Podersdorf winner and the fastest Czech half-distance time
Austria Triathlon Podersdorf 2026 — champion. I won in 3:32:05 and set the fastest Czech time over the 70.3 distance. It was decided only in the last two kilometres of the half marathon, head to head with the Austrian triathlon legend Michael Weiss.
I came out of the water in 23:42 (1:15/100 m). On the bike I took the race into my own hands — I led it almost the whole way. It was a risk, but my legs were excellent and I rode the performance of my life: 90 km in 1:51:49 at an average of 45.8 km/h, at a normalised power of 348 W and a heart rate of 150.
That ride gave me three performance records at once — 352 W for 60 minutes, 346 W for 90 minutes and a personal best over the whole bike course. Not in a lab test, but in the middle of a race. I held the power by feel; that feel rested on a form that kept growing and that the data kept confirming. Without them it is only courage.
That my legs would still work on the run after a ride like that surprised even me. I ran the whole half marathon side by side with Michael Weiss. It was settled only in the final two kilometres, in a series of attacks from both of us — and in the end by nineteen seconds.
The three starts of this season show it best. Most: 43.4 km/h, 335 W, heart rate 146, run 3:41/km. Hradec Králové: 44.9 km/h, 334 W, heart rate 148, run 3:41/km. Podersdorf: 45.8 km/h, 348 W, heart rate 150 — and a run at 3:32/km. That is what form that keeps growing looks like.
The performance in data
The result is one thing, the numbers behind it another. This is the whole race as the power meter and the watch recorded it — exactly the data I then build the next block of training on. Nothing touched up, just what is in TrainingPeaks.
Swim · 1.9 km
23:42 · average heart rate 129
| Average heart rate | 129 | Peak of 155 — and only in the final third. |
| Intensity (hrIF) | 0.66 | Two thirds of threshold. You do not win a race in the water, you only lose one. |
| 500 m splits by watch | 7:19 · 8:09 · 7:48 | The middle one into the chop. An open-water GPS trace is always an approximation. |
I came out of the water at around 130 beats. That is the whole trick — the swim cost me almost nothing, and everything I had was still there for the bike.
Bike · 90 km
1:51:49 · 45.8 km/h · 348 W
| Normalised power | 348 W | Average 342 W, that is 4.3 W/kg for the full distance. |
| Intensity (IF) | 0.93 | Ninety-three per cent of threshold for nearly two hours. A half is usually ridden at 80–85 %. |
| Variability (VI) | 1.02 | The whole race is in this number: 90 km on the front and still essentially a flat time trial. |
| Heart rate | 150 | Maximum 162, minimum 135. Power-to-heart-rate drift 5.6 %. |
| Cadence | 82/min | Out of the saddle 25 times, four and a half minutes in total — only turns and corners. |
| Work done | 2,290 kJ | At 24 °C and over 226 metres of climbing. |
The most valuable number is the variability of 1.02. Riding on the front means having nobody to hide behind, and it tempts you into surging. An even effort is exactly what is left over for the run.
Run · 21.1 km
1:13:23 · average 3:32 /km
| Segment | Time | Pace | HR |
|---|---|---|---|
| km 1–5 | 17:27 | 3:29 | 151 |
| km 6–10 | 17:40 | 3:32 | 153 |
| km 11–15 | 17:57 | 3:35 | 153 |
| km 16–19 | 14:41 | 3:40 | 153 |
| final 1.7 km | 5:38 | 3:16 | 160 |
For nineteen kilometres the pace slowly slipped away — from 3:29 to 3:40 — while the heart rate sat on 153 the whole time. Then came the last two kilometres and everything changed at once: cadence from 177 to 185 steps per minute, ground contact from 205 to 182 milliseconds, the stride thirteen centimetres longer and the heart rate at 163 for the first time all day. That was not only willpower, it was a different run.
Pace-to-heart-rate drift across the half marathon 2.5 % · running power 507 W · 26 °C
Which of these are records
Three career bests · in a race, not in a test
| 60 minutes | 352 W | The highest figure I have ever recorded. |
| 90 minutes | 346 W | Also a career best. |
| 20 minutes | 358 W | Third best of my career, best of the last three months. |
| Heart rate over 90 min | 150 | The highest sustained heart rate of the 2026 season. |
Between twenty minutes and ninety minutes there are only twelve watts. That is the endurance side of form — holding close to your maximum four times longer.
Form on race morning
Fitness 120 · form +21
| Chronic load (CTL) | 120 | The volume the whole season was built on. |
| Form (TSB) | +21 | Sharpened, but not emptied out. |
| The last three days | 127 → 41 → 10 | Load coming down, the final day just enough to stay loose. |
| Load of the race | 295 TSS | Swim 20 · bike 160 · run 115. |
| Transitions | 1:41 and 1:33 | 3:14 together. A cheap place to gain time, and to lose it. |
All figures come from the TrainingPeaks record of the race, 5 September 2026.
This is exactly the kind of review I do with my athletes after every race. Not to make the numbers look good, but because they show where to hold back next time and where to push — and how much of what I felt out on the course was actually true.
A day like that is not an accident. It is the result of a process — and WOHLMACHINE coaching is built on exactly that principle.
Take a look at the WOHLMACHINE training programs — built on the same approach that took me to three titles in a row.
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