Tissink Wins Ironman Austria

Raynard Tissink won the Austrian Ironman this year, after narrowly missing a victory in Klagenfurt last year. It's an extremely fast course, and a fun venue, since Klagenfurt is a 'university town'. I'd love to do this race, especially since I have been to Austria before and it's a beautiful country.

It was Tissink who inspired me to get into Ironman. I can blame him for all the effort...in the end 3 complete seasons training and preparing to do the Ironman race, and I finally got it right the 3rd time, with the least training. In all 3 cases I struggled with sickness just before the race, and I believe, although I had an iron focus and an ironwill, in all 3 races I was still way too distracted.

I would love to buy a Cervelo frame, and I intend to be at my best for the next Ironman in South Africa. Perhaps, if I do really well, I'll upgrade my equipment one last time and aim for Hawaii. I'd like to do a third and possibly last Ironman somewhere else. Brazil, or Austria, or Australia. It does seem as though Ironman and EFL teaching in Asia will have to be inextricably linked. The one feeding resources to the other. The flipside is that I don't believe I can continue either of these activities for too much longer, and I'm less motivated to train in Asia, or should I say, to train hard here, and get to a high level.

Raynard Tissink (pictured above), like Armstrong, is a few months older than I am. He was starting triathlon when I was, and to be honest, I didn't think he was out of my league. In the beginning, his swim wasn't much better than mine. I think, to be good in this sport, you have to work damn DAMN hard. It's a lot of grafting. I saw Tissink on TV saying he did 18 hours of training in his easy week. He also said he did not consider pulling out of Ironman Sa when he had diarhea before the race because he hadn't trained as hard as he had, for 15 weeks, for nothing. 6 hours a day on the bike, an up at dawn, gut wreching seige of activity.
And I think you can see that at 33 years of age, this is where the body really reaches a peak in terms of stamina, and endurance. It's now that one can dream big, and pursue the hardest races in one's life.