3 Weeks Between IM Races

It’s the morning after the race. As usually I slept only a couple of hours, so what can you better do then writing a story for your website. It started as an experiment to see how I would perform in an IM race just 3 weeks afther another IM race. And the second reason that I signed up for Frankfurt was that I didn’t know before hand if I would have enough points to go to Kona. After Klagenfurt I was already sure, so this reason wasn’t a valid one anymore. The 3 weeks in between, the focus was on recovery, some key sessions and tapering. I felt great and was ready to race again.

I like to race in nice and warm weather. But nothing of that we had yesterday. It was rainy, cold and very windy. That made the race really tough. My swim was ok, not great, still my 2nd best split ever. During the bike I felt that although I felt well in training, my muscles weren’t fully recovered. I lacked some power, so although it felt that I was pushing really hard, the result was a lousy bike split. But I still had the motivation to race as fast as I could for the moment. So the run was reasonable good. I passed a few girls and came in 9th.

The result of the experiment is that I’m not fully recovered from an IM after 3 weeks. But I’m sure that I’m going to Hawaii!

Heleen bij De Vaate

Yvonne van Vlerken (Endurance Team Austria) co-favourite in battle for European title with Caroline Steffen, Sonja Tajsich & Co.

To celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the ‘Frankfurter Sparkasse Ironman European Championship’ the host city Frankfurt welcomes triathletes from 55 nations in the region of the Rhein-Main on the 24^th July 2011. More than 2.350 athletes will honour this mega event, whereas managing director Kai Walter is quiet proud to present 70 top athletes from all over the world to battle for the title.

The battle for the female crown of the “European Ironman Championship” guarantees special excitement. After a second and a third place within the last two years Yvonne van Vlerken (NED) is hungry for the only place she never stand on at the end of the race, the top place on the podium. She knows that the way to the top isn’t easy, especially if she risks a look at her strong rivals in the starter field. “Never be too early at your individual peak form” that’s what she learned from all her years of sport experience. Regarding the upcoming event in Frankfurt she claims to fulfil this purpose. Yvonne didn’t take part in any long-distance or Ironman-competition since the beginning of this year. This could give her fitter legs and probably the all-dominant joker when last year second woman Caroline Steffen (SUI) or local hero Sonja Tajsich (GER) are going to search the direct battle with her. Steffen won the Ironman Australia and currently holds the 2nd position in the official ‘Kona Pro-Ranking’ list. But there are major other names in the field world which are all willing to go high at this significant event in Germany

Others to mention are Tine Deckers (BEL) or Desiree Fickers (USA).

Only sad things to mention is that titleholder Sandra Wallenhorst will not participate in the thrilling fight because of a major knee-injury.

Nevertheless, excitement on a high sport level is guaranteed. Due to Sonja Tajsich the field of women participants is “the best of the whole year, straight after Kona”. But none of the top athletes could irritate this matter. They are all looking at their individual performance. And Yvonne is giving us the hint to look at her improvement in swimming. Originally coming from the duathlon discipline it seems as if she really has fun and creates passion within her long-year weakest discipline swimming: „I am feeling pretty comfortable in the water at the moment and I have a time in my head for Sunday. Another goal is to leave the water under an hour in October, at the Ironman World Championship“. Yvonne doesn´t seem to run out of new goals, either on ambition or discipline. But regarding the big challenge in Frankfurt she leaves all the rest to the numerous spectators alongside the race, her pushing competitors and the predicted, for her ideal weather.

After Michael Raelert announced his surprising withdraw form the race Faris Al Sultan (GER), 2005 ironman world champion, counts as the favourites aside Patrick Vernay (FRA) and the 10 times Ironman Australia winner Cameron Brown (AUS).

Media/Live Coverage:
German TV-station will broadcast the race live from 10.15am to 4.30pm. Additionally a live-stream will be available already from 6.30am on www.ironman.de.

As usual you can get written updates and track athletes on: www.ironman.com

Jordan on a roll!

Extreme Endurance Athlete, Jordan McNamara, 2nd 3k Liege Meeting 2011 – Meeting International d’athletisme de la Province de Liege

6th Ironman Win for Timo!

Timo Bracht took Ironman Lanzarote today, celebrated the sixth Ironman triumph of his career and crossed the finish line more than 13 minutes ahead of his compatriot Konstantin Bachor. Esben Hovgaard from Denmark became third. The predominant Commerzbank athlete finished in 8:30:34 hours which meant a new course record. The 35-year-old was 5:06 minutes faster than the previous record time set by Thomas Hellriegel from Germany 16 years ago.

“It was two kilometres in front of the finish line when I heard that I was about to break the course record”, said Timo Bracht. “I wouldn’t have expected such a fast time because the wind was extremely strong. And until the second transition zone Konstantin seemed to have a better day than me. Fortunately I had very good legs on the run and I am very happy to start this Ironman season with a victory.”

With the success at Lanzarote Timo has celebrated his second Ironman title in a row. Last year he had finished the season by winning Ironman Arizona and also managed to set a new course record. For the Commerzbank Team the victory of Bracht means the second Ironman triumph of the season – and the season has just begun.

Lee Rodger Wins The TUAA

The TUAA (Taiwan Urban Athletic Association) KOM Race. Held in Wanli, a beautiful region north of Taipei famous for its extinct volcanoes and hot springs, the 45 km race was contested by the elite riders of Taiwan.

Lee Rodgers
Fuji-CYCLINGTIME.com

High Wind Transforms Opener into Duathlon

Yvonne van Vlerken takes bronze-medal at the season-opener in New Orleans!

Ironman transforms into Duathlon over 90 km bike and 21 km running after cancelling of swim due to 30mi/h wind-blast.

Already two hours before the start the cancellation of the swimming distance was announced due to bad blasts of wind. The security of the participants as well as the volunteers could not be guaranteed at that point.

So the Du- turned Triathlon did send competitors over a 90 km TT-distance and a half-marathon of 21 km running.

Yvonne van Vlerken set off as the 5th female (TT-start in 30sec. intervals) onto the bike leg, main opponents were the Abu Dhabi-winner and Hawaii 3rd Julie Dibens/UK, New Orleans defending champion Samantha Warriner/NZL. Other strong names were Heather Jackson/USA, who nearly beat reigning Ironman-World Champion Mirinda Carfrae on the Ironman 70.3 distance 2 weeks ago and further Linsey Corbin/USA, Tine Deckers/BEL, Sofie Goos/BEL and more.

With a very good however controlled bike performance in 2:20:09 h Yvonne positioned herself only 30sec. behind the also very strong biuking Heather Jackson for the half marathon on 4th.

Julie Dibens and Samantha Warriner could pull away (the one expected, the other surprisingly) clearly from Jackson and van Vlerken on the bike by 4 minutes.

While the duel for victory was on in between Dibens and Warriner, Yvonne van Vlerken kept a chilled head and waited until until k-mark 6 before she made her move into third ahead of a fantastically fighting newcomer Jackson. Also the second strong American Linsey Corbin in spite of the second-quickest ladies run-time of the day could not take that away from her any more.

Julie Dibens decided the race to her advantage leaving Warriner for second.

Yvonne van Vlerken recorded another podium-finish in the Ironman-series in 3:44:30 h.

In the men´s race Sebastian Kienle/GER used the favour of the day and degraded the competition on the bicycle portion which turned his run into an absolutely unthreatened one.

Results Top 10 Women                    Overall    (Bike-Run)

1. Julie Dibens (GBR)                           3:40:16 (2:15:16-1:23:21)
2. Samantha Warriner (NZL)           3:41:32 (2:16:43-1:23:18)
3. Yvonne van Vlerken (NED)          3:44:30  (2:20:09-1:22:48)
4. Linsey Corbin (USA)                       3:46:19 (2:23:10-1:21:37)
5. Tine Deckers (BEL)                         3:46:24  (2:20:41-1:23:49)

6. Heather Jackson (USA)                3:48:32  (2:19:37-1:27:31)
7. Uli Bromme (USA)                         3:48:56  (2:24:53-1:22:23)
8. Sonja Tajsich (GER)                     3:50:00  (2:26:58-1:21:26)
9. Sofie Goos (BEL)                            3:52:12  (2:26:11-1:23:53)
10. Amy Kloner (USA)                      3:53:09  (2:24:24-1:26:47)

Extreme Endurance at CrashB World Indoor Rowing Championships

Extreme Endurance was at the 30th CRASH-B Sprints this past weekend for the World Indoor Rowing Championships.

Congratulations to all the 2,000+ rowers from around the world!

Competitors row against the clock on Concept2 Model D Ergometers.

MMA Del Rosario on a Roll!

Make no mistake about it, Shane Del Rosario was excited about his last fight, a first-round submission victory over the respected Lavar Johnson in last Saturday’s Strikeforce card in East Rutherford, N.J.
But as Del Rosario sat back in a chair this week at his training facility, Team Oyama MMA and Fitness in Irvine, the up-and-coming heavyweight mixed martial arts fighter seemed just as thrilled about his shorts. Those shorts, adorned with the colorful logos of his sponsors like Power Balance, Extreme Endurance, Innovative Results and others, were “misplaced” at the IZOD Center in New Jersey. Somebody found them and sent them to Del Rosario for him to wear again.

Things are certainly looking good for Del Rosario these days, as his armbar submission win over Johnson improved his professional MMA record to 11-0. It positioned him as the first alternate in Strikeforce’s current Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament, which included the MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko before Emelianenko lost his quarterfinal-round fight.

That Del Rosario has emerged as a potential heavyweight title contender in the next few years seemed improbable, considering where he’s coming from. He didn’t grow up on the mean streets of Brazil, learning jiu-jitsu to feed his family. And he didn’t roam the ghetto in South Central and box his way out of oblivion. No, Del Rosario went to Dana Hills High, hung out at the beach, surfed and played on the high school basketball team. After graduating from Dana Hills in 2001, he went to UC Irvine and graduated with a degree in psychology.

“In my last year of college one of my friends went over to Colin’s gym,” Del Rosario said of Colin Oyama, owner and operator of Team Oyama. “So I decided to go over there too. Not competing in anything was driving me crazy.”

Oyama, who himself fought as an amateur Muay Thai kickboxer, guided Del Rosario to the WBC World Muay Thai heavyweight title in 2008, a belt he still holds today. Del Rosario, though, initially resisted the transition of becoming a “mixed” martial artist. He didn’t want to get on the ground where he didn’t feel comfortable — “I didn’t want to roll,” Del Rosario said with a smile. Oyama didn’t push him, but eventually Del Rosario began working with Team Oyama’s ground coach, Giva Santana.

“That was the plan all along,” said Oyama, whose gym currently trains 16 professional fighters and previously trained Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Tito Oritz.

Santana, who himself is 15-1 as a middleweight, has turned Del Rosario’s ground game into a formidable part of his overall game. Del Rosario has ended two of his last three fights by submission.

“There was a lot of athleticism, but he was pretty raw,” said Santana, a Brazilian known as “The Arm Collector.” “He had no ground game at all but now he’s starting to like it. He’s seeing the difference it can make. When he goes to the ground you don’t want him to feel panic.”

Oyama and Santana are Del Rosario’s only coaches, Oyama handling the stand-up. Oyama likes to keep training simple by not having too many opinions. He’s worked in gyms where too many coaches worked against fighters instead of helping them. “It’s not so much having ‘too many chefs in the kitchen,’” Oyama said, “but having ‘too many chefs who can’t cook.’”

Del Rosario’s biggest obstacle these days seems to be simply getting time in the octagon. In five years as a pro he has just the 11 fights, all victories but only one opponent has reached the second round. While the dominance is nice, a three-round test would help in the long run.
“It’s more a mental test than physical,” Santana said. “It’s knowing you can do it.”

Last year Del Rosario had only one fight, as a scheduled fight with Bobby Lashley was canceled on three different occasions by Lashley’s camp.
Del Rosario took advantage of the opportunity when he finally got back into the octagon with last week’s fight against Johnson, who was 15-3 going in.
“Beating Lavar was the first real big step,” Oyama said. “The promoter there told me they all get bigger and nastier from here on out.”
Del Rosario’s decision to get into the fight game instead of going to grad school seems to be paying off for now, but he knows he has a ways to go to get where he wants to be. His deal with Strikeforce is for two years and six fights, the victory over Johnson the first of the six.
“I need to get fights and get more experience, and then I can go for a belt,” Del Rosario said. “But I know I’ve still got a lot to learn.”

http://www.dailypilot.com/sports/tn-dpt-0220-spoyama-20110219,0,6469570.story

Yvonne van Vlerken defends her title at Ironman Cozumel and wins with 9:07:08h in a world class time.

This was probably Yvonne’s most tactical and best Ironman to date.
Yvonne van Vlerken successfully defended her title at the 2nd edition of the Ironman on the Caribbean island of Cozumel.

Although American Amanda Stevens, fourth at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships Clearwater a few weeks ago, lead the women´s field with more than 10 minutes on Yvonne van Vlerken out of the water. Van Vlerken succeeded to surprise her competitors with the 5th swimming time (56:59 min) in the ladies-professional field and did show that she is successfully working hard to erase her reputation as a weak swimmer.

On the bike Yvonne van Vlerken could show her strength (4:51:56h), but had to yield to the quickest ladies bike split to the excellent cyclist Tyler Stewart/USA (4:47:24h). Stewart came off the bike a good 1 minute ahead which changed to 2:30min as van Vlerken took her time to change into her fresh white Skinfit-Swimsuit for the run (which the Mexican fans honored thankfully).

Tyler Stewart fought up to the second lap to keep the lead. Yvonne van Vlerken did not make the same mistake again which did cost her better results twice at the Sparkasse Ironman European Championship in Frankfurt. She was patient while being confident about her run strength. Then from the half marathon point on, the Dutchwoman, who resides in Austria, turned up the speed and outdistanced Tyler Stewart by 16 minutes and Amanda Stevens by even 19 minutes until the end.

Quote Yvonne: “My dream has come true. I wanted to defend this title for so many reasons. From an athletic point of view I could not be more contented about my performance. I could control the run and saw how important it is not to react on the attacks of others but rather stick to my own tactics throughout the day. This was an important experience for my future in long-distance racing. The race was again a fantastic experience. My thanks goes to the organizers and the great people of
Cozumel!“

Timo Wins AZ Ironman with record time!

Timo Bracht held on during the run to win Ironman Arizona in a record time of 8:07:16.

“There’s no better way to finish a season, it’s unbelievable. I was not sure if I could show a perfect race again only a few weeks after Hawaii. Then I cycled my best bike split ever and was able to keep the gap until the finish line. I’m very happy to have won my second Ironman in the USA after Florida 2003,” said Bracht who finished in sixth place in Hawaii only a few weeks ago.
He bested former IMAZ course record holder Jordan Rapp by about 6 minutes today. Rapp finished just off the podium in a time of 8:16:45 in fourth place.


Second place belonged to Danish triathlete Rasmus Henning, who was about a minute ahead of British triathlete Tom Lowe in third place.
American triathlete Matt Reed finished his first Ironman race in 6th place in a time of 8:33:08.

After the race Reed tweeted, “That was really really hard! Blew up at 66 miles(half way) so as you can imagine the rest of the race wasnt fun at all. No plans for no 2!”

Ironman Arizona top 5 professional men


1. Timo Bracht (GER) 8:07:16

2. Rasmus Henning (DEN) 8:10:58 

3. Tom Lowe (GBR) 8:11:44 

4. Jordan Rapp (USA) 8:16:45 

5. Jozsef Major (HUN) 8:26:15