This pic says everything! Wasn`t on top of my game, felt still empty from Huatulco… Missed the group by a few seconds, as you see and never made it back.

Gonna take a few days off now and head back home to Austria. Can`t wait to start training proper again and hopefully without problems!

Cheers Andi

Hi everybody!

I only have short time, since I`m sitting right now in Mexico City, on my way to San Diego!

The race was hot and hard, thats pretty much how to describe my day:) As I wrote, my shape is not on a high yet and I even struggled a lot on the bike this time, but I ran clever and constant to a 20th place and some important points.

There is only 6days between that hard race and the WTS race in San Diego, but it gonna be my last qualifier race and of course I will give it everything again. To be honest, no idea what will be a possible result….

Cheers Andi

Hello everybody,

the picture I posted is from Huatulco and it looks a bit like holiday, but actually I`m here to race the World Cup on sunday.

As you probably read in my last posts I was injured at the beginning of the year and a bit sick in Sydney WTS. Lots of things played together but I`m lucky to have some people around to bring everything in perspective again.

Everybody talks about olympic points these days and people chase points all around the world and lots of them get burned, injured or are just dead in august. And Yes I got a bit caught up as well in december and hurt my leg. 

After being healthy again in February, I could have made the decision to go straight into full and hard training again, or to trust my points pillow and make a good lonterm build up.

I choosed the later one to give myself the best shot on the 7th of August in London. Its probably not a medaille, but I want to have the best race I possibly can do to represent my country Austria.

So we started to build a good base without too much traveling and actually I`m still in base phase and we only did a couple of quicker sessions. Week by week I`m getting stronger and its nice to feel that the training works. 

The world cup on the weekend is another step in the right direction and its gonna be a taff one, with a very hilly bike and the temperature around 40deg. I hope to get the best possible at the moment out of my body and a better performance then my last race in Mooloolaba!

After that I will race San Diego WTS a few days later, before I head home to Austria to finish a good base block until middle of June.

Cheers Andi 

Hi everybody,

after Mooloolaba I had two really good and consistent weeks of training. The swimming was feeling very good in the pool and I managed to do two weeks in a row with around 80km of running without any leg problems. We have no intention to rush anything and just try to build week by week up to a normal volume again. And we are very close to that:)

Unfortunately on the last fast session (some mini Tris) in pretty cold condition, I managed to pick up quite a strong head cold. Great timing when the Sydney WTS race is only six days away. Everything was booked, so I traveled up to Sydney and stayed in bed until one day before the race, when I felt a bit better, I tried to get the body moving again.

Already on the warm up for the race I was feeling rubbish and that didn`t change during the race:) Somehow I managed to swim solid again and after one lap on the bike I was in the big pack. The bike was very hectic and my legs were just flat, so I cycled most of the time on the back and tried to stay out of trouble. At the end of the bike I felt quite exhausted, but into T2 I was not too bad placed.

On the run I tried to follow some legs, but no chance, absolutely out of energy. The body was shutting down and I couldn`t even push it hard. So after 5km I went out of the race, not to make even more damage.

I`m already back in Canberra now and try to get healthy in the next two days, before I get into the next bigger block of training to get fit for Huatulco WC. This time I try not get sick:)!! So no drama, just head down and get going again!

cheers Andi

Hello everybody,

it`s been a while since my last blog entry and also since I moved to Australia. It was a long and painful winter, which started with a few good training weeks back in austria in december until I got stopped by a leg injury.

I arrived quite broken in Canberra in January and wasn`t able to run or bike for nearly five weeks. In that time I was struggling quite a bit on the body side to get healthy again and also on the mental side, since nobody could really tell me how long it takes to be back on track.

It helped a lot to come back to my coach, training partners and especially our new rehab man Rick, who did a great job! My flat mate and good friend Bart Aernouts was also a great support and he inspired me with the great training he did, while I was watching from the side line.

Lots of rehab hours later, the body showed finally some signs of recovering and we constantly started to build my training. The coach calls it “slow rushing”, so basically we looked from day to day and did as much as my legs could handel. It was my first real injury, but after a while you start to accept it and I learned a lot from that.

We found a lot of weak points and I should come out stronger on the other end of the tunnel. The last four to five weeks were my only proper real training weeks and there wasn`t any time to get me race ready for the World Cup in Mooloolaba.

But there is no rush, so we can build up some good base now and get fitter week by week!

So Mooloolaba was my first hit out of the year and it felt good being able to race again. My swim was solid, so was the bike, only on the run I felt the lack of milage and intensity. The run course is also one of the thoughest on the circuit, which didn`t help:) I managed to finish in the top 30 in a very strong field, with lots of people being in great shape already, and I collected some good olympic points. So all in all a great weekend!

I`m back in Canberra now so far I have a great week of training and the race certainly helped to lift my shape. We will stay now on some good base milage with only a bit of intensity and won`t race too much in the next few months to prepare proper for the olympics. Good times:)!

(I gave it all last weekend as you can see:)

Cheers Andi

Hello everybody

it`s already a few week old that I packed my gear and moved to Canberra for the D squad winter camp. It was like always a hard time to leave my family back, but it`s olympic season and that`s motivation enough.

It`s great to share a flat with my good friend Bart Aernouts and train with coach Darren and my team mates. The picture is from our training pool, which I see quite often these days!

cheers Andi

Thanks to Enervit Austria for the support in the last couple of years. They support me since I`m a junior, which is pretty special!

Enervit stands for anti doping proven sports nutrition, which helps me in training and racing. If you Austrian and can`t find the Enervit products in a shop near you, visit www.sport-equipment.at and you can order direct.

Cheers Andi

Thanks to Subaru and especially the carhouse Gimpl in Puch/Sbg for the great car and the big support! Everytime I come home, I`m looking forward to get in my car again. In the winter on our austrian snowy roads, the permanent 4 wheel drive is king:)!

Cheers Andi

(recovery Thai style)

Hallo everybody!

Back in Austria, back to training:)! It was a taff year with lots of up and downs, but I try to life in the moment and not look back. We analyzed a  lot and we learned a lot. Next year gonna be different and we go back to oldschool daz coaching.

Consistent good training and no stress is my motto for the upcoming period.

I had a good couple of weeks of with doing nothing and recover my immun system in Thailand. Once back home I started back into training and built a good support system around my new home in Salzburg next to the olympic center. Its great to train back home, we have a whole lot of trails a good pool and cycling is great as well.

Its always nice to meet some other austrian sport peoples back home and to chat with one or the other winter olympic medal winners. Its inspiring to hear their story and to have the same dream to make the olympics.

Middle of Jan I`m going back to my squad in OZ, but meanwhile I enjoy being with my family and train a lot in the austrian winter!

Have a great and healthy new year!

cheers

Hi everybody!

The last race of the season, the World Cup in Aukland, is history and I`m right now already in Thailand on holiday.

I had a great week with my homestay Sue and Graham and prepared as good as possible for the last big hit out of the year. The course was a really good (taff) one and a big amount of spectators was expected, so I was looking forward to get out there and race.

My swim was very average and I felt a bit lost and beaten up, but I tried not to lose motivation and fight hard, knowing that I can catch back some time on the hilly bike course.

Coach Darren and me had only about 3 1/2 weeks time to prepare for the last race block and on the bike I can pick up some good shape pretty fast. That paid off on that day and worked quite hard the whole 40km. We had a lead group of about 8 people in front and I managed to work my way from pretty much last to the main chase bunch.

Like always in ITU racing, only a few people are willing to work and do a proper race, the rest is sitting on the wheel and simulate not being able to help. I got quite frustrated with some of them, which I regret, since thats the way these races are played.

My motivation was different, go hard or go home! and I had fun riding that course:) We managed to get rid of quite a few people and after T2 I tried to hang on the pack for Top10. I cramped a bit in the first lap and lost contact, but managed to catch a few people from the lead pack. In the end I finished 15th place, which was good Olympic points and a ok end of the season.

The most important for me and Darren is, that we are the only one who know with how much little training we could squeeze the best result possible out and that was a good learning experience. Next year gonna be hopefully a more healthy and mistake free year, where we can just do the consistent work and better days will come for sure!

cheers Andi