Next race

Tags

austria, austrian 1/2 iron, half Ironman, mureck, triathlon

Since I felt like my racing skills are a bit rusty I decided to add another race in my schedule. On Saturday I’ll start at Austrian 1/2 Iron triathlon in a small town called Mureck, not far away from Graz.

This will be 3rd year in a row that I race there. So far I have two second places.  Third time lucky?

TriStar Cannes

Tags

Cannes, race, triathlon, TriStar

My season starts in a few days with TriStar Cannes.

Race format with relatively short swim and challenging bike course should suit me well so I hope I’ll get a decent result.

TriStar Cannes bike profile

Everything seems possible during offseason and first race usually takes you back into reality and sets performance borders for the upcoming year. We’ll see where are those borders this season.

Race schedule

Tags

challenge, embrunman, etu, ironman, ITU, Kraichgau, roth, TBB, triathlon

There are still plenty of question marks about my race season but I have rough schedule now.

I planned to go to training camp to Gran Canaria with German part of team TBB and then do Challenge Fuerteventura as a season opener. Seems like that’s not going to happen. We’ll have the training camp either in south France or in Istria, here in Croatia. It’s too expensive to go to Fuerteventura just for a race so I’ll have to pick another one. Italians have their national championship at half-Ironman distance on May 1st and that’s one of the options.

At the end of May I’ll probably do TriStar race in Split.

After that I planned two Challenge races in Germany that I did last year, Kraichgau and Roth. Few days ago I heard the news that ETU and Challenge reached an agreement and booth races will also be ETU European Championship races. That will probably make professional race even more competitive. It won’t change age group race as booth races have been sold out. This could mean that ITU is going to abandon their O2 and O3 formats and recognize Ironman and half-Ironman as official distances.

After Roth I’ll probably do one of the hardest Ironman distance races on the planet, Embrunman. The bike course is a little longer than usual 180km and has 5000m of ascent. This race deserves another post.

Embrunman bike course profile

The rest of the season depends on the outcome of the first part. I may go overseas to do a late season Ironman in US. We’ll see…

 

What’s next

Tags

Barcelona, challenge, finland, ironman, tampere, triathlon

I planned for two more races this season. Maybe I’ll include some more but these two are the most important.

• August 21st – ITU long distance European Championship

The race is held in Tampere, Finland and it’s over triple olympic distance (4-120-30km).

• October 2nd – Challenge Barcelona

Another Ironman distance race to show my result from Roth was not a fluke

Race schedule

Tags

challenge triathlon, Germany, half Ironman, ironman, Kraichgau, marabella, roth, spain, triathlon

This is my race schedule for the first half of this season. Challenge Roth will be my main race and it will also be the first time I race at Ironman distance. After Roth I’ll decide about the rest of the season.

April 3rd ICAN Marbella (optional)

May 7th Austrian 1/2 Iron Triathlon

June 5th Challenge Kraichgau

July 10th Challenge Roth

 

2010 race schedule

Tags

Barcelona, Graz, Ibiza, Immenstadt, ITU, Kraichgau, long distance, Niederbronn les Bains, schedule, triathlon, Vitoria Gasteiz, Walchsee

I have a provisional race schedule for the next season. My main focus will be on ITU long distance events. The first major race will occur in late June in Vitoria Gasteiz, Spain where European long distance triathlon championship will be held. It’s going to be over O3 distance (4-120-30 km). I’ve never done any race longer than half-Ironman or O2 distance so this will be something new. Who knows, maybe longer distance will suit me better. World long distance championship will be the next major race on August 1st in Germany. It’s also on O3 distance with a tough bike course (2000m ascent). If I don’t get satisfying result in one of those two races I’ll have another try in late October on Ibiza.
I would like to compete in some long distance race before European champs. I’m still not sure which race it’ll be and my decision will be mostly influenced by available funds. I would like to take part in one of Challenge – half events (Barcelona, Germany or France), but if I end up short on money I’ll go to some smaller race like the one in Graz in early May. I’ll most probably participate in Challenge – half Austria in September. There will also be some shorter, local races in Croatia as well as our national long distance championships but i don’t know the dates for those yet.
So in brief:
May 8th: Austrian 1/2 Iron, Graz or Challenge Barcelona (May 16th) or Challenge Kraichgau (June 6th) or Challenge Niederbronn Les Bains (June 13th – less likely due to late date)
June 26th: European Long Distance Championship, Vitoria Gasteiz, Spain (4-120-30)
August 1st: World Long Distance Championship, Immenstadt, Germany (4-120-30)
September 5th: Challenge Walchsee-Kaiserwinkl, Austria or Tri-Motion Saalfelden
October 31st: ITU World Series Long Distance, Ibiza, Spain (4-115-30 ?)

Race schedule

Tags

Antwerpen, austria, Belgium, Brasschaat, ironman, ITU long distance, Prague, triathlon

I’m not sure if I mentioned my future plans on this blog so I’ll try to do it now. My next big race will be ITU long distance world series event in Brasschaat, Belgium. It’s going to be o2 format (double olympic). My goal for the race will be top 15 finish, so I can earn some points for ITU long distance rankings.

The rest of the season will be influenced by the outcome of this race. If I don’t manage to crack top 15, I’ll probably apply for ITU European LD Championship in Prague. That race should have o3 format (tripple olympic). It seems like it’s going to be a quite unattractive race. The bike course is 6 loops, out and back style on the highway. So basically you would ride the 10 km section of the road for 12 times. That’s why I’ll probably skip this one if everything goes well in Brasschaat.

If I manage to get the result I’m hoping for in Belgium I may return again in Belgium for Antwerp 70.3 race in the beginning of August. The course is flat so it should be fast also (I heard there are some cobblestone sections, hopefully not to many). I hope to improve my time from Austria over 70.3 course. I’m not sure if the race will sold out until  July and also I’m not sure if I would be able to afford another trip to Belgium, so there’s a big question mark over this one.

There are also plenty of races in Austria over half ironman or o2 format and it’s not so expensive to get there so I may consider some races there later in the summer.

The only race that I’m sure I’ll compete in the later part of the season is Croatian middle distance championship on September 20th.

As you can see I’m focusing on middle distance races this year. I’ll try to explain the switch of focus in the middle of preparation period in one of my next posts.

Planning the season

Tags

austria, ironman, ironman 70.3, race schedule, st polten

I just signed up for Ironman Austria 70.3 race in St. Polten in the PRO category. This will be my first race in Ironman series, as well as first race at this distance. Last year I raced one ITU middle distance race (3km-80km-20km), which has a similar format to 70.3 series. I think that longer distances suit me better but so far I didn’t want to rush things. Main focus for the next season will stay on olympic distance triathlon but I may add a couple more middle distance races.

I’d like to race a couple of ITU European Cup races but it will depend on my swimming improvement and on my national federation plans for the season (for this type of races national federation makes an application for you). Swimming is currently my weakness so I’m putting mind (and arm) numbing volumes in the pool in order to make it better. Without a good swim you can’t do much in those kind of races.  Currently I’m just upping the volume without much intensity and my times are already going down. With increased intensity after the New Year I should be much faster, but the question is will it be fast enough to be competitive in international races. Anyway, if I don’t make it this year there’s always next.

I had a bit of bad luck yesterday. While riding my bike to work a car cut me off and I ended up with bruised ribs. Luckily, nothing is broken, but it hurts like hell, so I’ll have to pause for a while.

Lastly, I would like to wish happy holidays to all my readers (if I have any ).