Lockdown and we have a 5km radius now

Today is I believe day 37 or 38 of the official lock down, from this week on wards we are allowed to exercise in a 5km radius which should help with the boredom

I went to the next town yesterday to do a blood donation, I got my SMS which would show Garda that I'm allowed to travel to the next Town, which feels weird.

The trip felt even weirder I haven't left my home area in the last 5-6 weeks, I haven't used any public Transport, it felt like a little adventure going out , there was just one other person in the Train Carriage and I'm glad that it was not more people, even though our infection rate in Ireland has gone down considerably and I assume the risk is quite low but still it feels weird

But back to the 5km radius ,I'm really looking forward to it since I really need to work on my fitness again , I probably have no cycling fitness left .
I'm doing quite a few indoor mat sessions at the moment and they help to break up the day but it doesn't help with the cardio fitness and most importantly with the mental fitness.
I have adjusted to mostly being inside but looking at the Weight scales I know this can't work forever, sadly I like food and I'm one of those persons who just needs to look at food to gain weight
so I have planned two or three routed within that 5km radius and they should be easy but will be challenging enough with my current fitness
I jsut need to wait now until I have figured out what the cause of my backpain is, I reckon its jsut a tight muscle or a small tear, not the first time this did happen but bad timing since currently I can't decide whether its less painful to sit or to stand

Easter weekend is here , we are in lock down and it looks like it might be a stunner

The title pretty much sums it up, Weather looks like it will be amazing but we are in lock down and even if we wouldn't be in lock down I doubt I would venture out very much, there is no question this Virus scares me and I don't want to catch it.
But I don't want to be negative about it, I have enough in home entertainment to keep me going and if I can walk for 30 minutes outside every day than I'm happy for now.

Anyway bigger picture , I wonder if the world will change after this is over, I wonder if we are a bit less selfish and if we appreciate people who are Essential workers a bit more.
I'm not a essential worker, I'm actually in a role where it doesn't make a bit of difference if I work or not, ok maybe a tiny bit over simplified but in the current scheme of things true enough

I guess it all will depend on how fast / slow this will progress

I was out shopping this morning and have to say it felt really uncomfortable, I feel like supermarkets are jsut major sources of germs these days

so how will this pan out

So far I have only concentrated on the now, I was unable to even think beyond a week in advance and I know it will be a problem in the near future.
However I need to get my head sorted , for the first time since this started I have to consider that my job might be at risk, I work for a large IT Company and so far I was quite save and nothing to worry about but the fact is if  the economy doesn't pick up quite fast in the next few month than my Job could be at risk, so I need to get my head around this and make sure that if that happens my CV looks interesting to Companies out there.
I have a pretty good skill set  but I defo need to brush up and do a bit of refreshing and some IT Certs,which means I need to get my Ass into gear, that will be tricky but I guess I have a motivation now

Anyway in global news , it seems that more and more governments try to return to normality, not quite sure how that is supposed to work if we have no fast Test that can tell you in the morning if you did catch this virus or not and as far as I know we don't have anything close to that.

I hope that at least Nature got a breather from us in the last few weeks and with far less pollution we might have helped this poor planet a tiny bit and I kind of hope more people will pick the bicycle to commute

still in lockdown

I have no Idea which day it is of the official or unofficial lock down and honestly don't want to know, I  don't want to count the days, anyway I think I'm back to some kind of regular training, guess doing two days in a row of structured Workout should proof that,right ;o))

The Weather is really getting better, it gets warmer and the sun is shining, it gets really hard to stay disciplined and not to venture out for long but than I read a report of someone who got the "mild" version of this nasty bug and that's not even close to what I would call "mild" , I do not want to catch this, so after reading one of these reports I happily go back onto my couch and sit it out
I haven't been in a big supermarket for weeks and the thought of going into even a small one from time to time stresses me out,luckily in Ireland shopping home delivery is very common, so as soon as I need a bit more stuff , cat food and basics I will put in a online order.

My biggest fear at the moment is actually getting a toothache, I invested in a fancy electronic toothbrush which at least gives me the illusion that I do more for my Teeth health.

I want to talk about Social Media but will keep that as a separate post.

its day whatever of lockdown

I have somehow lost utterly track of time, this is actually one of the reasons why I restarted this blog, I often don't know which day of the week it is , luckily my cats remind me about the time of days or more exactly they remind me when it is feeding time.

Cats, let me talk about my cats, about 4 years ago I cycled on a busy enough side road and stopped at a traffic light , I did put my foot on the side path and waited for the traffic light to change to green, suddenly I realized that a small black fluff ball was beside my foot, the trick was now grabbing that fluff ball without scaring it onto the busy road, I managed it and realized I had a rather small kitten in my hand, there was a house just beside the Road and I had hoped that the kitten had run out of there, the person in the house said no.
So that was me standing in the middle of nowhere, in cycling Gear ( Lycra ) in the winter with a Black kitten, luckily the kitten was not scared and was happy to explore the world on my shoulder.
I phoned a Friend asked that he rescued me , the kitten and my bike, luckily he is also a Animal lover and jumped into the car,problem he was not living around the corner so it took him easily 30-45 minuted to get to me, try to keep a kitten entertained and warm ( I had no pockets - Lycra ) but I managed and we got rescued, the Kitten was a hero , calm relaxed and friendly , he was sitting on my lap while we drove to my place.

So I had now a tiny Kitten in my home, no cat cat food , not sure if the kitten was healthy and no real Cat experience also it was Saturday afternoon.
I tried to drive to a Vet but since I had no box to put the kitten in and he just wanted to stay with me, so called the next friend who by chance also worked as a volunteer in a Animal shelter, luckily the Vet in that shelter was still working and confirmed I had a healthy kitten with very dirty ears, the Shelter was kind enough to give me some basic supplies so that I would manage over the weekend

I didn't even try to hand over the kitten to the Shelter,told myself at that stage I need to be sure he ( turned out to be a boy ) needs to survive a week and I will find him a good home, the home was my place and my heart, he is a black cat it is still hard to find homes for black cats, stupid superstition, I pretend I have a black panther at home, a small one

6 Month later I adopted a second cat, with the Idea that they would be best friends and cuddle with each other, they don't cuddle and they don't like each other but that's something I have learned to accept and I love both cats for their unique ways

So why I'm writing all this, firstly I think the story needed to be told, secondly these cats help me to get through this, I'm on my own but I'm not lonely

Neo after his Vet visit with his first grub at home 

Crazy times demand crazy actions

Yesterday on Friday the 27th of March 2020 Ireland basically went into lock down mode, the Job of us normal's is now really to sit at home , we are allowed to go for shopping ,preferably as little as possible, Exercise at max of a radius of 2km from our homes, people over 70 or with pre existing condition's are supposed to cocoon themselves, meaning don't leave the house.
For active Pensioners this must be extremely hard and I wish them all the best.
The Reason for this Lock down is that we have already a serious problem with the amount of people who had to be brought to intensive care, we are a very small country and don't have that many facilities. Loads of people are angry that we don't have enough Hospital beds,

Yes thats true we didn't had enough before  the Pandemic but this is not something we can fix now, we can hopefully learn from this and be happy to spend more of our Money on Hospitals and Wages for Nurses and Doctors.
This just doesn't help now, now we need to do our best not to catch this Virus and more importantly not infect other People.

So now its indoor gym , just did a 30 minutes session and very proud of it and hopefully Turbo session and the occasional walk

Yes I went for a ride

I wrote yesterday that if I cycle I might not go outside, later in the afternoon I realized I needed to go a spin to keep my anger level at bay, it way a 1hr /20km spin and I felt mentally so much better afterwards and I had even a great sleep last night.
I find my state of emotions interesting, if that's the word for it, I;m far easier outraged , easily cry watching a cute pet video etc.
I'm not sure if that is because I spend a unhealthy time on social media or if its because I'm extremely nervous catching this thing, could very well be a combination of it.

What is clearly shows is that I need to keep my daily exercise up and I need a combinations , the Strength training is great but I also need a strong Cardio workout

Currently I'm once again watching US news ( Rachel Maddow show ) and I just don't get the greed of many people in Power over there? I know that country is proud of its culture that encourages everyone to do better for them self and the word Socialism is spit on but looking at the current behavior I just find it sad, over here in Ireland . I don't need to worry if I'm getting sick, I will not fund a huge bill at most I have to pay a small A&E Fee and that's it and it doesn't matter if someone has a Health insurance or not,  I happily pay taxes for that

Also I read yesterday that Aer Lingus is flying over to China every day to get medical Supplies, Pilots are apparently doing on a Volunteer basis, a lot of people do a lot of good things and I will be forever grateful to the local shop assistant who keeps the grocery store running, to the guys who pick up the bins, for the Nurses and Doctors , for the cleaning personal , for the factories who stopped their normal production and started to produce medical supply's

I need to remember this to keep sane and there is of course  the Scum which is also around its part of the human parcel and I just hope they get caught and get their asses kicked

Lockdown we just don't call it a lockdown

Yesterday the Irish government handed out stricter restrictions and all non essential shops have to close , no groups allowed , think it 4 people max except for families but more importantly all private Hospitals have been made public for the time of this crisis.
I'm seriously impressed how the Irish Government has so far dealt with this crisis, yes ok they should all have started planning in January for this disaster but EVERYONE ignored it and we all assumed it would not hit is, I think what we saw was just human behavior of denial, we haven't seen such a Pandemic in 100 Years so we really have no real experience what could happen with such a Virus.

Think Most people now take it serious, yes there are still the Idiots and ignorant people but that's human behavior as well and we can just try to limit the damage these people cause, problem is one of them is currently the President of the United States.

But back to me, so first week I was just sitting on the couch and ate,  my head just couldn't grasp the fact that I might be stuck indoors for months and I still have problems with it but it slowly improves.
I'm now at least doing a daily weights workout given by my Gym , they want to see a comment on Social Media when I have done it, that keeps me accountable.

Today's plan beside actually doing some work which I'm so grateful that I can do remotely is to change around my living room , so that I have a bit more space for my workouts
I'm still undecided if I go out for cycling , at the moment I don't think so, my head is not in the right place for that, again I'm lucky I got myself a fancy Turbo Trainer end of last year so can go on that one just need to find the head for it ( working on it ) .

One day at the time has gotten a whole new meaning

Social distancing

Not even sure if that sentence even existed before the beginning of this year and its about breaking habits, I try to do my best and keep away from people but I see a lot others have real problems breaking habits, example I wanted to get some bread and milk from my local veggie shop, its a very open place so should be save enough but I saw people queuing  at the till and wanted to wait until that Q disappeared and guess what everyone else walked past me into that place and queued up closely as much as I love to support my local shop I just couldn't bring myself walking into that place.

 Im king of glad that I finally managed to go for a long walk yesterday evening, I actually felt how the stress was slowly ebbing away, mind you took well over an hour to get to that stage, will try to keep this up just for sanity sake. Since I can't run with my knee injury this will be my go to exercise since I fully expect that leisure cycling will be forbidden in a not too far distance, the weather looks kind of nice for the weekend and I suspect we will see the hoards out and reckon the Government will need to step in to flatten the curve, another one of the words that was not known before this started, so I plan to get used again to the Turbo, doing Turbo session inside while the sun is shining is torture but still better than catching this Virus , this Virus is no joke and I wish people would finally understand that.

I looked rather longingly at the sea today, I love open water swimming but did not even remotely enough of that last year, mainly because of early arrival of jelly fish, I reckon if it continues like this I will be very early in the Irish sea with a Wet suit, I'm not that brave

Pandemic times

I think the most puzzling thing for me during this Pandemic is the time frame, I knew it was coming , I saw what had happened in China. I saw the slow progression from there and fully expected it to hit here in Ireland but that is as far as my foresight was working, somehow I thought we will bunker down for two weeks and after that all is back to normal, even know knowing better, I can't think beyond the end of the Month.

It is actually impossible for me to think more than 2 weeks ahead and that is very strange for me,I'm someone who plans a year ahead, who considers events to work towards a year ahead and in this one I can't think at the moment beyond two weeks, I need to learn to accept it

I'm a introvert and I utterly assumed that not meeting people not going out will not impact me whatsoever and I know in comparison to others I really don't mind much but again I'm surprised that it affects me, this thing teaches me a lot about me very quickly and I have to adjust to the Way I see myself

So looking back at the last week I realized I need to address some things otherwise this will not go well and writing about it is the first start, I barely have done any sport in the last 10 days and mostly have been sitting on my couch, firstly this is not good for my mental health and not good for my waistline

I have plans in my head and they are simple , walking ( I'm injured and running is out for now ) and cycling and there is the problem, In other countries they have banned leisure cycling and the reason makes sense , the Government is worried that these people crash and add load to the health system, the Irish government has not gone that far, they even encourage exercise  since they realized that sport is important to Mental health.
I can't quite figure out why I find every excuse not to go cycling, it probably is saver at the moment than it has been in years, there are barely any cars out there,main point whatever is stopping me I need to get over it , this is not a 2 week thing and I can go back to normal live and I need to keep reminding me about it

stay save everyone

Keep a Diary they said

Today is the 19th of March 2020 and if you haven't been living in the Big Brother house for the last few weeks than you know what happens on this planet right now, think even the Big Brother guys have been informed by now ( by the way didn't even know that show still ran )

Anyway we have a Pandemic and its nothing like we have been told in the movies , its not a 90 minute action packed show and I think that is in these fast running times the biggest surprise to me

Some smart people said keep a Journal about this hopefully one time event and that's what I'm planning to do, its a Journal just for me, I will post it but more to be able to go back on this , it will be about my thoughts and what I see and experience,so super boring for anyone else but I realized I need a outlet and so I will write this blog again until I 'm bored of it and over the Stress of the current situation

Take care everyone

Time Trials done and a bit more training

In my last post I mentioned that I had my Run Time Trial ahead of me and that i was quite nervous about it , the good news yes I have improved on my run those 5km running as hard as possible it really did hurt but I made it I improved and that made me very happy.

When I was on my Weight loss Journey I never would have thought that I would do afterwards something that is much harder than loosing weight , gaining fitness is seriously harder than loosing weight.I'm now on 10 hrs of Training a week and there are days when it feels very easy and on other days I just want to sleep but the important thing is every session I finish I feel afterwards a sense of achievement and that just feels great.
I have now received the pan for the upcoming weeks and it will just get tougher, especially the running but that is something I knew had to come because the running part is appallingly bad.

Cycling is another challenge , it is not helping that the weather has just been too dangerous to go out onto the roads, I went out when it was raining or really cold , that's  not something stopping me from going out but it has been really windy here and that was just so bad that it became dangerous.
 I have tried to do time on the Turbo and I'm doing my Turbo Sessions but the word boring is not even close to how this feels.

But at the end of the Day looking at the hours of training I'm clocking just makes me very proud of myself and that is a very nice feeling.

And with that 100 Days left until I hopefully can put all these Training's hours into the IM70.3 IM Majorca

Test Week has arrived

My Training's plan says for this week three Time Trials, one Swimming , one Cycling and the last one running. I did six weeks ago exactly the same but back than it was the first time I did them so I just did the best I could do . This Week it will be a bit different because I really hope that the lat six weeks of Training will show this Week that i have improved at least a tiny bit.
I'm most nervous about the running Time Trial because I have the feeling that I'm more or less going backwards with my running, since my Training is these days very much Heart Rate based I'm not allowed to go over 150 BPM for my Training runs which means my running is incredibly slow and it does not seem to improve whatsoever.
So I really hope that my Running Time Trial shows a bit of a improvement, but as Chrissie Wellington already said be prepared for everything , I really have to get my mindset right in case my running has not improved or it maybe even has deteriorated and that maybe harder than any of the Time Trials but that is something I have to learn if I want to do long distance Triathlon, I have to learn to accept setbacks, guess that is the fourth discipline to learn in Triathlons.

Now lets do this and get those Time Trials done and dusted

Training sleep and more Training

I have been now for roughly 10 Weeks in the hands of a coach who has given me for every week a specific plan and told me what to train when and most importantly he told me how.
The how part was and still is the most difficult part to get used to, my Coach is very much into Heart  Rate Training so for every session I have to keep my heart Rate below a certain limit,which means from being beforehand already a slow runner and biker have had to get even slower.

This was a huge dent in my confidence , I was looking at so slow times that I wondered how the heck I ever will be able to finish my Half Ironman and the other problem was that I expected too fast results.
 My thinking was , OK I do this for 3-4 Weeks and than I'm flying, I can tell you I'm not. I'm still shuffling  slow around.
 I understand the concept of Low Heart rate Training, so i just have to go with it and swallow my pride.
On the other hand i really enjoy my Training and following the plan, it's great that i know exactly what I will do when and if running on a Wednesday is on the plan and it rains I'm still out and do the run, I don't have those excuses anymore, the plan states it and I do it.
Cycling is a tiny bit different, because it has to be safe to be out on the bike and we had a couple of bad storms around here we I just couldn't go out but for that I have a Turbo Trainer and can do shorter Turbo Sessions at home . Still if the weather somehow permits it,I'm out on the Bike.
Last or first part of the Training is my Swimming , my local pools had awkward opening times over the Christmas Period and I just couldn't really get into the Pool.
I'm paying heavily for that in the moment. I'm not a good swimmer anyway and the little technique I had seems to have disappeared completely , so back to the grind and going into the Pool 4 times a week is a must.

Triathlon in general has taken over my life completely these Days and I have t say I'm loving it.I'm meeting other Triathletes I'm talking to people who want to get into Triathlon , I'm learning from People who have been to Kona and the Buzz with all those People if just great, i have learned a very important Lesson over the last couple of Years, stay away from People who drag you down. It is hard but I have changed my environment quite a bit and i make very sure that I don't get involved with people who have in general a negative Attitude.
if you are looking for people with a positive Attitude , just find some Triathletes ;o))))


So have to remember my Mantra :

Autumn and Winter and Training

Haven't blogged in a while so here is a very quick summary of the last couple of month.
I finished another Half Marathon in a ridiculously slow time but was still very happy with that since my plan had been just to enjoy that race and have a bit of fun and that worked out pretty well.
So now I'm back from a short holiday, OK it was not really a holiday more of running around and sorting out stuff but that also meant that I couldn't train for nearly 2 Weeks, suboptimal for my half Ironman Preparation but that was unavoidable. On the other site, I'm now extremely keen on training which is good since I have now also an official Coach.
Having a coach is a very weird feeling because I have to trust what he puts together for me, it will take some time to get used to that.I will try to post about this in the next couple of weeks.

2 mile sign from my last half Marathon

Olympic Distance Tri a Race Report - yippeee I did it

Firstly and most importantly I have done it, I have finished a Olympic Distance Triathlon , which means I swam for 1.5km, I cycled for 40km ( Hilly Course ) and I ran 10km ( Trail ) and I did not puke.


 The last bit ( the puking part ) was a close reality during the Run part of the Race but lets start at the beginning which is Race morning :

I have done that Triathlon twice before, both times before I did the Super Sprint Distance and I absolutely loved it. Since that  was my first ever Triathlon I have a special affinity to that Race and I thought this is a good Race to start my Olympic Distance Triathlon Career.

I knew before the Race that I had not trained sufficiently and that my training is not organised well enough to finish such a Race anywhere in the front, but I hoped it would be good enough to finish it.

The Day had started pretty grey and dark and getting into the Car and at time it did not look like it would clear up but I decided to ignore that ,I had other things to worry about for example finished a 1.5km swim.

My Swimming has improved over the last couple of Month’s quite a bit and even though I did do far fewer sessions in the  pool than I should have done, I still felt I could do the Swim in a descent enough time. Still I was rather nervous about that.

Thankfully I did not have much time to think about that, because all the Girls were in the second Wave. So finishing up transition, listening to the Race briefing and getting into Wetsuit was happening in a very short space of time and suddenly I jumped into the Water and started to swim.

The Sun suddenly came out after half of the Swim, which I took for a positive sign but it also meant I could not see a thing anymore, so just swam in the general direction, which was probably all over the place.

This tactic worked, I finished the Swim and that was all that had mattered, I did a descent T1 and was off onto the Bike, I had trained a couple of times on that course and that paid now of, I had already decided that I would cycle as hard I could.

I would not care if I would completely and utterly blow on the Run, cycling is one of my better disciplines and therefor I cycled fast and furious (according to me, not according to the time).

The  Cycle consists out of five loops, not four and not six Loops, it is five loops.

Counting to five can be very complicated  ….

Loop one to three were great, I really felt good , but then on loop four that hill started to hurt and I just was glad when I passed it for the last time on the last Lap.

Back into T2 where I took my time to lace my Runners (yes still have normal Laces in my runners)

And then onto the Running course, my legs actually felt kind of ok, until I turned into the Park and had to run uphill, my knee suddenly screamed at me. I couldn't get the leg straight and I knew immediately why this was happening, on the Bike I had realized that my clips on one of my shoes were not 100 % aligned and now I was paying for that.

 That did hurt for the first 2-3 km badly, but I was able to shake that.

 I guess because general fatigue just kicked in and I just trotted along the course as fast as I could.

Fatigued I was running towards the finish line, but I knew I only had done 4-5 km so far I really thought I had missed the exit for the second loop  , panic was really rising by then.

 I was practically in front of the Finish line when the turn for the second loop came (rather cruel I have to say).

So another 5 km to go which were quite a bit of torture, I had completely blown by this time , I could not get a drink into me at the water station and I knew I could not tolerate a Gel . So just trotted on and tried to enjoy the Day.

 I was a very happy person when I finished that Race, which I really enjoyed except for the last 2 km where I just was sick.

I have finished at the back of the pack but I finished it and more importantly I really enjoyed it and I think that is what should matter.

Now I will slowly start my Winter Training which then should bring me to my Half Iron in May 2014, there is no chance that I can't take it in any way likely  

VO2 max and upcoming Olympic Race

Yesterday I did do a VO2 Max test, I'm very lucky that my Health Insurance actually covers those tests. I'm far from being a serious Athlete who really needs those tests, but since I had the chance to take one, I thought why not, additionally this test should show if I have a hidden lung problem.

So even though I didn't expect much from this test I was still nervous, getting the breathing mask strapped on and stepping on the treadmill.
The guy who tested me told me later, he thought I wouldn't last longer then 4 min.
If he would have told me that before the test I probably would have agreed, but to his surprise and my complete and utter amazement I stepped 10 min later from that Treadmill and the result was "Superior Fitness level".
I still can't believe this and I can't even tell how happy I'm about this result. With that in mind we went through the results and that got better by the minutes, the results indicate that I can do long distance events without breaking down ( Mallorca 70.3 , I'm so getting ready now ) and we also found my Problem area, I feel running is causing me trouble and never could really improve, now I know why.
I forget to breath during my run's, I actually breath in, but then I hold my breath and that is causing all the problems.
So now I need to learn to run with continuous breathing. Guess that will take awhile but I will get there. So happy that I took that test.
Another thing, in not even 2 Weeks time is my first Olympic Distance Triathlon, as usual with me I have not trained enough but a realistic goal for that race should be three hours to finish, of course only possible if I don't fall apart on the run.

time to pack the Tri Bag again

Tomorrow I'm going to do another sprint Tri, this one I'm actually going to do as a relay, I'm doing the swim and the bike section and a friend of mine is doing the run. This Triathlon is a Charity tri and the Atmosphere will be a bit different to the ones where it is all about National Series and points. Looking forward to it, should be a lot of fun and the day after tomorrow I'm going to do a half Marathon, not that I have trained for it so I'm not really taking it seriously.  If can  finish the half marathon before cut off time then I'm happy enough.
Soon enough the Triathlon Season is done and dusted maybe 2-3 more races after tomorrow, one of them of course my first ever Olympic Distance Tri, again I know I have not enough trained but still look really forward to it.
Can't believe how quickly the Triathlon Season is passing and that should give me a fair warning for next Year. May 2014 is not that far away and I know one thing for sure, I can manage a half Marathon not having trained enough, I really hope I can manage a Olympic Distance Tri not having fully trained but I CAN'T get through a half Iron Triathlon without proper  Training . I have 280 Days until I plan to be at the start line of the IM 70.3 Mallorca race. But I'm actually really looking forward to the Training, for example since I have a long racing weekend ahead of mine the "only" thing I did exercise wise yesterday was a pool swim, nothing today and I'm bored to death. I'm watching movies on Netflix and eat Fast food, that is not something I can keep up. I have done this in the past really all the time, no wonder I was 30 Kg heavier then I'm  today. The only thing I'm a bit worried about is my Winter blues Problem, I will start extremely early with Vitamin D supplements and I hope of course that my changed eating habits help as well.

Anyway I plan to use this Blog in the Winter as a weekly Training's checker , I think I will put upfront 4 weeks training's plan up and at the end of each Week I will post what I have archived. This should start middle of September or more likely first Week of October ( probably take a short holiday in September )

I have done it , i have started a long though but hopefully rewarding Journey

a Couple of Weeks ago I did read in a Blog about Ironman 70.3 Mallorca and for some reason that didn't leave me alone, IM70.3 Mallorca is is happening in May of each Year and this was just filed in my head under "might be a useful information".
Than a couple of Weeks later I was lucky enough to have some spare Cash available and it just happened I decided I would do it - I would sign up for that Race, never mind that I have so far only Sprint Triathlons.
And that's what I did , I signed up and paid for the IM 70.3 Mallorca 2014 and the next thing I did I told everyone , best Way not to be able to bail out of the event.
Why did I choose a IM event and on top of it abroad ? I have here in my Country quite a few and very probably very good Half Iron Distance Races , which are just not branded IRONMAN , those Races have very likely the same quality organisation as any type of Ironman , the reason I did this one was I had to hand over quite a bit of Money and most of that is not refundable , that's a incentive to get going , also I wanted to have my first half iron Distance foreign environment and combine it with a couple of Days Holiday .
I'm scared to bits, but at the same time I'm looking forward to it, I just have once again to get my training organised ( no news there ).
So those are the big news , otherwise I'm doing still 10k Races and Sprint Triathlons and Hiking on a rather regular Basis ( Some would say nearly every weekend a event ) , does it help to loose weight , no probably not but I'm still on a Low Carb / Paleo kind of diet and that really helps , I'm not loosing weight according to the Scale but I'm loosing inches everywhere and that's even more important for me . The other real big advantage of taking the Crap out of my Food is how I feel , i feel quite a bit better and if I have a day where I eat crap food the next day is usually not good , I get headache and nausea quite baldy , that shows to me very clearly that my body thinks at this stage that fast food is pretty much the same as food poisoning

And the Journey has begun 

Racing a Sprint Triathlon a race Report

Yesterday I did finish another sprint triathlon so here comes what I experienced.
Before I go into the details of  swimming, cycling and running I want to say a big thank you to the Triathlon community, you Guys are great. Here are the reasons, go to a triathlon doesn't matter if it's your first or if you have done dozens of them, feel the Atmosphere around you, the buzz is fabulous. Then there is the support, for example I was yesterday really struggling through the run and a huge amount of fellow Triathletes gave me shouts of encouragement while they were running past me. Or another example while I was setting up my Transition area I had beside me some newbies, such a great feeling to give them some tips and tricks.

How did the race go for me, honestly still not sure about that, I have to say I'm very disappointed with my own finish time. But let's start with the beginning, it was yesterday a very sunny nice day,so when I was getting into my Wetsuit , which was for the first time in my life not mandatory, I hoped to get into the Water as soon as possible but I had to wait for easily 15 main in the sun. I was boiled through by the time I got into the water, it was a beautiful River swim with practically no current and for the first time I swam kind of with the crowd which meant I got kicked once or twice, which actually did not bother me but since I had not done much swimming lately I still was struggling, the swim took me 21 minutes a bit too slow for my taste.

Then came transition, I had to run Barefeet roughly 400 meter to get to my bike ( longest Transition ever ) , of with the Wetsuit onto my bike and for the first 10km I had a rather strong headwind and again I was struggling and I'm not too sure that I was struggling because of the headwind or because my legs just didn't want to move, anyway turning point came and I cycled as fast as I could back, this took me 48 minutes , really disappointed with that time, so the run came, not actually sure if I could call it a run, it was kind of a shuffle not really a run but here is whee I received all the great support from my fellow Triathletes . I was boiling through the Run, I was  really aware that I was cooking, at the water station I didn't drink the water, I poured it all over my body to cool down, finish line couldn't come fast enough and it came after 33min which is strangely enough a good time for me.
Bottom line is I still learn new things with every triathlon I'm doing.

Swim