Win in Schluchsee to finish LBS cup series.

Saturday turned out to be a very successful day for me and our team in Schluchsee.
I won the event and as a team we had the first four guys over the line so we also won the teams event. I won the overall series pointscore, Baden-Wurttemberg championship (state championship) and our team won the teams catagory in the series. So basically we couldn't have gone much better than we did.
Again the race was pretty cool, luckily we were the last wave to start, the weather had cleared a little and the roads were dry making it alot safer on the sharp corners and fast decents.
I got off to a great start in the swim which was made really hard by some very choppy water and led the swim to the first turning can at about the 700m mark, from there a group of 3 caught me and we remained close for the rest of the swim with about a minute lead on the rest of the field. The bike was where I was able to put most of my time into the field as it was non-drafting, I went into the second transition with close to a 4 minute lead and about 7 min to my main rival for the series standings who managed to run his way up to second with the fastest run of the day.
Next stop is Regensberg this weekend for my final race in Europe and my first Ironman event.
I'm not so sure about how this one is going to go but it will be a good experiance and I'm looking forward to it.
The results from the weekend can be found at  LBS Cup Schluchsee 

 

Aaron.

Final Club Race!

Our last race as a team is tomorrow in the Black Forest of Germany in a little place called Schluchsee.
Every time I have raced here it has been really cold and terrible weather and this year the forsecast is for the same. Its such a shame as its an awsome place in the middle of a forest.
I have raced well here in the past over olympic distance so with the course changes this year making it alot longer and also non drafting I am hoping to go well again.
Hopefully it wont be as bad as last year where it was raining the whole race and about 12 degrees. I got off the bike and could'nt feel my feet for the first five km of the run.
Then we have our annual presentations to end the LBS cup for this season and head back to Crailsheim to prepare for Ironman Regensberg the following weekend.

Another world record for Chrissie.

Spent today in Roth watching one of the biggest races in the world. Conditions were good and the racing was awsome. Chrissie broke her own world record by another 10+ minutes and won the womens race by over 30min to cross the line in 8.19!!
The mens race was great to watch with one of the best fields outside of Kona.
Sebastian Kienle totally tore the field apart over the 180km bike, setting a new record of 4.14.07 forcing Norman Stadler to pull out. Sebastian held on to second place in his first Ironman while Rasmuss Henning took the win midway through the run leg. Eneko Lanos finished third and Aussie Pete Jacobs came across the line in 4th.

Next Challenge...Ironman Regensberg

I have my last race with the Club here in Germany in another week and a half then the last weekend of my European trip will be Ironman Regensberg on the 1st of August.
Its always seemed like a challenge to be able to race longer and longer and I have failed many times so the step up to Ironman is one I am very excited about as there is no other competitive triathlon that's longer.
The race is made up of a 3.8km Swim / 180km Bike / 42.2km Run and the winners usually finish around eight hours. My goals for my first race will be to simply finish and be as competitive as possible.
Originally I had planned to race the ITU Long Distance World Championships on the same day which are also in Germany and a similar distance however it was to tempting to have a go at my first Ironman while I was still in Europe. Either way I was going to be getting on the plane saw and tired back to Australia!
The last few weeks has been a major block of endurance work with lots of long training sessions. I've continually been asking myself "where the hell am I" on my rides and I dont think there has been many rides when I havn't been lost at one point but it has been fun trying to navigate my way around.
If your interested in following my Ironman race you can get up to the minute updates through the Ironman website   http://www.ironman.com/

Going Dizzy

After a short recovery at the start of last week it was back into training and some long km leading into my last couple of races in Europe.
On the weekend we travelled to Austria for a training ride which turned out to be an epic adventure. 180 of the hardest possible km you could dream of! We climbed 4400m in total for the day over three huge ascents each about 11km long and a constant 13% gradient.
I've always wanted to be able to touch the snow on the side of the road on a ride and finally I was able to. We climbed to one of the highest points in Austria on a perfect day and finished at the base of some massive snow fields at 2080m altitute.
I've got two more non drafting races here before I head home on the 3rd of August so lots more days like that to come!
Aaron.