The Season's end

Long time that I have posted something, it was really busy.

After the unplanned competition I actually planned to just keep the time as a marker for next year and set the focus back on the season 2013. BUT the competition was so much fun, I really enjoyed it and it showed me that I actually was missing to compete.
Veenendaal was my Dutch premier league competition with allowed drafting. Before I thought that drafting takes something away of the 'real' triathlon competition and kind of avoided it but after doing it - I LOVE IT :). I think that it really gives something to the triathlon sport (just the opposite that I thought before). It is great for the audience and it is exciting for the triathlete. So sometimes you just need a little push and you see and learn something great's new. 
The race, with allowed drafting, is all about to stay in the pack. You have to see that you get out of the water with a good group cyclists and then it is just staying with a pack. What I loved  - was actually the many speed changes the two 180 degree turns and the possibility for the teams to act with tactics, which our team has to learn for the next season (according to me). Team for Talent is a perfect role model for the tactics. They get almost together out of the water and start cycling and I have seen that they really do their best to keep all team members (there are 4 per team) together in the cycling pack. This is something which is to train and set up a team who will be able to swim roughly the same times and then help each other to cycle as fast as possible.
In Veenendaal I have seen that it is a huge advantage when you are used to cycle in a group with a lot of speed changes. In Dutch there is a nice word for it "Koersen", it means nothing else than to race but "koersen" with friends is actually all about getting the highest possible average speed. I did this a lot with friends this year and I have seen the advantage during the race in Veenendaal.
The last part (running) was actually the reason for my time out in 2012 so I was really curious how it will turn out to be. I had four rounds to run of 2.5 km. So I decided to go every round a little faster and stop when the Achilles starts hurting (too much :)) but I could run every round and speed without any problems (during and after!!! the race). So let the season 2013 come. Now I 'just' have to get back and establish some speed in running again. By the way, even though the running went well I was not happy about the running time but want do I expect with hardly any running training...

Since the competition in Veenendaal went so good, I decided to subscribed for the national team competition in Rutbeek (Enschede). Everything went really good. It was the first time to participate in a sprint triathlon for me. It was really tough because I have never practice to go on full speed from the beginning but it is definitive what I will do more often next year :). Our team got 4th out of 17 other teams.
And even there I have seen the notable point to improve during the winter - running...

For the coming weeks there are some more events scheduled. This week, on Friday, (1st week of September 2012 ) there is a team relay of a mini triathlon planned (250meter swimming, 6km cycling and 2km running) in premier league and I would like to try myself as coach but it seems that I will have to fall in for somebody because the fourth member had a pretty tough cycling accident a week ago and will not be able to start coming Friday. At the moment I am trying to convince somebody else to start because I think that he will receive much better results than I do and this competition will decide if we will stay in in  premier league or if we will be relegated. According to me we have the potential for the premier league. We just underestimated it. On Saturday I will participate in a 100km (http://www.runwinschoten.nl/) relay divided by 10 runners.

The week after is the best every year, THE Triambla on Ameland. It is a weekend on a island combined with a cross-triathlon and a great party. Every year I participate there just for fun in a team, this time I will be the runner in the team. I really enjoy this weekend because since last year the student club Tritanium and GVAV are renting a little farm to stay together and there was and most probably will be a really great atmosphere.

I just say, let the games begin! I will write as soon as I can.