I recently received this email:

[Hey Conrad Stoltz,
You are a big hero of mine and you have inspired me to cycle from central China to Denmark, my home country. I've been a fan of you since I heard about the BAMF nail incident. [He's referring to this blog. C]
I know you are busy with your wifey, congratulations man, but I would be really pleased if you could update your blog. You don’t have to do some crazy long blog, just a little bit and it would be great.
All the best,
your fan Henrik Hagemann]

Hendrik prompted me to start blogging again.

1st off: “Hey Hendrik Hagemann, please write me your story and I’ll post it on the blog. China to Denmark is a loooong bike ride, and I wish to know if I inspired you in a good or bad way to ride that far…

Your fan Conrad Stoltz”

What happened since the last blog after World Champs:

Thanks to a match made in heaven, Liezel (nee Wium) and I blitzed romance, engagement and got married on 11.11.11 in South Africa. Good wedding pictures take time, I’ll blog about the wedding when the photographer is done editing…

Since then we have been having an amazing time, honey mooning and spending quality time together… We started on the tropical island of Mauritius,

Stayed a while… (Here sailing over shallow corral reefs)

Then Thesen Island in Knysna, South Africa,

Knysna Elephant Park was an amazing experience…

And after all that time in and around the ocean, we headed for the Karoo.

Then we had a quick 2 weeks in Stellenbosch (Liezel had to work!?) and then we joined my parents on the farm for the Festive season.

It rained  A LOT. Sometimes flooding the road and cutting us off from the outside word…

And sometimes you just have to hold your breath and take the plunge…

Liezel got to meet the rest of my family and we had a great Christmas.

I re-lived my dream from when I was a 3 year old. (Back then, there was no triathlon)

Training? Yes, we did some. My wife is a machine!

Here is a rough draft of my race schedule, kicking off this weekend:
Jan 14: Total Sports Challenge. Liezel and I will do the 2 man Terra Firma event under “Team Stoltz”
Jan 28: XTERRA Buffelspoort SA.

Feb 5 National road TT champs
Feb 12: National MTB Champs
Feb 28 XTERRA SA- Grabouw

March 3: Argus MTB race.

As you can see, we had an amazing 2 months together, growing even closer. We wanted to start our marriage off on the right foot, and keep joking “we’re on honeymoon for life”.  I didnt blog for these 2 months because the “bloody computer” is probably the biggest distraction from personal interaction and training, so I switched it (and the “bloody phone”) off and left it at home for 3 weeks. Was quite a liberating experience. Blogging is a hobby, not business as I have yet to make a cent from it, but I’ll gladly humour you guys, and thus keep recording memories.

Thanks for the kick in the backside Hendrik

To get to the bottom of my breathing problems at XTERRA Worlds,  I went to the see Dr. Jeroen Swart (whom I used to race MTB against in South Africa- I like my professionals fast and/or fit!) at the Sports Science Institute in Cape Town. I made sure to do this test before our wedding on 11/11/11 as I didnt want to run the risk of being breathless for the wrong reason…
Test for Exercise Induced Asthma:

I ran on a treadmill “till you fall off” and blew through a spirometer before and after  (3 blows -for best average- every 2 minutes for a 10 minute period) running to measure air flow. Afterwards I went through my medical history with Jeroen and we identified that I may well have had many previous episodes of broncho-spasm (where the airways close up and make breathing difficult) but, we found that it gets particularly bad when I have an infection which exacerbates it.

In September last year (2010) I had similar symptoms after having bronchitis for 3 weeks. (I stupidly raced with a head cold at XTERRA Canada and thereafter I got bronchitis for 3 weeks) Things only settled down when the doctor prescribed an inhaler with a bronchodilator and a corticosteroid. Suddenly I felt amazing, pumped the training sessions and won XTERRA USA Champs by 4 min (at altitude- much to my surprise) and XTERRA Worlds by more than 5 minutes, but thought I was cured for good as I reasoned it was “only bronchitis” and stopped using the inhaler after Worlds.

Then this year, I got sick from over racing in February, and had what I thought was mild flu with a bad cough for 3 weeks. I missed 3 big races and a sad DNF at XTERRA South Africa. I saw 3 docs, went through 2 courses of antibiotics and in the end was diagnosed with “a rare fungus in my lungs, usually found in bat guano, found in caves.” The doctor didnt know me so well and asked, if I have been in a cave recently. Thought that was a funny question for the Caveman…

Prior to XTERRA Worlds I picked a light viral infection ended up having a slight fever 4 days before the race. I had a few wheezes during training but nothing too serious and less than 2 weeks before I had a number of amazing sessions where I knocked my PB 2010 bike numbers out of the park. (I rode 10 x 5′ hill reps at race effort- the lowest avs power was 455 and the best and last was 477W)  However, at Worlds, coming out of the swim and especially during the bike leg, I felt very short of breath, tired legs and developed a rasping sound in my chest. It turns out that this is a type of wheezing, and was due to the air having to move through the narrowed air passages.

What the numbers said:

I have the lungs of a caveman and they happen to be about 1 litre larger than the average guy of my height and weight. All good so far.

However, after running till failure and then blowing through the spirometer as hard as I could,  instead of being able to empty at least 80% of the air in my chest in the first second of breathing out, I was only exhaling about 75%. More profoundly was the movement of air in the middle of my breath (which is a more sensitive test for asthma and broncho-spasm). In that middle phase I was about 1.3 litres lower than the average guy. If you consider that my lungs are a litre bigger than average, I was probably moving about 2 litres less than I should be. Losing 2 litres on 8 litre lungs with each breath is not a handicap you want at this level of racing.
So it turns out that I have a subtle case of exercise induced asthma that I have coped with during my career but which fells me if I develop an upper airway infection and then try an exercise.  Other conditions which also exacerbate the asthma is cold dry air, chlorine and altitude. (no wonder I hated racing at altitude so much, and hopefully the chlorine explains the relative slow times and dislike for the pool?!)

To supersize (normalize) my breathing, the doctor prescribed an inhaled bronchodilator called Salmeterol which I need to take before exercise. These inhalers used to need a special dispensation from WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) called a TUE but after extensive research it turns out that they really don’t provide any advantage unless you have broncho-spasm or asthma. As of 1 January 2011, WADA has taken away the need for a TUE for these inhalers.  So if you dont have asthma, the inhaler wont make you any faster, but there is a limit to the amount of Salmeterol you may have in your urine, but to get there you need to take something like 350 puffs all at once.

Emotionally (and financially) it was a brutally painful experience, and I wish I didnt have to learn this lesson at World Champs, as its the pinnacle of the season, my form was so amazing, it was the run for my 5th XTERRA World title, the course was nice, and obviously during the race I was seriously confused about where all those Watts went I had just a week before. Surely you dont turn “old” the day your clock strikes 38? (race day was my birthday- a racing memory I’d like to forget)

On the other hand, I’m super excited to know that in future I’ll be faster- without all that extra training! EVEN at altitude, AND in the pool!

XTERRA Worlds 2011. DNF

Disappointed I couldnt do my great form and World title justice at XTERRA Worlds yesterday. Started getting asthma when coming out the swim- couldnt ride close to my race pace and trying to run wasn’t even worth it.

However I had a great season- won ITU Cross Tri Worlds in one of my best performances ever, won my 9th XTERRA USA Series title, and best of all, in less then 3 weeks, I’m getting married to the most amazing girl to walk the earth…

Thanks for your support, -especially my sponsors- and thanks for the birthday wishes.