A great place to train: Flagstaff, AZ

Flagstaff has everything a runner, cyclist, swimmer and a triathlete needs.

1. Olympic size pool, with open hours and masters practice. PLUS you can go to Masters in the morning and get the workout out of the way or you can go in the evening. NICE. And you NEVER have more then 3 people in one lane, even if the lane lines are set for long course. Love it, no fighting, no passing, you can just focus on swimming.

2. Biking: wide shoulders out on Lake Mary Road where you can do a pit stop at the Mormon Lake Lodge to fill up the water bottles, you can climb up Snowbowl, Wupatki and Sunset crater loop or if the weather is too cold, you just drive the 30 min drive to Sedone where there is very rarely any snow = always ridable:-)

3. Flagstaff Trail System, running trails that will make training interesting, you get to run on soft dirt, or like today soft mud because the snow just melted. There is an outdoor track and also an indoor 300 m track. Plus you always have someone to run with as there are tons of great runners in Flag.

4. THE ALTITUDE!!! 7000 feet, you can get up in the mountains for running, biking or XC skiing at 9000 feet.

5. Phoenix is so close to Flag and the season in Triathlon and Cycling and Running starts in February and ends in December...NICE.

There are group rides, group runs, good massage places (got a 1 hour massage today:-).

This weekend I will be running in Las Vegas, a 5km race to get the legs in race shape. Training has been going well, I got adjusted to the altitude (almost-I have only been here for a week). I have been sleeping a ton, guess that training will get you.

I am excited to built the new bike next week and race and train on it...CAN'T WAIT!!! It is sooo pretty...

...there are probably 100 more reasons why Flag is great for athletes, but they are all floating around in my head, maybe someday I will make a list with 100-why-Flagstaff sentences.

But if you get a chance: come to Flag for training!!!

New sponsors for 2009

I just arrived in Flagstaff and had many packages to open, thanks to my new sponsors. I heard that I will have gear waiting for me but I didn't want to post until I knew it was for real.

I received so many things from AVIA, who are supporting me with shoes, clothing and other tri gear. They have really great shoes, the AVI BOLT, my new racing flat, light weight, comfortable and good looking. The AVI LITE II, which will be my half marathon shoe, feels great is also light and feels soft and cushioned. I tried the cycling gear in Sedona yesterday and everything looks great and feels great. Running equipment is great as well, and they have everything a runner needs, long sleeve, short sleeve, shorts, tights, hats, socks,...The racing backpack is awesome as well, I already used it for my cycling gear and during swim practice. There are seperate pockets for biking, running and swimming equipment, including a goggle pocket, hear rate monitor pocket and a pocket for wet stuff that you can take out-perfect for a triathlete!!!
So thank you AVIA for supporting me!!!

Visit: http://www.avia.com/

I also received a super light and good looking frame from PARKPRE USA, it is great and I cannot wait to put all the parts together and built it. It is a carbon fiber frame, super light, super aero - a black beauty!!! I am so excited to race on it and see how fast I can go on that TT maschine!!!
Thank you PARKPRE USA for the great TT bike!!!

Visit: http://www.parkpreusa.com/

Thanks to Genuine Innovations I will always be able to fix my flat tires when I am out riding on the roads. They send me everything from a big pump to many many CO2 cartridges. They also send me a package to Germany so that I don't have to worry about taking them on an airplane when I go back to Europe.
Thank you Genuine Innovations!!!

Visit: www.genuineinnovations.com

Friday the 13th...I guess scary things do happen on that day

I have never really thought about Friday the 13th...a day like all the others...but IF something DOES happen that day it gets scary...

The first half of the day was great including a ride on the trainer, because of the snow, and an email with an entry for me for WILDFLOWER. Then I ate, watched some TV, then I went for a run. I decided to run to my neighbor town and back because of the weather. There is a cross walk right in town, you know, one of those Zebra striped things where people are allowed to walk across and cars HAVE to stop-it is NOT optional... I run there, come to a stop, wait, look left and right, see that about 5 cars are coming from the left, about 100 m away. Off yourse they are going to see me...they probably already saw me with my pink hat!!! That is what I thought and step on the street...I look to the left...this guy doesn't seem to stop...everything was going so fast. He was going the speed limit and didn't slow down, and I saw that he had his eyes on the road only in the last minute. Tires squeeked, I froze and couldn't move and he came from 50 kmh to 0 kmh just in time so he wouldn't hit me. There were about 5 cm between the car and me. (I learned in Biomechanics that jumping on the car results in less injury then going under the car, so I was actually thinking about jumping-who knows if I could have...). I was so shocked that I couldn't say a word and I walked across the cross walk and sat down in the middle of the sidewalk. Now here comes the best part: THE GUY DID NOT STOP!!! No apology, no :"Are you alright?" He just drove away. Too bad I didn't get his license plate!!!
So on my way home I thought: "Was I lucky." And that on Friday the 13th...Thank god that nothing happened!!!

After that scary experience I went swimming and now I feel a lot better.

JR is starting the Tour of California TOMORROW!!! Yeah, I am so excited for the race to start and to see MY fiancee in there!!! Good luck out there!!!

It is midnight, got to sleep now:-)

The Tour Of California

I am sooo proud of my fiancee. He will be starting at the Tour of California at the end of this week. I am crossing fingers that they will have nice weather (but I know the weatherman predicted rain). I will be flying into Phoenix on Sunday evening so unfortunately I don't get to see JR. I bet it would be fun to watch the Tour, cheer JR and his team on and travel with them down the coast. Anyway, it will be a great race and I will watch every stage online!!!

I spent my day at the horse market, this is what it looks like:



Horses for sale, everyone can pet them, watch them run and get prizes, and some people might buy them.

More horses...sooooooooooo cute:-)

And some ponies the size of a big dog:-) CUTE!!!

And then there was a horse parade which lasted about 2 hours because there were 122 (!!!) wagons and horse clubs presenting their horses- including the police on horses (see picture).

And then there was this "little" guy...he was bigger than the ponies:-) They are called "Leonberger" dogs and are such nice and cute dogs, but pretty rare. They are bred in my neighbor town "Leonberg" (who would have guessed that:-)

Tomorrow I am getting up early because I have A LOT of stuff to do before Sunday...and I am crossing my fingers that the snow in Flagstaff will melt soon-it would be best BEFORE sunday:-)...so that I can start training at 7000 Feet in nice conditions:-)

Angi

Fasching and Horseshows

This time a year we celebrate something called "Fasching", everyone dresses up funny, like on Halloween...just without the trick or treating...but with a lot of wine drinking. I am not that big of a fan of Fasching but with Fasching this horseshows come to town and I am a big fan of the horseshows they have in my neighbor city. It is a 1 week celebration with: horse shows, riding events (no western style I think:-(), and tomorrow-YEAH I am excited for it-is a big horse auction where people buy horses and they are all standing around in the middle of downtown ...and you can pet them...and then there is a parade.
All the bakeries make special pastries for that week. And they are all about horses like this thing called a "horseapple" (it is brown and round, I bet you know what I mean-it just looks funny I bet it tastes great)...It didn't seem to attract my mom and me so we got this thing instead:

It is a horse "Berliner", this thing filled with chocolate...like Nutella. It is sooo cute and it tasted sooooooooo good:-)
Well I am so stoked to go see horses tomorrow and I hope I can get some cute pictures.

Training today was great until the swim. I did some intervals on the TT bike, got honked at twice where people were trying to tell me to go on the sidewalk - excuse me...I think the police would not like it if I would ride 30 kmh on the sideWALK...maybe they were just angry because they had a bad day at work :-)
The TT was good and felt great. Then I wen to swimming, drove for 20 min. just to find out that we only had 30 min to swim because of a WATERPOLO game...grrr.
On my way home it started to snow and we are supposed to get wind gusts uo to 120km/h tomorrow. I am so glad that I don't bike tomorrow...the running workout might be challenging enough.

OK, off to bed for some recovering.



THIS IS MY FAVORITE CAKE-RUSSIAN CHEESECAKE!!! YUMMMMMMMMMIEEE!!!

Russian Cheesecake as recovery food

Yummie, today I had the best cake in the world. Russian Cheesecake. It is this delicious cheesecake surrounded by chocolate crumbs with even more chocolate crumbs on top. It is soooo good. I had it after my pool workout today. AND on top of that I used it as prerun food...mhhh...a cup of coffee and a huge piece of cake, maybe it was not such a good idea to go running right after I ate that. I heard my tummy for the first 10 min on my run, just like when you drink a whole bunch of water before a run. It sounded like a few liters of water in a water baloon :-) Luckily it stopped after 10 min. I then ran by a horse and guess what, the horses tummy made the same noise just louder. Who knew horses have coffee and eat cake too? :-)

After my run I was off to another treat. My brother Sven invited us out for dinner. To an American Diner!!! And they had real American food, just the beer was the German kind of beer. But everything on the menu was American:
Steak, Chicken Wings, Burgers, Bacon, Country Potatoes, French Fries...Milkshakes...Pancakes, which JR would have ordered :-)

10 more days and I am off to the US. It will be such a big change in temperature...one more week of snow (yep, snow is coming to town again), then shorts and shirts weather.

I guess a cold is going around, and my nose just started to run this evening. Feels a little bit stuffy, but I think I will be fine...with Vitamin C and Tee.

I will add some pictures of the Russian Cheesecake and how to make it next time!!! Now I am off to bed.
Good night!!!