstorm.  We got to the race venue and I racked my little Serottica in amongst the big men’s bikes.  The weather was fine but it looked like a front was moving in.  We were starting 15mins after the 1^st division with the girls 15mins after us.  The 1^st division were basically in the starters hands when it was announced that all the races were to be pushed back 30mins, something about a tree on the bike course.  So swim caps and goggles off and back to the van we went to wait until our start.  About 10 minutes later the rain started and it didn’t look like the 1^st division would start on time.  Then came the thunder and lightning which made the race organisers poop themselves and they cancelled the entire race.  Something about lightening and water being a bad combination.  We thought that we would be offered a duathlon or something similar, but nein.  

All dressed up and nowhere to race

 I was quite disappointed because although I didn’t particularly want to race the men I had psyched myself and was willing to give it a go.  Some of our teammates had traveled from Switzerland and the Czech Republic so they were pretty pissed.  The weather had cleared quite nicely at this stage but everything which had been sitting in transition was pretty soaked though.  So back to Sigmaringen we went.  I tried to salvage the day and went for a 90min ride where I got caught in a thunderstorm and was a bit concerned about being hit by lightning, followed by a 10km run so all was not lost.

The next day we picked up a 29 Euro per day rental car and headed up to Maikammer to visit our friend Claudia who lives about 200m from us (as the crow flies) at home but was here visiting her parents.  We stopped at the Ritter Sport Chocolate factory and stocked up – 69c for their bars which cost about $6 in NZ if you can ever find them. Nom nom nom.

How much did you say the car was?

 Once in Maikammer we were treated to some amazing hospitality by Claudia and her parents in their real live German house complete with a pond in the garden and a cherry tree.  Maikammer is a small town (4000 people) in the wine region of Germany ie there are vineyards everywhere, even rows of 4 or 5 in between houses.  There are also lots of castles up on the hills, some which have been restored and some which are just ruins.  Claudia took us to the next village over - St Martin which is even smaller (2000 people) and famous for its winemaking.  These two little towns were amazing – narrow cobbled streets with grapevines branching from one side of the road to the other.  The buildings were all so old and the houses were behind giant stone walls with massive wooden doors which when opened would reveal one or two house where generations of families would live.  Claudia’s dad was the GP in Maikammer for 26 years so she knew pretty much everyone.  We dabbled in a bit of wine tasting and were shown where the wine was made and stored in an underground cellar which looked like it was about 2000 years old.

When in St Martin...

Having a nosey

The next day we visited a couple of castles and went a nice run amongst the vineyards.  Claudia’s parents were most hospitable and provided us with some delicious home-cooked meals German style.

Breakfast Maikammer style

Nice run through the vineyard with the castle on the hill

Welcome to my domain

 We then left there and headed back to Sigmaringen via Strassbourg which is in France (only since 6 years ago apparently).  Strassbourg is very old and dates back to about 13BC.  It was quite touristy in places but has been fantastically restored and has a giant cathedral in the centre.  

Just popping into France

The cathedral was too big to for my camera

We walked around Strassbourg for a couple of hours, had an éclair chocolat from a patisserie and then headed back to Sigmaringen.  I was on the all-important job of navigation and sent us back in the direction of Maikammer (north) in rush hour traffic instead of south to Sigmaringen.  Opps.  Lucky my internal navigation system kicked in (or maybe that was Jared saying we should never have gone in that direction) and we didn’t get too far up the road before we were able to turn around and get on the right track.

Only two more weeks in Sigmaringen so time to crank up the cycling in preparation for the big race.

Germanic Update

Guten Tag from Sigmaringen.

Life here in Germany has been tootling over, we having been schwimmen, rad fahren, laufren, going to our new favourite Supermarket Edeka, eating, sleeping and watching ITU races in Kitzbuhel.

The weather here has been pretty fab, reasonably hot but with a few gnarly thunderstorms at night.  I have been working on my speedo tan in the outdoor pool and it seems to be working.

This week I swam Monday – Friday for about 14km in total.  The outdoor pool is nice on a sunny day but I still find it a bit chilly at times after about 3km.  There are only 2 lanes for swimming and it’s a matter of weeding out the floaters when we first arrive.  I have also found that I can get a lane to myself if I start swimming “Southern hemisphere style” (clockwise) because it makes the Europeans uncomfortable and no-one wants to share with the crazy person swimming the wrong way.  A couple of times in the squad I have inadvertently switched to Southern hemisphere style without realizing it which always causes confusion for the other people I am swimming with.

The weather was very good for rad fahren (bike riding) last week so I got out everyday bar Sunday when we were in Austria.  There is a valley which goes for about 25km where we do a lot of our riding, either straight out and back or else branching off to do a loop.  There are also a lot of motorcyclists who like to ride on the valley but don’t like to share the road with cyclists.  The cars are mostly pretty good though and very tolerant towards cyclists.  There are lots of good climbs around, nothing too crazy but decent 10-15 minute climbs and if you know where you are going you can string a few together to make for a very hilly ride.  There is plenty of wildlife around, mostly giant slugs and snails but I have also seen plenty of crows, 2 foxes, a few mice and a dead frog.

Rad fahren to the top of the hill

Running has been going well, I have mostly been running in the forest.  The forest is good because it is softer underfoot than the road and is fairly easy to find your way out if you get lost.  We did a long run in Kitzbuhel in the weekend which was quite a mission up and over a mountain trying to find our way to the race venue from our hotel in town.  It should have only been about 3km but we followed some signs which took us the mountainous way and ended up taking about half an hour.  The return trip took about 10mins once we were on the right track… Running down the mountain was quite hard on the old quaddies and I now have a serious case of case of DOMS.

I like to check out peoples gardens and they are all so beautiful

 The triathlon in Kitzbuhel was fantastic to watch and on an amazing course.  We went up the hill for the bike leg and the men ride up there so fast it is unbelievable.  The women’s race wasn’t as exciting but the men’s had a lot of the big names so it was awesome for us to see them up close and also to watch a race live that we would usually watch on tv at home.

Men starting the rad fahren

Kiwis leading the charge

Female kiwis leading the charge

 We went up a cable car to the summit of Hahnenkamm which is about 1600m up and had great views over Kitzbuhel and the other mountains.  There was a café at the top so we had some apple strudel - as you do while you are in Austria.

Nice view to wake up to

Our alpine accommodation

Military style poses up the mountain

The streets of Kitzbuhel

Going up

This weekend is the next LBS-Liga race and it sounds like I will be starting, there has been some recruiting issues on the men’s side due to injuries and other race commitments and they are talking about using me in the 2^nd team so that they can start because they only have 3 and you need 4 to start in the race – eek! I think we are also waiting to hear on others for the women’s team because there are some problems there as well so hopefully I get to race for them instead of with a whole heap of fast men…

So long Kitzbuhel

Camp Sigmaringen Week Two

Guten tag!

We are just coming to the end of our second week here in Sigmaringen and are embracing the German way of life.  We get up between 7 and 7.30, on the bike (rad) around 9, back for lunch, run (laufen) sometime in the afternoon and then swim (schwimmen) in the afternoon/evening, perfect!

The weather here has picked up big time with the last few days being hot and sunny which is a trend which will hopefully continue for the next few weeks.

We are finding our way around on the bike and have found plenty of valleys to roll through and hills to climb.  There are little German towns dotted along the way with usually only up to 5km between them, despite this though we have to be reasonable self-sufficient in terms of food and drink as, other than the odd bakery, there does not appear to be many gas stations or dairy-type places for re-fuelling if you get stuck.

ALZ domination at the local fun run

 Last week I swam around 15km, biked a bit under 13 hours and ran a bit over 3, totalling around 23 hours – still doesn’t compare to fulltime ITU or Ironman Pro’s!! Hopefully but the end of our stint here I will be doing around 30 hours :)

I am being careful not to be too over-enthusiastic in the running department as I was not running much before I left NZ due to my pectineus issue.  That seems to be completely resolved so I am building up from 40km per week.  Sadly my Garmin pooped itself earlier in the week and stopped working after a whole heap of condensation and water droplets appeared under the screen, so my kilometre tracking method has turned a bit sketchy but I think I can work out to the nearest half kilometre how far I have run.

Greatness lines the halls of ALZ

 There was an LBS-Liga race in the weekend at a little town called Schoemberg which is around 50km from Sigmaringen.  Jared was put into the Liga 2 team and I was the back up for the girls.  The race was 1km schwimmen in a dam, 30km rad of hills, cobblestones and corners (drafting) and 7km laufen with a short 20% hill, downhills and grass.

Transition

McLovin and Jared getting a pep talk

 Jared’s team (5 start and top 4 times count) did well with 3 in the top 10 (J-Rad 10^th) and came 2^nd overall.  The girls did well with all 4 of them in the top 10 and coming 1^st team.  The Liga 1 team didn’t do so well with one out with a puncture and another pulling the pin on the run but one of them came 2^nd overall to Daniel Unger who is the local hero.

Euro styles on the rad

I rode out to watch with one of the German’s who supposedly knew the way – our 50km journey ended up taking 64km with around 1400m of climbing and some pretty random roads/paths.  We managed to find a shorter way back which was only 55km so a solid 119km in total.

The girls race was quite frustrating to watch as the range of abilities from the girls at the front to the girls at the back is so vast and I know that I could be at least in the top half of the field but since our club is so strong all of our girls are at the front so the chance of me getting a start is not great.  Hopefully there will be some other non Liga races which I can do otherwise I will just put all my efforts into training for the l’Alpe d’Huez triathlon – that 16% hill we rode up this morning made sure that I hadn’t forgotten about that race…

The next LBS race is on the 1^st of July and coming up this weekend is the ITU WCS race in Kitzbuhel, Austria which is about a 4 hour drive from here so we can hopefully make it there for some spectating – the prospect of this excites me so much that I can barely contain myself.  Seriously.

Our accommodation - oh wait no that's Sigmaringen Castle

Welcome to Europe!

My big European adventure has begun!!

J Rad and I left Auckland on Sunday and after 30 hours of planes and airports and stinky people we arrived in Munich, Germany.  We spent the night in Munich and saw a few sights and then caught the train(s) to Sigmaringen which is to be our home for the next 6 weeks.  Along the way we learnt that German’s don’t really do breakfast the way we do with items such as salami and cheese being the order of the morning and we also learnt that finding something to eat while knowing zero German is really quite tricky.  Most people here speak some English so we haven’t had any problems yet but at the first opportunity I downloaded a translator app onto my phone mostly to avoid any bad dining experiences.

Glockenspiel

So we have joined the ALZ-Sigmaringen Triathlon club so we will stay in their accommodation for the next 6 weeks and train fulltime and race in the local races in the weekend.  There is only one girls division and 4 girls per team so how many races I get to do depends on how good the other girls are and if they are available to race.  There is about 3 men’s divisions so Jared is home and hosed.  It seems there are also a few non-club races around which we can also do.

At the moment there are 3 South African’s, one Aussie and one German staying here with a few more to come and go over the next couple of weeks.

Summer hasn’t quite arrived at Sigmaringen yet but the days are supposedly getting warmer.  Swimming in an outdoor pool with an air temperature of 8 degrees and water temperature of 24 degrees was not super fun but today it is supposed to get into the 20’s which will be nice.

Nice on a sunny day

 There is a nice forest just 4mins run from our accommodation with lots of trails to run on, just don’t mind the army setting up tents or running over the empty gun shells along the way.  We haven’t ventured out on our bikes just yet but will do so this morning and there is talk of doing a ride to the Swiss border in the weekend which will be fun.

"Running though the forest there's a wolf at my heels..."

Hoping this sign didn't mean we would get shot if we entered

Big brother is always watching

 We are basically living the dream of being fulltime athletes and seeing the sights of Europe at the same time.  There is not a whole lot to do with our downtime other than lie around, eat, nap, read, etc.  The internet situation is a bit limited with a cable in the hallway to plug my laptop into but I have also got a German simcard so can get internet on my phone for when I am lying in bed unable to move.

The Serottica is calling so I must be off.

Auf wiedersehen!

Big Jo training May 14 - May 20

SWIM

I have been maintaining my 3 swims a week despite the onset of the wintery mornings.
I did a 500m TT to check my time against the girls from the first German race that I stalked the results of.  Their race was in a 50m pool so times are comparable.  My time was about what I expected it would be and would have put me in the middle of the field which isn't ideal but I was worried they would all be uber swimmers and I would be last by a mile, so it seems that won't be the case.
I still have time to improve though and will hopefully start a daily swim regime once I get there.

BIKE

I TT-ified my Serottica for the weekend with my mini TT bars which I have been kindly loaned for my trip.  Apparently ITU rules state that the bars should not extend beyond the length of the STI levers which appears to be impossible for Little Muppets like myself.  I'm not sure if this rule will be policed in the German league but will give them a go anyway.
Can't say they are the most comfortable bars and I ended up with some nasty bruises on my bony forearms after Sunday's ride but should be better once I get used to them.

Mini bars which are not mini enough

On Sunday I rode down to Huntly with a little posse who were doing the Huntly Half Marathon and 10km.  It was pretty much 90km of flat roads with a section on the Waikato Expressway which follows on from the motorway and felt very wrong to be riding on.  And it seemed that a few cars also thought it was wrong for us to be riding on it as well.  Apart from that it was a good ride (somewhat cold - the sign in Huntly said 2 degrees when we arrived and that wasn't the coldest it had been) and we got there in got time for the others to refuel a bit before their run.

RUN

Running has been a bit frustrating with a great 5km time reminiscent of my old times on Tuesday followed by an aborted run on Thursday due to my adductor starting to niggle again.  My tolerance to niggles is very very low so I took the rest of the week off and am getting stuck back into the exercises.

I have to admit that I had no remorse what so ever for not running at Huntly, it was so cold and didn't look appealing at all.  J-Rad wasn't feeling the running love and pulled out at 10km after being sick for the back end of the week and feeling like poos after only 6km of the run.  I have to admit that I was concerned about the amount of sweat on his face when I saw him at the 4km mark and I suspected that things were not right.

Run about to be aborted

Big Jo training May 7 - May 13

SWIM

Getting up for swimming has become a little bit difficult in the cold dark mornings but soon I will be in the sun and not having to swim at ridiculous hours so I persevere.
I have been averaging around 3.5km for my swims with our little pseudo-squad, trying desperately to keep on the feet in front.
I have a new job which is making it difficult to get to the gym to keep my armies buff but will hopefully have access to somewhere in Germany to keep the strength work up.

BIKE

I have said it many times but I will say it again - I pass you because I am riding faster than you so why do you feel the need to jump on my wheel?????? Had an encounter with a very annoying man in white shorts who jumped on my wheel while I was doing a 20min effort who then had to pretend that he usually rode that fast when I sat up at the end of it.  But since we had already passed him twice he obviously didn't ride that fast and then we passed him again after about 10mins when he had blown his foofoo valve.
If you want to ride with other people then find some friends!!!

RUN

Finding my running legs again and all seems to be going well but still keeping up the strengthening.  My new DS Trainers have changed my life - so light and comfy and my cadence goes up by about 5 steps/min when I wear them because they make my feet go so fast.
They are delicious. 

I'm back

I have been a very slack blogger indeed.
But I am back in more ways than one and am committed to keeping updated.

SWIM

The sea has turned a bit chilly here so all swims have been confined to the pool.  Our old favourite pool (the Teps) will be opening again in June after a $16million makeover so the gang is most excited to be going back there.
I will soon be spending 6 weeks in Germany with a 50m outdoor pool at my disposal so fingers crossed that my swimming improves so I can keep up with the German girls.

BIKE

The weather here has turned a bit arctic here so I have had to bring out the winter artillery.  Luckily the rain has stopped so we have been getting some good rides in.
Lesson for the weekend is don't be too lazy to download your taptap - I rode my little leggies off on Sunday keeping up with the big boys (most of the way...) but we will never know how awesome I was because Taptap was full after 80mins. Gutted!
My Serottica has been Germany-ified with some new bars and stem so now I need to track down some mini TT bars so we can take on some short distance races.

BFF's

RUN

Running has been a bit up and down and I ended up taking a couple of weeks off to get rid of my adductor issue.  It seems that Pectineus was the culprit (for anyone who is interested) and after a multitude of strengthening and stretching it seems to be pretty good so I am easing back into it.  I was planning on doing Huntly Half Marathon but have had to scratch those plans due to this little setback but if it means that I have avoided anything nasty then it will be worth it.

New shoes! Fast feet!

I am an Angry Bird