blog.zgraggen.name  All-day insanity or I have a blog too!

Tomorrow, I will be competing in the National Triathlon in Washington DC. I already arrived here yesterday Friday to get settled in and have time for the race preparation. Amy and I had also some time to explore the city. We were on the top of the Washington memorial and visited the American History Museum.

The race seems to be organized very well, and everything is going smooth. The best part of the day, was the organized bike ride from the Hotel to the transition zone. Two Police car with blue light and sirens escorted us (several hundred athletes). I felt like a celebrity, while we passed the white house and the World War II memorial. After the bike ride, I did a test swim in the Potomac. They say this is one of the dirtiest rivers in the US, and that might very well be. I was barely able to see my hand in the water during the swim stroke. Unfortunately, I bumped my knee into the ramp to get out of the water. So it is a little swollen and I am hoping that everything will be fine till tomorrow since I will be racing anyway

Apparently, there are 7000 athletes competing in 44 waves
I am in wave #12 and will be starting 7:44am (EST)!

Check back in a few days to read how I did…

It was almost 2 weeks ago, but nevertheless I would like to share my experience from the Kids in Crisis (KIC) Triathlon. This is only my 3rd triathlon. After an Olympic distance Triathlon in 2006 and an Ironman70.3 in 2007 I didn’t think about triathlons for almost 3 years. In this time I was pursuing my master’s degree where my shape degraded severely. But by now I have received my master’s degree and started training again.

The night before the event I had a hard time to fall asleep. I am not sure if I was so nervous, or if it was the fact that I went to bed at 20:00. I got up at 4 o’clock in the morning. I started more or less relaxed my morning routine and was soon out of the door to prepare the two transition areas. After getting marked with my number and checking in my running gear. I rode down to the first transition area and checked in the bike. I was ahead of the crowed and had enough time to prepare everything in a calm matter. I put on my wetsuit and went down to the beach to do a warm up. There I realized that the tide was out. And other people were walking far out into the water. As a weaker swimmer, I was almost celebrating that fact until I realized there was a catch to it. There were many stones and shells which made it dangerous to run. After a long walk and a short warm up swim we started to line up at the beach. While we were listening to the last instructions, a 10 inch crab (with about 2 inch clamps) came out of the water and turned around once he saw all the people. I didn’t expect that and spent the next few minutes hoping: “Let that not be me who stands on this crab!”

Finally, we were allowed to run off, and since we had to run the first 250m I was among the first who started swimming. But the swimmers caught up pretty fast and overtook me a few minutes into the swim. I also learned that there is a big difference in swimming in the sea (salt water) or in lakes. 20 minutes into the swim I had this weird taste in my mouth and I was looking forward to drink some water. Another thing which I realized was that one part of my feet was burning and I guessed that I had a cut from running over the stones/shells. At least it wasn’t hurting too bad and I didn’t have to give up the race as other athletes. Towards the end of the swim we had to run again and I had cramps in my calves. Surprised by that I stretched for a second and then went ahead. Luckily these cramps didn’t come back for the rest of the race. Later I learned from an expert that this can happens if the water is cold, and the wetsuit puts the caves in a stretched position without movement. So the next time I should occasionally relax my feet during the swim.

Even though I prepared everything in the transition area, I was confused after the swim and didn’t follow my transition procedures. This way it took me 2 minutes till I finally hoped on my bike. I started off in a moderate pace for the first 5 minutes. Where I drunk some water and also ate half a banana. Then I started pushing hard on those pedals. My goal was to be over a 30 km/h pace even with the hilly course. After I overtook several triathletes with much more expensive equipment I started feeling better and better. Especially up hills it seemed as I would fly past them, but I’m not sure if I should attribute this towards my Swiss roots, the road bike, or my flyweight… Towards the end I forced myself to drink some more water, since I learned in the past that I normally don’t drink enough.

The next transition went smooth. I had a clear head and was out of transition area after only 51 seconds. But I soon had to learn that this forced drinking was too much for my stomach. So I had to slow down and couldn’t run my pace. I was suffering quite a bit. But after half time I started to recover and picked up the pace. Since, I didn’t use my running muscles yet, I was able to sustain a high pace for the last 5km. So the running split doesn’t seem too bad.

Results
Time: 2:21:08, Division place: 5, Overall place: 36,

Pictures from the race!

Overall I am pleased with my time, after all it is 15 minutes faster than my last triathlon.
I am looking forward to Nationals Triathlon in Washington DC with the full length swim and less running
By then I should also have a better nutrition plan for during the race.

Thanks@Rebekka for cheering for me and supporting me after the race!

Today, I went to an event featuring Scott Rigsby a double-amputee world-record holder. He was the first double-amputee to finish the Ironman in Hawaii.
He had an amazing story to tell. It was not a typical motivation speech as I heard it before, rather a life story of a man with a dream!

Here is an video about him:

He said he will also write a book to inspire more people. So keep an eye open

Sorry, for the German title ones more but this book is only available in German. It is written by Konrad Von Allem. And it describes his adventure the Gigathlon 2007. The first half of the book is a journal from the his preparation and training the second half is from the Gigathlon itself and the experiences he made including the reports from his supporters.

I will not go into de details here except for one thing: In the last half year of preparation Konrad swam 350km, cycled 8000km, biked 1200km, run 2000km, and made 800km by inline. This numbers are absolutely overwhelming.

As a short reminder for the not so sportive people who read my blog: The Gigathlon 2007 was a seven day competition with five disciplines (running, biking, cycling, swimming, inline skating) every day with the categories single, couple and team of five. Konrad Von Allem started as single wehreas I started in a team of five.

I recommend this book to every Gigathlet. Reading this book brings back nice memories and can help in the preparation for a future Gigathlon.

My trainer, Rolf Stebler recommended me this book. After explaining that the author, Achim Achilles, can not stand “nordic walkers”, I knew I had to read it… His style of writing allows you to be with him in his situation. Often this situation will be familiar to you which makes the reading even more emotional. Sometimes I encountered myself sympathizing with the author.

This Book was fun to read and reminded me of many experiences I had and still have in my life as sportsman.
I definitely recommend this book to every runner or triathlete.

From time to time I think back to this great day on the racing track. Of course I remember only the good parts of it. I certainly will not remember that I got up at 5o’clock in the morning.

The last time I did not write much about this day, so here is some more information:

Overall there were about 50 people attending this course. These people were split into three groups: novices, amateurs, experts.
The whole morning and the half afternoon we worked by turns. Break, theory, driving, and each turn was 30 minutes long. But before we could go onto the track we attached a sticker with the start number to the bike. Moreover we had to do a volume test. After that, we, including our bikes, were ready for the track.
The second half of the afternoon we had some time for free training. Again we worked in 20′ turns but this time only two groups: slow (relatively spoken) and fast. As novice I joined the slow driving group

The ride home was quite arduous, because I had to be very careful and slow down all the time to prevent a speeding ticket!

As I promised here are some pictures:

Today I went on the racing track Anneau du Rhin with the organisation Discover the Bike. I look back at a day full of fun and great experiences. I have improved my biking-skills and am now a better driver. Or at least I will have more reserves if something unforeseen will happen on a daily trip. It was a very exhausting day so I am too tired to write more… =)

Finally, I got rid of the border of fear (the unused part of the tire). See the picture.

BTW: more pictures will follow

As I mentioned in an older post. I burdened myself with the task of creating a gallery for the Tourenlager08. I took that as opportunity to do some ruby scripting. I know… I just could have taken a gallery software out of the box… but that would not have been fun
It is over a half year since I last used ruby. So my knowledge was a bit rusty. After a short time I was on track again…

Here is the link: http://www.zgraggen.name/tourenlager08

btw: I hopped that more people would send me their pics… but till today I have only the pictures from the three people (including me)

Back to work again. I have been in holidays for two weeks. The first week I was in Tschiertschen a little town above Chur. Together with 8 other friends I stayed in a little house in the middle of the ski region. The hardest part was the first day when we had to drag up all our stuff we needed. Of course we had to cook for ourselves. Finally I look back to a very cool and entertaining week. TNT 4 ever!

The second weekend I joined a “Tourenlager” on the Simplon pass that is a camp where you walk up the hill day for day to ski it down afterwards. It was not as relaxing as the first week but therefore more fulfilling. What a satisfying moment when I reached a mountain peak. The great view was overwhelming. Especially with the excellent weather conditions we had last week. Speciall thanks to Chrisitan without him I would not have known from this camp and even bigger thanks go to Roli who organized the whole camp! If I have the time there is no doubt I will go again…
Maybe some people who where with me in this camp will read this. If you do so please leave a comment Thanks to all for the great time!

Unfortunately after arriving at home I got sick and so did Christian. Maybe there was something in the food or we simple cached the same virus.
Right now I am building a site with the impressions from this camp… As soon as it is online I will post it here!