Challenge Roth

The famous Challenge Roth triathlon has been on our bucket list of races for some time. The small town of Roth near Nuremberg in Bavarian Germany has been hosting iron-distance races for over 20 years and the locals absolutely love the event and the sport. The mayor was quoted once saying “If you don’t like triathlons, you don’t like my town”. I already loved his town before I'd even been there.

Downtown Roth

The local community are so into the event that a large number of them provide home-stays for competitors and we were very fortunate to be hosted by Roland and Manuela Bohm and their step-son Martin. We were in a quaint village called Grafensteinberg about 30kms outside of Roth with lots of rolling green hills and cherry orchards -yum! Roland was really into his triathlons having done over 25 iron distance races, but had recently had some health set-backs and wasn't able to compete this year. He had done his home-town race ten times and did a good job of hiding his race-envy - they were so helpful to all our needs it was amazing. So many kind families to athletes in this area.

Our lovely home-stay house - we infected it with our array of kit!

Roland, Martin and Manuela - our home-stay hosts - great people.

The course in Roth is famous for being very fast and the Iron distance world record had been held there for ten years, by Belgian (ahem) Luc Van Lierde. One week before the race another Belgium (cough couGH) Marino Van Hoenecker  broke the record by 4 minutes in Ironman Austria. The locals in Roth wanted it back and 7 days later they got it with German golden boy Andreas Raelert doing an insane 7.41 (46/4.11/2.39).

Want to run a 2.44 marathon of the bike? It helps to look like this.

Chrissie Wellington broke her own female world record by a minute on the same day, coming 6^th overall with the second fastest run split of the day (2.44) – 42 x sub 4min k’s off a  fast 3.8km swim and180km ride averaging close to 40kph! I did 10k's at that pace recently in an Olympic distance race (1.5/40/10) and needed a good dry reech and lie down afterwards and felt I'd reached a major life goal. Damn- that's the thing about sport just when you think you are doing OK you see how many levels there are above you! And unlike most examples of world record physical excellence that make you shake your head - Chrissie's is clean as a whistle - Miss CW is definitely not a drug cheat, you can bet your house on it.


Just checked the bikes in - this bridge is packed on race day!

 The race in Roth has the largest number of competitors and spectators of any iron-distance race in the world. There are 3,300 individual starters and another 1,500 relays and it was estimated that there were 150,000 spectating on the course throughout the day. Just an amazing event  – if you speak to people who have done Hawaii and Roth most will tell you Roth is a better event - there is little or no spectator support in Hawaii and then there is the heat.....

Pros lined up in Bavarian get up before the race. Chrisie W (with characteristic slightly too-big-to-believe smile) and Andreas Raelert both about to break world record far left of screen.

I felt like I was in the shape of my life coming into this race, I’d been swimming, biking and running faster than I ever had and was hoping to go about 9.10-9.15 and even sneaking under 9 if everything went perfectly and I could run a strong back end of the marathon. I was really determined to nail my run pacing so I could give myself every chance to. Ness was also going really well in training and coming off a great race in Cairns.

Swim (3.8kms) 53.48

Pretty civilised swim wave start - was cool watching the balloons take off while breathing.

I had been doing some great swim sessions in the Lake at Austria, lots of wetsuit swimming and one 4.5km session trying to draft super-speedy coach Woody blew my arms to smithereens but four days after that I felt like I could swim as hard and long as I liked and not get tired. The swim course in Roth is really easy to navigate, in a relatively narrow canal, a big long rectangle, and you're always close to the wall, so you didn’t have to worry too much about sighting and swimming off line. Looking at the course and the number of competitors I could see how the race organisers fought with the Ironman company in the US to make it a wave start. They did it well with the pros and fastest age groupers in the first wave, then a second wave of fast AGers ten minutes afterwards, then women, then various waves ranked on predicted swim time. I would have liked to be in the first wave; as my Tokyo based rival (and buddy) Eric was - I was wondering if there had been some photo-shopping of 9s to 8s on race certificates to get him in there....(just joking Eric!); but I was in the second wave so with the one loop course it meant I wouldn’t have to worry about swimming through swimmers on their first lap and only strong swimmers should be ahead. 

Massive T1 transition area

The atmosphere at the Swim start has to be experienced to understood. There is a bridge that we swim under and there must have been 3,000+ people standing on it as well as another 5,000+ lining the shore of the canal, combined with the dramatic film score music and time of day and it really took your breath away - something that was to be the story of my day unfortunately. I had been told by our lovely home stay hosts to stay wide near the edge as the water would be calmer there, and I like to line up on the right to keep and eye on others as I always breathe to the left. After missing the call up to start line in Ishigaki and it impacting my day considerably; I got into the water as soon as we were allowed and swam to the rope and bobbed up and down for the eight minutes remaining before our start.

Awesome.

I got a pretty good start and soon realized there was not really any other swimmers out wide keeping up with me and there were only 5 or 6 guys swimming the mid-low 50 minute pace I was hoping for and they were all lined up along the inside of the course. After a hundred metres or so I decided I wanted on the back of that group. I could have been like the lone horse down the outside of the Flemington 1,200m straight course race that sneaks up and wins it but I was getting all lonesome on the outside so I swam diagonally over to the feet of the group of 6. 

So far, so good.

These guys were good swimmers and still hammering away when I got to them and I was struggling to hang on and dropped back off the pack a bit. Thanks to the swim fitness I put in a few hard efforts and was able to get back on (I was thanking Woody big time in my head as in the past once dropped I was generally gonski). I was still swimming at a pretty hard rate to hang on and after about 3kms, I dropped off the back a bit and made a conscious decision to just save my energy a bit and swim moderate level to the exit. I got out feeling great in a PB time (except IMUK swim but that course was way short) and ran through transition at speed with a spring in my step.

Happy Chappy at this stage.

Bike - DNF after 90kms. 

I was pumped to smash a 4.40ish / 39+kph bike split and after doing half the distance on a much slower course in Cairns in 2.18 I thought it was realistic. Alas my day took a sharp turn for the worse soon after mounting the steed and I wouldn’t recover from it.

I got clicked in soon after the mount line without trouble and got up to cruising speed pretty quickly. Straight after exiting the swim entrance lane and onto the road, I got passed by a 195cm dude with hardly a cm of his body not covered in tattoos, wearing budgie-smugglers, chest-length beard, waist length hair and a bright yellow 62cm road bike with clip-on bars, spinning about 110rpm doing about 45kph with tattooed knees flailing in all directions. 'Now that’s something you don’t see every day' I thought. I think that moved me bit further to the right of my lane. I then had a look to see what my cadence was and noticed my bike computer was not reading it. I looked down to see if the sensor on the frame had moved – I’m not sure why I needed to look – of course it had moved, maybe I was trying to get more aero to keep up with the inked-up Jesus (it’s a little spoken secret of time trialling that due to improved aero-dynamics it’s faster when you are looking down). 

Want to ride 43kph average for 180k's solo and get off fresh enough to run a 2.39 marathon? You'll be needing an amazing aero tuck, bike, set-up.....oh and about 20 years of hard training.

By the time I looked up, the road had narrowed a bit and bent a little to the left and I rammed straight into the road divider in the centre of the road. These are plastic poles with big-ass concrete square blocks at the base that don’t budge, and especially not for lycra clad wussies even if they are doing close to 40kph.

My pole-nemisis' cousins were dotted around the course

I smashed into a poor photographer on the other side of the pole too; and hit the pavement bloody hard on my rebound. I got up pretty quickly with adrenaline pumping and checked the bike. The extenders on the aero bars had moved and my bottle holder had twisted around but otherwise it seemed ok. I tested the front wheel, but the brakes had moved and were rubbing on the rim pretty badly. I tried to move them several times but they were still rubbing. I’d just gotten new brake pads and the guys in the shop and given me about 1mm of clearance on either side. A very kind guy from the crowd stepped in to help; but we couldn’t stop the brakes rubbing. He called out for anyone that might have an allen key and after a couple of minutes somehow appeared with one (where else but Roth race day do you have a guy wandering around with an allen key in his pocket – lucky for me). He released the brake tension and I was off. I probably lost about 4-5 minutes there – all that swim training down the drain! Faaaark! 

No rubbing breaks here - or cables in the wind - one seriously wicked aero set-up

I got back to the task at hand, and was thinking that I should be all right, I felt that pumped-up sensation associated with gross physical contact, similar to a big tackle in a game of rugby except this time it was with the road and not a 110kg  YCAC ring-in Samoan running 20kph. 'Not that different to a tackle' I thought, I should be right. I was going through a checklist on my body, bone-bruising and slightly bleeding wrist and elbow – no problem there, pretty sore hip - I had hit my greater trochanter (the widest part of your pelvis dress-makers would mark as your hips). This was a bit concerning as Ness and I had recently been talking about an article on cyclists sustaining a fracture to the femur after falling hard on their side and it going undiagnosed until the lack of bloody supply causes necrosis (dying) to the head of the femur. I did take a fair bit of impact there, I was thinking, but I’m not a fragile cyclist who never does weight bearing exercise with  bone density like your grandmother, I thought, I’ve done weight bearing exercise my whole life, so I thought my femur would have been able to handle that whack. (A lesson there for you if you think dairy will help your bone density it's a crock - time on your feet is what's needed).  The glute muscles that attach to the area I whacked were more of a worry as they have a fair bit of work to do to get me and my Serena Williams ass to the finish line and they had been compromised somewhat.

Cranky Chappy

 I soon realised I was puffing and panting and had pretty bad pain in my ribs on my left side. I thought the difficulty breathing was due to the adrenaline and that I just need to calm the fark down, get rid of the adrenaline and the breathing would come under control. I dropped the chain twice in the first 20kms including one time when it got stuck in between the chain ring and the frame and I had to stop and rip it out. 'This is not my day - can we re-wind the clock 30 minutes' I was thinking as I wiped big gobs of grease from my hands onto my shin. A sweet girl named Steffi (who turned out to be a friend of Woody and Doro) lifted my spirits lots when she came past as I was ripping the chain out and asked “Are you OK?” in a sweet English/German accent.  It’s funny how a few words of tenderness can make such a big difference to your mood when you’re low. I have to remember that and pay it forward.

Tenth anniversary of Challenge Roth - the famous Solarerberg hill - how about that for fan support!

 I couldn’t cycle very hard at all and was getting passed by quite a few people and unable to hold onto to potentially handy pace-lines of strong riders. ‘I’ll ride hard when the breathing comes under control’ I thought and just took it easy. Unfortunately, as the ride went on my breathing was only getting worse. What I was experiencing was familiar to me as the exercise-induced asthma I’ve had on and off over the past few years. Recently it has only been coming on when running sub 3.45 min k’s. Asthma and particularly the type only brought on by intense exercise is pretty poorly understood, although many athletes struggle with it, forget asking a GP for advice on it and even respiratory specialists give it short shrift, as it goes as soon as you slow down.

The object of my desire - but would it have helped?

Many don’t understand that asthma is a symptom (invlontary contraction of the smooth muscles in the upper airways), not a condition that you're either 'an astmatic' or not and anyone can go into an asthma attack due to a wide range of stimuli. The only real treatment is a ventolin inhaler that relaxes the muscles that are contracting and blocking the airways. Fortunately WADA (world anti-doping agency) have realised that there is no performance enhancement to using ventolin if the smooth muscle are not contracting and taken it off the banned list. (Previously you needed a note from a doctor to use it). Judging by the number of triathletes and cyclist using puffers I think it is really common – or maybe they just falsely think it’s expand their lungs and give them better performance?

No rib or breathing issues for these guys at the swim start promoting Challenge Cairns

Vanessa’s dad David and wife Jan (GP and Nurse) kindly got new ventolin inhalers for me on our recent trip to Aus and I use it in short races when I know I’m going to run hard, but did not bring it to Roth as I normally don’t suffer from it in Ironman distance. A few years back, I had it really badly in the swim leg of a triathlon in Hokkaido and finishing that lousy 1,500m swim was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do physically. I remember thinking that just drowning seemed like a better option than swimming the 300m back to shore when I couldn’t breathe. At that time I had it quite often but it seemed to fix itself somewhat over the past few years.

Ness in the tuck

As I was weighing up what to do on when the breathing wasn’t calming down all kinds of things were running through my head. I was going back to the little poor decisions I’d made that led me to be in this little mess. I remembered removing the cadence sensor to get more aero in Cairns when I went without any data and also just tightening the zip ties that hold it by hand when I should have sourced a pair of pliers to get them one or two notches tighter. Not to mention not loosening the brakes when I noticed how close they were on my practice ride. It’s funny how those little decisions on how much effort to put into a certain tasks that we’re all faced with every can end up costing you big time when you take the lazy way out because you couldn’t be bothered to do it properly and walk back into the room next door. Or maybe it was God showing me that He WAS more useful than a fruit and veg market and here’s the big ass concrete block in your face to prove it, homo. Or maybe it was his big, tattooed, speedo-wearing son Jesus mark II, showing me that if his dad could knock-up his mum from heaven then he could certainly f!%# me from there too.

Death before non-aeroness....or death due to Aeroness - look out for the truuuuuuc...........

 I was thinking about my ventolin sitting in the bag back at the hotel in Austria; all lonely and unwanted and wishing it was in my back pocket. I was thinking about my blue run bag sitting untouched in T2 while all the others around it disappeared and imagining how it would look in a Moving Presentations time-lapse video with my lame-ass bag still sitting there at the end ruining the shot.

I was thinking about my mp3 player in my run bag (FYI Sansa Clip - THE best running mp3) with the headphones coiled around it just so, loaded with my specially selected mix of everything from Adele, Gaga, Black Eyed Peas to the Angels, Midnight Oil and AC/DC and how this was the first mp3-legal race I'd done and how Doc Neeson and those rolling back-beats were going to drag me to a 3.20-25 marathon. I was thinking about what a disaster to DNF in this big race and my friends tracking me online wondering what the hell had happened. I was thinking about how the European cyclists nod to each other with an upwards flick of the head instead of the Japanese way of a downward nod and whether that reflected their greater arrogance of the Euros and the Japanese humility or not?

Did someone call for a doctor?

I was thinking about how I would be regarded as a major bad-ass if I finished the whole race with broken ribs and asthma. I was wondering about how important this race is to me and what would I do if this were Hawaii or a Hawaii qualifier. I was thinking about our recent conversation with Woody and Ness when I said I was due for a fall on the bike as since taking up the sport I'd cycled tens of thousands of kms without coming off - and how Woody had told me not to say that - too late! I was thinking about how we had the two long races the wrong way around as you normally want to do the most important one first and whether slogging to the finish line would make me slower in Regensburg or if it would be good training, bloody China! I also thought about Eric and how if I DNF’d it was kind of robbing him the chance to beat me past the line – or maybe I was drawn to pulling out to not give him the satisfaction of a real victory. Damn I was driving myself crazy!

I got to taste the Solarerberg once - expression is somewhere between a smile and a grimace.

 I was able to push a big gear (not the 11 – I lost my chain at the front every time I used that gear at the back) but if I kept my heart rate/respiratory rate low I could still go OK on the flats as my legs were fine. As soon as I hit a hill the breathlessness would get worse. Roth is a very quick bike course, even quicker than pancake flat courses, but that’s because of the many small hills and longer downhills on the other side, so I was just surviving the hills with everyone flying by and using my heavier weight and super-aero positioning and set up to coast down the hills on the other side and maintain a good speed.

I eventually came up to Woody halfway up the biggest hill on the course (Greding) and I stopped to get his input on what I should do. I’d lost that much time what was one more stop going to hurt?  It was a bit tough on him trying to take in what had happened and help me make a decision all at once. I could only just get my words out in short bursts and was pretty distressed. I mostly felt bad for him as he’d put so much effort into us nailing this race. Ness and I had spoken about wanting to do really well for him as I’m now coaching other athletes myself, I know how much you want your athletes to crush their races. Not to mention we’d pretty much shown up on his doorstep in Austria and taken over his life for the past three weeks and he’d been nothing but truck-loads of help. I knew I had Regensburg four weeks ahead which was a more important race – results wise with a Kona slot on the line.

Next time I'll be looking as stoked as BG.

 He could see I was having this asthma issue that he was aware I have had and told me try and get an ventolin inhaler form the med support when I see it. Great advice on the spot as always. I made up my mind that if the inhaler didn’t work I was going to pull out. Your heart rate and respiratory rate is normally much higher on the run than the bike; so I thought there’s no way I can run a marathon breathing like this. 

Ness "The Machine" taking it all in on the Solarerberg. Our mate Richard Waddington got ruled out of the race through injury so he sent his doppelganger in yellow to keep an eye on his nemesis Ness.

 After 80k’s, I eventually saw the ambulance and did a U turn to go back to them, more riders flying by and time lost…..after trying to communicate with them for a minute they realised I was after ventolin and looked around for a minute or two and told me they didn’t have any. ‘WTF ?’, I thought ‘Surely every ambulance would stock that?’ but that was it - my mind was made up I was pulling out. After probably 40+ triathlons, my first ever DNF; what a major bummer. I had been a bit proud of my record of never having pulled out of a race but by the same token I had never really rated these American style stickers and slogans such as ‘Never, never, never, give up’ and ‘Death before DNF’ T- shirts. I know from some bad business and mountaineering ventures, that sometimes giving up is absolutely the best decision to make. I don't meant that you should can it every time things don't  go perfect but sometimes the scales will tip to the other side.

Unless it rooly, rooly hurts, like a lot.

 I thought about just walking the marathon to get it done but at the end of the day my goals going into a triathlon are to race it, not just finish it. I couldn’t see myself as the guy stumbling into town just before the cut off with a pro having already showered, slept and come back to put the medal over your neck. No problem with those guys it’s awesome for them to finish especially if they are elderly, it’s just that I was too proud to see myself in that role, at least for another 30 or so years anyway.

First into the post race massage/chill-out area. Eerily quiet before the influx of carcasses.

So I rolled back into T2 after one lap, racked the bike, had a shower and went out to watch the rest of the race with Woody and crew. I decided not to let Ness see me so she wouldn't worry about what had happened. She ended up having a solid, but not great day. She has bounced back really quickly from the race though and should have a good race in Regensburg, but qualifying there will be very tough as there are some sub 10hr girls on the start  list - and there are not many sub 10 AG females in the world.

Ness looking good on the run.

Also thanks to everyone who has sent messages since the race. I've been improving every day. My ribs are still sore when lying etc and you can hear them creak and groan with every heart beat when I'm leaning on my left side in bed - (yuck!) but I have been able to swim, bike and run and I've been doing a fair bit of those things to get ready for the next race on Aug 7.

Andreas Raelert - post WR....amazing performance from a seemingly very nice guy. Look forward to seeing how he does in Hawaii this year.
 

Euro Tour Part I

We’ve had a bit of  turbulent time over the last couple of months. We had done a big training block to build into IM China in quiet 'between season' Niseko, then they cancelled the whole race and we had to choose another one. Incidentally we heard a rumour that the race was cancelled because the Chinese didn’t want the large number of Japanese competitors contaminating their lake with their radiative bodies – hence the swim was cancelled first; then the taxi drivers told the mayor they didn’t want Japanese in their taxis so they had to cancel the whole race! Not sure if it’s true or not but the way many people of all nationalities reacted to the media coverage it wouldn’t surprise that superstitious Chinese who think eating tigers testicles will make them more virile would be prime candidates for that sort of thought process. Not mention them loving the chance to sink the boot into the Japanese given half a chance. 

Anti Ironman Campaign banner launched by Tianxing residents - cleverly combining the Japanese flag and their concerns.

We had a number of options for replacement races – most people went to Ironman Korea as it’s close and that is where the Hawaii slots went, but it was one week before our race in Roth and we’d already bought a non-changeable ticket to Europe so that was out for us. Checking the result from Korea; Ness would have almost certainly qualified for Hawaii there and unless something went terribly wrong so would have I, but apparently the organisation was pretty bad. After consulting with coach Woody he suggested we go and stay near him in his new locale – Fuschl Am See in the lakes district just outside of Salzburg Austria, and sign up for IM Regensburg, 4 weeks after Roth and only a 2 hour train ride from Fuschl. We decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up and went for it and booked a 6 week stay in Austria.

We had a long, long journey from Sydney to our final destination. First flying overnight to Tokyo on our trusty QF21, checking through customs and posting a bunch of stuff back to work. We had three hours before our flight to London so we decided to sneak in a 30 minute run around the airport. Narita airport is not exactly the most beautiful airport and the running environment around it matches the interior. Never mind, we found the Airport Limousine bus car park and busted out 8 laps of that with a few pick-ups. We went through check in and customs a bit smelly with our travel clothes over the top of the running shorts and got a sweet shower and freshen up in The Qantas Club lounge – before our flight to London. That Life Qantas Club membership is the best investment we ever made – or did I bore you boasting about that before – sorry! 

Sweaty Narita gaijins - I'm not smuggling anything sir it's just my natural aroma.

 

The long flight to London on BA was tough one, although they had good entertainment and OK food, it made us appreciate how easy the Japan - Aus flights are. I got a fair bit of my Triathlon coaching assignments done, so was not a total loss. Once again we had the lounge in Heathrow to look forward to – it is the best of any that we have access to and after some good food and wine, I slept all the way to Geneva. We had a night there and then two long train rides to Salzburg, with two bus rides on either ends – all with bike bags in tow….. 

A train journey in Europe in Summer = pretty cool......

But 48 hours of travel will do this to you.....

There was a pretty crazy storm hitting Salzburg when we arrived and we missed our bus connection, being stranded on the road while cars dived under trees to try and avoid hail damage. 

We  finally arrived in Fuschl to meet our coach Woody face to face at last. After having this close relationship with him for two and a half years; it was really cool. He greeted us with wetsuit in hand and we went straight to the Lake for an open water swim. The Lake water is drinking quality and great for training.

Fuschl Am See (on the Lake) is our new temporary home and right outside of the Lake-side village is the global home of Red Bull., housed in suitably luxurious looking glass buildings we mistook it for some up-market rehab centre at first. Maybe we'll get to see a cantankerous Amy Winehouse roaming the grounds while on a run; I thought. But we later found out the truth and it did make sense. The influence on the local economy is noticeable with staff and various sponsored athletes and teams coming into the town as they all have to have their medicals done by the Red Bull doctor and eat lunch in the village.

Red Bull gives you $$$$$$

Our first morning we were woken by church bells (getting used to that as our window looks out onto the church) and some dudes in knee length suede shots firing rifles with trumpet style nozzles next to our window and some dolls pinned to a large religiousy pole. Welcome to Austria! It turns out it was some religious public holiday that requires celebrations involving guns with trumpet style nozzles, lots of dudes in knee length suede shorts and a religious parade through town. The dolls on the pole were not special occasion dolls, but permanent fixtures. An interesting start to our time in Europe nonetheless!

That bloke Jesus sure must have been able to spin a tale. They still dig him here too!

God told the guy in white (in private) that he was the most important and should be dressed so everyone is aware of his importance. He also wanted him protected from the sun at all times. The guys in red bought it.

 We’ve been really enjoying ourselves and have quickly become big  fans of Austria and this area. Maybe we’ve been in Japan too long or am getting old, but I've decided I like sharing space with considerate people who give a shit about things that they do that might not directly improve their own situation. The day to day interaction with strangers are more pleasant; things work and get done on time. I’ve been through Western Europe three times now and for similar reasons Germany was my favourite in the past but now I reckon Austria is they are just a bit more chilled out than the Germans and it's cheaper. The locals here dress in traditional outfits even in their normal daily life (as it usually includes a large dose of cleavage for the women it’s fine by me - reliving some 'Heidi' fantasies as a teenager). The area is also cheap compared to Japan, other parts of Western Europe and Australia, with a bottle of soft drink costing $1.50, main meals around $10-$15 and a big glass of beer in a restaurant $3.50.  Wunderbar!

Pretty sweet setting for a 9pm meal

Woody had entered a triathlon in Innsbruck, three days after arriving about two hours drive from Fuschl, so we joined along for the ride. It was cool to be able to show up and enter in the morning for 30 Euro, not like Japan where it's $200 and entries close three months before the race. Despite being in the middle of a training block we didn't want to miss out and the timing was good being two weeks before Roth. It was 1.5km/43km/10km. It was a pretty cold lake but they thought it was barmy enough to make it a non-wetsuit swim (21 degrees). Poor Ness got hypothermia again and had to pull out. I had a pretty solid race, and finally busted under 40min for 10kms.

Swim and transition area for the race in Innsbruck - very nice!

Me Woody, his girl Doro and transvestite triathlete in Doro's club who won a female AG. Controversial!

Woody and other pros stealing us poor AGer's silverware....but I'm not bitter - I've got weight restriction issues and not much more trophy shelf space left at home anyway- so there.

  We've been very very fortunate to train with our coach Woody each day and share plenty of time with him his girl Doro (multiple IM finisher) and their friend (national cyclist Yvonne Marzinke). Woody knows us back to front and has structured our preparation perfectly, and has gone to great effort to make us welcome here. It was great to see he coached his first IM winner in Korea last weekend (Balazs Csoke) he's also taken over top Italian Massimo Cigana and is definitely a coach on the way up. Don't forget about us poor age groupers when you have a stable full of pro studs though Woody!

Cold blooded organisisms have adapted over the ages to scout out optimal positions for drawing heat out of their environment.

A neoprene-clad, well-evolved, heat-drawing organism post Lake swim

Big Sunglasses. Beautiful and fast wife.

 Our digs at the Hotel Mohrenwirt are excellent and affordable. The Mohrenwirt has been in the same family since 1864 and the owner Jakob has recently been bitten by the triathlon bug and has worked hard to make his hotel the centre for cycling and triathlon that it has become.

The man Jakob, just popped his IM cherry; busting out a sub 13 hour Ironman Austria.

 
He includes a season pass to the pool with your stay, has a big secure room to store your bikes, complete with repair stands, top notch tool sets, and cleaning equipment. You can also borrow a GPS unit to clips onto your handlebars with all the best cycle routes pre-programmed into them so you just choose one that matches how far you want to ride and follow the blue line. You get to ride on beautiful, quiet country roads without the worry of getting lost.

Lots of sweet roads like this to ride on. Flat and hilly - a good mix.

Those little touches make a big difference to the stay. The weather has been pretty variable with us having to cancel a ride due to doing a long descent in cold rain early on. As Woody put it "You pay for the scenery with the variable weather".

 Our dining room and drying room. Triathletes need a very efficent laundry system.

Check out the dolls pinned to the pole.

Overall we’re loving it here and the buffet breakfast everyday is terrific, but not ideal for trying to achieve optimum race weight. At least I have that as an excuse if I blow up terribly on the run.....that bloody crispy bacon!!!!!

The Fuschl nightlife is gnarly. These guys got loose.

 On a low training day we caught the bus into Salzburg to take a look around. It's a pretty cool city. Lots of tourist sites mostly centred around Mozart and the Sound of Music. The have a Mozart museum, Mozart's birth place and some Sound of Music information centres. We went to them all; stood outside them and decided we could'na be assed and to go for lunch instead. We're dead cultural 'n that.

Salzburg- fruit and veg market in a church  yard. One dispensing health and goodness to nurture the local population in many ways, the other.......

We've managed to get in a quick trip to catch up with our friends Ben and Monique from Tokyo and we're going to watch the Australia vs. Norway women's world cup on Wednesday with them. We only need to draw to progress, it should be an exciting game. After that  we're off to Roth for a swim, bike and run, then back to more training in Austria, before Regensburg on August 7. We'll then go to Prague for some re-hydration and a quick trip to Verbier with Rich, Emi and the gang which we're really looking forward to.We've enjoyed ourselves so much we just signed up for IM Austria 2012 so looks like we'll be back in Fuschl for a stint next year too.