NEWSLETTER
Power woman: Katarina Wenzler
Micronutrient expert, top athlete & mom of three!
Meet Katarina (“Katka”) Wenzler – a woman full of energy and passion. In addition to her impressive sporting successes, she is also an outstanding athlete. Find out how she conquers the running world with an iron will and an impressive list of personal best times.
Katarina Wenzler in an INTERVIEW
Running life: A conversation with Katarina (“Katka”) Wenzler about passion, challenges and finding the right balance between sport, family and career!
Sporting successes:
– Best German at the Munich Marathon 2023 (7th woman overall)
– 3rd place in the South German 5000m Championships (2023)
– multiple top 3 places in the Bavarian Championships at various distances (10km, half marathon, cross-country) in 2015, 2016 and 2023
Personal best times:
– 17:19 min for 5000m
– 36:24 min for 10000m
– 1:20:03 half marathon
– 2:54:07 marathon
Kyberg Vital: How do you see yourself as an athlete and what role do competitions play?
Katarina: Ambitious amateur runner describes me very well. A hobby runner because I don’t make a living from sport, but from my job as a PTA. And ambitious, because competitions still play an important role for me. Firstly, in competitions I can get the absolute maximum out of myself and achieve times that I could never run on my own in training. Secondly, competitions allow me to see the results of all my training work in the form of a time or a placing, and that in black and white. You also sometimes need results from competitions to qualify for championships. I also simply enjoy competitions! I enjoy them as a social event, after all, you know each other in the running scene, say hello and exchange a few words. The atmosphere of a competition is also something very special.
Kyberg Vital: How much do you train?
Katarina: Unfortunately less than I would like, because in addition to the household, children and job, it’s a daily struggle to get everything under one roof. I also see this as the biggest challenge that all amateur athletes share with a job and family. I used to train during my lunch break, but now I have to use spontaneous time slots when the children are at gymnastics – which often causes stress. I usually train (almost) every day. As I’ve recently become more prone to injury, I incorporate as much alternative training as possible to keep my running kilometers as low as possible. On average, I run four times a week and also do alternative training two to three times a week (road bike, inline skating, swimming). I also do a mixture of yoga, stabilization and strength training and stretching several times a week.
Kyberg Vital: What role do injuries play in sport?
Katarina: A bigger one than you would like! Because every injury takes the athlete out of training for weeks or months. Of course you try to keep your head above water with alternative sports, but then you always start all over again and every injury costs time, frustrates you and prevents you from showing what you’re really capable of.
How susceptible you are to injuries seems to depend on the individual. I myself tend to fall into the unlucky category and am currently recovering from my 20th injury. My youth coach said about me that I’m a stand-up guy. That’s probably my greatest strength: I always fight my way back – whether after pregnancies, injuries or operations.
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Katarina: That’s an interesting question. I think the lack of regeneration is the main problem for us amateur athletes. A professional athlete trains, eats and regenerates. For us amateur athletes, the total workload during the day due to our job, family and training is often no less, but our athletic performance is of course worse than that of a professional. The vast majority of amateur athletes simply don’t have the time to regenerate, and they can rarely afford daily massages and physiotherapy treatments. Healthy nutrition is of course a basic prerequisite for good regeneration. Unfortunately, I have already made quite a few stupid mistakes here. I ate a vegan diet for a few years, but without giving it much thought, and as a result I became very underweight and my performance slumped. I also demanded too much of my body too quickly after my pregnancies, without giving much thought to the increased nutritional requirements during breastfeeding. I also generally underestimated my protein requirements for years.
Kyberg Vital: As a medical micronutrient consultant, you are a specialist. What do you supplement?
Katarina: I’ve been taking Magnesium since I was young, because that’s what’s immediately preached in sports circles. Unfortunately, I only started taking everything else much later – not because of sport, but because of my professional expertise. As a PTA, for example, I know that the majority of the population in Germany has a vitamin D deficiency. Iron is the next problem child; as a woman and endurance athlete, a deficiency here is very likely. Unfortunately, there are actually GPs who say that a low-normal ferritin of 19 is “okay”. However, no one can achieve peak physical performance with this!
In addition to the micronutrients mentioned above, I now take Omega 3 fatty acids, B vitamins, Zinc, Selenium and folic acid daily as a matter of course.
I am a practical person and like it when everything is contained in one preparation in a sensible dosage – i.e. an adequate composition and sufficiently high dosage! Especially in fall and winter, when my children bring home one infection after another from kindergarten, I like to take aminoplus® immune. After all, the open-window effect makes you more susceptible after sport and it’s easier to catch a cold from family members. After intensive training sessions, my first choice is aminosport®.
Kyberg Vital: What do you like about aminosport®?
Katarina: Of course, that all amino acids are included! Everyone thinks of protein when they think of weight training. But we endurance athletes also have an increased protein requirement in order to maintain our muscles and boost regeneration. This means that you should not only consume carbohydrates directly after training, but also protein. I think the shake is a great way to ensure that protein is absorbed quickly. Because I’m thirsty after training anyway and I can drink it on the side. The composition is also great, as it contains all the vitamins, Zinc and even iron in addition to the amino acids. I have actually noticed better regeneration after hard training sessions. I think most amateur athletes are well advised to take a broad-based complex preparation. You can always individualize with additional supplements if necessary. The tolerance is also very good, which is important to me with my sensitive stomach.
Kyberg Vital: Is there anything else you can give as a tip?
Katarina: Nutrition and nutritional supplements are very important factors for physical performance – and they go hand in hand with regeneration and injury prevention! Prevention is definitely better than aftercare. To see how your diet is doing, I can only recommend weighing and tracking your food for a few days. At the end of the day, you may be in for a surprise or two, even though you were previously convinced that you were doing everything right. I also recently realized that my macronutrient composition is not as good as I thought – and that I was unknowingly overeating my body. In short: take regeneration seriously!
Kyberg Vital wishes Katarina continued success in her sporting endeavors!
