As some of you know I had some trouble with my leg since last May. It started one or two weeks after a crash where I had a tearing pain in the back of my knee. I went several times to different orthopaedists who told me that there was nothing. I took a break of two weeks and got again a tearing pain after skating a couple of kilometers. Back to the orthopaedist who told me again that there was nothing. Then I decided to go to no doctors anymore for a while as long as they just said that everything is fine with my leg. I took a longer break then and started skating end of July again. I also participated to some races. I didn’t have any pain during the races.

I also noted an inflammation of my Achilles tendon mid-September. The tearing pain also came back over and over. In a few words: the problems became bigger. From then on I didn’t do any sports for three months. In January this year I started with cycling. No problems at all but while walking I still had this f***ing tearing pain for further two months. Since three weeks it seems the problems are going away thankfully to my physiotherapist.

Hopefully I can start my training now and hopefully the pain doesn’t come back.

On Friday I didn’t stay in Friedrichshafen itself but in Immenstaad, just 10 km far away. I got hosted by Jaqueline. She was invited to a party and I attended it too. There I cooked some spaghetti – hmmm, I love them!

As you can see on the pictures we also drank Diekirch. The best beer in the world. This was my couchsurfing gift for my host

Then on Saturday my race started at noon. It was too hot and really hard to compete against others in the baking sun. There has been an airship that made the location more beautiful. This race ended with a fucking nice 79th place finish of 107 skaters. After the race I hit the road to Sankt Gallen in Switzerland. On the way I visited Bregenz in Austria. I don’t know much about that city but they have some funny buildings and feet.

My host in Switzerland was a dog who welcomed me when I entered his flat. I didn’t know that he’s a terrorist. The nice girl you can see on the picture doesn’t look like a terrorist but she’s one too. She was extremely proud about her weapon. Well it was none of my business so I didn’t talk about their job.

On Sunday my race started at 11:30. Quite similar than on Saturday. But this time I finished with a second place in my category.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3M74u0XZa4

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yz7R_0zGzs

At the beginning I thought that 30 km might be too much for my injured leg but I didn’t skate too fast and did some stretching before and after it. I don’t regret the nice skate night at all.

International Criteria -- Homburg

May 16th and 17th

This weekend began disastrously. I thought my first race was on Sunday. That’s why I almost missed two races on Saturday. On Saturday evening a nostalgia race with quad sates took place.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-Ls07KLi_A

My races were not spectacular. On Saturday I ran 1500 and 2000 meters, on Sunday 3000 and 1000 meters. In each race my start position was in the second row. The skater in fron of me slowed me down at the beginning. I had no race experience so far so I made a couple of strategic mistakes.

At the end of the event I participated on a 5000 meters relay race. The final results were the second and fourth place.

International Criteria -- Gera

May 16th and 17th

This weekend started disastrously as well. I should have hit the road at two o’clock at the latest because I had a ride of approximately five hours before. I planned to cook some pasta with my host in Gera in the evening. This didn’t work because my flatmate was moving out and I didn’t want to let him alone in the flat. For some reason he packed some stuff of mine. I arrived in the late evening in Gera but this was ok for my host.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyXA6QtfXsY

This wasn’t my race which looked similar. This time I was in the second row and got slowed down again. I remembered my race of the past week and tried to do not the same mistakes. So my strategy was to pass the other skaters. I did it in only one lap. Then I was the leader for about two laps. The feeling to be ahead was beautiful. In German I would say “geil”. Suddenly my power has gone. I think this was caused by the bad sleep I had the night before. Sadly I lost too many places. My second race was much better.
I enjoyed the event. It was fun pure to participate on the races and to watch the others. Happily I wasn’t involved in any crash. The guys in the video below hadn’t that much luck.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFVXoyLnYhw

The route was really nice and there were two pitches I liked because I passed several people. I think my calves were more trained than those of most other people in that race. Thanks lovely leg weights .

[singlepic id="3" w="120" h="90" mode="" float="" ]

I haven’t been running for a couple of weeks. So my result wasn’t bad. I finished the ten kilometers run in 49 minutes and 53 seconds. I got 217th of 935 competitors. You’ll find more information and pictures here.

• Vattenfall Berliner Halbmarathon (5th April)
• Paderborn Osterlauf (11th April)
• Spreewald Halbmarathon (17th to 19th April)
• Wilhelmshaven Skate Days (April)
• gong fm Inline HalbMarathon (24th May)
• Rhein-Ruhr-Marathon (7th June)

By the way the winner from this year also won the race last year. There won’t be hat-trick next year!

My goal is to win that race.