After I finished my Xterra season in Denmark at the beginning of September, 7 weeks later there was still another race on the agenda, this year's European Championships in Ibiza. I came back to Austria a good week after Denmark and needed a break first. I took 5 days off training until the last Block for Ibiza started. I never felt really lively, but towards the end I felt a performance increase. I flew to Ibiza a week before the race, the island is beautiful. I spent the week with family and friends from Switzerland, we trained together, inspected the route and enjoyed good food.
On race day I got up as usual, ate my breakfast and got ready to race. It wasn't until 2 p.m. that I needed a little snack beforehand. We were able to set up the transition area an hour before the starting whistle, everything perfectly prepared I started to swim in. The water temperature was a warm 26 degrees, there were no waves. We had to cover 1000m before going across the beach to the transition zone. I actually felt relatively fast (by my standards) but the watch showed otherwise.
On the bike I was already thinking about my long swim time, and soon I had to realize that the performance I was used to was not there. I wasn't used to being able to keep up with the other athletes, so I hardly made up any places on the bike either. After 20km very fast bike route I was still not even in the TOP 20. Luckily it looked a little different when running, I was able to run at a reasonably good pace and work a little ahead. I ended up finishing 20th in the Elite. My goal was actually the TOP 10, but unfortunately nothing came of it this time. I spent the days that followed in sunny weather on the island's beaches or bars. The sangria distracted me from my last race of the season and ushered in the offseason.
Comments