Hello From Zofingen

Hey all, I’ve been in Zofingen for just over a day now. All my gear made it here nice and safe which is great. Weathers been ideal since getting here 24 degrees the first day and 30 today. The hotel we are staying in is really nice with supper friendly staff that were very apologetic that are room was not ready when we showed up 3hrs before cheek in opened. We were pretty quick to explain that we didn't care about that all we wanted to do was dump all are stuff there. The town itself is a mix of old and new. Right in the center of town it is all old euro style building with cobbled streets. The Hotel is only a few hundred meters from the race venue which will make staggering back to my room after the race that little bit easier. 

Yesterday I went out and did a bit of a recon run over both the 1st and 2nd run courses. These runs are going to be interesting. The legs felt pretty ordinary but was expected as it was my first session off the plane. Pacing is going to be hard to get right and going to be totally off feel. going up hill you can be running as slow as 7min/k pace while still working fairly hard then your running 3:30 pace with HR in zone one. Straight out of the start of the first run there is a 1.5km climb that progressively gets steeper as it goes until you head off the road and onto a forest path then its undulating for the next km then its downhill back to the transition area. The 1.5-2km back to transition is also the first bit of the second run whic is an out and back course. I played it smart and just picked up the second run course from there, after all it is taper week and the less uphill running I do the better. From there you continue uphill for another 1km then its undulating through the forest all the way out to the turn around still mainly of these forest tracks with a little on roads and paths. The course at the far end lops back on it self a fair bit so was able to cut a few km off coming back into town. The surface of these forest tracks are nice. It seems to be a clayey soil as a base with small stone pressed into it which makes for a fast yet forgiving surface. 

Today I headed out for my first look at the bike course. The course is tough hard climbs with long shallow descents that mean you are going to be working the whole time. The road surface is fast and smooth, worth around 1-3kph compared to most of the roads I train on back home which is a nice little bonus. the course like the run pretty much contains no flat sections, even when you think it is flat its really a false flat climbing or descending. Legs were still not the best from the trip so kept the body in first gear on the ride except on the Bodenberg where I opened the legs up to a race pace effort. Legs felt pretty good climbing which is a plus. The Bodenberg itself is a beast 4.5km long 5.2% ave gradient max of 15%. The gradient is always changing, one min your at 11kph and the next your at 30kph. the first 1-2km off the Bodenberg is the one of the few places you get to rest as you go through a few left right combos.

Thats all for now, will do another update in the next day or 2

Hopper