Road to Challenge Roth 2007: tapering in Munich
June 20th, 2007 by Nikola Tosic
Warming up for a track session in Munich
On 17th June, Sunday, I started my road trip to Quelle Challenge Roth, Germany. My starting point was my home-town Belgrade and my trip was to take me through Zagreb (Croatia), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Vilach (Austria), Salzburg (Austria) and finally Munich (Germany).
I stopped over in Ljubljana to have a drink with some friends from the past life (art related) and noticed the huge differences in interests and life styles we have now.
My plan was to stay over in Munich with some friends until 21st and than move to a B&B until the race, and than travel a bit around Germany and Italy until my girlfriend and me end up broke. This could be few weeks or maybe a day. Anything is possible when you combine two people with extreme lack of ability to plan their budgets.
This is my last week of taper:
Sunday
Most of the day I spent sitting in the car, I was eating carrots and apples and tried to avoid air-conditioning and stopped every few hours to walk and stretch. I usually retain too much water and that I feel horrible for several days. However this experiment helped me with this problem and I did not feel too bad. I also had a nice 20min run when we arrived in Munich.
Monday
Swim - easy intervals - 400 m easy, 200 m fast, 100 , max, 200 m fast, 800 m Ironman tempo. I was in a pool with about 30 pensioners and there was a strong current from the side-wall that pushed all the people to swim diagonally. All these people swam very slow and easy and could not stay in their lines. My workout had the same effect as if someone came to a bridge party and started playing heavy metal and broke furniture. I felt very uncomfortable. I kept telling myself that this is a mental test of some sort: if I could swim with all these 70+ people giving me looks I could certainly do anything… But I gave up… I just could not stand it… I left before I did the 800… Anyway that swim was optional and I feel good so I am not so worried about it.
In the afternoon I had a hard run and there was a wonderful park few minutes from the house I was staying in. It was an awesome run. 1 hour at 154-164 beats per min. I felt so strong and fast thanks to tapering. Still some water retention. I met some people but they ran to slow so I could not chat too much. One guy said it was his dream since 15 years ago to do Challenge Roth but he could never do it because of his knees. I remember the first time I watched the race on TV, I think it was in 1995. And this weekend I will be doing it.
Tuesday
Running - easy speed intervals - 8 x 100 m in 18 secs. I went out with my girlfriend and my host to a local running track. They kept me company and we took some photos. I love running 100s at this pace. I inherited some good speed genes from my father who was a professional football player so I am able to get into a nice stride and it feels effortless. I have this feeling as if I am flying and just touching the ground to maintain direction. I could always run fast even though I almost never do speed work. It was a nice workout.
Wednesday (today)
Easy 90min cycle finishing with 4 x (1 min IM tempo + 1 min easy). I was amazed that Germany has cycling roads between cities. I mean 2-3 m wide roads made especially for bikes. These roads follow highways and connect towns or even bigger cities. Munich also has cycling lanes everywhere. I always thought of Germany as a beer and Ironman country. I never realized that Germans are such a cycling nation. I lived in Italy for 4 years and Italians are considered a cycling nation although I have never seen a cyclists anywhere, especially not in the center of Milano, but here, in Munich, they are everywhere. There are cycling shops every 500 m.
However it is not possible to train in these roads as they have too many curves and a lot of slow cyclists on them. I did some riding on the highway and some scenic riding on the cycling roads. I improvised my session and did not follow it through as planned. I did some spontaneous intervals when I had a chance on the road and it felt good. I tested the whole race bike setup and it all seams proper. I need to test my CO2 cartridges and fix my speed magnet and that’s all.
The rest of the taper I will describe later on…
I was mostly eating very little. Since Sunday until tonight I only ate light fruit and salads. Almost no carbs. I wanted to get rid of the water in my body from travel and maintain my body weight. I ate all kinds of berries and a lot of seeds. It felt good. Maybe a bit too much fiber but it was great. Tonight was my first proper meal in four days as I ate pasta with chicken and - YES - some ice-cream. My weight is at 59 kgs which is what I planned to achieve even last year. I am happy this worked out.
From tomorrow I will start carbo-loading but nothing extreme: a nice breakfast usually organic oats and some fruit, pasta for lunch and maybe some salad or quinoa for dinner. Always as much as organic as possible, good fruit and vegetables, seeds and olive oil. It is good to have lighter dinners not to disturb the sleep.
Also I am sleeping a lot and trying my best to minimize my movements. I think I walked total of less than 1 km in 4 days. Also staying away of the sun as much as I can. My girlfriend spent a whole day shopping but I decided to stay home, watching movies, away from walking and sun.
I actually have no wish to explore Munich, I do not know why. Maybe because of the race.
I do not feel nervous which worries me. I wish I could feel some tension, it would make me sharper. We will see what happens in next few days.
I am moving closer to Roth on Friday and my parents will come on Friday evening as well. Stay tuned for more posts from Bavaria.
