Holten World Cup

So I have done 6 races in 9 weeks, and my body is ruined. A lack of continuity in training and a lot of travel has definitely taken its toll, and I unfortunately fell to the sardonic wrath of Mr. Pain in Holten. He was delivering servings of his finest the whole race, and he was serving it cold. All three legs of the race were painful. I however managed to secure myself a break in the last lap of the bike, and got into transition 30seconds up on the group with comrade Brendan Sexton. Our little gap didn't last long though. Overall, a race to forget. Holten was very nice though, it's a little country town of 9,000 in the Northern parts of the Netherlands. We were staying in isolated bungalows out of town, and we spent a lot of time outside just relaxing and unwinding. The Netherlands is a country everyone needs to visit :)

I can now look forward to a month without racing, and I can concentrate in my first real block of training since I left Oz 10 weeks ago.  I have learned a lot about my body in this short time away from home, and I already have one eye on next season thinking about changes I can make as a result of this experience.

Next up is the Tiszaujvaros World Cup in Hungary on the 8th of August! In the meantime, lots of training (and some study) at my new base here in Busto Arsizio in Italy.

Amateur Cartography 2.0

Google Earth- a tool for cartography, but also a tool for well, wasting time. Here's a loop I did back in Witten last week, an aerobic 80km over a few hills! It might not look like much, but there's a few hours there :)

In other news pertaining to placement and geography, I'm currently enjoying my last few sessions in the great Witten Germany before flying out on the 4th to Varese in Italy. I will be setting up a new training base with a whole bunch of other young Aussies, with some fresh from the homeland, and lesser fresh souls who will be migrating from the Spanish basque. I will also be heading back to the Netherlands next weekend to race in the Holten World Cup.

Good times Witten, see you again soon :)

Brasschaat Euro Cup

On Sunday I raced the ^^^ in Belgium. I was very much anticipating this race as I knew I had form, but just needed to prove it. There was an interesting start list which was charged with young talent. Slovakian swimming phenom Richard Varga had my interest for a fast swim, as well as Frenchies (both Junior World Champs) Vincent Luis and Aurelien Raphael, Kiwi Dylan McNiece, Dustin McLarty etc etc. I knew there was a good making for a break on the bike. The field was balanced by a juggernaught of crazy young runners, namely Etienne Dienmunsch, Miguel Fidalgo, Mattias Zoell, Brendan Sexton and a few others. I knew no matter what happened it was going to be tough!

The swim turned out to be slower than I expected, but we managed to get a tight little group away with all the usual suspects. The course was dead flat and we were hitting 52km/h on a few of the straights. We were working well, but a few of the guys starting to look at each other and our group slowly fragmented. All the hometown Belgians in the chase group looking to impress onlooking females made sure we didn't stay away, and we were caught by 20km in. I then missed a small break, and consequently spent the rest of the ride trying to motivate the pack to do some work and chase them down. By the end of the ride, we had given 5 athletes a 2 minute advantage going into the run, which pretty much meant we were now racing for 5th at best. Meanwhile all then sick runners were getting closer and closer to the back of our group. Onto the run, it took me 5km to find my legs, but eventually got them going and picked up (or saved) about 10 places in the final few kilometers. I finished 11th, a few seconds outside the top 10. I was hoping for a better result, but I was somewhat happy that I was actually able to run to my potential in the final 5km. I splitted 30:40 on a 9.6km course, so I'm happy with a sub 32min 10km. Dienmunsch (2nd place from the 3rd pack) from France showed his class with a 28:28 10km, which I guess really needs to be seen to believe. The guy was insane, so kudos to him. Also kudos to Aurelien Raphael for taking the win from a gutsy break on the bike.

After the race I traveled back to Veldhoven in the Netherlands to rejoin some family, and spent the Monday cruising around with Don my Uncle in many of his cars, drinking Belgian brews and playing with his overly energetic labrador. When you go out with my uncle, always expect to drink a little more than you anticipated, and watch out for 'tripel' beers, which believe it or not are triple strength. Many good times are to be had with this man, and in this wonderful country.

Same Game, Different Country

You know you're in the Netherlands when your sitting in a garden like this.On Wednesday I travelled from Witten to stay with some family for a few days in Eindhoven. This is the second time I have visited the Netherlands and I love it, it's a very homely sort of country. This is a land where bikes are the rule of law, and it's pretty cool to see peletons of people riding all day to get around. Cars even give way to bike here. I went for a ride and passed a military base, and even a platoon of soldiers in full combat gear gave way to me :) But having the right of way isn't the best part about riding in the Netherlands, it's the fact that the place is as flat as fiddy's cap.

I also got the chance to swim in the Van Dan Hoogenband pool, but the most important thing was I got to revisit the public viewing for the World Cup (Netherlands vs. Cameroon in Eindhoven).

So when my first team bows out disgracefully, I get to cheer for my second team which modestly won all their preliminary games. I am afterall a Dutch citizen :)

So today I am crossing the border to Belgium where I will race this Sunday in Brasschaat.

Keep it real!

River Times!

A lazy Sunday afternoon swim on the chilly Ruhr. 2 Aussies, 2 Germans, and a boat.

I actually still have a bit of the Ruhr in my ears, and a bit of whiplash to go with the attempts to get it out. Any suggestions on how to remove the parasitic Ruhr would be appreciated.

Take it easy,

Josh

Soccerwho's???

Germany takes their football pretty seriously to say the least. The whole country is going mad, and I have never seen such nationalism before, even in Australia. It's quite remarkable! The Socceroos ultimately fell dismally to the German juggernaut on Sunday 4-0 in their first game of the World Cup. The embarrassment that was surely felt by the Socceroos was tantamount to the embarrassment felt by us Aussies currently living in Germany. We watched the game at a public viewing in Dortmund amongst 20,000 Germans, and we only spotted 2 other Aussie flags in the crowd the whole night (unless the others put theirs away in shame). We were however able to claw back some credibility with our cheers. This is one I led on the crowded train home after the game...



We also had someone come to our team flat to interview us for the local press, and this is the article they came up with. I don't know what it says, but I have my suspicions they are taking the piss out of us for being confident about our Aussie side.

Here's some pictures of the viewing at Dortmund!

We went home to catch the run leg of Des Moines, and all I can say is that I'm glad the Aussies carved up there.

Rediscovery

I was going through a few things, and came across some lab testing from the beginning of the year. Have a look if you're interested!

Now that Jimmy 'Boss' Seear has left camp in Witten for new pastures in France, I've been left to my own devices here in the kitchen. Here's my go at a vegetarian lasagna. It was ok!

 Kane and I sucked it down with some German beer and ice cream to boot!

Also for fun, you know the food is bad at McDonald's when the cooks are wearing industrial grade face masks...

Madrid WCS

Today was probably my toughest day in the sport. I knew that I was either going to go into the race firing, or completely underdone. My week in Morocco wasn't a very pleasant experience, and I think my well being was on the way out. There were times in my hotel room where I found myself close to packing my bags and heading home. I was counting down the hours until I left for Madrid, hoping that it would all turn out fine in the end. Nevertheless, lessons have been learned.

Madrid is the kind of race where you need to have your preparation perfect, because the course is utterly relentless. Despite having the best middle distance runner ever, Morocco definitely is not a place for athletes. There was simply no place to train and my form slowly withered. I tried to convince myself that this would be good to embrace as a taper, but I was proved wrong today. The swim actually felt easy, and I swam 2nd on Polyanksy's feet quite comfortably. We immediately had a little gap on the bike, but as soon as we started rolling consistently I could feel myself cooking. The hill every lap made sure the deal was sealed, and I knew my race was over by the 3rd lap. Even sitting in the bunch when we were caught, I simply could not recover, and I eventually accepted my fate on the run. All in all, a very tough day. However I think I have exited with a renewed motivation to train, and I can't wait to get back to my base in Germany. My next race will be in Brasschat in Belgium at the end of this month, and I'm looking forward to getting some good work in before then.

Take it easy,

Josh

Morocco Continued

I can see why Africa bleeds fast runners; the race on the weekend was bloody tough. For those who don't know it was a sprint distance, which felt very familiar coming from the Bundesliga's. I swam hard on the front and managed to get a nice little gap with 2 other Aussies, Gareth Halverson and Shane Barrie. We stayed away for 2 laps of the bike course, until we were met by some bridgers. The course was pretty relentless, and an 800m downhill pretty much meant it was imminent our little trio got caught by the main pack of 12 or so guys. We sat tight until the run, which is were the tyranny began. The 5km course was over 3 laps. Over those laps, you were either running uphill slow, downhill fast, or into a headwind. Did I mention it was stinking hot? It was impossible to find a rhythm and I doubt anyone felt great out there. I think the winner splited home in 16:55. However it was a great little scenic race, and a great experience. I think the crowd in the Liberation Circle was bigger than what I saw in at the Sydney World Champ, and I'm sure it was a once in a lifetime thing for those Moroccan's to see. I hope they walked away with a warm heart.

I am still in Morocco, literally hanging out to head to Madrid for this weekends race. Training has been hard, but I managed to find a good little ride loop along the coastline, and up a nice little climb. Here's some pictures :)

I also got to witness an urban football game, Moroccan style.

Josh