Update from Boulder: Ready for Kona from Dirk Bockel on Vimeo.

Hey guys, I have been busy training like a machine to get ready for Kona that is about 5 weeks away now–lots of stuff happening here in Boulder.  Here is just a brief update to go along with the video above:

The Fit is King

I received an awesome Retul fit from Mat here at the Retul fit studios in Boulder.  I had been having some lower back pain for a few months now and didn’t know what it was from.  Finally I got into the Retul studio and they set me up properly on my bike.  Wow, the before and after photos are unreal.  I am going to post those shortly.  My back has been feeling great since the change in position–this is an investment that is seriously worth it–just get so much more power out of my legs now–which is going to help me out on the Queen K on October 9th.

Cover Shoot

I had a cool photoshoot for Triathlete Magazine for their Kona issue.  Check it out–will be on the shelves soon.

My Near Death Experience

I have been training like a mad man here in Boulder–been enjoying being with the group here and sharing the pain.  We have had many epic rides out here together.  I have been in shock since yesterday–when my back tire blew out as I was going 70k an hour, nearly crashed into oncoming traffic.  Needless to say, I know somebody out there is looking out for me and I managed to stay on the bike–and I am thankful to be alive–pretty humbling and motivating for me.

MovementU

I have been working with the extraordinary Jessi Stensland who lives out here in Boulder now.  She is a good friend and knowledgeable guide when it comes to core strength and endurance performance.  She has been working with me on ways to strengthen my core muscles to help support me during the race–especially during the run.  You guys should check out MovementU to get in on one of her workshops around the country.  She is changing lives out there–one muscle at a time.  On a side note, she also let me use her stand-up-paddle board when we were out at the res the other day–very cool.  I posted some pics on my Flickr page for you guys.  I did forget my board shorts so opted for a euro-friendly speedo–been catching some slack for that one.

SRM Kona Telemetry

Last week I made a trip down to SRM headquarters in Colorado Springs to discuss the cool stuff they are doing for Kona this year.  They were having a go away party for one of their colleagues–and I have to say that I don’t know why anyone would ever want to leave this company–they seem to have a really good time at the office!  We had a nice BBQ and I joined the USAT team for a swim at the Olympic Training Center out there.  As SRM did for the Tour de France riders, they are going to be broadcasting my live data over the internet and keeping you informed about my watts and speed during the race–it is going to be very cool– and you will be able to see all of my live data right here on Live & Let Tri!

Kona Bike Setup

I am expecting my new Ceepo bike any day now!  The new Climax frame looks amazing to say the least.  Everything in integrated into the frame–including the Shimano Di2 electronic shifters that comes standard on this one–this frame is definitely for serious triathletes.  The prototype made it’s debut at eurobike a few days ago–with rave reviews.  Check out Slowtwitch for more info about the frame.  I am still dreaming about the Climax frame–but for production reasons this bike will probably only be available for 2011.  For this reason, I have chosen to ride the Ceepo Katana for Kona this year.  This frame is super stiff and has less area for wind resistance than the Viper, so this is why I have chosen it to be my speed machine on October 9th.  It also looks pretty fast–which is always a plus.

Once my bike arrives in a few days, I am trusting the one and only Nick Legan over at The Service Course to marry my Shimano group set with the Ceepo Katana frame.  I had him work on my Viper earlier this month and he did a great job.  I can honestly say that my bike has never looked this clean and perfectly setup before in my life.  The Service Course provides an excellent service–they came and picked up my bike and then had it tweaked and in perfect shape in less than 24 hours–delivering it back to my door.  Seriously, I didn’t think this was even possible!  In the world of bike mechanics–they get an A+ (which means a lot coming from me–as you guys know I tend to have very high standards when it comes to bikes).

Kona Threads

Last but not least, I want to update you guys on how all is going with my Kona kit design.  K-Swiss has been working to create the sweetest Kona kit imaginable.  I am going to be completely decked out in Luxembourgish pride on race day–thanks to the designers out in the K-Swiss offices in California.  Hats off to the the team there–they are making it very easy for me to look cool these days–I am particularly loving my new K-Swiss Vintage CA kicks -they are pure California cool–and every Luxembourger needs a bit of California cool.

I‘m back on the road. Somehow I still get very excited every time I am about to leave. Destination: Boulder, Colorado.  Purpose: Hawaii preparation.  With who: double world champion Craig Alexander.  Special info: 6 weeks altitude then straight to Kona, Hawaii for the big show down in 2010.

As of now the weather seems very warm and nice in Boulder, I am already adapted to altitude, which means I can pretty much jump right into the big work load. It will be quite a long and intensive camp, but I am already in good shape and able to deal with it very well.

I decided some weeks ago to dedicate Antwerp 70.3 to the fiancé of my friend and sponsor, Dustin Brady.  Dustin is a great guy.  He works for Shimano International and is a true professional–he has remained there for all of his athletes despite the huge blow that he has taken this year.  In early June, his fiancé Michelle lost a long battle with breast cancer. At age 42, she was taken from this world far too early.  You can read more about her here.  I promised to dedicate a race to her and give all I have on race day in her honor–so this one was for you Michelle.

Antwerp 70.3 was right off from altitude camp and everything worked out as planed. Of course I wasn’t fresh, but that was part of the plan.  The swim was nice and I took the lead after a few hundred yards , luckily the dude in the canoe realized where he needed to go and I just managed to get out before some of the other guys ended up on my feet again. That little sprint hurt me and I had to take it a bit easier during the first few steps of transition, where 2 guys passed me. Second on the bike, I was able to maintain exactly the speed that I had planned, but got passed from the bike killer Andersson from Sweden. He is a force but somehow I am sure he would race so much better if he would save some energy for the run…

So it was Marino, van Lierde and myself. Marino didn’t pull in the first 40k, so when one of the favorites, Bart Aernouts, finally caught us at km 70, the pace was gone and the games between the three Belgiums began. I decided to let them play and just stayed back, but looking back that was not really the smartest since we lost a lot of time–and what am I training on the bike for anyway? So it all came down to the run, we had 7 minutes to catch but that was possible. I lost some more time in T2 as I had some issues on the cobblestones (my tender feet couldn’t take it), and then issues opening my plastic bag, and then I finally put on socks so ended up 30 seconds down on Bart and Marino once I got out of T2. On the run the speed was high and I really felt awesome going into it. I thought I might be able to bridge the gap but they were running just as well. At the end I was 30 seconds down on Marino which was a very close gap, and I was happy to be able to run consistently throughout despite being “training camped”.

All in all, it was a good race, and the city of Antwerp is one of the nicest ones I have seen in a long time. Bars and restaurants at really at every corner, amazing Belgium beer and my favorite meal during the day was great too–I love having a good breakfast and a great race hotel.

Special thanks goes out to Marc Herremans (pictured with me above). He is such an amazing and inspiring guy, simply unbelievable. I love him and his attitude towards everything. His foundation “ To Walk Again” grew so much over the past years and has now two key institutions with a broad range of offered activities for paralyzed athletes and especially kids. Check it out.

The next big happening was just a few days after that: one of Luxembourg’s biggest sport events of the year: the post Tour de France criterium called Gala TdF. I got an invitation and was very keen on being part of the stunning pro tour rider field for that spectacle. After a normal training day, I was ready to hit the road with the big guys and had great fun. Have a look at some of the pictures on my flickr where you can see some of the pulls at the fron of the pack and some attacks during the race. Thanks to all of the 60,000 Luxembourg fans for coming out there and cheering for the Schleck brothers.

Training has been running based this past week, so my legs are tired and I am looking forward to getting a good long sleep once I am on board towards the US. There is only one thng in my mind and that is Kona, the Ironman World Championships on October 9^th…..

See you guys soon–when I am a mile high.

All the best to you

Thanks for stopping by,

Yours, Dirk

I just arrived back in Luxembourg after a long training camp in the Pyrenees followed up by Ironman 70.3 Antwerp.  I placed 3rd there on Sunday and am happy with the overall race.  I felt great coming down from altitude.  In a couple of days I will write up a full race report for you guys–but until then you can check out this clip from RTL.

I decided yesterday to start at the Gala Tour de France here in Luxembourg tomorrow–with Andy, Frank, and a bunch of other great TdF riders. Will keep you guys posted on that too.

I have been glued to the TV for the past couple of days–no I haven’t been watching the World Cup–I have been watching my all time favorite spectating event–the Tour de France.

Of course I am supporting my fellow Luxembourgers out there on the road–Frank & Andy Schleck.  I dug up this cool TV show we did together at the end of last year.  2009 was a great year for me (and Luxembourg Sport)–hoping 2010 is going to be even better!

I still owe you guys some feedback after the last two races, I have been pretty busy lately, but now everything seems to be back to normal (well as normal as it will ever be).

Florida 70.3:

I tried to defend my title in Disney, but Tim O’Donnel (USA) and Andrej Z. (UKR) were faster that day. After a good swim, I tried to take it out hard on the bike, but Richie Cunningham (AUS) and Tim made it tough to get away.  We didn’t respond to TJ when we passed.  In T1, I ran out 7 minutes behind TJ and that felt pretty demoralizing to me, but we made up ground very quick and soon passed him. After the first of 3 loops I had to let Tim do his thing and focused on stabilizing my second position, but on the last mile, Andrej came by and there was nothing left to respond to his attack. He ran a smoking 1:13 on that course, about 1:30 min faster than Craig Alexander’s run record on this course…wow! So with just 15 seconds short, I came in 3rd and had to be happy and satisfied with it. The title is gone but I am happy with my performance, maybe if my feet hadn’t hurt that bad I could have… but that’s all hypothetical.

The day after the race, we drove back to our winter base in St Augustine and started packing for the big move back to Luxembourg.  That was a hell of a job, but a day later we arrived somewhat alive in Frankfurt and drove back to Luxembourg.  Guess what: It was raining…but everything is sooooo green and fresh looking.  I experienced quite a positive shock after being away for some time.

We bridged a few days with my good friends John and Maureen in Belgium, before we headed down to St. Pölten in Austria (70.3) for the last race of the first half of the year. It was very beautiful down there and the organization took good care of me and we enjoyed a few easy days before the race.

St Pölten 70.3, Austria:

It was the toughest field I every experienced in a 70.3 race and I knew that it will be a tough day for me as I realized the first signs of fatigue.  Nevertheless, I was motivated to bring home another podium to my collection.  During the swim I was able to close a gap to Czaba Kuttor (HUN) and exited shortly behind him in 2nd, some 50 seconds ahead of the big pack.  Unfortunately my new PC7 from SRM was not yet installed and my heart rate monitor didn’t function properly.  So it was all back to the old days of and racing by feeling.  Actually it was a great experience and a good test for any emergency.  So I started out very well and put some good time on the other guys, the first of the 3 hills was easy but shortly after I saw a pack of four (Macca, Ospaly, Marino and Djurback) closing on me.  Once we were all united, the pace dropped for quite some time, till Marino put the hammer down and attacked on the top of the long hill.  Macca was trying to close the gap and I was happy not to do any more work as I put in a lot of energy at the beginning.

Marion in the lead, and Macca, Ospaly and myself in the chase, that’s how we rolled into T2.  The three guys ran out so hard that I decided to do my own pace and fell back a bit. After a few km the legs seemed better and I ran a solid pace for the rest of the race and only got passed by a flying Raelert about half way.  I finished 5th with 4 minutes back and was not too happy about it. I gave a 100% but somehow that seemed like it wasn’t enough on that day.  Anyways, I know I had a week off after that and so I was somehow happy to relax.  We sat down at the “Seedose” and enjoyed the green hills and the lake view for the rest of the day.

I have to say that this was one of the nicest races I did in a long time. Great organization, great people, great location and nice treats for the athletes, chapeau! & Thanks again!

My off time was actually pretty busy, as we were looking for a place to stay in Luxembourg. After several days we found something and are quite happy with our decision.  Luxembourg is just so beautiful during the summer and hopefully the training works out here as well and I will find some partners to share the pain with.

The next 2 months are planned to be a solid base training block and some hill work before racing in Antwerp 70.3 end of July for my good friend Marc Herremans from Belgium.

Then I will finish the last 2 months in the heat and humidity of Florida to be in the best possible shape for Kona, Hawaii on October 9th!  This is what it’s all about this year.

Thanks again to my great sponsors this year who made the trip so much nicer and easier with the great support!

Check out the live video coverage above–and the live ticker can be found HERE

I decided to give you guys a bit more juicy tidbits about my week leading up to Disney this year–so I have created this video diary for you guys to check out.  Hopefully it gives you a bit of insight about what goes on behind the scenes before race day.

Tune in at www.ironman.com to see the race live!  See you out there!

Dirk Bockel: New Orleans Race Report 2010 from Dirk Bockel on Vimeo.

It is about time for the latest news from St Augustine, Florida…

After spending much time in Luxembourg and waiting for my visa papers to go through, I decided to leave and escape the cold and rainy weather back home. Two and a half weeks of 45 degrees was definitely enough, especially when preparing for some more early season races in the heat here in the south of the US.  Oh well, and I just found out that my visa didn’t go through either, which is a real bummer for my summer racing and training plans over here.

I have plenty of other options so no need to stress, and I have enough time to prepare for Hawaii and do a couple of other races over here during the summer.

So when I came back to the warm Florida weather I got right back into some heavy training and forgot about the stressful race in Abu Dhabi.  The new goal was defined as 70.3 New Orleans and four weeks later another 70.3 race in Florida at Disney.  So my eyes were set on that and I put in another big training load.

Tomorrow is my travel day and we are actually driving over to New Orleans since all the flight connections are really terrible.  I am really excited to race and see how far I can push myself again.  The season started very promising and my running seems to get better each day.  My buddy Todd Neville is pushing me every other day in training and it really seems to pay off now.  Maybe it is because of the big load of new K- Swiss shoes and gear I got in the mail recently? Very likely actually.

The competition is tough at every race, but I am sure I can compete with the best and aiming for another 70.3 win at both races.

I haven’t had a road trip like this in a while, so it’s also exciting for me to see what the weekend will bring.  The car is pretty much packed and we will hit the road early tomorrow.

Cajun flare and racing–seems like a good combo for me.

See you guys soon–more to come on Sunday.

Make sure you follow me on twitter for the latest news on this trip.

PS: Thanks to Herbert Krabel over at Slowtwitch for the picture above.