This week the long awaited move to the mountains took place. Immenstadt, the near southern-most point of Germany, is a breath taking, beautiful area, with snow capped mountains in the background (yes, the alps are so high that they still have some snow on top even in the middle of July), and hundreds of hills and lakes for running, riding, and swimming.

Immediately upon arrival you notice a big difference in attitude and lifestyle from the people up north near Berlin. People here look normal. No tattoos, body-piercing’s, half shaved heads with different colour hair dye. People obviously aren’t bored with life, as there is so much outdoor activity to do, they are out mountain biking, swimming in the lakes (well, Euro-swimming anywayJ ), walking on trails, going up ski-lifts and taking coasters down (that’s fun), or just plain riding or running on the 50km long trail next to the river (which is the only flat section anywhere in the area).

We drove the bike route for the race on Wednesday, and I nearly packed my bags and came home. It was scary, but after a few days of rest, I tackled the course on Thursday, and with fresh legs it didn’t seem too bad. The hills are tough (very steep at 12%-18%), but luckily quite short (500m-1km). The scariest part is coming down some of these hills. One hill in particular is about 15% straight down, even on the brakes I battle to go slower than 60km/h, and at the bottom is a little chicane. The first time through the chicane I must have been doing about 40km/h, but after a few days, and a number of practice runs under my belt, today I did a new PB through there. I still had to touch the brakes just once before I hit the turn, but managed to get trough at 72,6km/h. My goal will be to hit 80km/h without touching the brakes, and have my carbon race wheels on. Can you say “nerves of steel“?

Our contact here in Immenstadt, Axel, managed to organise for me to get into the big swimming/aqua complex for training. A far cry from Wittenburg with hundreds of people going in every direction, this pool actually has lane ropes. Unfortunately the complex also has super-tubes and wave pools, and of course I would never be convinced to go down those by the kidsJ . Luckily I have the will power to get my training done first.

Thursday was meant to be a hilly run, so I figured what could be more hilly than running up the side of a mountain. The trail started off fairly comfortably, nothing drastic, but after about 5mins it really got steep. I figured that it couldn’t go on like this for very long, so I just kept going. Eventually my running was a mere shuffle to the top, and instead of turning around and following the trail back, I decided to follow a path going down the other side. OUCH! If I thought going up was hard, down was worse. Through the forest with steep downhill switchbacks, over roots, under branches, all while trying to do something that resembled running and not rolling. Needless to say, the legs were in much pain for a few days after that, but it was a fun experience none the less.

So now we’ve been in our new place for a week already. I managed to resist the temptation to race this weekend (keep your eye on the goal).The training is going well, especially now that I’m on the route that we’ll be racing, and it’s only 10days till taper time. Everyone is happy in the new country setting with so much outdoor activity to be done, now we just need to get used to farm life with all the flies and the smell of cow dung in the morningJ