Summer in the city

We have two weeks of vacation and decided to stay in and around Mannheim.

The first days have already been exiting. Sunday I participated at the Heidelbergman, an Olympic distance triathlon. Monday we did a short trip to the Hunsrück to visit a friend who is breeding Haflinger horses. He had invited us on a coach ride and bbq.







In the next days I plan to do some running and horse riding, we have another tournament on Friday and there is plenty of things to do in the garden and home, if I get bored of relaxing.

Moreover I will practice a bit with my camera. Here are some impressions from our garden...







...and the fields around our horse stable in Straßenheim:







Sunset over Mannheim:

I decided to quit

As already feared, training was'nt sufficient this year. The external conditions were perfect, but my fight started already at km 40 on the bike, so I decided to quit after 150 km. My muscles were sore and running a marathon in that shape was out of question. So now I will enjoy the rest of the day at the beach cheering the better trained. :) Jolle


Starting in Schwerin at Saturday


SThe bike park with the Baltic Sea in the background


Sunset at the campsite


A friend finishing

Ostseeman Triathlon

Tomorrow I'll drive to Gluecksburg, now the fourth year in a row. I again try to finish the Ostseeman, an Ironman distance triathlon. It would be my third one here, the first year I just ran the marathon in a relay team.



Again I trained less than needed and much less than the last years. I could not motivate myself enough, as I had planned. There are simply too much other things in life than triathlon training. So I guess, it will be the last long distance triathlon for now. Next year I'll concentrate more on ultraruns and smaller triathlons.

So, wish me luck for Sunday, this time I will definitely need it!

Perfect conditions

Ladenburg was a great race. Luckily the rain didn't show up and it wasn't so hot like in 2005. Heiko and me jumped off the boat and started in the last row to avoid the trouble at the front. During the 1.8 km I lost sight of him and I left the Neckar after approx. 27 min, on position 300 of 350 starters. It took some time to get out of the neoprene, it is a bit too small for me, I guess.

The bike part was fantastic, I had a lot of fun overtaking around 100 competitors on the way up the two hills. When I arrived back in Ladenburg for last disciplin, the running, I was already on apporx. position 200. I found my rhythm pretty fast, it was a lot better than some weeks ago in Maxdorf, so I could speed up a little and overtake some more 50 people.

At the end I finished in 2:43 h, 5 minutes slower than in 2005. But I am totally happy with the result, regarding the small amount of training compared to that year.

The Ladenburg triathlon festival

Time has come again. Next weekend the Ladenburg olympic triathlon will again be hold near Mannheim. Having to skip it last year, I will compete again this year. Swimming in the Neckar, cycling a some mountains in the Odenwald forest and running a nice loop within the Ladenburg park, this is a really nice small triatlon.

And the starter crowd will again be magnificent, e.g. Ironman world champion Norman Stadler and Ironman European champion Timo Bracht will again fight a duel.

Tropical Mannheim

Puuh, after weeks of cold and rainy weather the summer finally hit. But this time a bit too much, if you ask me. 36°C we had yesterday in Mannheim.

So I had to reduce my planned triathlon training, it was simply too hot. I didn't do much more than a 13 km run and walk and a small bike tour in the Odenwald. That was enough to reach my current limit, puuh!

Maxdorf triathlon

I just came home from today's triathlon in Maxdorf, a middle distance with 2 km swimming, 85 km mountaineous cycling and 20 km running. I achieved a time under 6 hours, as I hoped beforehand. 5:51 h was on the clock after finishing under very hot and sunny conditions, not easy. A perfect training sunday for this year's Ostseeman. And I need a lot more of them, as I could feel the lack of training in this season.

Swimming and cycling was good and fun, but the final running part really exhausted me. I definitely have to increase running and cycling in the remaining 8 weeks, or it will be a torture in Gluecksburg. :(

I'll try my very best. See you, Jolle!
PS: The winner needed 3:45 hours, it was Norman Stadler, the current Ironman World-Champion. It's hard to imagine, how anyone can go that fast.

Sorry for the long absence..

What happened in the meantime:

I finished the skyscraper run in a record time.
I finished the Mannheim Marathon in over 4 hours, very bad.
And I finished sleeping the whole last weekend in a perfect shape. :)

Next weekend will be the first triathlon for this season, the half distance in Maxdorf.

More later...

11:59:21 - this time it'll be hard to do it again...

Tomorrow I'll leave to Glücksburg with my mother. I am planning to compete in the Ostseeman longdistance triathlon once again after my premiere last year.

Last year I finished in 11:59:21 hours, but this time it'll be hard to do it again regarding the reduced training intensity in 2006. Compared to last years training kilometers I did 30% swimming, 33% cycling and 55% running. So in my opinion I will really get into trouble on the 180 km bike course. This will be the crucial step to success on Sunday.

Regarding this I set my goal on Sunday to simply finish. A new personal best would be a nice brithday presence in advance, but no must to be satisfied.

Press your thumbs for me, I'll need it!



For last years race report (German) you can download here.

Below you can see me accompanying Petra on her 50 km run at the Deutschlandstaffel, a 15 days, 24 hours a day relay race around Germany. I also ran 3 legs and accompanied some on bike. Photos and report can be found in the logbook (German) at the relevant legs. I was involved from Luebeck until Alt Bukow.

Ladenburg Triathlon

Yesterday our global planning and basis administration team jointly visited Mannheim's brewery "Eichbaum". Later we went to the Irish pub like every Thursday. As a last step we went to an Asian karaoke bar before getting some sleep.

Today is our company's summer party, which will be conducted in a location near Mannheim. This time I'll not stay until the end, because I'll compete in the Ladenburg triathlon on Saturday afternoon.

Time is ticking away. The 2 week countdown for the Ostseeman begins on Sunday. :)

Ostseeman Triathlon

In the evening I'll visit Kai in Hamburg to pick him up for a weekend trip to the northernmost part of Germany. I'll take part in the Ostseeman, a long distance triathlon (3.8 km swim, 180 km bike, 42.2 km run). Actually, I will be part of a team: Swimming Elke, Cycling Ralf and Running Jolle, completed by Cheering Kai.



I hope it'll be as much fun as I expect. I'll try to organize some digital photos from us. See you, Jolle!