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!!!

...countdowns...

2.5 more weeks and I will be on my way to the US. I already filled out the online document that allows foreigners to enter the US :-) Now I have to wait for 72 hours to get approved (by the way, every German and other countries have to do that now...but only to enter the USA).
My first race of the season, the DESERT CLASSIC DUATHLON is coming up and I have 3.5 weeks to add some spice to my training. It will be funny to see the athletes who train in snow and ice compete against Arizonan's!!! I bet there is a big difference in where everyone is trainingwise. For me this is only the beginning, I am excited and take it as a great workout that will hopefully make me hurt and maybe even puke:-)

It will be a full season with racing from February until October (off course with some breaks).
I am really excited for it!!!

Oh, I got punshed in the stomach 3 times today because this guy in my lane did not want me to pass him...and the best part: he did it on purpose (some people don't know that you can see very clear with those goggles on your face!!!)
...it is all practice for open water starts, right?
Angi

German Wintertriathlon Championships

Wintertriathlon- this is the first time that I watched a Wintertriathlon. It is a pretty new sport and I think Germany has had Championships 9 times now, I think the it was the first time in 2008 in the US. The race was in the Black Forest, in Kniebis. The race organizers had the girls and guys start together because they didn't have that many people at the start. It will probably change over the next few years.


Off course I was cheering for the Germans but also the one girl from the US :-) Renata Bucher (4th at Xterra Worlds) from Switzerland started too and looked like the winner until the German girl passed her during the final lap on the skate skis. I have to be honest: I didn't watch the American girl finish...I was tooo frozen and the storm started blowing away the barriers...poor girl, but I bet she did fine and had fun:-)

It was freezing, but at least there was now snow at first, but half way through it started snowing and me and my family were, with a hand full of other spectators, the only people cheering (at least we stayed as long as we could in the freezing cold)-and we didn't even have anybody we knew in the race!!! Just to support the sport:-) It made me realize that watching an event can be hard work and tiring too!!!

We (here in Rutesheim, 1 hour away from where the race was) barely have any snow left outside (I heard someone say we are supposed to get fresh snow next week), for now I am very excited to run in a snow-free area again and maybe even bike outside (after spending almost every day since mid December on the trainer).

The 70.3 South Africa just finished and I am thinking about doing that race next year. It sounds like a lot of fun.

Can't wait to be in tip top shape and go out and race this year:-) It will be fun!!!

Birthday with surprises from Genuine Innovations

Holly cow, now I am 25 years old!!! Time goes by so fast. But I am so excited for this year because I have big plans and all the support I need.

On my birthday I went to a town near by to relax in Hot Springs. It felt soooo good-swimming from one warm pool in the next one and spending some time in the steam room:-)

In the afternoon I got a blueberry-cheesecake-birthdaycake and in the evening my family and I went out to dinner to have some Greek food.


Today it was back to training: Running, swimming and aquajogging. The pool was full of people but I was lucky and at the time I was swimming no one was in the swimmer lanes!!! That is how I like my lanes:-) There is nothing worse then having a ton of people in the lane, especially if they cannot get coordinated.

Then I got home and I saw a package on the table-for me:-) Birthday present? It was this huge package from GENUINE INNOVATIONS. They send me a package which will get me through my training and races over here in Europe...it included tons of CO2, patching things...just everything you need if you bike!!! THANKS GENUINE INNOVATIONS!!!

When I get back to Flagstaff I will receive another package from them that will get me through the season in the US.

It is great to have Genuine Innovations support me for 2009, they have everything that helps me out of miserable flat-tire situations for racing and everything is made of light material that is easy to carry with!!!

Travelling with CO2 is nearly impossible nowadays, because they take all of that stuff out of your suitcase. Crazy-what if you go to a race and maybe even in a country where barely anyone speaks English and the customs people took your repair kit for the race out of your bikebox...

The snow is melting slowly and only in the sun-we still have freezing temps...I haven't seen a roadie out there for a really long time:-)

It is great how you can always watch sports on TV in Germany...not only on Eurosport or so, but on the main Channels too...ALL DAY...today is Biathlon and Ski jumping :-) Fun.

I am hoping that I can bike outside tomorrow, maybe I will take the cross bike out, do some crossing in the snow:-)

Germany = Freezer

Wow, I almost feel like I am in Russia, not in Germany. It has been so cold here. The streets are still frozen and there is no way to ride a roadbike outside. Not only am I running out of cold weather gear, but there is no way that your tires will stick on the pavement!!! I think if I would try to ride outside I would land on my butt right away.
Therefore I spend every day on the trainer and I am starting to like the trainer. Riding on a TT bike on the trainer is actually really comfortable:-) It is so relaxing to have your arms rest on the handlebars- I remember riding the Roadbike on a trainer and it was punishment pure...no fun at all...but the TT bike is great. But let's be honest...I am a little jealous of JR who gets to ride in the sun in Sedona.

I am booking my flight to Flagstaff today. 3 months of training and racing in the US. Time goes by wayyyyyyyyyyyyy to fast. It is already 2009, my birthday is in 3 days and February and travel time is just around the corner!!!