1ST PLACE COLOGNE TRIATHLON

And so... I won my other/second A-race of the year. Winning in Sövde was fun, but, since I kind of hit the wall after 10K on the run, I had felt my victory had been more the grace of my fellow competitors than thanks to my own power.

Winning in Cologne, on the other hand, felt really, really good. I had to fight for it and I turned out the strongest. That feeling of having the bike with "1st female" just in front of me, updating me on the distance between me and nr 2 (also a very strong, Australian girl, with whom we spent quite a bit of time chatting after the race). That feeling is just worth all the training efforts, the blood, sweat and tears. Oh well, you fellow athletes know what pain (and happiness) I am talking about.

So what went right? Well, for me to win this kind of event, everything has to just click. To start with, I wasn't as bl**dy nervous as at the Nationals the week before. I also felt strong and recovered. I had taken it easy during the week, with only 2 short interval trainings (5x30sec sprints, 5mins recovery) and 2 easy evening rides. That all made me and my start a lot more relaxed.

The swim was on a regatta track (sort of a sprint track for rowers). There are lanes for each boat, which means the lines of the buoys are visible under the water and it was just to follow that line out - and then back. I found a good pair of feet to draft on (not stinky, not sweaty and reasonably fast). I came up from the water after about 25.50. By far my best time ever.

Then the bike. A decent amount of rain had made the roads slippery so I couldn't make the turns as fast as I would have wanted. But hey, nobody said it was easy...

And then the run. Have I ever run 42 mins on a 10K in a triathlon? In April I had struggled running 41.30 on a flat, easy 10K course... So, no. But now I did. I had recovered from the off-road tri the weekend before, and had not run anything to give my body time to recover. Which it did.

 So, there I was, with 3L (alcohol-free) beer to celebrate :).


Thank you Eric, for support, pictures and finishing the beer. Thanks SPIF for sponsoring and being such a great club to train and race with. Thanks to everyone who follows me, reads this blogs and inspires me to keep testing my limits.