First triathlon since 8 months
The first month of 2009 has passed already. Time is flying and it looks like it is flying faster each year. Where are those days that you felt bored? Although in Inzell, Germany (hometown of Worldclass skater Anni Frisinger), I have experienced it again. I was struck by the fly epidemic. Outside a blue sky and sunny and I sat inside on the coach with a TV that only shows American moviestars that seem all speak German very well as well. However they have funny voices ;-). I am glad they have subtitles in the Netherlands. In this case a holiday home is pretty small. More about the triathlon later on in this newsletter.

Races
After a good 10 km I first left for a week to the snow to do some skiing again. It was a bit scary in the beginning after not having been skiing for last 3 years but once back into it, it was fun again. Luckily I came back with noting broken.

After that trip my hamstrings started to protest. First left then right, so I had to cancel another 10 km and a half marathon. However I was all fixed again before the trip to Weissensee (Austria) and Inzell.

Weissensee/Inzell
First we were off for almost 3 days at the Weissensee (famous big lake in Austria where they always organize a big skating race of 200 kilometers). We always wanted to skate there once, not the race but just on the lake and it is an easy combination with Inzell (just about 2,5 hours drive apart). Unfortunately we were not able to see the Weissensee as we had 2,5 days of non-stop snow. On the small lake the ice was not so good with a lot of cuts but on the big lake they were able to make a 6 km loop and there we had beautiful ice. However the snowfall only increased so we could not skate there again the next day. We did some cross country skiing which was of course perfect with the fresh snow. The snow could not spoil our stay, the noro-virus (current flu virus) did. On our travel day to Inzell we heart that there were some sick people in the group. That morning waking up I had not felt so well but thought it was nothing, just a bit tired tapering would start soon.

After one long tunnel on our way to Inzell, we came from the sun into a blue sky and sun. Besides that also a stomach ache. At night there was no denial and I was sick the whole night. On Wednesday I spend most of the day on the couch. A phone call with my coach. Drink a lot, something to stop me for needing to go to the potty all the time and a sauna to sweat it out. This seemed to be a good remedy as I felt much better on Thursday morning. We went ice skating on the ice rink in Inzell and it was going okay.

I thought by myself that blond lady can ice skate really well. About one second later Jochem came by and asked if I had seen Anni Frisinger. A bell started ringing. The rest of the day I took it easy but in the afternoon I was really sick again. Friday became another day on the couch. Early to bed and we have to see how it is tomorrow. I really wanted but it looks like luck is not on my side again. On Saturday morning I felt better, however the question was if my body would have enough energy for a race. Beautiful weather, a nice course but after a reasonable running part the energy reserves were quickly gone during the bike part. However, I would finish! A second place behind the Dutch champion Wintertriathlon was not so bad of course, but I could have done better. Hopefully I will have no hurdles the next few months (preferably years ;-)) and that I will do better at the Wintertriathlon in Groningen in a month from now.

Coming up
At the moment I am on Mallorca (island of Spain) with my coach Frank Senders to make the first big mileage on the bike. After that I will do the Wintertriathlon of Groningen and then off to Italy with some of the Davilex team for a specific training camp. Not looking forward to going back to the Netherlands next week as it is still cold and wet over there.;-).

Where is the car?	There it is!