khz.eurorunners.com

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]

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updated:
Added new pictures and videos

The track:

ouddorp – groenedijk – vrijheidsweg – west nieuwlandseweg – depunt – oudelandseweg – ouddorp.

Track Summary:

• Distance:   27,66 Km
• Duration:  1:05:19
• Average Speed: 25,4 Km/h
• Max Speed:  51,3 km/h
• Average heartbeat: 137 bpm
• Max Heartbeat: 174 bpm

Track Experiance:

Most beautiful landscape, all alongside the coast on top of very comfortable asphalt cycling ways. Brilliant, ideal, love it. I will take my camera with me tomorrow and give you some beteter impression.

Conclusion and judgement:

Best curse so far.

The course:

ouddorp_depunt_goedereede_ouddorp_05_07_2009

Track Impressions:

[View with PicLens]

12►

keep on sporting,

klaas

Hi eveyone,

I am off to the bretagne now and want to suummarize my experiences on the  running and cycling courses I did in the past 1 1/2 weeks.
To be honest that’s also a summary for me to see the concrete pratices I made
in the right order for the first time.

So here we go:

• 05/07    - cycling    Ouddorp- duinen – de punt – ouddorp haven – ouddorp length:    27 km

• 06/07    - running    Short course: length:    5km

• 07/07    - cycling    Ouddorp- duinen – de punt – ouddorp haven – ouddorp (short version) length:    18.9 km

• 08/07    - pause

• 09/07    - running    ouddorp – goedereede – ouddorp length:    9.5 km

• 10/07    - cycling    ouddorp – haven – stellendam – melissant – nieuw kraaijersedijk -halsponderdijk – stellendam – havenhoofd – goedereede – ouddorp lenght: 39.5 km

• 11/07    - running    ouddorp – goedereede – ouddorp length:    9.5 km

• 12/07    - cycling    ouddorp – haven – brouwersdam – scharendijke – den osse – brouwershaven – brijdorpe – looperskapelle – brouwersdam – ouddorp length:    50.5 km

• 13/07    - pause

• 14/07    - duathlon    cycling: ouddorp – oostduinen – havenhoofd – stellendam – haven lenght: 23.8 km + running: short course 5 km

• 15/07    - pause

You can read more on every training and it’s courses here on the blog. I will – as stated before – add
some more videos and pictures to the tracks after the vacation cause this takes some time.
And will link the trainings accordingly, then.

So far so good I am not pretty sure about the pause day on the 13th… Sometimes the garmin
just makes from two (for me separated trainings) one multisport event which I have do ‘detach’
manually afterwards … They then both get the same date (the first one) even if they took
place on different days.

But due to my new motto: I will first of all blame me for mishandling

It’s probably me that just can’t handle the garmin 305 as good as one should.

Keep on sporting,
Klaas

Hi there,

I had no Internet access in during the last week in the Bretagne, so I couldn’t write anything the last week.  Currently just making a short stop in the netherlands again so just a short note today.

Bretagne was good – lansdcape is awesome, towns like Saint Malo or Spots like the Mont Saint Michel are greate.  But weather was cloudy and rainy so that leveled it a bit down..

Made some nice bike and running courses though – and man I tell you they were great – just teasing a little

• Running along the coast in Cancale
• Cycling from Cancale to Saint Malo
• Cycling from Mont Saint Michel back to Cancale.

I can absolutely recommend any of the above . I will post videos, pics and the paths as usual
and of course I will update and beautify the vacation post I made so far during the next days..

So stay tuned there is much more to come.

Kind regards, thanks for commenting,

and keep on sporting,

Klaas

Good news first:

• Bike is ok again.

Aditionally it is clear that:

• The reason for the problems sat on the bike

So next time one thing is for sure :

I will first of all blame me for mishandling
the bike instead of being angry about spending so much money …..
I was today at a local cycle store and official trek dealer (akershoek fietsenhandel) here in ouddorp.
I described what the problem with my bike was: “can’t use higher gears nymore because they didn’t stay in the gear but switched a gear up and/or down while pedaling”.
They immediately had a look at the bike in their garage and the mechanic immediatly said that
the reason is a too long chain, now. He also stated that it was due to false shifting
(caused by myself of course as you might have expected .
He said that with gearshifts like the ones on the trek 1.2 with 3 bevel/drivers in front and 9 in the
back it is not possible – he used the words:

it’s forbidden – to shift certain combinations.

Short summary:

Especially don’t shift into the big diagonales big bevel/driver on  the front and big bevel/driver in the back -> chain will be stretched and that will result in the effect I had with other gear combinations.  Read the manual of the bike where probably other combinations are
marked as forbidden, as well.
I have to say that the service at akershoek fietsenhandel was the way it should be:
(The definition of customer oriented, friendly service – as you might feel now I was really impressed)

• very friendly personell.
• had an ear for me immediatly even though there was lot’s to do
• looked at the bike immediatly without me asking them to do so.
• identified the prob and solved it
• explained the cause and told me how to prevent that in the future (also showed an example of ‘forbidden combinations’ from a handbook.Especially stated that it’s now drawback not to be able to use all possible combinations of all ritzels. Read on below to see why.

• => All that was for free. ( I gave tip, thoug since I was really glad with the whole service)

So thanks again to akershoek fietsenhandel and the personell.  If you look for competent
bike advice or a bike garage just give it a try.

See an example here:
– will follow later
I have to say that I didn’t even knew that before – as you can see now
I am really a beginner – just as I stated before. Also the clerk at the bike
store where I bought the bike didn’t tell me that. I bought a bike with 27 gears and thought
they could all be used. It results in great comfort and that was probably also
the origin of the problem since I realized pretty soon that I could cycle only on the big front
bevel in northern germany and the netherlands, where we don’t have
any higher mountains. That’s pretty convenient but forced me sometimes to use exactly
the ‘forbidden’ combinations on big front – big rear driver when e.g. cycling up a bridge
/ramp or something.
So those easy days are over now. That’s not a problem since you can also achieve to get the
same ratio by shifting down to the middle front bevel and use some of the middle back drivers.
So that is the reason why it’s no problem to let out some combinations – cause they all can be
reached by other combinations of the front and back bevels as well.

So now I have to train shifting as well. God, I was so busy learning to stay on the bike
and ride more that 50 km Damned.
But that’s life – everyone get’s what he deserves…

I downloaded the trek habdbook today to see which combinations not to use exactly but
couldn’t find that described there.. Hmm – will search the net tomorrow for more details.
The explanation I ot at the bike store was from a Gazelle handbook but the guy said that
this holds for any shift like that….

Now I’m wondering what else I do not know about riding a racing bike..
I also oiled several parts after riding in the rain .. I am very afraind of hearing
what that might cause … god is that stuff hight tech

I was just about writing that running is so much easier concerning that:
just put your shoes on and go
but on the other hand -> Which shoes ? Then you are back to high tech here as well.
I will write something about my decision on that (consulted by someone experienced of course)
and how I feel with it. (Remark: before I had the same running shoes for almost 7 years – chosen
just by their style. Ok, they were runnning shoes, though.)

Keep on sporting,
Klaas

As you know I am currently on vacation and doing quite some sports (running and cycling)
at least for me. I really recognized that I saw much more of the landscape, the villages
at got to know the whole surrounding much better then in the years before where
we just went tot he beach or drove around by car.

As a remark: I still drive around by car and go to the beach everyday it’s sunny, of
course

But I also have two new goals in the near future:

I signed in for my first official half-marathon on Oktober 4th/2009
But just running for fun. Personal goals for that one are:

1. make it
2. anything below 1h 55minutes is fine.

I also signed in for a ultra-short-triathlon (500m-20km-5km) on september 12th/2009
That was due tot the fact that I looked for something in addtion to run and found cycling.
That was fun from the first turn of the pedals and since it is not to far away from
running and cycling to a triathlon I just signed one.
I’m doing that for fun of course, just as my running and am only competing against my
own goals and myself. But with the good experiances I made with my fist official 10km
run last year I am very much looking forward to it.

So my trainingplan goals for this vacation were:

• goals running:

1. improve speed on 5km for triathlon
2. train half-marathon (no time limit)
3. go step-by-step towards it (e.g.:10km,10km,15km,21km)

• goals cycling:

1. improve capabilty to go further
2. improve speed on 20km for triathlon

• Genral remarks:

1. add some pause days for the legs ( I train my back and stomach then)

I did not make a real forward plan but had the above goals in mind. I wanted to
switch between sports (running, cycling, pause) and to improve step by step.
Reviewing it I hold thst pretty well:
E.g. first run was 5 km, then two times 10km. First cycling5 was some 27km -2 times,
then 40, then 50 km. Switched a lot between running and cycling.

Today I had the options to go for:

• half-marathon
• do a duathlon

Since we went to the beach and I started after lunch I decided to make a duathlon:
25km cycling + 5.5 km running.

See the course here:

(comes as a follow up tomorrow – just forgot to convert it

Problems with my bike:

So, trainig start was good but after a few kilometers I had problems with the gears on my bike.
On higher speeds (for me as you know,I just add that cause real racebikers laugh about speeds of
35km/h which is quite well for me)
and higher gears the gears just switched up and down randomly so I really push
through without any gear every several seconds – So I could not use the high gears at all.

I am so angry abbout that – I can hardly say. The bike is almost new, just 4 weeks old (see article on that)
and ok – it’s one of the cheaper trek bikes (the basic 1.2) but it was not for free.
As stated before it is the most expensive bike I ever had. It is even more annoying since I am
on vacation and want to use it for my training.

I Will bring the bike to a local Trek approved dealer tommorow (lucky me, there is one in ouddorp)
and see what he says. Hope they will find a (cheap) solution, since the dealer where
I bought the bike (and have warranty of course) is in germany – the dealer where I bring in my
bike is here in ouddorp/hollan- And the last thing I want is to spend some several Euros on
repainring an almost new bike. We will see but I am of good hope.
since Trek is a honrable company.

I will give more information about that tomorrow,

Training was good anyway:

• cycling 25 km
• running 5 km
• Sum: 1:16:(something) h:m:sec Which is quite ok for me.

Keep on sporting,
Klaas