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:
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.
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
