#Tune sweeper crashes full#
#Tune sweeper crashes pro#

Me getting ready for my first triathlon and being totally focused on smashing the swim part. Practice swim would have at least cooled me down and, potentially, eased my headache.

Now that I think about – it was exactly what I should have done, considering the heat. I was really focused on doing my exercises and really undervalued the benefit of a practice swim. I thought about jumping in the lake before the race as well, but discarded the idea. Mistake #4 – no proper swim warmupĬoming to the starting area I saw some of the people doing a practice swim. I knew that sun drains energy from the body (something you really need for an endurance race), yet I failed to plan for it and spent most of the time in the sun. Spending all of the time between 9:00 and 14:00 in the car or under a tree in blazing heat upgraded my mild headache into a proper migraine.īy the time I started my warmup routine I was already tired and slightly dehydrated.

#Tune sweeper crashes pro#

As I wanted to see pro athletes go through first transition, we checked out from the hotel and rushed to the start area at 9:00.

#Tune sweeper crashes full#

The race start was at 14:00 – full 5 hours later than the Half Ironman event. To make things worse, this year was the ‘hottest’ race in the past 20 years with temperatures rising to +34 degrees. Mistake #3 – too much time spent in the sun I didn’t practice such scenario in training, but thinking about this now, I can clearly see that so much food (simple carbs, primarily) for a 2-hour race was a bit of an overkill, to say the least.Ī light breakfast and a couple of energy bars throughout the day would be enough. I hoped the food will digest before the race, yet immediately after breakfast I started experiencing a mild headache. So, to be ‘on the safe side’, during breakfast I loaded on calories instead of thinking of optimizing my nutrition for performance. The race was in the afternoon and I knew I wouldn’t get a ‘normal’ lunch before it.

Problems started even before the gun went off. Photo: Joern Pollex/Getty Images for IRONMAN Mistake #2 – improper fueling leading up to the race Instead, prior to a race it’s better to think of it as just another training day. That kind of thinking should have been my first cue… It’s not a good idea to approach a race as something extraordinary. That’s just over 2 hours or so – why not go hard? I have more than enough time for a solid taper, but at least I’ll know my limits. Somehow I got into a mindset that it’s ‘only’ an Olympic-distance race. My motivation was no longer to take it easy. Related: Munich Marathon Race Review – My First Marathon Experience And, even though I had a plan, I seemed to have ignored it again in my first triathlon. I learned it the hard way in my first marathon. Save the energy, don’t go beyond limits in the first race and learn how the body responds. In endurance events (if you’re a rookie) the best strategy is to leave your ego at the door. Competitive vibe got to me and, somehow, my motivation changed. That’s where my plan started to go sideways. How do you not get a competitive vibe by just being there?Īnd I didn’t even false start… Eyes on the prize 📷 post shared by Jan Frodeno on at 7:10am PDT Mistake #1 – wrong intention This year both Jan Frodeno (2x IRONMAN World Champion in the past) and Patrick Lange (current IRONMAN World Champion) raced. The thing is that Kraichgau 5150 is actually a part of the Kraichgau 70.3 event where historically German pros start their season. It would have given me enough training benefit and time to recover for the main race. Stick to Zone 3 throughout the race and get a feeling of the intensity I’ll maintain during the Half Ironman. My plan was to have a long training session. And it’s almost 2x shorter – perfect rehearsal. It’s an Olympic distance event (1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run) exactly 2 weeks before my Luxembourg 70.3 race. The earliest possible race I could find on the calendar was Kraichgau 5150.

Kind of like a final rehearsal to see how everything works – no big deal. So, I decided to do a practice race a couple of weeks before to test it out. However, after I gave it another thought, I wasn’t comfortable with all the rules, transitions, logistics and small practicalities. My original plan was to race a Half-Ironman (1.9K swim, 90K bike, 21.1K run) as my first triathlon.