Cologne 226 finished (Ironman-distance)

My first long distance triathlon (aka Ironman) is over! I have finished the 3.8km swimming, 180km cycling and 42km running in 10:22:59 hours.

I am happy about that. What I find strange is that I would love to go running, cycling or swimming just today (started writing this 2 days later). I am feeling very good despite the fact that I had lost 4.5kilos on this day. That is alot considering I had only weighted 68-69kilos.

Anyways... 2 kilos are back on already and I can't stop eating. Surprisingly I don't want to have icecream or any other shittier stuff. I am eating loads of pasta with red sauce (just had a plate of pasta and a pizza) and veggies and fruits all day long.

What also makes me very, very proud is the fact that my ironman race got PETA 520€ and hopefully made people think more positive about vegans, sports and power.

After the transition from bike to run I have taken my "Veggie Athletes"-vest, which also hads a PETA and Alles-Vegetarisch.de- Logo on front. People seemed to be curious.

The race: I got to the Fühlinger See at about 6.20 on sunday morning, went to my bike, checked in my transition2 bag (running equipm.) and tried to get ready (dressing, toilettime). I was happy about crapping 4 times before the race. I was also happy about solid crap again. The 3 days before I felt ill and my crap was not always solid (may sound strange, but liquid crap will make your body lose loads of minerals that are very important for races over 3 hours). Crap is a reliable indicator for health.

After checking in I met my friend Sebastian Ueckert, a fellow hardcore dude, who also wanted to achieve that goal of being an Ironman. My clubmates also came early that morning to see the swimstart and lend me a running watch. Thanks!

Somehow I was not very nervous anymore. We got to the starting line and I still had 3 minutes.

We started 5 minutes after the professionals, so no fireworks for us, but that didn't matter as I just wanted to swim. We had to swim up the whole regatta course then almost fully back. I got off the water after 1:08. I was glad! This was my first time transitioning at a long distance triathlon so I didn't want to be too quickly to forget anything and stayed calm. I got on the bike and after 20something KM I started talking to an elder ironman with much more experience. I needed to talk a little. It was cold (10-11 degrees Celsius) and my hands were freezing. He had gloves but I couldn't even take the gels I was offered at the food stall due to my hands unable to grasp. I also needed to wee so I asked him if I could do that while sitting on the bike. Then the motorbike overtook us and gave him a yellow card for blocking me. I wasn't blocked by him at all, because I didn't want to overtake. The street was big enough for other to overtake us, but anyways...

we had to speak to the referees and in the end it was alright. I don't know if this has to be that strict for hobby triathletes likes us, but whatever...

I did quite a big part of the 180km together with that dude. After a while another dude from Poland also cycled with us and it seemed as if he did not know about drafting, because he always sucked on us or basicly anybody else, so that I even thought I could do that too for a few meters. On some races you are allowed to do that, but generally in germany that is forbidden and you can get a penalty.

Sometimes I have seen my friend Seb and we tried to shout encouragement to the other.

The cycling course went from the very north of Cologne along the Fühlinger See to the city centre of Cologne, near the dome and to Köln-Deutz. In Deutz I placed my bike, took my running gear and started running. I was happy to see my supporters even following me a little and filming and taking pictures. The weather became real nice, around 23 degrees I guess. Ininitally I wanted not to eat much during the run but rather try to drink coke (I don't drink coke at home at all) as many of my experienced clubmates do it this way and even I cannot refrain from the fact that coke while running seems supportive. I also had pretzels, bananas, water melons, water and vegan energy gels from carboo 4 u. The first of the 3 14km laps was good, on the second I started becoming slower and around 20km I did not really want to continue running, my muscles became sore. At around 28-35km I got stitches on my right side so I had to slow down a little. After km 37 I needed to speed up again and so I did. My body felt alright and I overtook quite a few people on the last kms. The marathon took me 3:44h, which is alright and about what I have calculated but slower than I had hoped. 10:22:59 h in total is great for a first Ironman! I went to the chill out zone to relax and eat a bit but I wasn't as hungry as usual. From there I head to the massage and it was a good decision as I was first in line. 20 min of massage is like heaven after a race.

Next up we decided what and how to do next. Had to grab my bike, my bags, etc and that took a long time. Then we also had to find the bus shuttle that brought us near our cars (not too near though and I had waited for them to pick me up after 8 minutes of walking.

I am glad I got friends that supported me on that special day. I know that some people got inspired to do more sports on their own and hopefully many people thought critically about the shit they consume and the bullshit patterns of dietary in their heads.

It was a nice run, a nice day, with even nicer persons and a nice meal at Jade Imbiss in Düsseldorf after the race.

Today is day two after the race and I do feel really good again. Found this interesting article yesterday:

http://www.vegetarismus.ch/pdf/Wirnitzer_Handout_TR%20Kongress_2008.pdf

Friends of mine that got into sports before veganism said that it seems true for them. I don't know as I am vegan for 16 years now, which means long before I have started endurance training, but well... if there's only 50% truth to it then everyone should consider a vegan diet even for a better workout efficiency.

There's a new vegan catering company in the Ruhrpott run by real compassionate people.

Check it here!

Training August 20th to September
20th: 59 km cycling to Herne and back
21st: Stability and power Workout + Ropeskipping
22nd: 3.3km swimming
23rd: 25min running, 40min swimming, 26min running incl. 3 sprints
24th: 22km running in 1.41h incl. 73min almost half-marathon pace
25th: 111km cycling in 3.30h
26th: 45min running, 36 min yoga toning and stretch
27th: 1.5h cycling on ergobike
28th: Restday!
29th: 30km to Herne (morning), 42 min running (noon) incl. 2x10min halfmarathon pace, 30km back home
30th: 2.4km swimming
31st: Restday
1st: Srpint Triathlon in Cologne (First day of Cologne Tria Weekend) in 1:26h
2nd: Long Distance Triathlon in Cologne (second day/ PETA Donation run) in 10:22:59h
3rd: Restday
4th: Restday
5th: easy 1.3km swimming
6th: easy 45 min cycling on ergobike, then sauna
7th: ca. 1km lake swimming
8th: 20km cycling incl. 3 sprints, 3km running incl. 3 times fast for 1min
9th: Olympic Triathlon in Xanten in 2:22h
 

Climbing course in Soest, not much time, but still running!

On sunday me and Micha went 66km on our roadbikes. It took us north out of Oberhausen, through Kirchhellen and back through Hünxe and Dinslaken. We went slowly since Micha was ill the days before and I really need this part of the year giving my body some rest. It was very nice, the weather was really good and we met a lot of fellow cyclists.
On the next day I went running on my most familiar running track next to the Rhein-Herne-Kanal in Oberhausen.
It was an hour in total. Within this hour of running I did high intensive intervalls: 20 seconds running fast, 10 seconds slowly, 20 seconds fast, 10 slowly. 6 times fast and then later on again 4 times fast. Britta accompanied me on the bike. Thanks!
On Tuesday I had to do the first day for a qualification for safe indoor climbing. The guide is a famous climber and you can also book climbing courses through this association DAV HSK. It was great fun and luckily I met a fellow triathlete with whom I ran this evening and the next evening through the beautiful city of Soest, which has a lot of interesting history. Whilst running you can visible see a lot of the medieval remains of this formerly quite important city such as town fortifications, towers, old churches and cobblestone streets. Nice! I also do think that this is special for running: You can do it anywhere, almost anytime (we did at late evenings) and still discover beauty (like landscapes, old buildings, parks, trees, water) within less than an hour while doing something very good to your body and do no harm to nature. Running bears insights non running /walking people will usually not discover. Little things like creeks or just nice smelling blossoms in a forest. It makes you more aware of the places we live in or nature in its own self. And if you got company you can still have deep or just nice conversation and exchange experiences that don't exceptionally belong to the sportsworld.

So well... Now I have a certification to look after someone climbing and bettered myself at indoor climbing.
I have fulfilled one more goal this year. Next year I am gonna try to do outdoor climbing in real mountains and if time lets me train long and hard enough, I am gonna do an IRONMAN for the first time! Gotta keep up informing about my training when it starts to densify in december/january.

We ran along the wall (the green cycle around the city) a couple of times.