Hello everybody!

I`m since six days in Aukland with my great homestay Sue and Graham, who give me the feeling of being home, after a long time on the road! Thanks a lot guys!!! + David + Tom and family. Its great to have now some more friends on the other side of the world:)

My travel from Columbia was very long, but it was also a smooth one, so I found my legs quite quick here. I managed to get some good training in, but not enough to upset my immun system or the recovery process.

The race gonna happen on the weekend in downtown Aukland on a really nice and hard course. The bike is like the original Columbia WC course pretty hard and if the legs are behaving, I should have some good fun!:)

I think just like before the last race, my coach and me a did a good job and we made the best out of the situation we are in. After that last chase for points, my body is ready for some holiday and fulling up the batteries! More on that later, first its race time:)

Cheers from the beautiful New Zealand!

Andi

Hey everybody,

yesterday was my first race after being sick for three weeks and four weeks of training in Arizona with my coach. So the preperation for this race in altitude of 2000hm was quite short, but we did the best job we could in that amount of time.

We came in thursday and I struggeld quite a bit with the lack of oxygen and never really got used to it. Sedona was only on 1400 and this race was about 700hm higher, thats quite a difference.

I had an average swim but managed to bridge to the front after 2km. From there on we raced quite hard and I had good legs. The pace was high, but there was never a problem to stay in front and counter some attacks on the last two hills. After T2 I tried to find rythm but my legs were not moving, I guess due to the altitude.

I managed to bring home a solid 19th place into the finish, only to find out that they disqualified me. It`s my fault that I couldn`t see the board, a professional checks before the race, not during.

I found out that I managed to put all in the box, but when I jumped on my bike I was with the foot straight on the line and it has to be after the line. What 10cm can do……:(

Of course I`m very dissapointed with me and with not making Olympic points! There is not much time to think about the past, tom I fly to Aukland and prepare for my last race of the season.

cheers andi

Have a look at my flickr page, I added a few new pics from our trip to Sedona.

Cheers Andi

Hello everybody,

the last few month were quite taff and a bit crazy. I was sick before I went to the last two Asian races and our plan was to prepare straight after Yokohama for the next block of racing. But on the flight home I catched the flu and was all the time back home in Salzburg in bed with fever.

Just before I left for our last training camp of the season in Arizona, I was feeling better and ready to fly. The coach did a great job with me up here the altitude of Sedona and we built back day by day, looking for the consistency.

Now 1 1/2 weeks later we are in the full swing again and my body is handling the training really well. Sedona is a stunning place and a very motivating and inspiring area. In my flickr account are some nice picks, which I will update every now and then.

My next race is the World Cup in Columbia in about three weeks and since there is not much time, we will race from some solid miles, instead of hard intensity work. Its a bit special again, but the whole year was like that:)

We learned a lot from this year and I`m sure that I will benefit from that different experiences in the near future!

Cheers Andi

Hello everybody!

The race in Yokohama went as expected and it was again a quite hard experience.  After the health problems in august and the short preperation phase, my goal was “just” a Top 30, to get my start place for next year and some olympic points.

I had another solid swim and I was in lap 1 in the lead pack with another 40 guys. The bike course was crazy with about twenty corners per lap where you needed to concentrate the whole way. I kind of enjoyed the criterium style racing, only wished to be in better shape:) The heat was also on, with 38C and 95% humidity, so hydrating was the main goal. After another great transition I was out on the run on 8th place and from now on it was all about surviving and running consistent. With a 29th place I did what I could on that day and raced quite clever, but of course its not what I want.

I said already before the race that my main goal is coming home healthy to able to do the work for my last remaining races of the season. Having said that, I catched a virus on the way home and was for one week down with fever and a heavy cold. great:(

I guess I learned a lot this year, we made some mistakes in the prep in spring and during the summer I was always in a rush, straight after the races, to play the catch up game and raced too much. In reality there is nothing like that and I should have done a few things different and just be consistent, since thats the key. So I learned that the hard way and now I try not to stress and train whats possible till my next race in Columbia.

More on my upcoming races and where we prepare in my next blog, this one is already too long:)

cheers andi