Preparation
Selected this race as first race of the season because of the distance: 1 - 40 - 10km and because it was close to home. So a good one to get back into it and ramp things up. After all my calf related muscle injuries over the past 2 years I now finally felt I was starting to get into a decent running shape and was looking forward to this race!
So far the plan ... I was happy with how my training went until a few weeks before the race I felt a stabbing pain in my left knee making it impossible to complete any run workouts. Even on the bike I had to be careful not to stand on the peddles or fully stretch my left leg. Preliminary diagnosis was a meniscus injury but a MRI scan had to clarify things. On advice of the doctor I was no longer allowed to run so for this race I could go all in on the bike. As I didn't finish the race, my splits were not included into the race results, so times listed in this report are from my own recordings.
Location
Registration, swim, T1/T2 and finish line are all located near "de bloemfabriek" in Ten Aard just north of Geel. So from a logistics point of view this race is very easy. The swim is a one loop setup in the canal, the bike course was a flat 4 loop setup and the run course was a 2 loop setup.
Stay
Not applicable for this race as I drove up there the day of the race, not even having to wake up early as the race was set to start at 14:30. Because the race venue was so close to home, the week leading up to the race I went to check out the bike course as it was 4 laps with a lot of corners.
Swim 0:16:56
- One loop, canal swim, mass start setup. Not much wind on race day so not much chop.
- No warm up as I was basically already steaming in my wetsuit because the swim start was delayed for some minutes and I couldn't go for a run because of my knee injury. Again made the mistake of getting into the water dead last, so starting at the very back of the pack. The water was colder than I expected and I had to catch my breath for a while when jumping in. At the back of the pack so no clean water at all in the first part of the swim, trying to pass some folks to find clear water but basically blowing up while doing so. Arms felt really heavy early on in the swim, I assume because of the wetsuit which I hadn't used since my last race in September last year. I even had to do some breast stroke to catch my breath and settle down. After that I finally started to get into a decent rhythm although I still didn't feel great. As usual I only breathe on my left side, which was a pain because there was only 1 buoy and it was a right hand side U turn. So basically when I finally started to feel better I already passed that buoy and had to swim back a little bit. The stretch back to the swim exit I finally started to feel better and wished it was a 1.9 swim instead of a 1km swim. Exiting the swim, even without watching my time, I didn't feel to happy with my swim, because of the problems during the start, the bad sighting, the heavy arms and how long it took me before finding a rhythm.
- Positives: no problems with goggles leaking nor fogging up (used the anti fog marker) and I don't believe anybody passed me (advantage of starting at the back).
- Not sure about my place in the race/AG, I clocked 16:56 (1:41/100m) for the swim leg, but the finish results mention "Zwe (TR1)", so I assume that is swim + T1 time. If it was just the swim time I would have placed 16th overall in the men's race. So in reality it was probably way worse than that 😀
T1 No Data
- I was curious to see if my knee would play up during the run/jog from the swim exit to T1, luckily it didn't. (only 100ish meter anyway).
- Same as last race: no calf pressure socks, as I hadn't trained with them and wanted to avoid any additional strain on my calf / anterior tibialis muscles
Bike DNF
- 4 loop pancake flat course setup, but with lots of corners, so not to many straights to put your head down. I recorded 18m of elevation, that is for 2 out of 4 loops, basically just one bridge to climb per loop. When I rode the course the week leading into the race there was a lot of (head)wind, on race day it seemed way less though.
- Knowing I had a relatively slow swim and that my race would end after the bike leg, I was set to push hard on the bike and pick up as many athletes as I could.
- I didn't pay attention to my heart rate: 1 because I knew from last race that it takes quite a while to drop back to normal levels and 2 the bike leg was only 40km so no time to loose! First lap I didn't feel to great but already started to pass people. 2nd lap I tried to ramp it up a little with the idea of each lap pushing a little bit harder, so I picked up some more people. Then at the start of the 3rd lap I accelerated to pass an athlete before the corner that leads to the bridge, but in doing so my access speed into the corner was way to high and I hit the curb quite hard. Not really any danger in going down but immediately I was afraid for a flat and yep a few moments later I started to hear the air coming out of my front tire. With it being such a short race that was game over for me. Only good thing was that it was close to transition, so I didn't have to walk to far with my bike.
- Looking at the lap times my second lap was indeed faster than my first lap, hard to compare reconnaissance and race day laps due to closed off circuit, aero helmet, race wheels, different time of the day etc. but looks like lower watt numbers on race day resulted in faster lap times.
Lap Time Speed (km/h) Power (W)
Race
1 15:47 39.6 264
2 15:27 40.5 276
Reconnaissance
1 17:49 35.1 258
2 16:59 36.8 286
3 21:15 29.4 223
4 16:39 37.6 289
- No idea about AG placing, but I did get the 8th overall time on the 1 loop segment, so not to bad, overall averaging 37.5km/h, NP of 276W.
- Never on the entire course did I feel unsafe, big shout out to the organization!
T2
- No running so not applicable.
Run
- Not allowed to run on advice from my doctor, so not applicable, hopefully next time!
Overall
- First (planned) DNF, although I didn't plan for a DNF halfway into the bike leg.
- Not to happy with my swim, but even with the issues I had 1:41/100m isn't super super bad.
- Taking the bike course on full throttle was kind of fun, knowing I didn't have to run of the bike!
- Aftermath: even running the 100ish meter from the swim exit to T1 caused my knee pain tot pop up for about a week afterwards, so definitely need to figure that out!
- Lovely place to try a burger after the race: "de Bloemfabriek":
Some lessons learned
- Repeat: Anti fog marker and different method to put my goggles on works.
- Don't start at the back of a mass start swim: you won't have clean water for a long long time.
- Lower the speed when for example riding up a curb, or you will flat and pay a hefty price.
- I want to come back and finish!
Result
- Swim 0:16:56
- T1 No Data
- Bike N.A.
- T2 N.A.
- Run N.A.
- Total N.A.
Tags: Triathlon Geel 1/4 race report, race report Triathlon Geel 1/4, Triathlon Geel 1/4 race report
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