Happier, Healthier, Stronger... Sir, Yes Sir!

So -  promised you an update on much of the dope shit going down in Barcelona currently:

Many things are keeping me over-average happy these days. One key thing (though currently not nearly the most important) is the new collaboration signed in blood with Out Of Bubblegum and Aleksander Markovic, already a dear friend, by far the most serious & competent triathlon coach I have ever met - and who shares many of my own viewpoints in life!  This is certainly very exciting and I can´t express how much I want this thing to get going. Aleks have a quite different view on training, opposing the traditional oldskool methods (most including loooong, slooow, base, core...blablabla...) that kept me going and constantly tired for the last 36 months. Hence, after this upcoming weekend and a much-anticipated trip to London with the Alsing brother we will kick this off: 


Initial changes will include:

• Initiating trainings towards Ironman Frankfurt already now, based on a more Kaizen (small steps) training philosophy.
• Constantly measuring improvements - if you don´t get stronger week by week, change the way you train. On the opposite, if you DO improve - keep it up. Don´t fix it if it aint broken.
• Power-based training and feedback - The SRM and my old HRM will come in handy here, providing truths (and lies I am sure) to each step along the way.
• Collaboration and monitoring based on Trainingpeaks.com which initially make the physical 2000km between me and my coach feel much shorter - will write a post on this tool, once I have it under my skin. 
• Learn to swimming faster and train more focused - what the fuck is a Metronome?
• Running faster - initial goal is 10km in sub36 minutes ... that´s around 3 minutes from my PR.
• Eating more Mayonnaise - according to Aleks this is the juice of Gods, that makes an Ironman clockwork tick!  No seriously - I have to find out, what has made 4 out of 6 Ironman races a nightmare for my stomach, before and during the races. Powerbar Gels Adios!
  
  

The photo above shows Graeme Stewart running to an 11th place (congrats again mate) in Challenge Barcelona and Aleksander running next to him while shouting splits. To me, this is truly a great image of engagement from both sides - thanks for showing me this chaps!

Quoting the motto for Aleksander´s Coaching Regime somehow sets the mood, looking at Ironman Frankfurt which is still almost 10 months away:
"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass...and I'm all out of bubblegum."