khz.eurorunners.com

today joppi, chrissy, stephy, markus and me paticipated at the swb marathon 2009 in Bremen.

It was a very cool event. Very good organisation with food and drink  supplyies as well as amazing support alongside the course.

Chrissy, Stephy and Markus took the 10 km course, while joppi and me chose the half-marathon, this time. Time was not that important, finishing was the goal – and we made it. The swb-marathon is somehow the home event for me since it was my first official (hobby) running event I ever made. (Amazingly the first one was just a year ago in 2008)

So after all a more than sportive year so far. Can really hardly believe how much I improved in one year and what all seems possible now. I can really just encourage everybody to start with some jogging or cycling. It does not need much – and it’s amazing how proud it  makes to improve.

So here is the course ( tracked with the garmin 305 which is still an amazing gadget ) :

half marathon course

Here are all courses (10km, half marathon, marathon) – official map:

And here are the results: (preselected for the half marathon)

Personal result is a 1:47:36. Plan was to land somewhere in between 1:50:00 and 1:55:00 so I am quite happy with that.

A small side remark to the glorification of sports some paragraphs above:

my legs hurt, I got aking muscles like mad. Where is the glory?

There is only pain …

But you know, at least since this post that I am a wimp

I learned something today, from a T-Shirt of someone running in front of me (of course just before I passed him   :

The Pain is Temporary, The Pride is Forever

Just as a side remark: do not give too much on things you learn from T-Shirts.To me and today it just seems vice versa, believe me … do not believe the shirts !!! do not trust shirts !! don’t believe what they say !! dont’t do it ! NO !.

Anyway:

Greatest respect and greetings to chrissy and stephy who finished their first 1ok. To Markus who almost broke the 50:00 barrier on 10k with a very good 50:33 (that is so damn close) . And of course  to joppi who really did great and finished this one as well as the triathlon and  all the other events this year. Thank you, thank you and thank you  for accompanying and pushing me.

Just for the statistics: 5 guys – 5 personal bests. What more can you want.

kindest regards,

khz

results in detail:

well actually only while running. It’s just not the best for my ipod while swimming and it’s too risky while cycling. Yeah, I know I’m a wimp
Anyway: check it:

Charlie Sloth: Champion (very good powersong

let it rock- Kevin Rudolf ft Lil Wayne

invaders must die – the prodigy

regards,

klaas

Hi everybody,

just a note after finishing my first triathlon.

The Waterfront Triathlon Bremen.

(remark: some images are linked from: http://bremen1000.jalbum.net/ – check it out )

The goal:

the goal

Swimming: (in the river weser , exactly the harbour)

changing zone:

cycling:

just no pics available ;(   But check out my bike here

running:

finishing:

My Result:

• Swimming: 00:13:43
• Cycling: 00:43:18 (including changing time)
• Running: 00:21:35
• All-in-all:  01:18:35

much better than really expected in best case

My short summary:  YEEEEEAAAAAH !!!

I can just tell everybody to give it a try – this is fun, really fun and very much making yourself proud of finishing. (At least me )

More pics and infos:

• check out all the pics here
• check out the results here

Kind regards and keep on sporting,

klaas

Well I am training currently for my firtst triathlon. I chose the Waterfront triathlon – which is the sprint distance – as the only chance for me to survice it somehow   In german this distance is also called a jedermann triathlon or ultra short triathlon. The event will start on Sept. 12, 2009. (read more here)

Distances for the sprint triathlon: (See the whole courses here)

• Swimming: 500m ( inner harbour dock )
• Cycling: 20 km
• Running: 5 km

I will give some short updates on results, feelings, do’s and don’t and everythink that comes to my mind regarding the training.Just as a remark: it is alljust for fun – I am just a hobby sportsman – keep that in mind when reading my posts. I was never in a running, cycling or swimming club and never really learned one of the disciplines. But i read a lot on the internet, thy to good blogs and try to adapt as much as I can. I also take any chances -  two weeks ago I i had the chance to run with a triathlet who was training a football team were my eurorunenrs mate joppi is playing. Good experiance for me.

As an introduction a few remarks about my current training status and my goals for the thriathlon. (hope dies last)

• Swimming: I not the Hoff. I am an absolute novice – a beginner – a nobody – forget it. But that is probably the worst discipline for most of the paticipants. It is not that i cannot swim. I swam a lot when I was in school and in my teen-age but didn’t really swim for some 10 years now – except from vacations – but there it’s more catching balls in the water I started 4 weeks ago in the local open air bath to check my stat and start the crowl training. I was not able to crowl a complete 50m lane. I was able to make 500m  breaststroke, though and took this as a fallback solution.  But for every other swimming novice out there I have to say: improvement is great. I train 2 times a week now and the results are terrific (of course still improving on absolute basic level). Comparable to improvements when starting to train pushups (if you know what I mean). You can read more in my weekly training updates. By the way: I will continue to train swimming. It just feels good and I think you move and train muscles I, besides from that, never use. My Goal for the triathlon: < 15 Minutes for the 500m.
• Cycling: I am just a beginner on a real racing bike and never owned one until I bought one my first racing bike about 3 month ago (Read more here). Nevertheless I do some fitness training and was also regularly cycling on my own ergometer.  So cycling was not totally unknown to me but the bad news is that of course I just did it as fitness training – like 15 km on the ergometer – 2 times a week ). That is not really a cycling approach. But I want to state that I like cycling a lot. Just read some of the posts in this blog to get an impression. I like my bike, I like to ride, I like the possibility to see so much of the ‘neighbourhood’ . I think now I have to calm down a little, I am still just a beginner. I usually ride something in between 20 km to 50 km per course. I made some 650 km since I bought the bike in totl and am able to go close to 30 km/h average on 20 to 25 km, now. My Goal for the triathlon: < 40 Minutes for the 20 km. (or average speed > 30km/h on 20 km)
  
• Running: I think I am an average (hobby)runner now. I used to start running some 1 and 1/2 years from now and made my first 10km run in Sept 2008. I made it in 52:something minutes and improved to 46 minutes for 10km this year in July. I today made my best result on 5km which was 20:58 Minutes.  I am very happy with that.  My Goal for the triathlon: < 25 Minutes for the 5km.
• All-in-All: if I sum up the goals from above, my overall goal for the triathlon is something in between 1:20:00 to 1:30:00. Hoping for something close to 1:20:00, though

So I will give a weekly update on the training stats (also compared to the goals above) and will of course make a final article about the real event which will take place on Sept 12, 2009. Not to far away…..

I know that time is short (only 4 weeks left) but I will do one Test-Thriathlon before the competition and give an update of that as well.

Tension raises

Keep on sporting,

Klaas

Route Summary:

• Distance: 44,91 km
• Duration: 1:42:28
• Average Speed: 26,3 Km/h
• Max Speed: 38,2 km/h
• Average heartbeat: 153 bpm
• Max Heartbeat: 176 bpm
• Calories burned: 1695

Route Experiance:

Update will follow this weekend .. .just recheck soon.

Conclusion and judgement:

Update will follow this weekend .. .just recheck soon.

The route:

bike_mont_saint_michel_to_cancale_24_07_2009

[View with PicLens]

kind regards ad keep on sporting,

klaas

Well as you know I bought myself the Trek 1.2 bike just a few weeks ago. And overall I have to tell ya that I had no Idea about cycling and stuff on that time and just followed the advice of the clerk in the local cycling store.

I felt good about the bike and everything – I rode quite some kilometers (for a beginner) and everytime I look at the bike it makes me just feel glad.

But if you get more interested in bikes and their technique you might, as I did, come to the conclusion that the shimano Sora is probably not the best choice. This is probably wrong as you will see when you go on and read ahead  but for the first glance it really pissed me off since the one thing I hate to do is safe some (small amount of) money and buy the cheap stuff and don’t be happy with it. Or put it the other way round, one thing I learned in my life is:

Better invest a dollar (or Euro) more and get high quality instead of the cheap shit which is not worth half it’s price.

This holds for me for any tools, knifes, car parts, computer parts and now bikes as well. So you probably can imagine how upset (not to say pissed of) I was when reading that the 105 is the much better choice than the Sora. I thought that this is again a case where I could have invested a bit more and got so much more … Ok next best bike worthwhile thinking about is the Trek 1.7 which costs twice as much (approx 1000 € compared to the 599 € special offer of the 1.2) so thats quite a bit more.

Aditionally I refocused on what I told the clerk as my requirements for a bike:

• beginner
• No bike racing (just a variation to my training, and maybe a few triathlons
• mixed underground (asphalt, also mud …) -
• Not too expensive

And here is my opinion on the bike, my decision to buy it and the opportunities: The Trek 1.2 is a very good decision for beginners.

• The bike is visually a beauty (I like it best from the Trek 1.X series).
• The frame is the same within the whole 1.X series. So you won’t get better even if you buy the 1.9
• The wheels and rims are not the system whels but robust and long lasting. And , as I now know, easier to adjust ..
• saddle and bracket are to my mind not so important if you are a novice

One main point about a racing bike is the gears and the whole component group on the bike. Talking about shimano there are probably only two groups you could take into account, when you are a beginner. The shimano Sora and the shimano 105 (probably you’ll find bike with the the shimano ultegra as well in the price limit up to 1000 € max but I leave it out here).

Reading about the poor quality of the Sora in some of the racing bike forums made me really think about selling the bike again and buying a Trek 1.7 with the 105 group. But after buying some books about racing bikes and reading a bit more on the internet I am very convinced that the sora is a good choice for beginners. My personanl feeling after some weeks now tells the same.  I do really not think that currently a diffenrent  group would make any diference for me.

You can read it in much more detail here (link to: bikeforums.net)

Essence is:

• The Sora is not ultra premium but good quality
• It’s major drawback is a little more weight
• It has a different way of handling compared top the 105, ultegra and above that is not so good for racing. You cannot shift as easily while in racing position – but it’s possible, though.
• Shifters are easy to use and work very well. There can be much more trouble with the more expensive groups.

Conclusion on the Sora:

Cheap, reliable, bullet-proof.

Conclusion on buying the Trek 1.2:

Beautiful, excellent mixture of old style and easy to manage yourself and hightech, very robust. To make it short: The Trek 1.2 is the deal for beginners.

If you still like the sport after a year or two you can probably switch to another bike but just to begin it’s the ultimate combination of technology, quality and price.

What is your opinion ?

Just leave a comment.

Keep on sporting,

Klaas

Route Summary:

• Distance: 35,33 km
• Duration: 1:22:07
• Average Speed: 25,8 Km/h
• Max Speed: 44,8 km/h
• Average heartbeat: 140 bpm
• Max Heartbeat: 178 bpm
• Calories burned: 1368

Route Experiance:

Positive:

Very nice landscape. Much to see riding alongside the coast. Nice typical architecture style of the typical houses around. Nice small Hills going up and down all the time. Good trainig but was killing me as well

Negative:

In contrast to the courses I rode in the Netherlands there is actually no cycling way along the roads so you (and I, too;) have to ride on normal streets where cars drive aroung 70 km/h . That is much less comfortable as riding on a seperated cycling way but was manageble since the car drivers don’t drive to agressive. They seem to be used to wait a while and then pass cyclists.

Aditionally I wasn’t able to find a good cycling route guide (searching in saint malo itself as well as cancale and some supermarkets aroung like SuperU or Leclerc) and there was no cycler guiding system as well. So you have to plan the tour yourself more careful If your a not known to the area.

Conclusion and judgement:
I recommend the route anyhow since Saint Malo is one of a kind and _the_ sightseeing spot in the area (besides the Mont St Michel)  so that overweighs any pain. And I did not get to know the nearer surroundigs so good before. As stated the sight is nice along the route. But have a look yourself:

The route:

cancale_saint_malo_and_retour
Some Pics and videos:

[View with PicLens]

Kind regards and keep on sporting,

klaas

10 km round in zuid holland:
ouddorp -> goedereede -> and retour.

Read more about the track map, distance, duration etc.

Update: new pictures:

[View with PicLens]

12►