Tough day at the office : 70.3 Ironman Switzerland, Rapperswil , 6. Juni 2010

 

Well, this was really not my day yesterday. The day started with an ok swim where I was keeping up with the leaders without big problems. But in transition area the troubles started. I couldnt get my race number belt fixed, lost important seconds and missed the express train with Raelert and Marceau. So my front riding tactic changed into an unusual chasing tactic. But very soon that was the smallest of my problems. I tried to push hard on the bike, but there was not much positive feedback from those tired and heavy legs. I was pushing more watts in Ironman South Africa then I did in yesterdays race…that shows that there was definitively something wrong. But I dont have to look for reasons too long. The heavy training schedule since Ironman South Africa and the very short recovery time for this race didnt allow me to be competitive in such a high profile race. Michael Raelert showed that he is the world champion over this distance. He was in a class of his own.
So the real race was over for me before it really started. And I tried to make the best of the situation. So I ended up having a good Ironman pace training day. Hopefully recovery time will be a bit shorter now and I can get ready in time to show a better race in 5 days in the Tri Grand Prix, Zarautz, Spain. it will be my first back to back Half Ironman distance race. So I am excited to see how that goes.

After all the day turned into a good day when I saw Nicole fnishing 2nd. What a great effort from her. Like Belinda (Granger) always says, Nicole really is a “tough cookie” and once she will be able to get in some proper run training over longer time … well, girls, watch out for her!!!