Joseph Spindler's Blog

teamTBB Germany does a little training camp here in Bad Tölz. The weather is nice, not too warm, but after a long winter we are happy to ride outside. However, yesterday, when we did our 30/30/30 moderate/medium/mad session we had a really bad bike crash. We already settled into a nice rhythm and were just about to launch the mad turbo, when a car violated our right of way. Andrej, riding in first position, could slip through somehow, but when Yves and me tried to do the same we touched each other, our bikes got jammed and off we went through the air. Then lots of people, emergency, police. They took us to hospital. After lots of examinations, scans and X-rays they told us that we have lots of abrasions and bruises, but fortunately, nothing broken, head and spine ok. They monitored us for 2 nights and finally allowed us to leave hospital. Our hardware had less luck: Helmets broken into pieces, bikes broken, my beautiful Campagnolo wheels so badly crooked that we couldn’t remove them from the frame. And last but not least a friendly but stubborn nurse cut our beloved 2XU clothes from our bodies…

However, the most important thing is that Andrej, a Croatian national, didn’t get hurt. In case of injury he surely would have told the emergency guys to shoot him rather than to help him, as he forgot to buy a travel insurance for Germany.

During my stay in hospital I had to share my room with a guy. When he heard that I had a bike accident he proudly told me that he also had a bike accident. He was a bit older and a bit more corpulent than me and seemed to have really bad pain as he initialized every of his moves with a deep-drawn sigh. When I asked him how he got his rip broke, he told me that he was trying to climb on his bike, but couldn’t place his feet properly on the pedals. And while he was desperately trying to place his feet on the pedals, the bike slowed down, it almost stopped, he lost balance, crashed into the street and all his bones were broken.

So next time, when you go out for a ride, please remember that you don’t have to ride 45+ km/h to hurt yourself. With proper technique, it looks like you can do this with no speed at all.

Ride safe!!

Jo

Well, it’s 4am in the morning and I can’t sleep so I thought I post a quick note on the race in Cologne. We managed to have a double win, with Diana dominating the race from the beginning on in sovereign manner. Her task was to get her nutrition right and run a fast marathon. She accomplished this mission with a 3:11 personal best. Chapeau and congratulations! For me it was a bit harder as 120km into the bike I had a massive crash when I lost control over my bike at a big street bump at a speed of 50kph. However, bike was ok and so I put myself together, escaped the aproaching ambulance and went on. In T2 I was back 16 minutes – but a 2:50 marathon brought me into the lead at km 37 and I finally won the race! So double win for teamTBB – that’s awsome. However, now that the adrenalin is gone, my body hurts quite a bit. I have abrasions all over so don’t know exactly how to lay down and sleep. The aidmen had to cut me out of my race suit (it was badly disrupted anyway) and covered the worst wounds, but some are too big to bandage or tape them… It’s a pitty, as it was the best race suit I ever had. I will follow up later with some pics from the race. For now, I would like to thank Sebastian and Erik for their great support before, during and after the race; the organizer Uwe Jeschke for a perfect accomodation at the Maritim hotel right at the finish line; and surely Brett for having me come to Leysin for a short training camp leading up to the race. Without that I wouldn’t have won. Thanks a ton!

After my last blog I got a lot of questions of what I learnd during my camp with the Germans and the Spanish matadores. Well, most of it is not explicit, it’s their attitude, their approach to training. First of all, I was astonished of how easy and relaxed they go for it. They simply love what they are doing. They are much more relaxed than the average athlete who is so much determined to his targets and high work ethics that he often misses to simple enjoy himself. The really good guys simply have a lot of fun. Big boys playing! But dont be foold: They joke all the time, but they do a ton of work! And they are not afraid to suffer. It’s part of the game, completely normal to them. A 5 hour ride with lots of hills, a fast run after that, then a good swim? They don’t make any noise of that. Just a daily habit.

Real pros ride their bikes differently. The average athlete always tries to prove how tough he is. He descends like crazy. Real pros risk nothing on a downhill during a training ride. They have the ability to descend fast, but they don’t if they must not, – just smooth, easy, controlled… and wait for the next hill to blow the group apart…

And training-wise? What about their magic sessions? Well, we talked a lot about training. But after all, there is nothing like a magic session. You would be surprised of how less the top end guys care about magic sessions. The secret is that they train a lot, train hard and with lots of fun. Ironman is for iron people. Or as Lothar would put it: Every rest day is a lost day. A lot helps a lot. More is better. Too much is only half enough. Running comes from running. And pain is weakness which leaves the body. Hehehe. Shut up and go hard!

During the first week of my campe here at Lanzarote, I covered roughly 850k on the bike, 100k on the run and 16k on the swim. As you can see, pretty normal numbers. I did nothing extraordinary, no crazy sessions, just very consistent training. My body is responding quite well to the load and the sessions in the second week are (up to now) much faster. I am joining my room with Lothar Leder and Michael Eisenkolb, a long training buddy, with whom I did most of my first sessions starting back 10 years ago in Berlin. We are a good team, have lots of fun an laughs.

As I normally do all my training alone, I am enjoying training in a group very much, although it means that I have to change my normal riding rhythm (SRM paced) completely. For some rides, Ivan Rana, Eneko Llanos and some other Spanish pros are joining in, ensuring that the pace does not slow down too much . The group forces you to push your limits. Every day there is someone who has good legs forcing you to give more than you would have on your own or thought possible. On the other hand, group riding is dangerous as well – you have to control your ego closely and stay calm to not mess up all your base fittness by doing lots of sprints and power spikes. However, it is great fun, to ride and learn from the best. Train healthy and enjoy!

Currently I am for a 2 week training camp on Lanzarote. I love the island: Lot’s of wind and hills and monotony! Weather is good, 20 degree, but quite chilly when you have a lot of wind. Today I finished my first 30k run this year. Maybe, over Chirstmas I forgot a bit how hard triathlon can be… Very happy to be back to the real triathlon training thing again.
It’s a great thing to be able to escape the heavy winter in Germany now. Nevertheless, I am a bit worried what happens if I go back again to -20 degrees and mountains of snow. Maybe I will squeeze in a big swim week and then head off to our team training camp in Thailand as soon as possible.

Well, let’s better start with how you endend the last year? For me, I did a 2 hour swim and a 3 hour bike – with rain, 3° Celsius and the last hour of the ride in the dark. As I like it, nevertheless. Thankfully, that training earned me the right to join the New Years eve party with my family. In Germany we usually have fondue or raclette for years eve meal, this year we had raclette. (By the way, for Christmas eve we Bavarians traditionally have sausages as the preferred meal – Weißwürste, sweet mustard and pretzels, don’t ask me why exactly).
It was a cold and clear night, but we lacked the discipline to wait until midnight and headed to bed at 10 or so. Nico would have made it till midnight, that’s not the problem. But the problem would be that he needs a week to get back into his normal sleep pattern after such an escapade. Me too, by the way (getting older??). Basically, I don’t like to start a new day feeling tired and sick anyway. So no drama here.

Now back to my first question. How did you start the new year? As far as I’m concerned , we started early, I put Nico in the baby carrier and we headed out for a long run (unfortuneately, pool was closed today). I love the morning of the first day of a new year very much. It is probably the most quiet morning of the whole year. Empty streets, no people around, everybody still sleeping. Clean, fresh, untouched light and air. Lot’s of good energy. Gives you the funny feeling of beeing both the last and the first warrior on earth at the same time…

All the best for 2010, keep on moving!

A good friend of mine sent me this video. Thanks a ton Doris!

That are exactly the dreams I am dreaming during winter time. Reminds me a lot of our bike rides in Leysin ).

Enjoy!!

Yesterday, we did a family trip to Munich. We go there by train, it’s a scenic trip along the mountains of approximately an hour. It was a beautiful day, lots of sun – in fact the warmest 28th of November since 120 years. Christl went to the shops, Nico and me to the birthday party of a friend. He turned 50 today. We had good talks and a delicious lunch. And there was a women, Helena, with a wonderful soft and deep voice who was singing Spanish songs from time to time, accompanying herself with an accordion. She stood there, alone in the middle of a big saloon, singing, her eyes closed. Nico listend to her, motionless, mesmerized.

Back in town, we met Christl again at the Marienplatz. It was getting dark. Lots of people. Lots of Christmas stars. And there was a hughe Christmas tree in the middle of the place illuminated by literally thousands of bright lighting candles.

On our way back home, sitting in the train, eating some foods, we suddenly heard a hushed noice, like a small bird flying against a window. Engines switched off, the train stopped, somewhere in the nowhere before the next station.

Soon we were surrounded by dozens of ambulance men, police men and firemen as it turned out that someone decided to end his life with help of our train. The vehicle was not allowed to move for a long time. We sat there more than 2 hours. Talking our talks, thinking our thoughts. After we arrived home, I searched the internet for titan bikes.

Today morning, a poem came into my mind. Written by Rose Ausländer, it tells us to put things into the right perspective. Keen and gentle at the same time, her words fill me with solace, quivering confidence and an idea of unlimited freedom. You are everything. You have nothing to loose. Be what you are. Give what you have!

It’s in German. I tried a translation, however.

A constant smell of chlorine is what I carry with me these days. Doc set me on a heavy swim program, hitting the pool two times a day. And whatever I do, the chlorine smell stays with me. Now, doc says, this is a good thing, since chlorine kills almost everything instantly. Maybe the best way to get through all those swine flue epidemies right now. Much better than having an inoculation anyway.

Now, swimming two days a time was really something I had to get used to. Initially, it took a lot out of me. But I kept going, and now, after 4 weeks or so, it’s not a deal that big anymore.

To the time before I startet this swim program, I considered a 4k session as a lot of work. Now, with swimming 8-9k on some days, a 4k session almost qualifies as a recovery workout. OK, depends, doc has some sessions which kill your arms with less than 2,5k – hehehehe.

Sometimes I look at all that training and racing I did throughout the last year as getting ready for this now…

Healthy training!

Cheers,
Jo