nadine bacher - my gigathlon adventure

...this is a joke going around Switzerland. Today, 31 May, I cycled in and it was 5 degrees! Unbelievable.

My training is going well regardless, and I am tremendously looking forward to the coming weekend, hoping that I don't get rained in with all the planned activities. I can't focus on my work as much as normally, but I still get a lot done.

On Monday it poured down, so I went to the gym and did 1.5 hours of strength training, from calfs to shoulders. I felt it on Tuesday. Onelegged crunches...what a killer! Yesterday, I ran a quick 13km run home, with intervals during km 8 and 11.

I decided on Sunday that it was time to get the weight down. It is not easy since I seem to be ALWAYS hungry, but I cut out some sugar and fat and already dropped a kilo. Let's hope I can keep it up for a while, so that I finally drop below the 70kg mark, which is toooooooo much for me.

Oh, I also signed up for the Koel Marathon on Monday. So, in October, the 42 km mark will have to be crossed.

Keep riding! N

Last week was one of the famous congress weeks, where training becomes a real challenge, and maintaining a blog even more so. Plus the weather has been simply miserable, making motivation and training even more difficult.

I will make up for it next week/end... a little bit guilty, but what can you do when you have a job with real peak times.

Monday - 50' run
Tuesday - rest
Wednesday - 45'muscle work
Thursday - 35' high speed intervall run (before the congress)
Friday - rest (well, let's call it congress mania)
Saturday - 30' swimming (the pool was freezing!), 45' high cadence road bike training, tenant exercises
Sunday -
early morning running exercises - 30', tenant exercises
1hr50' inline skating. I felt terrible the first 15km, but it got better all the time

Röbi and I did it. I hopped on the train on Sunday at 07.05, met R in Biel and we started from Geneva at 10 a.m. It was a nice and easy ride to Nyon, a steady climb of 20km to Col de Grivine and then a speedy combination of descents and climbs through the beatufiul Vallée du Joux. The green and the yellow from all the flowers.... the water, the trees.... beatiful. The next larger climb of 600m was pretty stepp, and R. had definitely had too little food. I was feeling great with strong legs despite the ride I had done the night before. The distance is not easy to cover because it is practically never flat and when it is, the road is not good enough to give it some speed. I am extremely excited about the race now. We took way too long, but including some extra little breaks, finding the way, etc. My goal is to do it under 7 hours in two weeks. If I reach a 27 average during the race, coming in at 6hrs, I will be delighted. The 5hrs30' my gigathlon partner suggested are completely out of reach for me for this course.

On Saturday, I got up to cylce at 4 a.m. with my new Lupine headlight. What an experience...

I have to get used to having this kind of training plan. I find it so limiting. Being told what to do... no feeling of "I run to work today" or I run at lunch... it is almost too stringent for me, but I know I should follow the process... Work was tough as well, struggling to get my regular job, an exciting project I do on the side and my training under one hat!

Sunday I have a "blind date" in Geneva ;-) What will we do? Cycle to La-Chaux-de-Fonds. Much nicer to do the 166km with somebody. I hope he is nice. Otherwise, I have to be really fast to get away *smile.

Early run on Tuesday morning - 45 min, 140-155 ppm, avge 147... felt excellent. Tonight I am doing strength... no training on Monday after all. With my mum here, things were really busy!!!

I just decided with a work colleague to do the Bodensee Megathlon - as singles, not a couple! Let's see how that goes... http://www.bodensee-megathlon.de/strecke.htm

Everybody, enjoy your lives! Nadine

I had a great training weekend with massage on Friday, an inline technical training including video analysis on Saturday, swimming in the afternoon and then biking interval plus inline coupling training on Sunday. Feel great today - anxious to get into the outdoor pool during the lunch break.

Wir haben einen Namen! Wie passend, finde ich. Jetzt müssen wir nur noch dem 2. Teil des Wortes Ehre machen!

Am Samstag habe ich am Gigathlon Campus in Luzern mitgemacht. Super Inlinetraining am Morgen (danke Pascal, dass Du mich aufs Schlimmste schon vorbereitet hattest - so sahen meine Versuche richtig gut aus!) inkl. Videoanalysen, dann nachmittags Schwimmen mit Bennie Lindberg. Bennie macht mir jetzt meinen Trainingsplan und ich bin schon ganz gespannt, was dabei rauskommt.

Gestern war ich dann am Gempen Intervalltraining machen (2', 2x3.5', 3x2')... Die Wanderer haben alle ein bischen blöd geschaut, aber das ist ja nicht weiter schlimm. Ich habe den berühmten Sturz bei 0.5km/hr geschafft. Schalten ging nicht mehr, aus dem Pedal kam ich nicht rau und.... rechter Arm ist aufeschürft, rechtes Knie etwas angeschlagen, aber nicht weiter tragisch! Danach bin ich 30' voll Power inlinen geganen. Es ist wirklich anstrengend nach dem Radeln, besonders wenn man auf Kraft gefahren ist.

Heute weiss ich noch nicht, ob ich schwimmen oder laufen gehe.

Mittwoch und Donnerstag habe ich soweit nichts gemacht, weil die post-camp-woche schliesslich ein bischen ruhiger sein soll, und weil ich gestern abend einen Laktattest machen wollte. Es war alles etwas improvisiert, weil der Physiotherapeutin was Falsches mitgeteilt wurde. Zuletzt haben sich meine Laktatwerte dermassen verbessert in den letzten 5 Monaten, dass wir nicht genug Teststreifen hatten! Also das Ganze nochmal. Letztes Mal (Anfang Dezember) hatte ich bei 200 Watt 5.6mmol/l und 173 Puls, gestern hatte ich unter 2 mmol/l und 157 Puls! Training pays off!

Heute gehe ich in die Massage. Bin extra mit dem Rennrad zur Arbeit gekommen, dass ich den Berg heute nachmittag hochklopfen kann.

Die Sonne scheint. Juhuu! Nadine

Nach dem Trainingsprogramm der letzten Tage, das wirklich sehr Beinintensiv war, hatte ich heute ziemlich schwere Beine beim Radeln auf dem Weg zur Arbeit. Ich habe mich entschieden, mir einen Trainer zu suchen... er möchte einen neuen Laktattest sehen, also werde ich 2 Tage ruhen und morgen abend den Test machen. Danach kann ich ja dann eigentlich gleich noch im schöneren Fitnessstudio trainieren ;-) Aber sicher scheint dann endlich wieder die Sonne und ich will raus.

Ich weiss noch nicht, ob ich am Samstag in den Gigathlon Campus gehe oder am Sonntag in Murten beim Triathlon an den Start gehe.... Let's see.

Saturday - 30' Rumpf

Sunday - 45' GAII Lauf - Ich habe eine enorme Stabilität im Rumpf gegenüber vor Mallorca gespürt. Benno hat mit seinem Training schon etwas geleistet!

Monday - 45' Lauf-ABC plus 200meter intervalls, einbeinige Kniebeugen (wurden mir von Annette im Camp nahegelegt), 2x20 Lunges im Vorwärtsgang

Dienstag - 30' Rumpf, 60' spinning GAII bis Entwicklung, vor allem Kraft, zum Teil Kraft und Trittfrequenz im 60sec Takt.

... the last few days flew by, and on my last run in the drizzle, my left shin really started to kick my butt! I was happy that I wasn't a pro-athlete and that I could give it a rest for a few days before starting again. What better way to force myself into relaxation than to visit my brother in Germany. I landed in Switzerland on Friday morning and took the train to Mannheim, where I spent two days eating, playing games, go-karting, drinking a few beers and simply enjoying myself. Last night after I got home, I went for my usual run- I was psyched since I finished it 7 min faster than before the training camp.

Speed training here I come ;-)