Off to Team Training in Wilhelmshaven

Photo: Start at Steinfurt

I decided that there is't much more to add to my last post...The main type of response I got was "next time throw him to the curb!" I'll leave the teaching to others. I'm not his daddy or coach...


My team is meeting up in Wilhelmshaven again from Friday to Wednesday. The weather forecast is snow(?),rain, rain, rain ... and clouds. I'll be taking my race bike with me, since training 3x a day on skates in the rain isn't quite what we had planned... The train ride there isn't going to be great. It'll take me about 7 hours to get from Maastricht to Wilhelmshaven and I have to change trains numerous times: Maastricht->Heerlen->Herzogenrath->Duisburg->Bremen->Wilhelmshaven+Bus to the Team
I think I mentioned this before, but Team training in Wilhelmshaven has some great advantages:
1. Streets aren't always packed with traffic
2. Cars respect sport! We skate in towns and on the German Landesstraße (max speed: 100Km/h) even though there are bikepaths next to the road. Cars will even slow down to watch and let us complete our point sprints (I'll them later)
3. Wind! There is lots of it! Good for everything
4. Dykes and bridges for climbs and sprints

Point sprints... Well with me leading the team I introduced my own sports-mentality... Mix the Three Musketeers with extreme high school American football, Karate Kid's Sensei and my Ukrainian/Russian speed skating coach... My team coaching in a nutshell.

My endurance was too weak for really tough races last year. So I had to start cycling for more endurance (knee can't take running). Now I will train both indoors and outdoors, but indoors gives me the best comparison of how much I have improved: When I started on my indoor bike trainer I would be on it for 40mins. After two months of sweat and pain, I am pushing 1.5 hrs - 4 gears higher (only one more gear to go ;-) ), while enjoying Rammstein and Muse live DVDs. I'm no masochist, but I love training.

To the point sprints:
We sprint for points at specific training sessions (depending on our schedule).
We sprint to

A) Each town or village sign ("you are entering XYZ" or "you are leaving XYZ"): It doesn't matter if it was a breakaway or a short sprint. Who ever passes the sign first gets two points, and the second place skater gets one point.

B) Bridges: The same point scheme counts for the top of each bridge we cross (there are two or three en route).

What do you get for points? A bed to sleep in! First showers after trainings sessions! Less household work!

Works fine for me ;-)

Next Races:
Ecoroll Cup 30.03
-Invitational for Lower Sachsony's clubs

Berlin Half Marathon 06.04
-First German Inline Cup event (check out the top names)

Wilhelmshaven Skate Days 12.-13.04
-First NordCup, NordLiga and German Blade Challenge event


Photo Courtesy and Copyright Gunnar Lukas