2 weekends, 2 races...from Florida to California

The 2011 season has started. For me, with the very first 5150 race in Miami followed by the SuperSEAL Triathlon in San Diego... Miami was a great experience. I was about to race with some of the fastest women in the US, mostly women that are also racing on the ITU circuit. The race was downtown Miami...swimming in the bay, biking between skyscrapers and running along the shoreline. The weather was perfect and the water was...well, for me (aka mediocer swimmer/wetsuit lover) ...a little to warm at 72 degrees. NO WETSUITS ALLOWED ...in shark town... Once you were in the water there was no coming back out until the gun went off which ment a 5 min warm up was enough for me. The current and the difficulty to sight in the water left us athletes all over the place. I was in a group of 3 but after the first turn the other 2 went off course, so I was by myself for the entire swim...

Venue of the 5150 Miami

I hopped on my bike and started passing about 3-4 females. The course was very much like a criterium, which is great for me, unfortunately the turn-signs were too small to see, so I was not able to go into the corners full power. There were 270 cops out there keeping us safe...which was great!!! Somehow a guy with his coffee cup still managed to walk out in front of me, but luckily I was able to avoid him :-) The bike felt great!!! After an interesting T2 (I was led the wrong way and had to jump the barrier to get back to the bike racks) I started my run and felt great. I passed one girl within the first mile and then I was in no mans land. I ran into a cleaning crew which appeared out of nowhere:-) No worries...I tried to run my own race at a good speed. With about 2 miles to go I saw an athlete about 400 m in front of me but since we were going about the same speed I thought there is no way of catching her...I turned around the last corner and we had .2 to go and she was RIGHT THERE...I started sprinting but missed her by 2 seconds...GRRR...I ended up 7th place with a time of 2:02 and was very happy!!! My splits were: 21:XX swim, 1:01 ride (new PR) and a 36:XX run (new PR) - I could not have asked for more for my first race of the season. Here are some pics from Miami:

STARFRUIT PICKING!!!

My vist to the groshery store...HUGE avocados...

Finger Bananas :-)

Giant Papayas!!!

Miami was great, what a beautiful city. Luckily I was there during the NON HUMID season:-)

A few days later I started my trip to the other side of the country...San Diego. Race # 2 for the season...SuperSEAL. This race is absolutely great. The venue is great, the race is very well organized, the spectators are amazing and everywhere (!!! HUGE MOTIVATION), the course is safe and the entry fee goes to a good cause!!!

Here we go...see you later Phoenix...

...hello Coronado...

We arrived in the evening, went for a run, checked into the hotel and visited the hot tub :-) We decided to get everything done early the next morning so that we could relax in the afternoon: packet pick up, ride, run and some ocean fun...I mean...icing of the legs:

It was unclear until race morning of the race would turn into a duathlon due to all the rain they got...mhhh duathlon...no swimming = happy Angi...but at the same time I wanted it to be a Triathlon because you can only get better by trying and trying and trying.

Pre race icing in the bathtub :-) A MUST the night before the race!!!

The race start was at 8 am. I was (for some strange reason) up at 4:45, which ment for once I would actually eat my breakfast 2.5 hrs before the race (which left me hungry during the race). We rode the 6 miles in the dark to the race site, racked our bikes...sat around and watched the Sprint Triathlon start...and then it was finally time to race. The start was a run in start with the guys so there was lots of fighting going on :-) I have no splits yet, but my swim felt a little slow and I was 6th female out of the water. On the run to transition my calf was hurting to the point where I thought there is no way I will run (calf needs a massage). I jumped on my bike thinking: Just bike hard and then see what happens. I biked into first place by km 20. T2 was fun, with me and 2 other girls all being together. Everyones feet where frozen (next year I will NOT forget my toe warmers). I started running and felt pretty good, so I decided to go a little faster at each mile. I ended up winning the race in 2:03:XX which is 2 min faster then last year. SUCCESS!!!

Not only was it a great race for me but also for Pam and Lizzy!!! Everyone is happy :-)

Thanks to Iron Gear Sports I was able to race on these good looking race wheels :-) AND I am happy to add a third paddle to my wall of paddles. This trophy is the most beautiful trophy!!! I hope I can add a few more - I have lots of wall space to fill :-)

I will treat my body VERY well for the next few days before I return to racing at a local race in Mesa on Sunday :-)

Day 1 in Miami

I have been to Miami for 24 hrs now and I like what I see :-)

After a crazy 5:30 am airport drop off by JR I was on my way to Miami and didn't arrive until close to 8 pm!!! I think it might be faster to fly to Germany in that time. The airport in Dallas was FULL, with flights that got cancelled and spring breakers everywhere!!! Flying into Miami was great (you have to understand that I have never been to Florida). I saw the Everglades :-) They go right to the outskirts of Miami!!! Who knew. Everything here is in happy colors: the thousands of different plants growing here, the houses, decorations, even the street's pavement is light colored which seems happier then dark pavement.

My homestay is very very very nice. I went swimming today (NO NOT IN THE OCEAN), rode my bike around the beautiful neighborhood and went for a run where we saw Starfruit, Guava and all kinds of other fruits :-) It felt like vacation!!!

Tomorrow is Saturday and we are off for a bike ride in the Florida keys followed by a run. Then a meeting and the bike drop off and then it is alrady time to get ready to race :-)

Pics are coming soon!!!

ready or not...here comes the season

My 2011 is kicking off next week with the 5150 Miami. I am super excited to start the season, even though the first race is always a little scary...As far as I know it will be a non wetsuit ocean swim, followed by a hot bike and run.

The weekend after that I will be taking off for San Diego for a most likely pretty cool wetsuit legal ocean swim :-) Ahhh...that is what I like to hear...

I have never visited Miami, but I am looking forward to it. I only "know" Miami from watching Dexter and Burn Notice...it looks like a lot of fun!!!

A very nice family from the Ndorphin Triathlon Team is taking me in (THANK YOU, check them out at www.ndorphintriathlonteam.com). I would not know what to do by myself in a city that I have never been in before, so I am really thankful!!!

Phoenix is warming up like crazy. We are going to have 90 degrees as a high almost every day this week. But no complaints here, this is wonderful to train in compared to the snowy, slushy
roads in the places I have lived before (Flagstaff/Spearfish).

Ragnar with Team Durapulse

The best team out there:

Ragnar:

197 miles

12 runners

Wickenburg to Tempe

Do you wanna run Ragnar? Sure, count me in. Friday morning 6 am came around and I met my team. At this point we were 12 people, mostly strangers to each other. We split up into Vans of 6 people each, us being Van 1 which ment we were running for the first 6 legs before we got a little break.

Nice to meet you Ken, Steve, Chris, Carey and Kelly. Little did we know what the next 30 hrs in one van would turn into...

Here we go, navigating our way to Wickenburg:

Here we are before I took off for my first 8.5 mile run. Everyone was happy and refreshed.

I ran the first 4 miles with a guy from a different team, but then he got tired and I said ADIOS. As I made my way to the first exchange I was wondering why the van hadn't passed me yet...there was no other way then this road to get to the exchange...mhhh...I got to transition and waited...for about 15 minutes. There were lots of teams at the exchange, everyone super excited since it was the very first one :-) And everyone kept asking : Where is your team? Mhhh, not sure, but I was 100 % sure they would come eventually ;-)

I have to admit that I was there a little early. You have to turn in "predicted" times and I decided to run a little faster then that time. So it was not their fault.

After I handed off the bracelet to my teammate, the remaining 5 of us laughed for about an hour about the exchange-accident.

We switched off and switched off and cheered out the window and had a TON of fun. The first 6 legs went by so fast and we handed off to Van 2. Time for us to...sleep? get some rest? NO WAY. Time to get...

...some coffee. We wanted to cheer for every Durapulse athlete out there (we had 3 teams), so we had to stay awake and we made it our mission to be the loudest, happiest and most cheery people out there.

With that much action going on in the van it was no surprise that the van soon looked like this:

Poor Ken, who provided us with the Vans...We decided to use window crayons not only for the outside windowns but also for the inside of the van...where else would we write down notes from the trip, right? The van was great!!! A comfy companion for 30 hrs. Stuffed with 6 pillows and 6 now sweaty runners, food for 6 people and much more. Ken tried to keep it under control by looking in his secret mini-van-mirror.


At 9 pm it was our turn again to run and I was so thankful that I was runner 1. I had 7 miles in Sun City before I handed off the bracelet. Our last runner went off at around midnight. We were for sure the loudest van out there, I think everyone else gave up and went to bed:-) NOT US. We went back and forth to see if our runners needed anything and to motivate them!!! Now that is Team Spirit!!!

We ended our legs in Anthem and took a shower and a attempted to take a 1 hr nap. Mhhh...50% successful before we got back up at 5 am to drive to the last leg. There was no time for breakfast, but my sweet teammates offered to get coffee for me and have it ready after my run!!! Whohooo!!!

We got done running our legs at 11 am on Saturday and now it was up to Van 2 to bring it home to Tempe.

The unbelievable part was that our coach's team consisted of only 6 people (for 197 miles). They started 6 hrs !!! later then us and managed to pass us at noon on Saturday!!! It is amazing how far people can push their bodies, especially on no sleep!!! CRAZY!!!

Ragnar is a super fun event and if you ever get the chance to do it: DO IT!!!
We ended up 7th in the race and we are on a mission to take 1st place next year. We were the 2011 masters of Roadkill -athletes that started earlier then us- (what the heck? Roadkill? Street Roadkill? NO- runner roadkill :-) We passed 130 runners with our team and van 2 120!!! 250 roadkills for team Durapulse!!!)

By the end of the 30 hours none of the 5 people in my van were strangers anymore. Actually, I have been without them for one day now and I think I miss them already :-)

VOS weekend

It was really hard to take a week off of training :-) I guess I am addicted. I was "staying-in-bed-sick" until Tuesday morning...on Thursday I attempted to go for a ride...that lasted for about 20 min before I got a headache. I ran for about 30 min, but my HR was really high. Grrr...one more day of rest. Friday evening I went to the pool and felt surprisingly good for being out of the world of exercise for one week.
This weekend I watched the Valley of the Sun Stage race as my team was racing and I was soooo jealous - but I totally loved being the supporter/spectathlete/cheerleader :-)

The hardest part was watching the Criterium. Stage Races have a great variety of events -VOS had a TT, a Roadrace and a Crit. I like the TT, like the Roadrace but LOVE the Crit. Oh well, there will be lots more races in the cycling world that I can do.

Unfortunately two of my teammates crashed at the Roadrace and ended up in the hospital (yes, I know, I feel guilty complaining about being sick...small fish compared to a crash like that!!!)There was a crash 10 min into the Cat 1,2,3 race- I hope everyone involved heals fast!!! My two teammates are tough cookies. They both showed up at the Crit today to cheer (one with a sling around her arm due to a broken bone in her shoulder, the other one with a cast one her arm due to a fracture in her radius)...and let me tell you, they cheered LOUD. They did not complain once...VERY IMPRESSIVE!!! I hope they get better very soon.

How much more can I sleep?

I have been feeling sick for the last 3 days, and I have slept a ton. I actually managed to fall asleep WHILE my friend talked to me (ooops). Today I found out the reason for the sleepiness: Acute sinus infection/flu symptoms and a fever...yeah, that would make one sleepy. I finally went to Urgent Care to take care of this so I can be up and running (literally) ASAP.

This last weekend was supposed to consist of Crit racing and a Trail run/race, instead it turned into nap, waiting room, bed...sleeping through the superbowl (I did see the half time show and...well...lets just say I will stick to my Ipod for listening to the BIP:-) Maybe they were just nervous...)

Here is to getting healthy and strong and a season without any more interruptions!!!

Goodbye 2010 and hello 2011

Here is my review of 2010:

January

...a snowy time in Flagstaff. It was my first New Years in the US, we had a great evening with lots of friends at our house. I got to mix some german cold weather drinks :-) and everyone seemed to be very happy...

...Jack loved the snow...

...Pam took me back country skiing and it was GREAT...

...January was a tough month for training with all the snow...

February

...Tucson Bicycle Classic...after a great TT my second day ended with a crash on the last kilometer. The field was together and we were screaming down a hill...and then I hit a hole...wheel broken, frame broken, stitches, got cactus spines removed from my leg with a lovely scapel...

April

...SUPERSEAL...my favorite Triathlon... Pam and I had a great roadtrip and a great homestay...

...lots of fresh fish eating going on in the 4 days...

...and even snorkeling...

ALSO: made an offer on a house AND wedding preparations are running...

May

...great party before our wedding at TRIBE and after that a few drinks...

...wedding dress testing with stitches in my leg (you should have seen the eyes of the salesperson...thousands-of dollars dresses and a bloody leg :-)

...and then we got married on May 7th BUT CINQO DE MAYO is our real wedding day (when we were married in the courthouse)... the wedding was beautiful..and I was so glad that my family made it through the snow storm :-)

June

...rainy Flagstaff = awesome cyclocrossing...

...also Jack learns how to swim :-)

...also moving to Phoenix just in time for summer :-) Yeah...

July

...back to Germany for ANKE and JENS's wedding!!! It was beautiful!!!

August

...Checking out the trails around Flagstaff...BEAUTIFUL!!!

November

...hiking the Grand Canyon for 5 days!!! WOHOOO...

December

...Christmas in AZ...my parents and my brother are here :-) too bad the weather decided to be under normal :-( ...

...Sven volunteered to catch fish in the Grand Canyon...

...after 3 days of snow we finally got to hike back out with him...

...I loved having my family here!!!

Hello 2011:

I have a lot planned for 2011 and everything seems to be on track. Racing starts next week (and I am glad to be racing again) with a Criterium in Phoenix. I even have a trip to Germany planned in August and it will involve lots of family time and 3 races :-) I haven't raced in Germany for a long time!!! Also I am trying to figure out what field to get my Masters in...but...it has taken me 2 years to decide already so no promises that it will be figured out this year :-)

The main thing for 2011 is to stay healthy, happy and injury free - not only for me but for everyone!!!

To a great 2011!!!