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ITU Triathlon World Cup Tongyeong (2014-10-20)

11th place

ITU Triathlon World Cup Cartagena (2014-10-12)

12th place

ITU Triathlon World Cup Alanya (2014-09-28)

2nd place

Season Recap (2014-09-14)

Although my season is not over yet I owe you a fair bit of race reports. I´ll briefly sum them together.
As I said in my last blog I had to withdraw from WTS Yokohama due to my broken toe. So I spent my time at home doing a lot of extra riding and honestly it was pretty miserable because we had very wet May. On the other hand it was a great training of my mental toughness. I decided to race a small sprint race a week before WTS London to test my foot. Despite not running any fast I comfortably won the race and most importantly my foot was pain free. So I was ready to hit the big stage again.

WTS London
I was pleasantly surprised with my TOP10 result. I went into the race with no expectations at all after four weeks with almost not running. I had a solid swim and bike in the chase pack being only 20s back. Pace on the run was on since the first step out of T2, I was hanging on till the very end, but didn’t have anything left for the sprint finish. Finishing 10th in the strong field was one of my best performances ever. I went to Banyoles, Spain, to our summer base straight after the race. I was really happy to join my training partners again and to put a solid block of training before the next races.

European Championships Kitzbuhel
The race I wanted to forget as soon as possible. And I did actually. I spent five days in Kitzbuhel and it was warm and sunny four of them. Unfortunately it was 13C and heavy rain on my race day. I was well prepared and knew I could be a podium contender but my body gave up. I ended up in the medical tent with hypothermia. I competed in the Team Relay two days after. Pretty average Czech team didn’t have high expectations and didn't surprise either :). For me it was mainly a first box ticked from all the national federation’s obligations. Late night drive to Prague after the race and I was ready to board a plane to US a day later.

Chicago
I had so much stress with my bike arriving only the race morning (7:30am, race at 12:00pm) that I didn’t have time to be worried about my race. I missed the front pack and was struggling on exceedingly tough bike course. To my surprise I had really good run and was able to move up to 8th place. I was happy and pleased but hungry for more.

Hamburg
I flew back to Spain from Chicago. Unfortunately I brought back some virus with me. Not only I couldn’t train much in the next two weeks, I could hardly eat and was getting pretty weak. Not the best condition before next WTS in Hamburg. Luckily Hamburg was only a sprint distance race. Again my swim wasn’t the best but I was in the strong group on the bike and we were taking down time on the leaders. It was my fault I didn’t position myself well after I took a turn before the technical section. Our group split, first half caught up with the leaders and me and few others were losing more and more time. I didn’t have a good position for the run, most of the field being more than a minute ahead already, didn& rsquo;t have very brisk legs either and finished far from where I'd like. On to the next one!

Telč
I had to drive back home from Hamburg because I had to take part in the National Championships upcoming weekend. I was pretty tired from the past four weeks full of races, travel and also sickness. Obviously I wanted to win a national title but I also wanted it to be as easy as possible. I swam and rode with two other girls and then set my own pace on the run to comfortably secure my 7th individual elite national title.

Font Romeu
I already travelled to Telč with my bike box and full of warm clothes because I was flying to Barcelona the next day. I reunited with the rest of my squad in Banyoles, our summer base and we drove up to the Pyrenees for three weeks altitude camp. I didn’t have the best memories of the place, training here injured in 2007 in very cold conditions, but this time it was a different story. We were lucky with lots of sunny days and training was going well. I was excited to hit the next races.

Karlovy Vary
Another obligatory race for me, European Cup in Karlovy Vary, known for grueling bike leg. As much as I wanted to win on home soil, I also wanted to save as much energy as possible because there were two much more important races ahead of me in the next two weeks. A race which is spiraling out of my usual experiences. First out of the water J, rode about 10k with an Italian girl but lost her in the first hill, stayed another 20k in a solo breakaway, was only caught in the last lap on the bike. Luckily enough strength stayed in my legs to finish the run strong and hold the champion tape at the end of the day.

Stockholm
Stockholm was a bit special for me because my brother travelled with me. It was first time he saw me racing since Lausanne Sprint World Champs in 2009. It was nice to have a support and a company although he failed in his role of photographer J. Sweden welcomed us with its typical rainy weather on the race day. I was pretty happy we raced over the sprint distance. I skipped the bike warm up and swim warm up, too, because the water was too cold. Anyway, I did everything else poss ible to be pumped up for the start. I didn’t have the best swim but fast T1 put me straight in the chase pack. Unfortunately we weren’t very organized and when it started raining, on the technical course, we were losing even more time t o the smaller front pack. There was formed a big group of 8 soon after T2 in our pack which remained together for almost the entire 5km. Last sprint finish was an uphill. Me and uphills are not the biggest friends Jso I lost a few spots there. Overall I was happy with pretty strong race. 

Edmonton
Lots of people got sick after Stockholm and of course, I didn't want to be left outJ. Not the best way to start my Canadian trip. After two days I was finally ready to get refueled again before the race. Everything went pretty smooth other than living pretty far from the venue. It was a tough race, I don’t think I could do anything better, finished completely spent just behind Top 10. Also finishing 12th in the series is a big improvement from last year.

I’d like to thank everyone who made this happened, first of all my coach Joel Filliol for a patient work during the whole year, my family and friends, who are always here for me, my sponsors for their support and also all of you for reading till the end.

ITU World Triathlon Series Overall Rankings 2014 (2014-09-01)

12th place

ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Edmonton (2014-08-31)

11th place

WTS Stockholm (2014-08-23)

14th place 

National Championships Telč (2014-07-19)

1st place

WTS Hamburg (2014-07-12)

35th place

WTS Chicago (2014-06-30)

8th place

European Championship Kitzbuhel (2014-06-22)

DNF

WTS London (2014-06-01)

10th place

Ekol Superprestige Brno (2014-05-26)

1st place

WTS Cape Town (2014-04-27)

23rd place

Straight from Auckland I boarded the big bird and underwent another really long trip. I changed continents once again after multiple hours in the air, but this time my final destination was South Africa. I had a great three weeks of training in Stellenbosch at the Academy of Sport before the second round of the WTS in Cape Town.

The ocean in Cape Town is always very cold, but the official water temperature of 11,9°C on race day was too cold. To be honest, I didn’t complain too much when the swim was shortened to one lap of 750m for safety reasons. I had a pretty good start position and was swimming well for the beginning. Unfortunately I started to feel a bit cold in the last stretch and couldn’t maintain the high turnover and lost a few very valuable spots towards the end. I fell over exiting the water, which I didn’t make a big fuss about because I was in one piece and ready to chase on the bike. I was in the second group which included some big names, but the front group worked really well together and we en ded up losing time each lap. We started the run more than two minutes down, which is not the best place to be, but I was ready to make the most of it. I had a really good T2 and was first out of our pack on the run course. Soon I was passed by some speedy runners. My legs didn’t feel great and I was disappointed I couldn’t follow some of those girls. I could feel some pain in my left foot during the second half, but my whole body was hurting, so I just tried to stay focused on my run. I was pretty disappointed when I crossed the line 23rd. I know I can run better but I also need to do some more work and it just wasn’t there on the day.

I finally went back home after 4 months away between our squad camp in NZL. It was great but it had a little vice. My foot was very swollen and I couldn’t walk. I had an X-ray when it didn’t get any better and it showed a broken toe. I was waiting till the last moment but I’m really sorry I have to withdraw from the next WTS race in Yokohama. I wish all the best to everyone who is racing!

Finally an update (2014-04-10)

It has been a long time since I've written a blog in English. I had a great off season with a lovely holiday in Thailand. I spent some time in the Czech mountains and even a week in the Alps! I also did a lot of mountain biking and some skiing, while enjoying the time with my family around Christmas. At the beginning of January I joined my training squad in Christchurch, New Zealand, and I must admit I wasn’t the nicest person to be around at that time. I was very grumpy and with the later start of my training I was fairly unfit and struggled to catch up with the group. With the right guidance and patience of my coach Joel Filliol I finally managed to turn things around half way through the camp.

Things started to fall in the right place in February when we spent a great three weeks at Snow Farm in Wanaka, New Zealand. I finally gained some confidence leading into the first races and upcoming season. Unfortunately I crashed less then a week before my first WC in Mooloolaba. My bruised ribs caused a big underperformance in both WC races in Mooloolaba, Australia and New Plymouth, New Zealand. Although I was disappointed, both races showed me a lot of positives and I was looking forward to the REAL fitness test in Auckland, the first race of the WTS.

WTS consists of five races plus a Grand Final this year which basically forces everyone to be on the start line of almost every race, and in turn there was a very high quality field in Auckland. I was happy with my first lap in the swim but in vain lost a few valuable spots and seconds during the mess and fight in the second one. It put me into the chase straight from the beginning of the bike. I was feeling good and really enjoyed the technical bike course. Having strong riders as Anne Haug and Barbara Riveros in the group made for a tough ride and strong enough to catch the leaders except the three girls in the breakaway. I tried to do my best on the run and stayed with the leaders for about 2k but then quickly faded. Crossing the finish line in 14th I was pretty pleased. It was my best performance in Auckland in the strongest field since 2011. It gave me a pretty good position to start from in the WTS and it showed me what to work on to progress in the upcoming races.

WC Mooloolaba (2014-03-16)

22nd place

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! (2013-12-24)

ITU Triathlon World Cup Tongyeong (2013-10-12)

2nd place

After cancelling Sevilla European Cup it was obvious that Tongyeong World Cup would be my last triathlon race of 2013 and I wanted to make the most of it. I knew I was fit in Alicante and I also knew that if I wanted to have a shot at making the podium, the swim would be crucial. The field was rather small but pretty deep with a bunch of strong young Aussie girls. Sleeping pills helped me to overcome jetlag and I was ready to go for the early 8am start on Saturday morning.

The water temperature was 20,5°C and it was pretty chilly so I decided to do a warm up in my wetsuit to avoid being cold. Being raked No. 2 (my highest ranking ever in a WC race) I choose a spot next to no. 1 Emma Jackson on the pontoon. I had clear water after the dive and found Emma’s feet pretty soon. Without the usual fight swimming was much easier and I felt really comfortable in the front group. Soon after mounting the bikes a strong group of seven was on the front. The Aussie girls, Kiwi girls and I were working well together and we came into T2 with almost a two minute gap. I was first in and out T2 and soon Emma Jackson passed me. I knew Emma’s run qualities and it was obvious she was gonna run to the win. I didn’t even try to stick with her because it was more important to pace myself well and have a solid effort over the whole 10k run. My legs definitely didn’t feel the freshest after the bike and for first time the LOC put a steep 200m hill in the each lap which took a lot out of me. Anyway, the chasers stayed well back and I was really happy I’ve put together a strong effort in all three disciplines to finish second and to complete my medal collection from WC races. After winning Mooloolaba WC back in 2010 and 3 previous 3rd place finishes, a silver medal was what was missing in my hands.  It was a great way to finish the ITU season and gives me more motivation leading into next year.

Special thanks goes to Jamie Turner who helped me around the race, especially for fixing my bike (for the record, my bike was "fixed" by the bike mechanic  after I had a flat tyre during the course familiarization the day before, so it wasn’t messed up by my blonde girl skills :)).

ITU Triathlon World Cup Alicante (2013-09-29)

9th place

A couple of cold and rainy days back home after the London WTS Final were more than sufficient to head back out to Spain for another short trip. This time to Alicante for a World cup race. There was a pretty quality field lined up for the race after the Grand Final which was a guarantee for a challenging race.
 
I don’t really like early morning starts, I guess 9am is not that early, but as the fall is coming to Europe and the days are shorter even in Spain, by the time I was getting to the race venue at 7:30am it was still dark. But soon I was rewarded with one of the most spectacular sunrise of my life. The sky above the ocean had every color. That was a great encouragement before the start. It was really nice to have five good swimmers ranked ahead of me. I was surprised a bit when they didn’t line up next to each other and instead they went to the opposite sides of the pontoon. Time to make some decision for myself. I decided to go next to Alice Betto and Ainhoa Murua. My training partner Carol Routier, one of the best ITU swimmers, joined us later. So it was the perfect place to be. I had a great first lap of the swim, diving in and getting on Betto’s feet starting the second lap. Unfortunately I lost her feet and a lot of time in the  second 750m loop. I exited water further then I would have liked to be from the leaders at the end of the  swim. The first pack of nine girls formed very quickly on the bike and they worked well together which allowed them to gain time on our chase group each lap. My group was too big and disorganized and we came into T2 with a huge gap. 2.5 min is too much to make up on the run, especially when I’m still not running my best. I worked hard on the run and moved into TOP 10 with a 9th place finish. This race showed me more positives than the couple of last races and I was pretty happy with my performance towards the end of the season.

ITU World Triathlon Grand Final London (2013-09-14)

33rd place

22nd place in the Final WTS Ranking

Racing the ITU European Cup in Karlovy Vary a couple of weeks back not only left me very disappointed, it left me worried about London Grand Final because of the bad weather we could expect this year for the race. So in the last week before London I was trying to find out the best strategy to keep me warm during the race. Finaly it was about 10 to 12C with a drizzling rain on race day. I was wearing a long sleeve T-shirt under my race suit and I was all wrapped in aluminum foil. It was rustling around a little, but it turned out to work really well and my body wasn’t cold at all. I couldn’t do much about my freezing feet and my head but it was the same for everyone.

I had a very average swim, and instead of finding some fast feet after the start, I got caught in the unnecessary fighting and ended up in a position I didn't want to be. It was disappointing as I felt really comfortable and definitely could swim faster if I was in the right spot. Exiting the water one minute behind the leaders put me in the third pack which wasn't ideal. Two laps to go my pack caught the second pack but we were still about two minutes down to the leaders. With about 20+ girls in the front pack and my interupted summer of running, it was a tough day on the final 10k run. I was running pretty strong but not fast enough. I couldn’t do more on the run. I’m happy that I was able to finish the race and I’m bummed I didn’t swim better and missed the front pack which was the place I should have been.

The WTS is over now but not my entire season yet. I’ll have a couple more races to make up for my poor swim in London and to chase some sun before the cold days come into my country.

GP4 Sartrouville (2013-09-01)

3rd Team TCG Parthenay

No time to play around, another race was just a week later. I was really happy to line up for my French team TCG Parthenay in the 4thround of prestigious French Grand Prix series in Sartrouville. The trip to the race was very enjoyable because most of my team mates were racing as well and our coach traveled with us and took care of all the stuff before we joined our teams. Thanks Joel!

All the GP races are held over sprint distances and the high quality field is always presented. These races are known for being crazy fast, technical and there’s always great atmosphere. They’re the best to test for both your speed and skills in the race process. My last race for my team TCG Parthenay was exactly 3 years ago when I ended up with DNF, exploration of the local hospital in Tours, broken finger on my right hand, surgery a week later back home and an early end of my race season. I definitely wanted to make up for it and have a strong performance to help my team for a podium shot in the overall GP series. We had a strong team once again with Emma Jackson, Ainhoa Murua, Laurie Belkadi and me.

I didn’t feel great before the race as Karlovy Vary put me in a bit of shut down and it took me longer to recover from the race than I wanted. I had an average swim but managed to hold on the back of the main pack.  My team manager wanted to encourage me in T1 but instead I let myself distracted, had a shocking T1 and I obviously lost the pack. That was the tough lesson of the day because it was all my fault. In the future I won't lose my focus. There was a strong breakaway of 4 girls which put a whole 2minutes into the rest of the fieldby the end of the 20k bike. My group was holding about 20s gap to the main group for a long time but in the last lap it went up to 45s. With all the fast runners being already ahead of me, I didn’t move my position up much during the final 5k. A little mistake cost me a lot in the race and I have to make sure that will never happen again. Luckily despite my poor performance my team made it to the podium, finishing 3rd that day. And it is currently sitting in 2nd before the final GP stage in Nice, held on the last week of September.

Karlovy Vary ITU Triathlon European Cup (2013-08-25)

8th place

I rarely have an opportunity to race a high class event at home, but the European Cup in Karlovy Vary has a long tradition and I was excited to race in familiar territory. Karlovy Vary is famous for very the tough bike course and a beautiful run in the city center - the most popular spa destination in the country. There wasn't a huge field but a few very strong athletes were a guarantee to make a tough race and it wasn’t going to be easy to make it to the podium. 

It was an honor for me to be an Ambassador for the kids race on Saturday and I spent a lovely morning at the lake watching all the enthusiasm and militancy in the eyes of little ones.

What was a lovely Saturday, turned out to be a terrible Sunday. The weather temperature dropped down by almost 10°C to 14-15°C which was far away from a nice summer day. The water temperature was borderline, just above 20°C, and the race director decided for a non-wetsuit swim. While this decision might not have ruined our race, it had a huge impact on the men race which happened later in the afternoon when the rain picked up. The swim was pretty cruisy once I settled
comfortably in the first pack. The first pack formed soon after T1 with 9 girls up front. Unfortunately each lap I was feeling colder and colder and my legs felt worse and worse. I ended up being dropped from the front pack and came into T2 about 1:20 down. On to the run I still couldn’t warm myself up and I trotted out a split which I wasn’t proud of at all and which wasn’t good enough to erase the losses to the front. I was definitely looking for better results at home and the race left me very disappointed.

ITU Triathlon World Cup Palamós (2013-07-14)

4th place

The World Cup race in Palamós was my favorite race so far. Mainly because of the challenging bike course, which was hilly and technical through narrow Spanish streets with a fast descent back to the ocean side. Palamós is only an hour drive from my current base in Banyoles which made the travel much more pleasant than usual and it also gave me more time to recover after the tough race in Kitzbühel which was just a week before.

The Mediterraneansea wasn’t as warm as I expected but with 22°C water temperature it was still a non-wetsuit swim. I had plenty of start positions to choose from, wearing one of the lowest numbers (#4) in the field. I decided to stay next to Ainhoa Murua who is very good swimmer. That was a good decision as we moved from the rest of the girls soon after the start and had clear water pretty much to the first buoy. There was a long beach run into the second lap where I realized we were 4th and 5th in our pack but there were a few girls in front. A few girls swam over me in the last meters of the swim, but I stayed calm and just made sure to secure my position in the pack. I had a good T1 and was ready to start the chase from the very beginning of the bike. Apparently there were about 20 girls in my pack but only about 5 decided to work and keep the group moving. It was really disappointing as we soon started to lose time to the leaders. I didn’t know how big the gap was when we came into T2, nor did I know who was up the road. I started the run as hard as I could to run down as many girls as possible. With doing a lot of work on the bike and not running much in the last month I was feeling pretty rubbish and out of my form for most of the 10k. The run was hilly, too. It was hard to find back my rhythm after the technical downhill section. Finishing 4th was bitter-sweet, especially because the only two girls who were running faster than me were sitting in the pack for the whole bike leg. But most of all I’m happy I’ve put another solid race under my belt and I’m still on the right track and moving forward.

Thanks to coach Joel Filliol to support us on the course and for driving us to and from the race.

ITU World Triathlon Kitzbühel (2013-07-06)

28th place

Kitzbühel is a little Austrian town in the Alps and was host to the fifth round of the World Triathlon Series. Kitzbühelis world famous for the toughest downhill race on the Alpine Skiing WC calendar, being held on the very steep Hahnenkamm slope. The ITU didn’t want to be left behind and created the toughest race on the WTS circuit. Slightly short distances: 750m swim, 11,5k bike, and 2,5k run don’t seem too hard but we had to overcome almost 900m of elevation during the last 7k on the bike (with gradients reaching 22% in the last k) plus another 130m of elevation on the final run up in 1650m altitude.

Race day was a spectacular day with the sun over our heads and great views over the mountains. 22c water temperature made for a non-wetsuit swim. I had the worst swim in possibly the last two years. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I know exactly what didn’t happen and that was actual swimming. I was fighting for my dear life from the very beginning. Losing about 20s from the main pack forced me to TT for the first flat part of the bike leg. By the time we reached the bottom of the hill I was about 5s back but that showed to be crucial as I never made it to the group and started climbing all by myself from the very beginning. To be honest I had no idea how to pace myself as I was never in any kind of similar race. I’m not a strong cyclist and after spending the winter in Florida, which is one of the flattest locations in the US, my confidence level was not at it's highest for the climb. I caught a few girls who were going too fast at the beginning of the climb but not many. Another challenging part of the race was T2 because it was located uphill and there weren’t many chances to easily take your feet out of your shoes. I decided to run in my bike shoes towards my bike rack. Jumping from the bike was a huge shock and my legs didn’t have any idea what was going on. I felt like I was drunk, I could hardly put one leg in front of the other and my bike served as a support to keep me upright. I had hard time putting my bike in the rack and my running shoes on as I was feeling completely uncoordinated. Only very courageous people could call my running performance an actual run. I was shuffling and wobbling through the last 2,5k. But most important, I made it to the top.


It wasn’t the best performance I put next to my name, but I knew it would be hard, and honestly, I didn’t
expect it to be THAT hard. I had a big respect for the race and unfortunately a bit of fear, too. The mind is powerful and you can convince yourself to do almost anything. This time I wasn’t convinced at all which wasn’t the best attitude for the race itself. Possibly I could do a bit better but not when I was scared. Anyway this was just one race which was very different from all the others. On the bright side, now I know how to prepare myself if I want to succeed in a similar race in the future.

Banyoles (2013-06-29)

A day after European Championships I headed back to Prague for a day and the next day I flew to Spain to join some of my teammates who were already in Banyoles, our new summer base. That was the worst 48h of my life so far. I got some food poisoning from the national team dinner in Turkey and I was sick and throwing up the next day in the shuttle and in the plane. Dragging two 26kg baggage and a heavy back pack onto another plane, shuttle, train, ‘’sight-seeing walk’’ around Barcelona and final bus to Banyoles was a bit of nightmare the next day. I was completely exhausted after the trip and it took me more than a week to get back to proper training.

Our coach decided to make our base in the nice ancient town of Banyoles. Banyoles is about 10km from Girona and 120k from Barcelona in Valencia. And it’s a home town of one of my training partners, Carolina Routier.I share an apartment with Tommy Zaferes and Richard Murray which brings some hilarious moments every day. I was missing my teammates and training with a group a lot when I was home and I was really happy to join them again. Banyoles is an awesome place with a big lake where rowing competitions were held during the Olympic Games in Barcelona 1992. It offers countless quiet roads for riding. You can only be disappointed when you’re looking for some flats. There’s plenty of dirt roads for running,but sometimes I get sad I can’t ride my mountain bike there, too. Simply, it’s a great place for training.

European Championship Alanya (2013-06-14)

3rd place

Ekol Superprestige Brno - National Sprint Champs (2013-05-25)

2nd place

National Sprint Champs was one of the races when every single thing which could go wrong, just did. Hopefully I used up all the bad luck for the rest of my season.
The main reason I raced was to fulfill my national team contract requirement and racing in the home town of my Czech team which is one of my main supporters over the last years.

The weather has been really bad in all of Europe right now, and racing in rainy and cold conditions (11C) is definitely not my favorite thing.

I started a training block leading to the European Champs in mid June. Finishing my 30k swim week in the session prior the race didn’t really freshen me up for a crazy swim start with the first buoy being closer than 200m. I made it to the first buoy in 4th position. Unfortunately a girl ahead of me let a gap open up to the leaders which I couldn’t close later on. I exited water about 20s down to Radka Vodickova and I was in the solo chase straight away. Radka had a big advantage as she’s used to do non drafting races and this race ended up as a one on one battle. I was riding pretty strong, keeping the same gap to Radka. Unfortunately in the second lap out of three someone’s helmet sticker got stuck in my front brake. From that moment I started to lose the time which I couldn’t gain back over the final 5k run. Lessons learnt and more important races ahead!

ITU World Triathlon Yokohama (2013-05-11)

6th place

I spent a couple of days back home in pretty cold and wet conditions, but right away (and even though I’m not a big fan of Asia as there’s too much rice and too little English) I had to hit the big bird again and head to Japan for the third round of the World Triathlon Series.I got into Yokohama just in time for the race briefing, but getting in that late caused me to feel really sluggish before the race. Luckily I found my legs on the early race morning and I was able to put a decent performance under my belt!

Even though it was a small field, it definitely wasn’t missing some of the best in our sport, and this helped ensure a great race. Once again it was a wetsuit swim with water temperature 17,5°C. I had a really good start position next to Emma Moffat and once again I was able to make the front pack. The technical bike course started to get slicker and slicker with the rain coming down half way through the bike leg. The pace wasn’t high and everyone was just being cautious to stay upright and make it safely to the run. I had good T2 and came out with Jodie Stimpson. I knew I was not able to hold the fastest runners pace for the whole 10k but I didn’t have anything to lose and tried to stick with the leaders at the beginning. I was running pretty strong and finally was able to get into the TOP 10 and finish in 6th place. It’s my best result in WTS sincethe beginning of the series. I hope results like this will be more consistent in the future with couple of more TOP 10 finishes later in the season.

Special congrats go to the winner Gwen Jorgensen as she’s a real champion! She has all the attributes to be the best, very nice and humble personality! It was a big pleasure to spend a couple of days with her as her roommate and it brought me another great experience. Of course I didn’t want to be ashamed by her stunning performance, so she was basically the reason I did well myself. Thanks Gwen for letting me stay with you!

I’d also love to thank to my training partner Sarah Groff as she sent me the best message ever after the race. From the person I know so long and I know how hard she trained and what she achieved it’s a real honor and a big encouragement to read these lines:"Congrats, Vendy! It looks like you raced like a champ. Woo hoo!!!..." Thanks Sarah!

Thanks to my coach Joel Filliol to put me in a good shape for a strong performance! And thank you all of for your support!

There's one thing I really need to improve before my next visit to Japan, I need to learn to use chopsticks properly :).

Fearless F1 Super Sprint (2013-04-25)

6th place

ITU World Triathlon San Diego (2013-04-19)

14th place

San Diego was once again great experience. I really enjoyed my time there because of my wonderful homestay, Cathy Holl, and the trip was crowned with a solid performance as I finished 14th in the second round of the WTS.Cathy volunteered as the homestay coordinator this year, andhas the biggest he art I've ever seen. Her passion to help athletes is amazing! She gave us constant support and looked after us as we were her own kids. Thanks again, Cathy! Once again I was reunited with Richard Varga prior the race. When Richard left, Kiwi Clark Ellice and his lovely girlfriend Laura moved in and made the atmosphere very pleasant in the house.

Surprisingly, the swim was a wetsuit swim as water temperature was only 16,5°C. I’m not a big fan of beach starts so I was swimming in the feet pretty much straight from the start. Well, I could say in the best feet as Sarah Groff and Emma Moffat were right ahead of me . Unfortunately I didn’t feel great in my wetsuit and I couldn’t hold this good position. I was caught in a big fight around the first buoy. Afterwards I was swimming somewhere mid pack fighting with my own stroke more than anything else. I exited the water 1min down from the leaders and a big chase pack was formed soon after on the bike leg. Lack of organization let the front group of four ride away and extend their lead. Once on the run the pace was high from the very beginning as the fast girls G.Jorgensen, Non S tanford, and A.Haug chased the lead four. I was running pretty strong. There’s still a lot of miles missing in my bank after so many injuries. I have to be patient and hopefully I will run faster soon. I ended up being out sprinted by J.Harrison right on the finish line. Overall it was a solid race. I’m more than happy that it was my first injury pain free race in perhaps the last three years. I didn’t even remember how good it was to feel just pure race pain without having to slow down with any niggles. Hopefully more to come in the summer!

Florida Farewell (2013-04-15)

Although I‘ve spent more than three months with English as my first language, I was too lazy to put down any race report. It was a great time here and it made me come out of my post Olympics swing, made me realize how lucky I am to be able to do what I love and fully enjoy it.

There might or might not be some reward as a shining medal on my neck later in the year, but that would just be the cherry on top of the cake. It’s all about the process, and that has been great so far!  It’s what you learn on your journey and what makes you a better athlete and better person in general. As far as I know, I’ve done everything possible to accomplish my dreams and left everything on the race course, so I shouldn’t be upset about the outcome. I’ve had a very solid, consistent winter training without any major issues.  I’ve built a good base for the upcoming season which will be very long. I’ve met wonderful people, who made hard training so much easier and enjoyable. Triathlon is a very lonely sport but the group atmosphere makes it really fun.

There’s a list of things I‘ll miss the most:

- Outdoor pool - of course, the main reason is because I get to work on my tan
- 40x50s swim set - even though I know  I‘ll do it at least twice in the next week, it will never be the same
- Crit course - you don‘ t have to do any motor-pacing when you have to stay on Mario‘s and Richard‘s wheel
- Open water swims and all the alligators stories -  Much more exciting than the possibility of getting ‘licked’ by a carp at home
- Clay trail runs - made me feel like a Kenyan
- Sugarloaf hills - biggest hill in Florida and makes you sweat a lot
- Mario singing and dancing in the kitchen - even if you’re tired as hell, that makes you laugh
- Kitchen shifts - nothing better than six people fighting for two pots and a pan in the same
time… (no one is more grumpy than a hungry triathlete)
- ’’Eating next door’‘ -  works as very effective diet when you‘ re lazy to walk an extra ten steps over
- Confused looks when I was trying to express my Czech language skills into English
- All my new training partners, but I should not forget the other two friends I met along the way: Google Translate and Urban Dictionary
- Jeopardy -though mostly I didn’t understand the questions before they were answered, I made it to the ‘’high standard’’ of getting one to three correct answers for each game, grabbing the daily double twice and even the final jeopardy once!
- Alicia and Paula’s brownies - mum‘s apple strudel will have to do the job from now on

The only way to get better is to surround yourself with better people!!!

Thank you coach Joel Filliol and the rest of the squad for a great time! I hope from now on you‘ll remember where The Czech Republic is located and never ever mistake it with Russia again. :)

I still have some unfinished business here before I’m heading home. San Diego WTS race! Bring it on!

ITU World Triathlon Auckland (2013-04-07)

21st place

The ''real'' racing started in Auckland. Round 1 of the ITU World Championship Series was held on the same course where 2012 finished. 

Coming down to the race site for my race, one of my training partners Mario Mola was running head to head with Javier Gomez in the men race. I was extremely happy for Mario when he crossed the finish line second and made it to his first WTS podium.  It made me relax so much that I almost didn’t notice the start gun go off and before I knew it I was exiting the water in 7th (which was one of my best swims ever). I was riding strong on the first two laps, trying to position myself well and make most of the technical sections of the course. Unfortunately, I dropped my chain on the top of the first climb on the third lap and had to put the hammer down to try and get back in the group - sadly I failed. There’s no room for any mechanical issues or other mistakes on the course like Auckland unless you’re one of the strongest cyclists because there aren’t many places to hide and you need to be riding well and strong for the whole 40k. I ended up sitting in the second group for the rest of the bike leg and came into T2 about 1 min down from the lead group. I was still quite excited to start the run because I was able to run down a few places in the Grand Finale last October when my gap to the leaders was even bigger (normally after such a hard bike a lot of girls are not running at their best) so there was a possibility to move myself forward in the race. Unfortunately my legs weren’t cooperating with me and I had to settle with 21st.

Triathlete of the Year 2012 (2013-03-29)

I' m proud to be only female who won the biggest award in triathlon in my country. It' s my second time (winning 2009) and no other female was on the top spot in the 20 year history.

ITU Triathlon Pan American Cup Sarasota (2013-03-17)

3rd place

A week later there was another Pan American race, but my recovery from the sickness took longer than I would have liked. Anyway, that didn’t stop me from a ‘’road trip’’ to Sarasota. Tommy Zaferes, Carolina Routier, and I rented a car, stuffed three people and three bikes in Ford Focus and headed south. I ‘’put my cards’’ in the hand of my Czech country mate Radka Vodickova on the pontoon as I know she’s a good swimmer. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it onto Sarah McLarty’s feet and exited the water in the second group. With Alicia Kaye hammering the bike in front with two of my other teammates, our disorganised group was losing time each lap. I managed to run down to third place with the fastest run split of the day. It was great to share the podium with my teammates P. Findlay and C. Routier. Unfortunately with my body still recovering from the sickness I wasn’t really ab le to see where my actual fitness was.

ITU Sprint Triathlon Pan American Cup Clermont (2013-03-10)

11th place

I picked up some bug or virus in the week prior the race. I tried not to worry about it, but as the race day came along my body was pretty down. I managed to get out of the water on the feet of my two training mates, Alicia and Helle, who are both incredibly strong cyclists as they‘re both focusing on non-draft races. We caught the leaders very soon in the bike leg. Unfortunately, my body wasn’t cooperating well that day, and I lost the lead group in the technical section at the end of first lap. That made me suffer even more. I finished the race but definitely not in the way I’ve hoped for.

Winter Miles (2013-01-20)

Well, my original plan was very different compare to my last couple of months, I’ve just experienced. I wanted to spent a quiet winter at home, do a bit more skiing at that time, before I was supposed to get to the first training camp with my new coach Joel Fillol and new training group mid January.

But I was way too bored after first two week at home. And I was a bit annoyed with luck of day light and dropping temperatures, too. Finally, I ended up in Lanzarote, where I spent great 5weaks in total with one of my new training mates Helle Frederiksen from Denmark. Lanzarote was always one of my favourite training destinations, so I didn‘ t have to think too long about escaping from cold Czech Republic before I got there. I love challenging bike with beautiful views out there. Helped me to get back soon into decent fitness. It can be really windy, but most of all days the weather was very stable with temperatures over 20C. I found my base in Sands Beach Resort in Costa Teguise, which is a great place for triathletes. Sands Beach resort offers heated 25m pool and there‘ re many roads and dirt tracks for running around. It‘ s simply great place for training.

I headed to Florida mid January to reunited with the rest of my new training squad. It ‘s really a group of very talented and inspiriting people. I'm having great time so far. Training is going well and sun is out most of the days.

As one of my new team mates, WTS winner, Paula Findlay described on her blog: "It’ll take a lot of hard work to win another race, and it definitely won’t happen if you don’t find some enjoyment in the process. You can’t really force yourself to have fun, but you can put yourself in the best possible situation to let it happen."

And that's exactly how I feel right know. I'm enjoying every day here with amazing people around.

I'm more positive than ever and really looking forward to the new race season!

PF 2013 (2012-12-31)

Doesn´t mind how many turns or bums are on your journey, go and chase your dreams!

Merry Christmas (2012-12-23)

Little Update (2012-12-16)

Sport is awesome, it can bring such great highs–one’s you are always chasing. But also such great lows–one’s that leave you looking up and wanting more. 
Things do not always go to plan in sport. In fact, they often don’t. But it is a matter of figuring out what you need to do and then fighting like hell to achieve it over a long period of time until you achieve what you are after.
From a personal point of view, I think it is important to appreciate all the little things that go part and parcel with being an athlete, including times of injury which is a never ending story for me. Injuries are an absolute nightmare. Especially when you don't know what the injury is or how long it will take to recover. I was very eager to put down everything for my second Olympic race but I was set back with a stress fracture short before the Games. I didn´t have the race of my life but I took a lot of positives out of there. I didn´t stop racing afterwards, but finally I started to have a lot of fun when racing without any stress. Looking back on these races, I am content but not satisfied. I am hungry for better results and excited that even after my layoff with injury I am still capable of a strong performance. I’m not done yet. I’m definitely not young, but I’m not old, neither. I still want to chase the big races.

Stepping up and making changes is ultimately what makes things better. And I decided to move forward with a new coach and new training group. I´m looking forward to work with Joel Filliol, the man behind Simon Whitfield´s Beijing Silver Olympic Medal.

In the end, it is not the win that matters in sport, it is the fight.

Thank you! (2012-12-04)

Thank you to all who have supported me in 2012! To all my sponsors, my family and friends, you have all been great and a huge part in getting me through the year towards my second Olympic Games. 
It really means a lot to me and thanks for all the support and belief you guys have in me!!!

I´ll be back soon with some news I´m going to take to step further in my career, bring on 2013 season!

Off Season Break: Part 2 - Home, sweet home (2012-11-26)

It´s always great to come back home, especially after spending so much time away during the year. Actually, my break always seems too short for all the activities I wish to do. It´s time to catch with my friends and family and time to sort all the stuff for another long time away :).

Off Season Break: Part 1 - New Zealand (2012-11-02)

... lots of hiking...
... lots of beaches...
... lots of FUN...

Simply great time in "the land of the long white cloud" !!!

ITU WTS Grand Final Auckland (2012-10-21)

17th place

If it wasn´t Grand Final in one of the most beautiful countries in the world, I´d finished my racing season earlier.

I´ve never come back into full running training since Olympic Games. My ankle is still sore and can´t stand any high running load. But I was still very motivated to put a strong performance on the challenging course in Auckland.

Knowing that it wouldn´t be possible when training at home by myself, I decided to joined Jamie Turner down in Wollongong once again for two weeks before the race. I had a great time in Wollongong and never regretted my decision. It helped me for acclimatisation, too.

Auckland was quite cold and the weather was a bit tricky as the spring didn´t hit its peak yet. We were finally the lucky ones as we were racing under the blue sky. The boys were racing in pouring rain the day after.

I had an average swim and missed the first pack. That was really shame as I was feeling good, didn´t swim that hard but positioned myself bad in the pack and then couldn´t avoid the gap someone opened in front of me during the second swim lap. The pace was on fromT1 but when Anne Haug managed to brick to the front pack by herself, our pack slowed down quickly. I was surprised with my run as I was running pretty good after the tough bike without a lot of miles in my bank. Overall I put down very solid performance and I was happy to finish 17th at the end of the day, not so far from TOP 10 as the field was very stable this time.

Definitely, this gives me enough confidence that I still can be competitve at the highest level in our sport and compete with the best athletes in the world.

But now, it´s time for well deserved break! Recharging batteries and healing all my injuries that I can come back stronger next year!

National Championships Brno (2012-09-16)

1st place

It was my last minute decision to race the National Championships as I didn´t feel great the week before. As expected it was two girls battle between me and Radka Vodickova. I felt pretty good on the run, made my turn straight from T2. Afterwards I was incresing my lead in each lap and cruised into the finish for my 7th national title.

Super Sprint Triathlon Race Bratislava (2012-09-10)

1st place

Super sprint triathlon race in Bratislava was mainly about promotion our beautiful sport in Slovakia. The organisators decided less than 3hrs befpre the race to put both men and women cathegories on the start line together. What a feeling to stand next to the fastest ITU swimmer Richard Varga on the start line. Unfortunatelly, I haven´t seen him any more when the gun was fired :). The race was really fast and a lot of fun, perfect workout to get some speed into my legs once again.

ITU WTS Stockholm (2012-08-27)

32nd place
11th place Team Relay World Championships

London Olympic Games (2012-08-06)

15th place

Four years full of hard work, sacrifice, injuries, sweat and tears passed very quickly. Suddenly, I was there, in Hyde Park, on the start line for the most important race so far.

There were already hundreds of people during our warm up along the course which made me very nervous. I didn´t have a great start position on the pontoon as I was almost the last one who qualified for the race. I didn´t have a good start as in Hamburg, either, and ended up in the “washing machine” soon after the start. I thought my race was over at one stage but then I took the wide right side around the first buoys and managed to move a bit further. I didn´t feel very comfortable in the water and I wasn´t sure where I was in the pack. I did my best to finish the swim strong. Finally I saw very top athletes right in front of me exiting the water and it was just a matter of fast transition to make the first pack. Soon I was in and our pack was onto the termination five front athletes breakaway. Crash in the first lap ended the medal dream for many girls, including Beijing bronze medallist Emma Moffat. I spent the rest of the bike leg at the end of the first pack which included about 20 girls and followed the best wheels I could to avoid any possible next crash. On the run, it was one of my longest 10k ever. Hard day in the office after the long time without running. Finishing solid 15th and improving the Czech female Olympic maximum, was as much as I could do right this moment. Only wonders can stay in my head what could I achieve if I had a chance to train properly. I´ll never know.

Time to enjoy Olympic life and London!

ITU WTS Hamburg (2012-07-24)

40th place

There was really not too much to write about in the last two months. I was diagnosed with a stress reaction right after Madrid, which definitely didn´t fit into my Olympic preparation plan. Training through my injured face wasn´t fun and I wasn´t in the happiest state of mind. I had to withdraw from Kitzbuhel WTS and postponed my final training camp. Finally I spent  lovely 2,5 weeks in Vitoria-Gasteiz with NSWIS group of incredible people.

Hamburg was my first and only one test event before Olympics. It was held as sprint distance for first time this year. So I expected fast and tough hit out.

I had a swim of my life, exited water in 8th position with all the big names around. I´ve missed the first pack in the beginning of 2nd bike lap. My main goal for this race was to put down a decent swim which I did, so I didn´t care much about missing that lead bike pack later on. Actually I carried on in the 2nd bike pack, but I missed it, too,  at the beginning of last lap. I went to the race very tired after the long training and didn´t taper at all, but I knew that something was wrong. Was not before I took my bike out of transition where I found out that my rear break was on :(. That explained a lot. My run was just a matter of finishing. Of course, I can´t be happy with my final position. But my swim gave me very good confidence boost before Olympic race which is only two weeks from here now.

ITU WTS Madrid (2012-05-26)

48th place

Good & Bad News All In One

Disgraceful result provided me Olympic Spot!

Time to put my head down and do some proper work before the Games!!!

ITU WTS San Diego (2012-05-13)

18th place

Resurrection and where it all started!

San Diego is a great place, no wonder that the very first modern triathlon competition was held here back in 1974. This crazy sport quickly gained popularity and within a matter of years became one of the fastest growing sports in the world.

I had pretty hard time coming back from the horrifying experience from Mexico. Owing to my great homestay I was able to get a proper treatment to release my breathing and all other aches. Local chiropractic called Dr. Pain did a great job helping me sort out all my issues that I was ready to race.  I´m telling you, he doesn´t have his nickname for no reason :))). I was almost crying under his hands but it was exactly what I need. And I wish I had someone like him at home and could use his services regularly.

I didn´t feel great on the race day. I was tired and sleepy. But it seems sometimes to work better to don´t have any expectations other than survival. I managed to put a decent swim. (Again the same scenario as in the previous races. Great 1st lap and loss a fortune in the 2nd one). At least I know what I need to work more. I was riding in the 3rd group at the beginning of the bike and we soon caught the 2nd one and formed one big chase pack of about 35 girls. I was sitting in the pack all the time (Really no need to be a hero after the last few days). Once on the run I didn´t know what to expect and I was well aware of the previous collapse. I had bad T2 which paradoxically helped me to start in moderate pace and not too fast with the leaders. I really didn´t try to catch them this time :))).  I was in the group of six pretty much the whole run leg and finished 18th at the end right behind Emma Snowsill. I was really happy and this was much more than I expected from the day.

I gained some important points for the Olympic Games, too. I´m sitting on the last slot right now. It´s all in my hands in Madrid in two weeks! Battle continues!!!

The greatest thanks belongs to my wonderful homestay Cathy Holl from the local Tri club, the oldest one in the world. She took care about me so good and I really felt as at home at her house (Unfortunately we don´t have such a nice swimming pool in the yard and the view above the city :))).
Thanks a lot Cathy!!!

ITU World Cup Huatulco (2012-05-07)

DNF

“7” doesn´t always have to be a lucky number!

One of the toughest races on the ITU circuit. Hard steep climb on the bike, hilly run and 40°C heat, that´s Huatulco. Luckily the start for the girls was at 8 o´clock when it was “only” about 30°C. You can´t refresh yourself in the water, that´s about 28°C.

It was nice to wear single digit number after the long time again. Actually “7” wasn´t the lucky one this time! I had a great 1st lap of the swim in the feet of the leaders. Unfortunately I could feel my breathing problems for the first time in the 2nd lap of the swim and I lost 30s just in 500m which is a lot. I wasn´t strong enough to make it back front on the beginning of bike leg. I was caught by the group behind me. We were very disorganised and no one really wanted to do any work when saving energy for the run in extreme heat. So we lost almost 3min to the leaders :(. I felt bad from the beginning of the run. I couldn´t take a deep breath at all but I was still running in Top 10. Downhill about 500m before the finish line, that´s my last memory. I woke up in the hospital couple hours later with infusion and all sort of different stuff I can´t express in English. I was told I´ve collapsed about 20m before the finish line :(((. I don´t remember anything myself. This never happened to me and I hope won´t ever happen again. It was probably the combination of dehydration from heat, hard bike course, breathing problems and short acclimatisation (OK no acclimatisation – coming Friday before the Sunday race). I was released from the hospital after 8 hours.

Hopefully I can recover in time for the 2nd round of WTS which is held in San Diego on Friday.

I need to thank here to my hero Richard Varga from Slovakia, who came after his own gruelling race when he grabbed respectful 16th place. Richard came to “save” me in the hospital which was very nice from him. Thanks a lot Richard!

Thanks to the Swiss team and Spanish team and Gavin Noble, too, who all helped me around whether before the race or after my release from the hospital!

ETU Triathlon European Championships (2012-04-21)

5th place

That I haven´t seen my coach for a month and couldn´t use his support in Sydney is one thing. That I had to go all the way back to Prague (more than 30h trip) and the next day made another 10h trip to Israel is another on. Unfortunately that´s how Czech triathlon works:-(((. I wouldn´t say this is the best way to prepare for European Championships.

I ended up in Israel sleeping 10-12h during the night which still wasn´t enough and I was feeling sleepy and tired all the days. Sometimes having no expectations is a good thing. But finally I was able to put a good race together.

I had one of my best swims ever and exited the water right in the first group. The lead group of ten was formed after the first uphill. I struggled to keep up with the group and didn´t have much left once we hit the final run. I lost contact with the leaders soon and was running solo almost the whole race. I was very happy to carry 5th place across the finish line at the end of hard day.

This result gave me a lot of points into the Olympic Ranking. London is coming closer! :)))

ITU World Triathlon Series Sydney (2012-04-16)

55th place

After three weeks of solid training in Wollongong I was really excited to race first round of WTS in Sydney. As Wollongong is only 80km from Sydney I went there by train which was quite unusual. I wish every trip was so smooth and short as this one.

With an early race start at 7:36 my race day started very early with an alarm at 4:30. The water temperature was around 20°C and LOC decided to be a wetsuit swim. Ranked number 60 there weren´t many spots to grab when I jogged to the pontoon. Luckily a few of strong swimmers separated themselves on the left hand side and I joined them. This was very good decision and I had a great first swim lap with not a lot of fight. Unfortunately I started to fade in the second lap and lost a few spots. Finally I exited the water in a strong group with Nicola Spirig. It took me too long to take down my wetsuit and racing on my heavy training wheels I wasn´t strong enough to catch the group in the first uphill. This was the key moment for the whole race. Almost the whole field came together in one big pack and I was riding behind and losing time in each lap. There wasn´t any chance for a good result when I entered T2 and it was only a matter of mind to finish the race.
I was really disappointed with the final result but my race fitness has definitely showed me I´m moving forward.

There´s no maybe in the world of sport but maybe if my coach was there to support me (put vaseline on my wetsuit and brought my race wheels) I could be much happier at the end of the day.

But it's always too early to quit! And there´s still a big chance to make the Olympic Team!

Training in Oz (2012-04-14)

I can´t thank enough to Jamie Turner who allowed me to spend the time between Mooloolaba WC and Sydney WTS in Wollongong and helped me around. Wollongong is a seaside city 80km south of Sydney and it offers perfect conditions for training.

I had great time with NSWIS squad here! Thanks guys!!! For pushing me throuh the sessions and for all cool experiences!!! Impressive group of athletes, I´m pretty sure ones to watch in the future.

Thanks a lot to my great homestay Liz & Dave, too!  They cared about me like at home and made my stay very enjoyable.

ITU World Cup Moolooba (2012-03-24)

DNF

After the whole day trip from Lanzarote, another day spent in hospital and only one more day at home, I finally headed Down Under.
I really don´t know why they call the coast, Sunshine Coast, because it was raining for third time of my four visits here. The weather was insane on Thursday. It was pouring so hard that we almost couldn´t get to the race briefing because all the roads were flooded. But finally it cleared up for the race weekend. Only the ocean stayed brown instead of azure blue I remembered from last year. 

My race was not the race I had hoped for. I ended up pretty tired and not fully recovered from jetlag and injury on the race morning. I had a shocking swim  in the rough ocean and pulled out during the bike leg.

Retake - Sydney in three weeks!

Training camp Lanzarote (2012-03-15)

I spent another two weeks training camp in windy Lanzarote, one from the Canary Islands in Atlantic Ocean. I tried to put more intensive work under my belt before the upcoming races in Australia. Unfortunately I renewed my ankle injury at the end of first week during the track session and I couldn´t full fill all the planned sessions the next one. I was in my small world of pain again and I started to worry about the upcoming trip. That wasn´t a good sign.

Training Camp SA (2012-02-29)

Training is so much easier when it’s warm and sunny. But four weeks in Potchefstroom (SA) passed too quickly.

Potchefstroom is known as the North-West Province's "Home of Sport". Is located roughly 120 km west-southwest of Johannesburg at an altitude about 1350m. Athletes from all over the world are coming for training. It offers a lot of grass for running, plenty of roads without traffic for cycling and you can choose from various swimming pools, too.

I managed to escaped from my home country right before the cruelest winter in last fifty years. The temperatures below -20°C weren´t unusual back home when I was cutting hard kilometers in the African sun. There was a great group of six athletes working well together and being the only girl in the group I enjoyed a lot of pampering:))). 

My body was often sore and achy and tired, but it definitely felt good to be back in consistent work! I didn´t sit on my bike since my last race in Auckland so the first two weeks were pretty painful. But riding the brand new Specialized Tarmac SL4 made my rides more bearable. Tarmac is a great bike and you´ll get used to great things pretty easily:-))). I was happy to run pain free after a long time. The grass makes a huge difference and it helped me to put down a good base for the next training phase. Swimming was a bit messy because we were using outdoor 50m pool with no lanes and a side current. But it definitely made me stronger and I had to improve my technique to stay floating. Altogether, the base work was done and now I should start pushing more intensively. That´s why I stay at home only two days before I board a new plane, this time to Canary Islands.

I took part in ITU African sprint race in Cape Town to test my current fitness because it was only two hours flight and good opportunity to change the training routine. It was a great race with spectacular swim on the Bloubergstrand over viewing Table Mountain. But Atlantic Ocean was really cold. Water temperature was only 13,5°C. I was glad that it was a sprint distance and not an olympic one. I had a good swim, exiting water with the leaders. Regrettably I messed up my first transition really badly. It lasted too long to take down my wetsuit and fasten my helmet that I missed the first pack :-(((. Anyway it was very good practice and instruction for the next race that I can´t get distracted because every second counts.

PF 2012 (2011-12-24)

Autumn Recap (2011-12-15)

It´s quite a long time since my last post. Racing season is over and I´m just heading back into winter training. Snow has already covered my country, so it will be fun.

My performance in the last three WC races wasn´t very good but after dealing with so many issues, I was really happy to be back on the start line again. I put down the most consistent result with three 17th places over the three races. Well, that´s not exactly the way I´d like to show my consistency. I´d learned a lot from these races and it should help me to avoid new mistakes in the future.

Both races in Korea and Colombia didn´t go very well because of poor acclimatisation. Paying for your trips on your own is not easy and I couldn´t spend more money to stay longer in these countries. I was in reasonable shape in Korea after the short time training but I was very nervous and anxious after the long time out of training, too. I didn´t sleep two nights before the race which led to the fact that I was totally flat on the race day. I went backwards immediately when the gun went on.

My trip to Colombia was a different story. The race was held in 1900m altitude. I didn´have any chance to do altitude training before  so I went to the race straight from the sea level. This wasn´t very smart and I paid for that. The time prior the race was quite adventurous. I´ve missed my connection flight in Bogota and had to spent night there. My bike came only 15hrs before the race and I still managed to get flat tyre in the warm up. Waking up at 4am in the torrential rain on the race day which didn´t stop, led ITU to short cut the race to the sprint event. It was first time in my almost 10 years career on ITU circuit when this happened. This means that the conditions were really very bad.  I was struggling a lot during the race. I didn´t have enough air in the swim, I was freezing in the rain and dropped off in the first bike lap from the main group :(.

After spoiling two races I decided to go to New Zealand at least a few days earlier. I could afford it because I didn´t have to pay for an expensive hotel when having great home stay with my friend Vitek Toman. Thanks a lot Vitek!!! Nice taper in one of the YMCA facilities where Vitek works as personal trainer, gave me the necessary confidence and good feeling before the race. What a nightmare when I sprinkled my ankle in the morning jog prior the race. It was very bad. I was limping in the transition area with tears in my eyes because I wasn´t sure I would be able to finish the race which I was so excited to go. Painkillers didn´t help at all and I was in the world of pain during the whole race. Disappointing swim leg when I was somewhere in the middle of the pack but during the second lap someone made a gap in front of me which put me in the wrong spot soon after the start again. Extremely hard bike course, designed by Olympic medallist Bevan Docherty, took everything out of me. I was riding three laps with Lisa Perterer before we were caught by a group from behind. I was never so upset and frustrated on the bike. No one worked and I did most of the work in the group alone. This was ridiculous. Me, a poor biker, and coming from the cold European autumn where my bike training was minimal, I was really pissed of. Once on the run I didn´t have any legs and the pain in my ankle graduated. I crossed the finish line but I wasn´t really convinced that it was worth it and I din´t do more harm to my foot. But it was an exceptional event in the heart of Auckland with huge crowd cheering two Kiwis to the victory in both men and women race and I was very happy to be part of it. WCS Grand Final here next year would be definitely the highlight after the London Olympics!

Let me thank to Pam & Niguel Seebold who helped me a lot around! Thank you, I really appreciate it!!!

Being already in one of the most spectacular country in the world, I decided to take my post season break here. It was the best I could do. Joined by my cousin I was travelling around for the next 2,5 weeks. Actually my legs didn´t rest so much, doing a few all days tracks but my mind rested a lot in the pure nature far away from mobile connection. The highlight of my trip was overnight Abel Tasman National Park Coastal Track.

I´m already looking forward to come back to NZ! :)))

But for now back in business and into the hard work again!

Auckland ITU Triathlon World Cup (2011-11-20)

17th place

Race report will come one day. Now I' m off for three weeks holidays in this beautiful country.

ITU Guatape World Cup (2011-11-11)

17th place

A lot of experinces in Colombia. Hopefully race report will come soon.

Tongyeong ITU Triathlon World Cup (2011-10-15)

17th place

National Duathlon Championships / Žamberk (2011-09-24)

1st place

Well this wasn´t race, I´ve planned at the beginning of the season. Not injured I would be about 1500km south in Spain fighting for the World Duathlon titles. But life isn´t always as you´ve planned.

After next X-ray which proofed that my stress fracture is finally healed and two weeks of easy running, my legs were already begging for some faster pace :).  So I decided to enter Nationals. The run course was very hilly which means pretty hard for an unfit girl. But you can´t gain any race fitness unless you´re racing and it was great hit out before the late World Cup Events.

I was happy with my win because it wasn´t easy and the second girl wasn´t that far.
But I was much more happy that I was pain free during the whole race.
I´m looking forward for more serious races to come!

D & D over (2011-09-12)

I´m finally back from the Davos camp.
The other D means that I´m out from D-squad, too. (Darren Smith´s training group of international athletes) Main reason is that I was wasting my coach´s time...

Brief summary:
Two years in the squad brought me two races which belong to my career highlights: World Cup win and Silver Medal at Europeans Championships, both results which no other Czech female athlete ever accomplished. Unfortunately both results were purchased with a serious injuries: stress reaction, broken finger and finally a stress fracture which ruined my summer season this year.

So I´m back home in Czech Republic. I´m still not 100% healthy, so currently I spend a lot of time with doctors and physios. But I´m on my way back and I´ll fight for my place at the Olympic Games.

Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending!!! /Anonymous/

ITU Tiszaujvarosz World Cup (2011-08-18)

DNF

Well I guess, that´s how it is when you want to deceive your own body.

I  worked hard over the last week to recover from London and to put my body back for the race but actually my body didn´t like it and betrayed me. If it wasn´t enough, all the issues from the last two weeks, I picked up a diarrhoea day before the race which was the last nail into the coffin. With not adequate energy intake and race morning spent in the bathroom, I had my worst swim ever and pulled out from the race. 

And If that all wasn´t enough, my control CT scan showed that my stress fracture is still not healed. Before I´ll be racing again I need to make sure the body holds together. So I have to stop running again and allow the bone to heal. I don´t want to feel the biggest disappointment when an engine and mind is ready to roar, but a body won’t allow it to.

Time to stop gamble with my health and put it back on track for the late WC events.

Yea, it´s not the most pleasant part of athlete´s life but I´m sure, it can only make me tougher in the future!

Dextro Energy Triathlon - ITU World Championship Series London (2011-08-10)

DNF

Racing Olympic Test Event in London Hyde Park seems like a good reason for little update.

With European medal hanging on my neck and the pain level in my stress fracture dropping down I was eager to start pushing more in my training and  make another good performance soon again. Honestly my training was still too far from the elite level and the most important in every session was the pain-management of my stress fracture. Unfortunately with one of the hardest session leading up to my best race shape, my body simply gave up and totally collapsed. It started with the flue and ended up with an inflammation in my right knee only a week before the competition. 


Really not the best form to go to the most competitive race in ages. The race itself was more competitive than Olympic Games because there can be only three athletes max. from each country. But there are a lot of countries having more strong athletes than that. This time was London a selection trials for lots of the countries which means the most important race for these athletes in their career before fulfilling their dreams under the Olympic rings.  Although, I didn´t have excessively high expectations and mainly want to familiar with the Olympic course, I wanted to take the best out of me.

Racing only one WCS race this year with not an astonishing result I was ranked number 59 for the race. At least I didn´t have to wait too long on the pontoon before the chilly morning start. I was struggling straight after race start, couldn´t find any faster gear and found myself close to the end of the field around the first buoys. Exiting water with a huge loss to the leaders I was convict to ride in the small chase group of four where our loss only increased. I started to have a big pain in to may left leg which interfered both sides to my toes and my back and caused later the block in my ribs and the breathing difficulties. Soon on the run, breathing half of my engine, my stress fracture started to be painful, too. This ment the end of the race for me.

I was glad to check the Olympic Course but at the same time I was really disappointed with my race and especially all the conditions I couldn´t influence. Anyway, next year it will be completely different race.

London Olympic Games 2012 (2011-07-27)

One year to go... :)))

Short trip to Czech Republic (2011-07-10)

Finally diagnosed with a stress fracture :-(((

Soon after I came back to Davos from Europeans, I had to pack again for my trip back home to Czech Republic. Main reason apart from our National Championships were some more medical tests. I had an MRI which was positive, so I had a new X-Ray, too. And the X-Ray showed nonstandard healed stress fracture of my fibula :-(((. It wasn´t visible on the first X-Ray I had two months ago because the calcification process usually appears two or three weeks later. I´m not impressed. Especially when the only possible treatment is more rest :-(((.

What´s still unknown, how could it possibly happened? I didn´t do any extra running volume, so this is still part of the mystery. Fracturing the fibula is not as widespread an injury as tibia fractures because the bone is smaller and is therefore not pressurized in the same way, i.e. weight bearing during many activities such as running and jumping. Yet stress fractures can occur, causing a hairline break in the bone.

After all I raced the National Championships. Well, after a week spent mainly driving and waiting in the medical waiting rooms, with stress fracture, I wasn´t prepared so good. And I even wasn´t sure if I would finish the race because any big pain would mean immediately to stop. I was flat from the beginning and didn´t avoid the battle right after the swim start. This was the crucial moment for my race because I settled in the pack which lost over a minute on the first girl. She managed to maintained her lead on the bike and I wasn´t able to run her down with my shuffle right this moment.

As I look towards 2012, it’s time to get smart. It is now time to focus not on what I’d like to do, which is more running, but to put my health on the right track and then work hard on my weaknesses again.  The key to success is consistency and patience. Sometimes easily said than done, but the way to the top is never straight!

In consequence of my health condition I pulled out from another WCS race in Hamburg.

Pontevedra European Championships (2011-07-10)

2nd place

This year European Championship was held in the spectacular Spanish town in Galicia. Pontevedra is the home town of current World Champion Javier Gomez, so it was obvious the event will be amazing. Local crowds didn´t disappoint when generated a great atmosphere.

I didn´t make it to the pontoon in my best shape, but sure in my best possible injured shape and I was really content with the work I´ve done.
Although Pontevedra is washed by the Atlantic Ocean, we were swimming in the river close to the city center. But it´s surface was depend on the high tide and water temperature was just above 20°C which meant non wetsuit swim. I had one of my best swims and exited water 13th . Soon on the bike we realize 5 girls in the break away after the swim. It didn´t take long to catch them and the pack of 35 made it to the second transition. With one of the quickest transitions I found myself in the lead of the race after about 50m, waiting who will join me. In the first place Emmie Charayron passed me. Knowing the amount of work I done (or didn´t done :-))) on the run in the past two months, I didn´t try to follow her.  Soon Ainhoa Murua joined me and in the second lap Anna-Maria Mazetti, too. We were running side by side till the last 200m. I followed Mazetti when she surged and finally made my own surge 100m to go and she didn´t react any more. Crossing the finish line second was a big relief after so many years. And it was huge satisfaction after the last two months when I struggled with injury.

Sharing podium with exceptional Brownlees brothers, who made the men race, was nice bonus at the end of the day.

My race clearly showed me that if I could maintain a high score after the swim and bike leg, I´ll come away with a big smile on my face at the end. And this is the focus for the next races, too. Race to my full potential without any rookie mistakes anymore.

Thank you all who didn´t let me down in the hard time of my injury and could enjoy the special moment of the first Czech female European medal with me! Especially the support of my close friends, family, coach and training partners and loyal sponsors!

Victory Ceremony on Youtube (2011-06-26)

http://web.getphoto.cz/image_list.php?Type=Group&GroupId=4113

Pontevedra ETU Triathlon European Championships (2011-06-25)

2nd place !!!

Cremona ITU Sprint Triathlon European Cup (2011-06-12)

4th place

Well, athletes live doesn´t often go how you´ve planned.

After Yokohama WCS race was postponed, there was open a block of nine weeks to the European championships which I really wanted to focus this year for a great hit out. Actually I got injured right at the end of the first week and couldn´t run for another five.  Even now my leg isn´t all sorted and I still can´t do any specific run training.

But I decided to test both, my injured leg and my swim and bike fitness, on the first ever European Cup in the sprint triathlon in beautiful Italian city Cremona. I knew it would be hard and painful after a big block of base endurance work up in the mountains and lack of the speed for such a short race, especially when lining up on the start line next to the current junior World Champion Ashley Gentle and previous U23 World Champion and a couple of WC podiums Erin Densham, among the other.

I had down to the race the day before with Bart Aernouts (two duathlon world champions in one car that´s impressive:-))), one of my team mates, and our support coach Stew. It wasn´t the best decision, because we didn´t know that all the Germans head down in the same direction for their holidays. At the end our trip took 6,5h instead of 4h:((( But finally me made it, did a bit of spin on the race course and attended the race briefing.

Our race start was quite early (9.30am) considering south European time :))). I was ranked number one for this race, so I had to pick up the spot on the pontoon first which isn´t usually the best. I took the far left side and unfortunately the best swimmers took the far right. This ment I´ve missed the first pack of six. But I´ve settled pretty nicely in the strong second pack and we caught the first one on in the third lap of the bike. The bike course was fantastic, very fast and very technical through the city center. I really liked it (not that much my breaks did when screaming all the time in every turn:-))). Once on the run I started hurting a lot without the run training. But I put everything I had and finally wasn´t too far from the podium.
I must be satisfied with the 4th place after the long time without any running. That reminds me on of my favorite quotes: Winning is giving your best, not a position!

Thanks to all supporters which stay with me in the hard times and to the local organizations for preparing a great event and offering free accommodation and entry fee for the top athletes which is very welcome help for me right now!

I´ll get in touch again after the European Championships in two weeks!

Dextro Energy Triathlon - ITU World Championship Series Madrid (2011-05-26)

Pulled out from the second race of WCS because of injury.

Back to Davos and injured again :((( (2011-05-19)

After a couple of lovely days back home I´m back in action in the swiss mountains for some proper training before the European racing season. Davos didn´t change much over the last year, the hills didn´t get smaller and the fresh snow covered the village one day before my arrival. Welcome back!

There´s still one obstacle in my training – I´m injured again which can´t really make me happy. Unfortunately no one knows what is the problem which makes the treatment very complicated. I would need more time to heal, but right this moment time is my enemy with Madrid WCS knocking at the door.

Changing plans under Yokohama circumstances (2011-04-21)

Ishigaki ITU Triathlon World Cup (2011-04-20)

DNF

From bad to worst :-(

After the long tiring journey from Sydney I made it to the small Japan Island called Ishigaki for my second World Cup event this year. Most of the athletes went straight back home from Sydney, so the field wasn´t too competitive this time and I was ranked 6th (what a big jump just in one week time). Jogging on the pontoon I had it nearly all for myself this time and I was a bit nervous when the girls in front of me made their selection. Finally Kerry Lang and Aileen Morrison lined next to me. Actually, I felt a bit flat after the starting horn and couldn´t stay in their feet. So I made it to the first buoys with about 40 others and the real battle begun. Kicking, grabbing, pulling... non of these make you to swim faster!   And then blackout :-(. Someone hit me into my head and I lost my mind for a sec. Since then I was only  swimming backwards. Finishing the swim the big pack wasn´t far ahead. I really wanted to make it back in to the race but started to feel dizzy and couldn´t keep going. Ending up the race in the medical tent wasn´t really the same as on the podium.
Accepting and learning from the worst of times can help you reach the best of times in the future!

Well done to my training partner Barbara Riveros who collected the last medal next to her previous silver and bronze from her first three races with an impressive win today!

Dextro Energy Triathlon - ITU World Championship Series Sydney (2011-04-10)

37th place

Bad luck in front of the Opera House!

The battle for 2011 World Champion officially kicked off in Sydney this weekend with the first race of the ITU World Championship Series.

The field was stacked with the top 66 athletes in the sport. From Top athletes there was only Nicola Spirig was missing due to her foot injury. It was one of the most competitive field, including Olympic Games in Beijing. My ranking was pretty high (47th) after missing most of the last season due to my injury. Actually, I was surprised that I had so many places for selection when I jogged on the pontoon. I choose 8th spot from the right with a few good swimmer around me. Although, the swim took part in the Farm Cove, it was really choppy again. The swim was a bit rough but I  managed to stay at the end of the main group. And this is the end of the good story from Sydney :-(. Jumping on my bike I´ve lost one of my bike shoe – like in a nightmare. I had to go back, picked up the shoe and restarted. Meanwhile the main pack was all gone. So I got stuck in the second pack and despite Snowsill´s hard work, we started to loose the time each lap. Once on the run with about 40 girls in front, I settled in the group of 4 from my pack and Iwas trying hard to move some spots forward. At the end of the first lap one of the girls behind me tripped my leg and I fall over in really effective tumble in the live broadcast. I was shot after this accident and it was really hard to find some rhythm again. Finishing 37th and watching Paula Findlay winning the race after sprinting with her at the finish line two weeks earlier, wasn´t the result I´ve hoped for.

Well done for the rest of the squad: Barb finishing 2nd, Lisa 9th, Lauren 10th and Vicky 12th!

Mooloolaba ITU Triathlon World Cup (2011-03-27)

5th place

Unable to walk the week before the race, I was just happy to make it to the start line, with no expectation. So my final result was a nice surprise.

Coming from the small country in the middle of Europe I´m not the best in the surf swim. Hitting the first possible pothole, I was left behind immediately after the beach start, and then tried to find my way to move ahead. The choppy swim was crazy. I had no idea where I was and just wanted to survive.

Once on my bike I started to chase the girls in front of me. I felt pretty safe till the first turn where four girls crashed on the slippery road. The downpour didn´t make the hilly bike course easier. The winds also picked up and first slowed down quite a bit in last few laps and we managed to keep the same gap. I was in the lead of my group from T2 and ran solo straight away to possibly catch some girls in front. I was moving front in each lap. I  finally caught Paula Findlay (CAN) sitting in the 4th place on the last turn, 1,2k from the finish lane. We ran side-by-side for last km, I did freshen up a bit and was really excited for the sprint finish. Actually I didn´t have any other gear and Paula out-sprinted me in the last meters. Still I was very glad with my 5th place and fastest run slit of the day after the miserable year full of injuries. 

Well done for the rest of the girls from my squad! Four of us in TOP 10: finishing 3rd Barbara Riveros, 8th Sarah Groff and 9th Lauren Campbell. Great comeback for Lauren after the hard year of serious injury and rehab! She´s definitely one to watch on the circuit this year.

And what´s next? Consistency is the key! Just stay injury free and keep ticking the boxes. In small steps I ´m going forward to my end goal of 2012 London Olympics.

Bad start in to the next week (2011-03-17)

Happy with my New Zealand trip I was straight back in business on Monday. I was hit by huski on my evening run and caused a deep hole in my right knee. As thought that´s not too serious, I had a bike session the next morning, ending up the day with nearly 80km. This wasn´t good for healing and my knee was swollen the next day. I had to go to the hospital and got antibiotics. Not the best preparation for Mooloolaba :(. But I´ll fight to make most of it and be ready for the race horn!

Wellington Triathlon Oceania Championships (2011-03-12)

2nd place

Back into the race swing!
Consistent effort brought me this year first podium on the ITU circuit!

As my trip to New Zealand was a bit messy and I came just the day before the race right for the athlete´s briefing, I felt a bit slack on the race morning. The city immersed in the mist – welcome to  Wellington – famous for it´strong wind and rain. But someone switched the button during the morning and finally we had lovely sunny race on the waterfront.

The swim was held right in the harbor and it was a wetsuit swim as the water temperature was around 17°C. We lined up together with U23 athletes on the pontoon. I had a good start and found myself very front after the first buoy next to my training partner Vicky Holland. I had one of my best swim, exiting water next to Vicky and another world class swimmer Andrea Hewitt and I was very pleased for that. The group of nine formed soon after we jumped on our bikes. Regrettably the biggest medal aspirant Andrea Hewitt had a flat tyre and dropped ot of our pack, which eliminated her from the podium battle. I was afraid to stay in the pack for the whole bike leg after my poor performance in Geelong and I really suffered and couldn´t help to make the pace. Once on the run I found a good rhythm soon after transition and made my way to the lead. Only Vicky accepted my pace and unfortunately didn´t want to work and stayed hidden for the whole 9,5km. Was obvious what would come next. As I didn´t have any other gear to switch in the last hundreds meters, she surged and ran for the victory. I came close second and was very pleased that I put together solid performance in the whole three disciplines. Still there´s much more to work on for the next upcoming races. But every small step stone to reaching the goals counts!

Many thanks to my wonderful homestay Tanya and to the hospitality provided by all involved with the event. New Zealand is a stunning part of the world and I´m looking forward to coming back  again.

Australian National Sprint Championships - Geelong (2011-02-21)

So my first race for this year is done. Not an astonishing result overall, but the right reflection of my current fitness which showed us what we need to work more. Racing unfit and unprepared was exactly what my coach wanted me to do to see how I would cope under the pressure. The race itself was all right but I just wasn´t fit enough after 1,5 month here to race at so high level with the Aussie girls training consistently since November. The race field itself wasn´t too extended in to the quantity but it offered really high quality with three current World Champions: Emma Moffatt (Elite Women), Emma Jackson (Under 23 women) and Ashleigh Gentle (Junior Women) and another three World Cup podium athletes: Kirsten Sweetland (CAN), Lauren Campbell (CAN) and Liz Blatchford (GBR). Most of the girls had already some racing under their belts, which made it tougher for me, too.

I´ve joined one of my training partners Lauren Campbell for my trip to Geelong. When we were waiting at Canberra airport for boarding, Lauren got a text message, that the race might possibly be a duathlon because of bad water quality. I didn´t mind  too much, because to be honest, my current swim is far away from where it was at this time the year ago. But I felt really bad for Lauren, because hers first race was already switched into a duathlon and she made a huge progress in her swim and wanted to test it in the race.  Anyway, one our later when we landed in Melbourne, there was another text message which said that it will be a triathlon for sure. But all the Saturday´s events were canceled and postponed to Sunday. This meant also that our start time was changed. We ´ve rent a car to go down to the Geelong. The small Hyundai Getz proved high quality when we sticked two bike cases inside. Lauren was a driver and me a navigator and surprisingly we had pretty smooth drive to our hotel in Geelong. But the hotel didn´t have any electricity because of the stormy weather which canceled the Saturday´s Triathlon events, too. Luckily we could go into our rooms. It was late afternoon when we finally checked the windy bike course and headed back to our dark hotel. Every room got a flashlight for the night :-). As it was hard to read with the small flashlight, I went to bed quite early and at least had a good relax sleep before the race. Only what disturb my sleep was a sudden noise at 1:30am. The kettle was boiling water, air-condition was on and I  was shocked and didn´t know what happened till I realized the electricity is back again.

As the race supposed to be a wetsuit swim, I hope that´s the way which can safe me :-). So I wasn´t happy at all when they told us an hour before the start that the water temperature is 20,5 °C and that´s non wetsuit swim. This is the worst possible scenario for me with the water temperature right at the edge and chilly air. But I think, we might expect similar condition in London, so it was a good time to try another warm-up in these conditions. I´ve warmed-up in wetsuit, stayed warm till the start call and caught Lauren´s feet straight after the start. Finally the swim which I was the most worried about, was the best part of my race. I stayed nicely sitting in the feet all the way and exited the water within 15s after the first four girls, which Emma Moffat led out. These four girls made it onto the breakaway straight after the swim and we formed the chase pack of six girls. I took a few turns on the top in the first lap, but the pace was too high for me right this moment with just a base endurance and strength work. Unfortunately I dropped of in the second lap :-( and than was riding with two other girls and lost a lot of time. I had a solid run but nothing exceptionable which could move me front.

I don´t have to remember myself that I´m preparing to race in April and May and I face a long season ahead when I want to show some descend consistent performance and not fall apaprt with the injury as last year. So the harder and tougher part of the training is still ahead of me and this wasn´t my final product. I´m looking forward to built more fitness and race better next time and to my biggest potential when the right time comes along.

Honestly, I don´t think, I´ve ever written a longer race report :-).

Slowtwitch Darren Smith Interview (2011-02-16)

Anyone interested about the "secret" in our squad training? :)))

There´s a link for the last interview with our coach Dr. Darren Smith:

www.slowtwitch.com/Interview/Picking_the_brain_of_Darren_Smith_1893.html

Thanks to 2XU!!! (2011-02-15)

Many thanks to 2XU and especially their Sales & Marketing Manager Nicola McDonald for their support!!!

I´m really happy that they decided to support me over the next two years leading up to the London Olympics!

I hope that their top quality gear mixed with Darren´s special skill work will pay of in the future to bring me up to the top level in our sport.

It´s important to feel good during the hard training sessions in the fitting clothes and 2XU compression collection helps me with quick recovery afterwards, too. Most of my time is spent in the pool or track, I can´t afford to dress up in the evening dress and big heels too often, I like to look stylish in 2XU gear during the every day workouts :).

Back Down Under (2011-01-18)

Another year passed really quickly.
I had great time back home over the last couple of months although I had to spent most of the time with my finger rehab and healing the other crashes I suffered during this time.
Now I´m back again in Canberra, Australian Capital, with most of my team mates from Darren Smith´s squad  putting more and more miles in my legs before the new season.
This year will be crucial for the Olympic Qualification because we can earn most of the points in this period.
My only wish is to stay injury free this time and then happier racing will come.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you! (2010-12-24)

End of the season (2010-10-24)

Apologize that I got stuck in the lack of blogging again. Anyway my life since my last post wasn´t much happier.  Actually the downward spiral didn´t stop  :-(((.

When i started recover a bit from my injury, my coach wanted me to do the World Sprint Championships. After a bad swim and a bike leg being far from the leaders I was running like a turtle after 15k of run over the last 2 months. 

So the next retake should be the French Grand Prix Race in Tours. Unfortunately I fell down exiting the water and caused an open fracture of my middle finger on my right hand. First I had to pick up all of my stuff in Davos and then went straight back home where I had a surgery. Wasn´t the easy one beacuse I broke my finger totally. There was  luxation and dislocation in the joint and breaking ligaments as well. The next month in my life was pretty simple – not doing anything :-))). Except catching up with family and friends and don’t even speak about triathlon! It was really refreshing! Now the finger is pretty much healed but the rehab will take a long time to moove it at least 90% of normal.

I´m slowly looking to get back my lost fitness. I can describe the next step in my athlete´s career with this quote: "Starting from zero, got nothing to lose!"

Looking forward to the new challenge!

Short Review (2010-08-05)

I'm keeping this review nice and short because I don't want to bore anyone to death with all the sad stories that have become my experience of triathlon lately! In preparation for the WCS double of Hamburg one week and London the next, I suffered an injury in one of my final run sessions. I don't know exactly what happened, but one minute I was running, the next I was unable to even walk home! Being too late to withdraw from either race or cancel any flights, I went to each race with the mission swimming fast!

Unfortunately I found that when one thing goes wrong in this sport, everything else seems to crumble, with my swim in Hamburg being ok, but disastrous in London. I was unable to finish either race as even hobbling slowly from the water to transition was enough to put my foot under too much stress :-((( Sometimes life run smoothly, sometimes it is a very bumpy ride! Right now I am down, but as they say: "Patience is a virtue" :-)))

One positive note to mention is that my injury has been identified as a stress reaction, not a stress fracture. It's been more than three weeks now of no running however, so it clearly doesn't want to heal quickly!

I do not know what my next race will be, but when I do race again soon it will not be about the result. It will be about seeing steady improvement and remaining injury free! You can't look back, but only put your head down and keep working on what you can do right this moment! And for me, that´s swim, swim and swim, ... :-))). Finally it has to pay off!!!

ETU Triathlon European Championships Athlone (2010-07-06)

11th place

Although this is my best result at the European Champs ever, I can´t be fully satisfied. Srew up the swim, riding second pack, run down to 11th - disappointment.

Back home and on the way again (2010-06-21)

So I must apologize that it has been such a long time since my last update! Unfortunately since stringing together a few disappointing results over the past 6 weeks, I haven't been too motivated to write any disappointing updates :-)

After six months in the sunny Southern hemisphere, I finally returned to my beautiful home and family in Nachod, Czech Republic. Hoping that the weather would stay nice and warm leading into summer, I was quite shocked to be training in constant rain most of the time! It was great to see all of my friends and family again, visit lovely places, train in quiet locations and eat unhealthy Czech food :-))). During my time back in the Czech Republic I was constantly travelling out to races around Europe, and the combination of travel, training in the cold weather, and being busy took its toll on my body, making me very sick for a week or so. The sickness came at a bad time, as I had to race in the Dunkerque French Grand Prix in mid May during its peak, which only made matters worse!

Possibly the best part of arriving home, however, was finding that the deliveries from my dream sponsors had arrived in the form of new product from ASICS and Specialized. They could not have come at a better time, with my old bikes handlebars breaking during the travel to Europe.

Leading into the third World Champ Series race in Madrid I was starting to feel much better. With my health back to full strength I was enjoying the preparation for another tough race and I was ready to fight again! Unfortunately this was not to be my day and I had a hard battle out on the race course, missing the first two swim packs and entering the end of the bike leg two minutes behind the lead bunch. I ran my own pace from start to finish just trying to pass as many girls as possible, but only managed to work my way up to 19th, clocking the 6th fastest run split in the process. Although this race was another disappointment, in the long run it will make me stronger and I walked away from it with many lessons to take away and improve upon next time!

Straight from Madrid I travelled to Davos, Switzerland, to meet up with my training squad for a big block of altitude training in the beautiful Swiss Alps. I am now based here for the next three months, just travelling away for the big races, and I am looking forward to a big block of hard work in lovely surroundings. The only downside is that arriving here believing I had left the bad weather behind me, I have not been too impressed to be doing my 4 hour rides in the pouring rain and even a 2 hour run on the weekend in the minus temperatures with snow! I am hoping for some sunshine to come soon, but am definitely enjoying the challenge of surviving the elements at this stage! Anyway, you know the saying, "Train hard: win easy"... So now all my focus is on coming out of this disappointing race block and turning my fortunes around with a good performance at the Europeans Championships in two weeks.

ITU World Championship Series Sydney (2010-04-12)

DNF



You can´t have it all!

After coming into my first World Champ Series race of 2010 with a win two weeks earlier in Mooloolaba, I was feeling nervous but quietly confident for a great race. But as fate would have it, today things did not go in my favour at all.

The swim, which went around Farm Cove right next to the famous Sydney Opera House, went quite well for me this time! I exited the water 40 seconds off the leaders pace, but felt confident being in a pack of girls who were all strong riders. By the end of the second bike lap, we were able to bridge the gap to the front pack, and at this moment I was very happy to be in the big race in the exact position I had been hoping for!

Unfortunately I’d had a very bad feeling from the beginning of the bike that my back wheel had been breaking all the time. Whenever I looked back and checked my brakes, they were open so I thought I had to be crazy! :)

However, when the whole pack started riding away from me on the next uphill I was really starting to worry, as I didn´t know what was going on. I knew that the pace wasn’t as fast as it seemed, and I also knew that I wasn’t this unfit! I put my head down and did another lap on my own until I joined the second pack. On one of the U-Turns in this pack, I finally got hit with the worst feeling that any athlete fears in any race, my fears had been correct, and the brakes were locked on and my wheel had effectively fallen half way out of the frame! I didn’t know what had happened exactly, but it was clear that my Sydney race was over. After looking closely after the race, I noticed my skewer was completely loose L I will be sure to check my skewer once more next time!

It seems that I´m saying this again but what can I do when all the rest of my squad had such an awesome performance. First time WCS win for Chilean “chica” Barbara Riveros, thrilling sprint finish for the fifth place between Lisa Norden and Kate Roberts, and best British result for Vicky Holland at 10th. Not to mention two other girls in TOP 20. Keep going girls! I hope to be up there waving the squad flag high next time round!

Mooloolaba ITU Triathlon World Cup (2010-03-29)

1st place



Well what more could I ask for... Mooloolaba this year was able to provide me with the most amazing way to start my 2010 ITU season! I was not only able to win the first World Cup of the year, but for me personally, I was able to record my first ever World Cup victory :)

After 5 months of consistent training in Australia I was very excited to compare my fitness levels with those of the other top athletes in the world at the first World Cup of the year. Although I was able to get the result I hoped for, not everything went perfectly according to plan on race day.

During my warm up I twisted my already swollen ankle exiting the surf and as I was on the start line and running into the water after the beach start all I could think about was how I could try to  block out the pain! Anyway, ankle pain aside, once the swim was underway I positioned myself quite well and was able to find a good pack to settle into despite the constant choppy conditions. Finally I left the water about 1:20 behind the leaders.

Onto the bike the chase begun straight away! Sitting in the second pack I was able to partner with Canada's Kirsten Sweetland to try and create an organised chase, but the group as a whole was not working together very smoothly, which made for a constantly hard effort. By the end of the bike leg we were able to close the gap on the leaders down to about 35 seconds, but I was still worried about how much the hard ride may have taken out of my legs!

When I got out of transition I knew that there were lots of quality athletes ahead of me, but if I´d do my best then nothing is impossible! I started my run pretty slow but caught some of the girls from the first pack very early. Each lap I would catch more girls, and because I had this motivation to keep catching, I just felt as though I could block out the pain and keep running through the field!

At the start of the final lap I was in 4th and knew that catching these final girls would be a very hard task! Holding the pace I quickly made my way up to the second position and made the final surge about 800m to go. When I took the lead I didn´t look back and just gave everything I had all the way to the line. In doing this, I was able to achieve the first ever World Cup victory for a female Czech athlete. This means a huge amount to me and I am very proud of this result :)

Well done for the rest of the girls from our squad as well. I moved Kate Roberts out of the podium to the 4th place, Sarah Groff finished 5th and Vicky Holland 12th. Very solid effort from a great squad of good friends :)

Gatorade Queensland Tri Series - Raby Bay (2010-03-02)

1st place

Finally, I got my first win of the season! :)

The race was another non-traditional racing format, staged at Raby Bay in Queensland as part of the Gatorade Triathlon Series.The format was a Triple Super Sprint, where we had to contest a 250m swim, 5km bike and 1.5km run three times at intervals that allowed about fifteen minutes recovery between each race. As the key to this race is being able to hold a very fast pace and have good transitions, I had to make sure not to get left behind through the transitions like I did in the first race of this series in Caloundra!
Due to a lot of transition training over the past 2 weeks I was able to master this component of the race this time around. I ended the day with two wins in the 1st and 3rd races and a fourth place in the 2nd race, which was good enough to secure victory.
Well done for our squad again with all TOP 4 female finishers plus Sarah Groff in 7th place. Vicky Holland and Barbara Riveros shared 2nd place with equal points, and Kate Roberts finished in 4th. Don´t forget the boys - Dave Matthews finished 2nd with a strong performance and Andreas Giglmayr finished 8th in the male competition.

All focus and hard training now turns to the Mooloolaba World Cup being held on 28th March, and then the first race of the World Championship Series in Sydney on April 11th.

Contact Tri Series Takapuna (2010-02-21)

2nd place

After three months in Australia, it was time to renew my tourist visa so I figured that a trip to Takapuna to contest the race over there in New Zealand was a perfect way to keep Australian Immigration happy. And as it turned out, I had an amazing time there so it was a very nice trip!

The race itself was just short of sprint distance, and was televised in New Zealand as part of its National Series. We had a couple squad members head over for the race, as well as competition from a strong Kiwi team, so the race proved to be very fast! I had a good swim and joined the leading group of six straight after T1, but straight away on the bike the pace was on as we had to chase down one of my training partners, Great Britain's Vicky Holland. The bike was very technical on a 10 lap course for only 16km of riding. I found it very hard to settle into a steady rhythm, and had to really hurt myself to keep in touch with the pack.
Through T2 and out onto the run our group of 6 quickly became 5. The pace was high but I felt relatively comfortable. After one lap we were down to four. It was obviuos that no one else was going to drop off and that the winner will be decided in a sprint finish.With the finish line in about 200m to go Vicky made the first surge. I acclerated and joined her to run side by side in the final stages, but her speed proved too much and I was able to finish a very close second. Andrea Hewitt finished in third, and my other training partner Kate Roberts ended up in 6th place, rounding out a great day for our training squad, although I don't think the Kiwi girls were too happy that we took away their home victory!

The most enjoyable part of the whole trip, however, was being allocated to a homestay who acted as my "weekend family" that I shared with Kate Roberts. Many thanks Pam and Niguel Seebold for welcoming us into their home and making our stay so enjoyable and unforgettable.

Caloundra QLD Triathlon Series (2010-02-11)

5th place

Training in Australia is going really quickly and the beginning of the races season is coming soon.
After the cancellation of the Challenge Series we desided to do a couple of races from the  Queensland Triathlon Series as a good preparation leading up to the ITU WC and WCS races.
First race we did, was on the Sunshine Coast in Caloundra. This race was an Enduro format event 2x (300m -7km-1,8km) which I´ve done just once in my life before. This is an unique style of racing different to what we normally do.
Sunshine Coast didn´t do a good credit to it´s name. There was a heavy torrential downpour at the race day. The race conditions were therefore really tough.
I didn´t have a good start of the race. Two girls crashed infront of me when we jumped on the bikes after the first swim. There wasn´t any space for me to go around and I´ve crashed, too. At this moment I was nearly the last one of the field and I had to start to chase the leaders. But in this type of race every second counts and the leaders were far away.
Finally I had pretty strong performance and crossed the finish line on 5th. It was a good practice for more important races and I really enjoyed it
Well done for the rest of the squad! Kate Roberts won our race, Dave Matthews came 3rd in the men race and Andreas Giglmayr finished 8th.

New Year – New Challenge (2010-01-05)

It's going to be a big change for me in the next race season. I´ve made quite a big decsion when I´ve moved from the comfort of my former training base and made a big step to the final improvement when I´ve joined one of the best triathlon squads in the world coached by the Australian, Dr. Darren Smith. So at this moment I´m „getting tan“ in Canberra, the capital of Australia. This is my first winter without the snow when I can put 100% into the training in all three disciplines. This is already proving to be a successful partnership changing my former training directions, and seeking out every area of further improvement. A strong work ethic and world class training partners keep each of us athletes striving to do our very best on a daily basis. There are no miracle cures, but we have a feeling that great things will be realised in the next season of racing.
I just don't want to look back after London 2012 and question whether I did everything I could for the best performance. It was a tough desicion, but I´m certain it's the right one. You can´t give up on your dreams until you know that you’ve exhausted every possibility and that you can’t give anymore.
Training is going well and my fitness level is increasing every day with some pretty hard sessions, I´ve never done before. But pain times are good times :-).
I’m really excited for this new challenge!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you! (2009-12-20)

ITU Triathlon Premium European Cup Alanya (2009-10-26)

DNF

My last race of this season wasn´t like I wanted. I didn´t have a good swim because insted of swim I had to fight all the way with the girl next to me :(. When I pulled away she joined me and touched me again. I was desperate and resigned step down. I started to push as hard as I could immidiately on the bike. But I started tu suffer a lot as well. I felt bigger and bigger pain in my back in each lap. Finaly I strached the race in the last lap. It was a wice decision because I have only one health.

Hong Kong ITU Triathlon Premium Asian Cup (2009-10-17)

1st place

I really like this place! I couldn´t miss the race in Hong Kong Disneyland this year.
I don´t like so much the race start at 6:45, but maybe it´s better because of the later heat. (Really crazy when there´s snowing in Czech at the same time :).
We made a lead group of six girls immidiately after the swim and we did the whole cycle part together. I was first out of the T2 but Yulia Sapunova joined me soon. We were running together for a while but she dropped off on the 3k. Then I could run my own pace till the fininsh line. It´s nice to win after the two third places here.
Not a great experience was another missed flight on the way home and extra 12 hours at Frankfurt airport :(. I don´t know why a lot of people think that travelling is  funny.

Mizuno Running Cup Pribram (2009-10-05)

1st place

Just for a faster training I took part in the 4,7k race in Pribram. It was really nice race with a fast course. I could keep the pace with the first boys for such a long time and felt comfortable until the finish line.

Duathlon World Championships (2009-09-26)

1st place !!!

It was really interesting race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in North Carolina, where the two sports of duathlon and motor racing came together on the oval banked track as the elite competitors slipstream each other as if battling in the Indy 500 or NASCAR Series. The smooth paved 1.5 mile loop provided an unique technical aspect to the bike course which was unparalleled to any previous world championship venue. The speedway’s infield features a smooth twisty road that was incorporated into both the bike and run sections of the event. So the race course was very fast.
I didn´t feel well in the first 10k run. I nearly droped off in the last lap and I really didn´t think about the win in this moment. Luckily a 40k bike in and out of the Lowe’s Motorspeedway didn’t provide much drama with one large group coming together and staying together. No one wanted to go hard and the girls were cautius because the road was very slippery. Most of the girls were just waiting for the final five kilometre run. I had a smooth traninsiton putting me immidiately to the lead. Sandra Levenez caught me about 500m before finish line. I could rest for a little bit and put the final bump into the sprint finish. It was great to win this race after the up and down season. I hope I´ll follow this race in the triathlon events next year, too.

Dextro Energy Triathlon - ITU World Championship Grand Final Gold Coast (2009-09-13)

18th place

Tady the swim was like a lottery. Choppy water, strong current. But I had one of my best swim (definitely the best in the big race) and left the water with the main group of athletes. Three bike groups created at the beginning of the bike. Regretably I was in the third one (this is only one mistake of my race). Our pack was the biggest and wasn´t organised well. We lost time to both packs ahead in the second part of the bike and were over two minutes behind the lead group by the end of the ride. I tried to push very hard on the beginning of the run but I couln´t keep this pace for the whole time. At least I could move to the Top 20.
I´ve finished 23rd overall in the WCS. I´m sorry to miss one good race for the total counted races which could move me higher.

Kedzierzyn-Kozle ITU Triathlon Premium European Cup (2009-08-30)

1st place

At once following day I took part in the European Cup in Poland. My legs really weren´t so fresh. The swim was terrible. I didn´t experience such an awful swim for a long time. There was too much fight and I was nearly last at the first buoy. Then I separated from the pack and was swimming alone along the other girls. This mooved me at least a bit front but still far behind the leaders. So I spent the bike in the second pack losing valuable seconds. As soon as I found myself on the run I started to catch the leaders. I was mooving ahed every lap. Finally I settled down on the first place around the 9k mark. I was very happy to win here again. This race is one with the best athmosphere and cheering crowds. 

National Team Track & Field Championships (2009-08-29)

2nd place 3.000m
4th place 1.500m

I did the "double" at the National Track &  Field Team Championships like the years before to help my team to catch a good place. I had one of my worst 3k run. I didn´t feel well and was really disappointed with my performance. I wondered to cancell 1,5k afterwards but of course I didn´t :)- Finally 1,5k was very slow and tactical race and I could stay with the best till the last 200m. I finished fourth just behind two semifinalist from Berlin World Championships and this year National Champion. I really didn´t have their speed in the end but 1,5k repaired my mood :). My team finished 4th overall like the last year.

Dextro Energy Triathlon London - ITU World Championship Series (2009-08-15)

42th place

I spent ten lovely days full of great training in Spain together with Chilean Barbara Riveros. I brought off to stabilize my swim and was really looking for the race. I still can´t make out what I did during the swim part :-(. It was one of my worst achievements. Really disaster :-( I was very dissapointed.  Now I keep on in hard training to be prepared better for the Grand Final!

National Championships Series Melnik (2009-08-01)

1st place

Comfortably win in the third round of the National Serie. Which means that I´m the National Champion for this year!

Dextro Energy Triathlon Hamburg - ITU World Championship Series (2009-07-25)

DNF

Too much races, no time for training and recovery – That´s the way to hell.
I felt really tired and had no energy before the race :-(. My swim was poor and when the torrential rain started on the bike I was immidiately frozen. And this was end of my race :-(.

Brno ITU "Triathlon" European Cup (2009-07-18)

6th place

The race full of bad luck for me :-(
Due to the torrential rain in the Czech Republic, the surface of the river Svratka (where should be the swim part of the race) was very high and the water flow was on the second level of the flood risk. The technical delegate canceled the swim part. So the duathlon race was on the programme for today. Well, the duathlon isn´t any disaster for me :-). We did a very comfortable first 5k run and cycled in the group of six. It wasn´t fun in such a heavy rain. Regretably I had the flat tyre in the third lap. I couldn´t gave up on thehome soil! The wheel stop was quite far away and I was really scared on the course with more than 80 cornes. So I had to go very slowly for the next 7k. It was the first time when I´ve changed the wheel during the race. It was really funny (not for me, but for the spectators, sure:-). So in this time the second group passed me, too. I caught them in the next lap and went on in the second group which had the three minutes gap in the second transition :-(. The next step for me was to run easy because the podium was far away and save as much power as possible for the next week for Hamburg WCS.

Dextro Energy Triathlon Kitzbühel - ITU World Championship Series (2009-07-12)

9th place

Another 9th place after Tongyeong
After the disappointed European Championships I´m happy to get back into the TOP 10 in WCS.
Kitzbühel is one of Austria's best known and fanciest winter sport resorts. The Hahnenkamm is home of the annual world cup ski races, including the circuit's most important event, the downhill race on the famous Streif slope. This downhill is counted as one of the hardest downhill competitions in the world cup. But the triathlon race here is cool as well.
I didn´t have the best swim but I went out of the water next to the new European Champion Nicola Spirig who is really strong cyclist. We caught the lead group in the beginning of the third lap.Then the pace was a little bit slower and everone was waiting for the run. I felt the lack of the training in the last 10k. When I got into my rhythm I was running in the group for 6th place. Regretably I couldn´t keep the pace to the finish line and I finished 9th.
I´ve moved to the 13th place in the continual WCS.

Rich photogalery here:
http://marav.rajce.idnes.cz/Triatlon_Kitzbuhel_2009/

European Championships (2009-07-05)

22nd place

I was ill after the Wahington WCS and I couldn´t train :-(. I was really thinking to go to the Europeans or not. Finally I´ve decided to try it. Regardless I was very weak it was good to feel the race pace again. But I´ve lost everything in the water. I lost 1:15 in the swim but what was the worst that all the best girls were in the front group. They worked together on the bike and I´ve lost 2 more minutes :-(. So the race was over for me. Insted of this I had pretty good run just to feel comfortable and cross the finish line.

Dextro Energy Triathlon Washington- ITU World Championship Series (2009-06-22)

DNF

Shit happens :-(.
I had really bad time in the USA. All started already at the airport in Prague when I missed my flight. I had to go one day later and I didn´t have enough time to recover :-(. I suffered with the jet lag and I couldn´t show anything which I was training for.

German Bundesliga Witten (2009-06-13)

1st Individual Super Sprint Race (Results made from the Team Relay)
3rd Team Relay
3rd Team Race

I had a lovely time in Germany together with my team Krefelder Kanu Klub. All the race was situated in to the 1,2km bike loop and it was really very fast, tough but enjoyable as well. Our team was satisfied with the final position and me as well with the win which showed that I have a necessary speed.

You can watch the video record from all the Bundesilga races here:
http://www.dtu-info.de/videos.html

Zepter International Triathlon - 1st race of the National Championship Series (2009-06-07)

1st place

Quite comfortable win on the home soil, despite of the bike crash.

2nd Round Athletics National Extraliga (2009-06-06)

1st place 3.000m - 9:39,34
3rd place 1.500m - 4:31,54

Another speed training for me :-). Regretably the peace for the 3km was quite slowly, so I couldn´t make a better time.
Our team finished 4th as well as the 1st round.

Dextro Energy Triathlon Madrid - ITU World Championship Series (2009-31-05)

15th place

It´s not some brilliant result, but any failure, too.
I had a solid swim in the first lap, regretably I didn´t retain it for the second lap. The hilly bike course was too hard for me today. My legs really suffered a lot and weren´t so fresh for the run. The run was quite bad for me. I´m happy that I´ve finished at all.

1st Round Athletics National Extraliga (2009-06-06)

2nd place - 1.500m – 4:28,01

I´ve helped my team in the National Athletics Competition with the second place in the 1.500m run. It was very solid time for me and one day after the sprint triathlon I was satisfied. I joined the relay for 4 x 400m, too :-). It wasn´t really my distance :-) but we still didn´t finish last :-). I contributed with the points from both of my runs to the 4th place of our team.

Realiz Asics Triathlon – Slovak Republic Championship in sprint triathlon (2009-23-05)

1st place

I´ve won the Slovak National Championship in sprint triathlon. It was really nice race near the capital city in Senec. The place´s called Gold Sands and it was really lovely. It was quite comfortable win for me when I separated from the lead group of four girls in the beginning of the run.

New Partner – Suunto (2009-21-05)

Finish brand Suunto becomes my new sponsor. It provides me t6 watch desined special for triathlon to monitor my heart rate, speed, distance and cadence during the trainings. I hope it will help me to improve my training procces and contribute to the best results.
Many thanks to Suunto and its exclusive importer for the Czech Republic – Amer Sports.

Dextro Energy Triathlon Tongyeong - ITU World Championship Series (2009-05-03)

9th place

I can be really satisfied with the TOP 10 result in my first races of this season.
I had good position for the swim next to Helen Jenkins, last year World Champion. Surprisingly I could swim next to her nearly for the first swim lap. Later when I fell in to the scuffle, my swim was getting worse. I found myself in a small group, about 30 seconds down from the large lead pack after the swim. We caught the girls front by the 2nd lap. Then nobody wanted to work on the top and all the good runners stayed tactically behind. I did quite a lot on the top so my legs weren´t absolutly fresh for the run. I did a solid run, regretably I didn´t show my best one. Finally it was 9th position after the missing sprint fimish with Samantha Warriner :-).

Gernika-Lumo (2009-04-20)

1st place International Duatlon

Training Camp Lanzarote (2009-04-12)

If I´ll have enough power I´ll put the report soon :-))).

10K Run Pečky (2009-03-14)

1st place - 36:19

Not so good time but I´m still very tired from the training camp. The main goal in this training race was only keep a steady pace for whole distance which I´ve fulfilled. Even the second 5K were a little bit faster than the first one.

Training Camp South Africa (2009-03-13)

Coming soon... :-)))

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !!! (2008-12-21)

Free time! (2008-12-10)

I had a three weeks off from the training. It was a lovely time and I enjoyed every moment of my holiday. I did a lot of things which I can´t do during the year because of lack of time. I´ve met a lot of my friends and of course started my Christmas shoping :-).I hate to shop just before Christmas when every shop is crowded.
But this nice time whiped along too fast.

Degree Ceremony (2008-11-18)

Immediatly I came back from Hong Kong I had the final degree ceremony at the Charles University. I got my Master's degree and Officially finished my university studies.

Hong Kong (2008-11-17)

2nd místo Aquathlon Asian Championships
3rd místo Hong Kong ITU Triathlon Asian Cup

I had a lovely time in Hong Kong. I stayed in a beautiful Disneyland Hotel in the Disneyland Resort. It was a wonderful place. Especially the visit of the Disney Park was brilliant :-). The race wasn´t easy for me because I didn´t train much before because the season is coming to the end and the winter is coming to the Czech Republic. So I was quite satisfied with the third place. We mooved to the next hotel called the Gold Coast Hotel after the triathlon race. Other lovely place where I did the Asian aquathlon Championships the next day. It was really hard. Something special for me because I´ve never done any aquathlon before. The race was much more shorter than the triathlon but also much more faster :-). I was very sad to leave the sunny Hong Kong.

Korea (2008-11-02)

1st place International Triathlon Incheon

We got the invitation from the bronze Olympic Sydney medalist Jan Rehula, who is now the coach of the Korean Triathlon representation, to the International Race to Korea. I flew there straight from Mexico and it was a huge shock for the organism because there were only 16°C. We did very cold race there. The organisation was wery good and everything was prepered like the ITU Race. I cought some light flu in the plane so i wasn´t 100% fit for the race. Finaly I did quite well according my healt (stav) so I was very happy for the first place.

Huatulco BG Triathlon World Cup (2008-10-26)

7th place Huatulco BG Triathlon World Cup

The final World Cup Event this year was hold in Mexico. It´s really hard for the European people to prepare for such hot race in the late date in calendar because the weather in our country wasn´t so (příznivý) for training. This season was really long and that´s the reason why wasn´t a lot of participants at the lase WC. I had really bad swim and this was end of my (naděje) for better final place. I did the hardest bike I´ve ever seen nerly alone. It was really (ďábelské). The high tempereture and cruel hill  eight times from each side costed everyone a lot of power. There wasn´t any chance to improve my position on the run so I could run quite slowly and comfortably cross the
finish line at the 7th place.
This points helped me to reach the 20th place in the final World Cup Ranking 2008. It´s very good because I´ve counted only 3 races from the 8 possible. This place (zajistit) me start at the first races in the new World Championchips Series next year.

The Great Cross-Country Pardubice (2008-10-19)

1st place The Great Cross-Country Pardubice 5,7km - 21:15

The final run race I did before the last series of the triathlon ones was a special cross-country called the Great Cross-Country Pardubice. It´s held on the same place as the famous horce-race called The Great Pardubice. There´s lot of time every time. This year I had a dramatic finish and I´ve won just only a few centimetres.

Houšťka Run (2008-10-16)

Cross country Run 6km - 20:38

I did another training run today. It was the great cross country weather - rain. So there were a lot of mud everywhere :-). I was running alone with the men because the distance for the woman race was only 1.500m. I finished 3rd in the men field. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoy this type of training.

Metuje Awards (2008-10-11)

1st place Road Race for 10km - 36:01

Metuje Awards is the title of one of the traditional race in the East of Bohemia. The run takes place in the picturesque valley of the river Metuje and had the turn in the peculiar village called The Hell :-). It´s really nice run. I didn´t run my best time this year but it was because of the strong men field. I couldn´t keep their pace in the beginning and I was running alone from the 2nd km. But it was really good training.

Sport photo 2008 (2008-10-04)

If there´s someone reading my web who is going to Prague in the close time, there is one tip for him. The traditional exhibition called Sport photo is held at the  Old Town hall in Prague from the 2nd October to the 2nd November. There´s a lot of photos from the Olympic Games and one of them is mine :-).

Lorient BG Triathlon World Cup (2008-09-27)

DNF Lorient BG Triathlon World Cup

Regretably today wasn´t so shiny like the Wednesday. After one of my best swim ever, I had to withdraw The World Cup from the first group. The pain in my back was so strong that I couldn´t continue in the race. I´m really very disappointed because there was a huge opportunity for the good result.

Graduation (2008-09-24)

I´m one of the happiest people now. After successful defence of the dissertation last Thursday, I´ve passed the final examinations at The Charles University today. And now quickly to enjoy the leisure time :-).

Other „double“ weekend (2008-09-14)

Liberec (2008-09-14)

2nd place (Cross-country run 6,7km)

I took part at the Cross-country run on Sunday. It was the hardest cross I´ve ever did and I was really happy to see the finish line. Again after the girl who beated me on Saturday :-). The run was interesting because it took place at the courses for the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 and we got the medals from the Torino Olympic Gold Medalist Katerine Neumannova.

Prague (2008-09-13)

8th place Tesco Night Grand Prix (5km Run)

It was a nice experience to run in the night Prague over the Charles Bridge (one of the oldest bridges in Europe) and around the other historical sites in Prague. I was 8th in the strong foreign field with a super time for me 16:13 (PB for 5km). It was a fast race from the beginning, totaly different than the run after the bike :-). I only regret a little bit to miss the first Czech woman in the finish just for 5s.

Crowded weekend (2008-09-07)

Kedzierzyn-Kozle ITU Triathlon Premium European Cup (2008-09-07)

1st place ITU Triathlon Premium European Cup

I´ve shifted to Poland on Sunday morning quite tired . I didn´t know what to expect from the race because my leg weren´t so fresh. I went out of the water just few seconds behind the leaders and I´ve caught them in the first bike kilometre. I felt very week on the bike so I was carefull in the beginning of the run. But the pace of the other girls was really slow. I pushed away at the 2nd kilometre and I could enjoy the rest of the run in the comfortable pace till the finish line.

National Team Track & Field Championships (2008-09-06)

I took part at the National Team  Track &  Field Championships on Saturday. I was second in both my runs for 3.000m and 1.500m. Better not mentioned the times:-). Both were quite slow races where the points are more important than the real time. Finaly my team was 4th.

National Championships (2008-08-30)

1st place National Championships

I didn´t train much after the Olympics. All the more I was surprised, how easy was the National Champs. I had a comfortable swim in the first group. The bike wasn´t so hard and my final run was quite fast :-). 35:24 on the hilly course. I had to be contented.
It´s my third victory at the National Champs in one row. 

Back home (2008-08-23)

I´ve enjoyed a few more days in Beijing. It was wonderful.
19th I was watching the men race. I didn´t remeber so thrilling race. It was dramatic to the last metres. I´m very happy for all of the medallist (definetely for the women as well) but dashed for Javier Gomez, too.
I´ve visited the Bird Nest three times and I´ve seen the  World Record twice. There vere phantastic athmosphere and it was so interesting to see the world-known athletes which I´ve seen only in TV before.
Regretably I had to go home already at 21st August. I still didn´t decided how I´ll continued the rest of the season. But now my biggest goal is to finish my studies at University in September.

Olympic Games (2008-08-23)

23rd Olympic Games Beijing 2008

Thanks a lot to my coach who helped me to realized my child´s dream and prepared for the Olympic Games!
I had a really good start of the swim and I suprised myself how front I was at the first buoy. But than someone draw me down and I missed the first pack:-(.This was the end of the TOP 10 dreams. After the swim I was 1 minute back in the group of good cyclist. We pushed hard to get to the second group but than the pace failed and we went to the T2 with 2 minutes loss. I tried to run my best but it was very hard on the hilly course when I´ve overburned the beginning. I crossed the finished line 23rd with the mixed feelings. I did the Czech woman maximum at the Olympics but I know that it could be much more better.

Beijing (2008-08-16)

I´ve shifted to Beijing on 15th August. Because there wasn´t any more free place at the board we flew in the first class:-). We´ll stay in the Olympic Village for the whole time. It´s really very nice place where you can meet a lot of interesting and famous people. Indeed, there´s the large eating room where you can choose what you want:-).

Training Camp Jeju (2008-08-05)

3rd August I´ve boarded the plane to Asia. I spent the last couple of days before the Olympics in South Korea. A lot of other athletes unpicked the same location for the final preparation, for example Americans, Germans and Spaniards. It was very good place for acclimatization because of the high temperatures and humidity. I did a few good workouts there and took a lot of rest before the race.

World Cup Tiszaujvaros (2008-07-13)

6th place Tiszaujvaros BG Triathlon World Cup

After very bad swim I was cycling in the second pack. Our group didn´t cooperate well so we were more than 4 minutes back in the T2 with no chance to get to the top. I finished 6th after the second fastest run. I was quite dissapointed because my swimming was going well before the race. The race has fantastic athmosphere as usual and I tried racing in very hot weather which is the best preparation for the Olympic Games.

Holten ITU Triathlon European Cup (2008-06-28)

3rd place

After the hectic week of recovery from my injuries from Schliersee but also some hard workouts I was very tired before the race. The final result is a testament of this.

Schliersee ITU Triathlon European Cup (2008-06-21)

DNF

I had a bike crash during the race. And that was end :-(. Regretably I had only some scratches but my bike is  immobile now :-(.

World Championships (2008-06-13)

36th place Vancouver BG Triathlon World Championships

The weather in Vancouver wasn´t very cheerful to the athletes.I was looking forward to the race and my final training was going very well but I didn´t experience such a chilly race. The water temperature was 12°C and the air was 11°C. My body was frozen hard that I only wanted to finished healthful. I can´t be satisfied with the final result.

Poděbrady (2008-06-01)

3rd place - Czech Cup (Sprint Triathlon)

I did for the training the Czech Cup sprint triathlon before the World Championships. I was very tired after the 14 days of hard work so I had to settle for the third place.

Photogallery (2008-05-24)

There are a lot of new photos in the gallery after the long time.

ITU Triathlon European Cup Brno (2008-05-19)

Another bad day for me. Still not fit after the influenza I had to start in the native race in Brno. I was too weak to finish my run this day.

European Championships Lisbon (2008-05-08)

I´m very sorry but I got the flu two days before the race. I had to stay in the hotel bed and watch the race in TV. It was really depresing.

Pardubice (2008-30-04)

Another training run race
1st place - 33:27 (9,6km)

World Cup (2008-04-26)

3rd place Tongyeong BG Triathlon World Cup Tongyeong

The race in Korean Tongyeong was my first World Cup this year. I didn´t expected so great race. I finished third and I´m very delighted with my result and whole performance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7yAzCLl7sk

International Sprint Duathlon Gernika-Lumo (2008-04-20)

1st place Sprint Duathlon Gernika-Lumo

Training camp JAR (2008-04-12)

I came back from South Africa after the four weeks training.

Pecky (2008-03-09)

First training run for 10 km - 1st place in the time 35:21

Training Camp Lanzarote (2008-03-09)

14. – 28.2.2008 in the Club La Santa

PF 2008 (2007-12-23)

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

World Cup (2007-10-09)

3rd place Rhodes BG Triathlon World Cup

National Championships Road Race 10km (2007-10-09)

2nd place 111. ročník závodu Běchovice - Praha

Asian Cup (2007-09-23)

3rd place Hong Kong ITU Asian Cup

World Cup (2007-09-15)

34th place Peking BG Triathlon World Cup

National Athletics Team Championships (2007-09-08)

3rd place - team Hvězda SKP Pardubice
1st place run 3.000m - 9:31.26
3rd place run 1.500m - 4:32.87