Triathlon training in Munich

Hi I am a competitive triathlete. My partner is from Germany and we are thinking of moving to Munich to live. I was wondering if there were any serious athletes who could inform me of the training opportunities in Munich. For example,

how accessible are the mountains by bike (road bike)?

If I was living in the city (say in Haidhausen) would it be possible for me to go for a 2-3 hour cycle in the morning before work and not have to suck on a car exhaust pipe (i.e. is the unpolluted countryside easily and quickly accessible from Haidhausen?

Are their many cycle lanes?

Are there many cycling clubs or triathlon clubs in Munich?

What’s the weather like in winter?

Is it possible to cycle outdoors in winter or am I condemned to 3 months of cycling on my turbo trainer?

Are there many running tracks?

Are there many parks to run in? I am aware of the English Gardens but to be honest I think that it is a bit small to put in a 20 mile run, what other parks are easily accessible from Haidhausen? Are there any very large grass parks (I prefer to run on grass surfaces) near Haidhausen?

Are there many 50m pools in Munich? I’m sure there is one in the Olympic park but is this open for use by the public?

Are there swim teams that train early in the morning (say at 5am) that one could join?

Finally is anyone aware of any professional athletes (cyclist or triathletes) that are based in Munich?

I would appreciate any advice.
Thank you.

I'm not a serious triathlete, but I'll try to answer some of these. If you look through the other "triathlon in Munich" threads you may get some mroe information. The posters known as DickyD and Jorgan should be able to give you the best information.


Not bad, once you are out of Munich proper, there are plenty of quiet roads. Personally, I like to take the train if I am going into the mountains as it gives a wide range of possibilities - you don't need to finish the ride at the starting point.


Your best bet would be to head east. From Haidhausen, you can't avoid a small amount of urban cycling.


Yes, but the lanes in the city are best suited for commuting, not serious training.


Variable, but expect snow for at least part of the winter. Cross-country skiiing is good for cross training. Some winters have been milder than others, so it's just a matter of luck. You will need your turbo-trainer and some interesting videos.


Have a look on google maps. The Englisher Garten is not that small and it is connected to the green are which extends along the Isar.


Yes it is, with lane swimming from 7 am every day. There is also a club there for serious swimmers.
Other 50m pools include the Dantebad, Schyrenbad, Georgenschweige all of which are open air. The Dantebad stays open in winter, but with a higher water temperature. There are plenty of clean lakes for open water swimming.


Faris al Sultan is sometimes around to think of the most obvious one.

Yes, there are loads of places to train and people to train with. The facilities in Germany are very good when it comes to pools. Even Erding where I live has a heated 25m pool for winter and a 50m Olympic outdoor pool for summer. Triathlon is much more popular here than in the UK for example, and the standard is higher too. I don't know how fast you are, but unless you're doing a sub 8:30 IM, there'll be plenty of people to train with in this region

There are a couple of decent lakes near Haidhausen: the Bugasee (where softees like 'Maskerade' swim ) or my personal favourite, the Feringasee, which has buoys in summer, good quality water and the odd Carp for company! There are plenty of running tracks (of the 400m variety) and also trails in the Englisher Garten, which actually extends a long way to the city limits toward Ismaning and along the river Isar. So no shortage of off-road tracks.

If you PM me, I can probably point you in the direction of clubs/teams you could train with, depending on your standard. The Munich area is awash with 'Neo Pros' Wolfgang Teuchner immediately springs to mind (8:46 as an AGer last year). If you're soft and do Oly distance drafting events, then DickyD is your man; he's also a very fast swimmer & runner to train with! (ca. 19:00 & 31:00 iirc?!)

Jorgan

Thanks for the comments, I really do appreciate it.

Just to answer the questions raised in the last post. Yea I am soft - I do Olympic distance, mostly because I don't have the time to train to standard that I would like to be at in the IM. Having said that most of the races that I do are international races so I don't think that you can call them "soft". I have represented my country (Ireland) for the past 8 years, 2 years of which I spent as a professional triathlete. My times for Olympic distance are in or around 1hr 53min - 1hr 54min. Swimming is my weakest sport but I have also raced internationally in both cycling and running. Two years ago I got knocked down off the bike now I am recovering - I am hoping that I can go to Germany and have the opportunity to train and return to my former glory.

I would be gald to hear more from you guys.

Are there any reputable triathlon coaches in Germany?

Thanks again.

Link to Oberbayern Section of the DTU: http://www.triathlon-oberbayern.de/

SC Riederau has quite a few good athletes; there is also the 'Team Erdinger Alkoholfrei' who seem to sponsor most of the top local German Triathletes and indeed, many other top triathletes outside the area. You're best getting in touch with someone through the BTV about performance athletes & coaching; I guess this will be quite easy having a German partner.

Bike: you could join the Team of Xing/Chariteam. They are always looking for road cyclists independent of speed. They are based in Munich, but do any kind of races that are possible.
http://www.jedermannteam-muenchen.de

contact: Martin Stolzenburg, his E-Mail Address is on the webpage, you can also become a member of Xing for free and reach him there
https://www.xing.com/profile/Martin_Stolzenburg

Swimming: Olympia Schwimmhalle is reachable with Subway Olympiaplatz and is open from 7.00 to 23.00 h every day and has a 50 m pool and an oldskool gym that is free for all.
There is even a fitness-club inside where you can do spinning, lactate-test or have a massage. All this things have to be paid extra, but you do not need a membership.
Michaelibad has an open air 50 m pool but their opening times for the outside pools are depending on the weather and season. But basically from 7.30 to the setting of the sun in summer.

Haidhausen: has it´s advantages but also disadvantages. You could cycle to Haidenauplatz, which is accessible within 5 minutes from everywhere in Haidhausen. Then cycle straight to the east to get out of the city. But the cycling roads in the city are not good. So you need 20 minutes of stop&go until you reach more empty space.
Haidhausen is hip, therefore the apartments are very expensive, partly very noisy and has less parking slots. Anywhere else in Munich, you´ll get something 30% cheaper and will have a big balcony to the south and a garage.

You can check the Munich City Map online http://www.stadtplandienst.de
just type Wo?: München Was?: Streetname or name of the district
You´ll see that there is a river through Munich. It´s name is Isar. Cycling along it with a pro racing bike is impossible. The roads aren´t good and there is much traffic of other cyclists.
You can zoom in/out on that map and you see where you can do jogging and how long you do need to get out of the city. You´ll even see all lakes around munich.

Weather: I am running around with a snowboard jacket for 3 days now. I do never cycle when it´s cold.

Running Tracks: there are a couple 400 m tracks around Olympiazentrum. Some are accessible for all.

You could also join the MRRC München. That is the Munich Road Runner Club, unfortunately just an english name, not an english club. This sport society do offer lessons and trainings for any age and any level. The membership fee is low compared with Fitness clubs. The swimming course for freestyle is very good, I just finished it and can recommend it - but you got to wait in a que for 3 months to get in. You can also do this without becoming a member.
http://www.mrrc.de it´s german, but if you click on Training, you can maybe guess what events are on which dates

Depending on where you will work, there are also sport activities or sport groups from companies. BMW for example has a group of pretty experienced cyclists, Hypo-Vereinsbank do a running group. I heard Faris Al-Sultan did joined their thursday evening training in englischer garten 2 weeks ago.

Hi Leprechaun

As 'Wicklow Triathlon Clubs' German correspondent allow me extend a warm welcome to you.

The only thing that Munich really lacks is a nice cold sea to swim in; however there are plenty of lakes which go some way to making up for that. As has already been mentioned cycling in Munich sucks, but once you get just outside the city there are plenty of good road routes to go at and the mountains are super on a bike (however I cheat and put the bike in the car to get there as I can not be doing with cycle lanes). The English garden is huge and there is a super network of trails all around Munich for running on.

Winters are not too bad (depending if you work full time or not) and you can get out most of the time, however I should warn you of the most depressing aspect of Munich (that I find) its the light/colour of the bloody sky from Nov-March I call it suicide grey...and it saps your will to live; once you get even 20km out of town though its normally a lot brighter even sunny!
Summers will possibly be a bit wetter than you were hoping for, we are currently in a wet/cold snap known as Schafskalte (sp?) meaning sheep’s cold(?) which goes on for 4-10 days and reminds me of Dublin in November. The other summer rain event is very predictable...beautiful sunny days till 4pm, starts clouding over, full on rain commences at around 6pm, stops at around 7-7:30pm.

Other than that its a great place to live (although don't spend too much time looking at Toytown as you will get a very jaundiced view of the place, but it is useful for finding stuff out if you can avoid the wrath of the ever waiting cognoscenti when you post what they consider to be a dumb question).

Lastly did you used to work for the Oakley guy in Bray?

Feel free to PM me about stuff over here, but if you want proper Tri information then as Bron suggested Jorgen and DickyD seem to be the boys for that.

Cheers

Thanks again guys, you have been a fantastic help.

Stevef from Galway Tri Club - I hope to see you some time. I was good friends with the founder of the Galway Tri club, I cant remember his name now (the guy that worked for the radio station). My father and myself were the founder of the Cork Triathlon Club. I was away in Australia training for a couple of years so now I don't really know anyone in triathlon in Ireland (only the old fellas that were there 6-7 years ago). The German athletes always inpressed me when I raced against them so I want to go there to see how they do things. I take it that overall you like the place? I am not a "big city" fan and my main concern is accessibilty to the country side and quiet roads for cycling.

Thanks again for all your comments.

As far as getting away from the city, you can jump on the S-Bahn with your bike and go a few stops outside of the city, I know a few who do that. It's not something I need to worry about living in Erding, but Munich does limit the ride possibilities to my west!

One other question guys. What area of Munich city would you recommend that I live in considering I wish to have quick and easy access to the city (i.e. Sonnestrasse), quiet roads for cycling, running trails, the mountains and gyms? My inital thoughts were leading me towards living in Haidhausen as this area appeared to be close to the Olympic park, the country side and the centre of Munich city, but I would be glad to know other peoples's opinion.

Thanks

I can't tell you where to live, but I will give the pros and cons of Schwabing, where I live, from a triathlon point of view.

For: close to Olympiapark (600m away) for running, swimming pool, ice-rink, not far from Englisher Garten
also has 2 more 50m pools within a 10 minute cycle ride in summer and the Nordbad (33m, usually a bit crowded)
good U-bahn, tram and bus connections, generally nice place to live,
for cycle rides in the north of Munich, it takes about 15/20 minutes of not-too-crowded cycle path riding and I'm in Feldmoching, from there there are loads of cycling possibilities.

Against:
expensive (although no more so than anywhere else in the centre)
to cycle out to the south takes longer and involves about 10-15km of fairly busy cycle paths - if you want to cycle to the south every day before work, this is not the place to live,
driving out to the south means using the Mittlerer Ring - can get crowded especially when the whole of Munich decides to go ski-ing.

Is it possible for you to visit Munich before you arrive and take a look at places where you might want to live?

Well I'm 'ich bin kein Münchner' but I'd say as long as you're near an S-Bahn or U-Bahn stop, then you're going to have easy access to the city centre & the countryside. Personally if I were you (if you want access to mtns) I'd go for south or east Munich if I had to live in the city. I have no idea where to recommend based on rental costs, but naturally these will vary considerably! But because the train systems are so good, you needn't live too centrally. Hell, even I can get to Marienplatz in 40 mins from Erding, as an example of how far you can live outside & still have convenient access.

Anyway, let me know when you're ready to go 'the distance' and thus become a bone fide triathlete

@Leprechaun: One Word: Trudering.

Or make a compromise. Berg am Laim is in the middle between Haidhausen and Trudering.

I live in that district and it is quiet and apartments are inexpensive and everybody here has a balcony and garage and a big cellar. It is not at the Isar river or at the englischer garten, but they are still greens around like Michaelipark.

Berg am Laim is in the east of Munich, Moosach for example is similar - just in the Northwest. I heard Faris al Sultan lives there, so you could meet him in the Supermarket and ask what he buys for breakfast.

I am "only" a runner but can recommend county of Ebersberg (Vaterstetten-Zorneding).
Trains take 20-30 min. to the city center and run every 10 min. during rush hours.
Ebersberg forest (Ebersberger Forst) is perfect for training in summer, hills and beautiful landscape direction south-east, and flat tracks direction north-west.
There are also a couple of lakes nearby, Steinsee is my favorite.

Thank you everybody for your words of wisdom.

And, Jorgan I'd be glad to meet up for a session, and after that if you still think Im "soft" then I will buy you a pint!

L

Give me a shout when you are in Munich.
I too an am olypmic Triathlete (1:55)
9th World champs in Maderia 2004
31:00 10km
usw.

First the only place for a Oly Triathle in German is in the Budesliga. Landshut SC 53 needs you if you're interested, currently Regionalliga but looking for promotion to Budesliga 2.
If you think you are too good for Regionalliga then Try out for Erdinger Alcohol frei ... You'd be paid (even in their B team) but there are expectations that go with that.

So secondly there is one running group to join Dieter Kloo is the coach at Dantestadium every Tuesday night.
Third: Swimming it's tricky but ... Faris trains on a Monday at Pheonix bad (Ottobrun) if you're interested.
MRRC has a schedule on their web site
I was in a group at Oly bad Tuesday am.
Now I'm in Unterfohring with work I'm more Ferringersee and Michaelibad based.

Cycling ... it great (nothing more to add there)

Hey dicky, where would you recommend living in order to have easy access to good cycling routes? Many people have recommended schwabing (near the english gardens) but as far as I can see the areas more south, e.g around grunwald, seem to be more accessible to quiet roads and the mountains for cycling. Where would your recommend? what area do you live in?

I live in Trudering (and there is an easy way out there through Gronsdorf and Parsdorf etc.) The best would be Gronsdorf but unless you play for Bayern Munich good luck with the cost of a place. Wolfratshausen is an idea if you don't mind a comute or Thalkirchen as there are good way out from there AND the ADAC (German cycling club) meets at the Zoo every Wednesday for a group ride (35km/h average 100km, with last 10-20km split groups.)
Poing would also be an option but again commute issues. But yes think on Talkirchen ... You are right in that for a road bike North is a bad place to be, unless you are way out. NE Ismaning would be OK but then you are looking at flat km's before you hit Isen, Dorfen etc. SE not too bad great cycling from GLonn and Aying, Wolf ... is OK but out ... it's a real play off ... Talkirchen you have Sud bad (25m newly renovated) Isar (running) and bike routes south all on your door step. But then it's far the the Olympia Park ... (50m swim and tracks)
Nowhere in Muncih is really bad as it's not that big ... you are out in 30mins from anywhere ... but yes South is better than north if you like hill work ... for me cycling is only twice a week, running 4 times and swimming 3 so it's not my focus ... from Trudering I do fine, and have more lakes for swimming but no running group ... it's all balence .. WHAT IS YOUR FOCUS? Are you a group or solo trainer?

Sorry the second Gronsdorf should read Grunwald!!!

thanks for the info Dicky

If you're interested in the Standard here are the results from the Regional and Budesliga 2 from Sunday.

http://www.global-sportservice.com/results/2009/0705TTT/

Remember it's draft legal, and Tegernsee ain't flat ...

Hi Dicky,

I am going to take your advice and I am going to try and find a place some where in the south. I am going to try Talkirken.

My focus is running and cycling. I generally like to train alone but thats just because Ireland does not have the standard of athletes that I would train with. I generally train with a swim group (not triathlete) we train every morning at 6am-8am we do 5-6km in the water. I run and cycle in the afternoon. I train on the track on a Thursday and Tuesday night; I do this with a group. I also do long distance cycle in a groupe on Saturday and Sundays. I have been out injured for over a year now so I am quit unfit now, but I am now working on getting back into it.

I too would be looking to socialise in German. My german isnt very good but I am good at understanding and I want to improve it.

Would you be interested in meeting up for a few sessions. I would really appreciate if I could train with you for a couple of weeks/months and if you could show me the training routes etc. You are obviously very tallented if you came 9th in the Europeans so I am looking to train with guys like yourself.

What times do you train? do you train early in the morning before work?

I will be living close to you so I would really love if we could meet up to train. I will be moving to Munich in November, would you mind if I gave you a call then?

Cheers.

I am looking to sign up for an ironman this year (Nice), the only thing holding me back is training partners to get me through the long rides and familiarity of the routes. I did a half iron this year in 5:10 so would love some training partners around my ability. Any takers or advise would be much appreciated

I'm not that far away, whereabouts in Munich are you? What sort of bike split are you hoping for in Nice? I only know east of Munich, given my location. I've done a pretty wicked 50km route down in the Alps though, finishing with a 14km climb

Ironman? Don't know what all the fuss is about