Winter break is over…and it’s time to race!
My first race of the year will be at the HITS Half Ironman in Naples FL. The race will be held Saturday the 12th of January at 7am. I am looking forward to get back into racing mode! In just two weeks I will race Panama 70.3 in order to get some more qualifying points for my world ranking and the Kona World Championship qualification. This winter we tried a few different things and I was able to stay lean and in shape. Not sure what how my body will react during the race but I am confident to be able to challenge myself!
So I guess it is time I update you guys on my winter break…December is always pretty busy for me as I am traveling back home to Luxembourg and tons of appointments are waiting on me. So after a few easy days off after my last disastrous race at Ironman Cozumel, I spent a week working all my meetings off. That was pretty intense and very stressful, but also a lot of fun at times. I was already back to training, so I only gave myself two weeks of total recovery and then went straight back into it. My goal was not to gain too much weight and maintain my fitness. One of the highlights was the election for the Athlete of the Year in Luxembourg where I placed third again. Pretty good but I was hoping for the top spot…weeks later the people in Luxembourg voted for the People’s Athlete of the Year, and despite the official result that came from the votes of the sport press, I ended up winning the People’s Vote by a nice margin. That was great to hear and gave me some motivation to start the year.
Shortly after the Luxembourg visit, I was back in the car and on my way to Northern Italy- in order was a short five day Spa recovering break that we both really needed. This area of Italy is one of our little happy places and we had time to reflect and recharge while training. God, that felt good. Can‘t wait to go there next year again. Those amazing five days passed quickly and I was back on the road to the first real camp of the new season. Ski skating in Austria. So I set out for two and a half weeks of work on the skis, but also running, swimming, home trainer riding and all that. I was focused but had time to enjoy the evenings with Alicia, my Mum and her partner, plus our dog. The poor old Leon (the dog) is in his last few weeks due to cancer and I made sure to spend some serious time with him. That was probably the last time I will see him.
Towards the end of the camp I got tired and knew that I was working hard over those past weeks and so we packed up and drove back to Luxembourg. Driving is fun when you have a good car sponsor who always supplies you with the newest cars- thanks to Garage Losch for that. One more day of meeting up with my friends and I was back in the plane en route to the warmer climate in Florida.
The weather has been very nice and so the winter might be fairly mild over here. That plays in my favor as I need to get in shape till my first real test at Panama 70.3. It‘s been a while since I raced that distance and I am not really a 100% yet, but good enough to be somewhere up there hopefully.
This winter a lot of things have been different for me since I didn’t have to secure sponsorships or worry about how to finance my next season. Thanks to Leopard Trek, I got a two year contract and so I can just focus on my goals ahead. The first part of the season will have some training races and some 70.3 races scheduled in order to get my points up for Kona. Luckily I validated last year in Cozumel, so no need to stress another Ironman, especially if there is so much else out there for me to race.
The first highlights will come early and mid summer, but I will fill you in once we get closer–my race calendar is still in development.
For now it’s important to set sail in the right direction and make sure the boat is moving well before we go into more details. All seems well now that I am back to work and my normal triathlon routine. The plan is to make 2013 count, in terms of sport but also in life.