70.3 Oceanside – Back in the game

Surprisingly good swim-split

With a light swell in the Pacific Ocean, Michi delivered an excellent swim. He emerged from the waves only less than three minutes behind the leaders. This effort was well above his expectations and surprising because he lost touch with the group towards the end and swam the last 500-600m alone.

Watch out: Running cyclists around

On the bike Michi regained his renowned strength of old and was able to push with full power right from the start. Those strong legs were also evident in the power metrics with Michi pushing an average of 350 Watts, allowing him to pick off several of his competitors.

Unfortunately Michi made a mistake at the end of the bike split and dismounted too early, because the dismount line wasn’t at the same place as the mount line but rather on the other side of the transition zone. He was already running along the bike course (and out of the bike shoes) but remounted once a marshal alerted him – this cost Michi about 30s but it’s better for such mistakes to happen now than at the World Championships in St. George.

Michi was able to hold a solid pace on the challenging run course however the half marathon in Lanzarote and the stress of travelling were already taking their toll from the beginning. He could hold 12th place for a good while but had to give up two places during the final kilometers.

In terms of preparation for the IRONMAN World Championships this was a brilliant race and the hunger for a top result is bigger than ever before.

Summary

Michi is extremely satisfied! The strong bike performance gives him a great boost. In the run he was just missing that extra kick to power through all the way to the finishing line, however it felt great to once again measure up against the many renowned athletes of a really stacked pro field.

Now it’s off to Colorado Springs to fine tune some more in training!

Stay cool and train hard in ColoRADo!