Last weeks I have been in Lacanau France for the Wetiz pre-season training-camp. We stayed in bungalows on a campsite, on a really nice location just a walk away from the beach and a lake about 10m drive away. The group consisted out of 25 athletes from Germany, France and the Netherlands. All of us trained together under the supervision of Thomas Zachert. He managed to drain our energy levels and push us to our limits in every session, but ti my opinion it was a well hosted camp and if possible I would go again next year!

Even though we had more and bigger waves then last year, we did not manage to have such a good surf session like we did in 2010. Therefore the photo collection isn't as nice as last years, but have a look at some pictures that Lifesaving Germany has put on Facebook.

The weekend following upon the training-camp I initially had the intention to attend the ILSE Board members meeting in Dublin to talk about the adjustments the ILSE Sports commission wants to make to the European Championships, but since the board did not allow me any speaking time I decided to stay home and race at Baywatch in Susteren. We camo home on friday-morning at about 5 in the morning took about 2 hours of sleep and then I had to do some catch up on my work and during the afternoon I went to Hommelheide, the resort where Baywatch was held, to help the preparation for the event. On Saturday the races started, since i was still pretty tired from the 2 weeks in France and the all night drive home, I did ok but performed under my normal level. I had to race 2 finals on the day, the Board race where I came 3rth due to a tactical mistake and the Rescue Tube Rescue Race, here I had to swim out to 'save' the patient. We fortunatly won this event and to my luck the event managers decided to postpone the Oceanman final till the next day. Since the weather was bad, it was cold (about 16 degrees) and it kept on raining.
The Sunday the weather brightend up and the sky cleared nice and bleu, and the Ski race, Run-Swim-Run, Board rescue, Oceanman Relay and the Oceanman final was conducted. I managed to win the Ski race, Run-Swim-Run and the Oceanman. The Board rescue was in agreement with the team left to the 2 juniors in the team and they took out the 4rd place and in the Oceanman relay I did the Ski part of the race, we managed to slip onto a 3rd place just behind team Alpen from Germany and our neighbours from Rb Heytse.

Trainingtip:
This time the training tip is a bit different, because you all train a lot and well. But training is not racing, so in the beginning of the season try to do some longer distance events. These are a good check of your physical fitness, provide you a nice break from normal training and are fun. So at the start of the season do some LD Ski events, a Marathon Swim or start on a long Oceanman.

Cheers