Preparation
3rd time in a row doing this race so pretty familiar with it by now, good race to kick off the season. Leading up to the race I had a flare up of my knee injury and some tendon issue in my foot that both kept me a few weeks from running, so the mileage was limited. Only had 1 ride on the Trinity beforehand because of bad weather so far this year, so unsure how Zwift legs would translate into IRL legs.
Goal for this race was to beat last years time.
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.
Swim 0:19:43
- Great start of the day, jumping in the water I could feel I hit something sharp with my feet. Most likely some stones or so, after the race my left foot was a bit bruised and had some minor cuts, nothing too serious though.
- I thought I had started of at a modest pace, keeping pace or even going a bit faster than the folks around me. But pretty soon I started to feel gassed and felt like my arms and legs were not getting any blood. I looked at my watch and we were only 4 minutes in! I tried to lower the pace in the hope this would improve the feeling but nope it didn't improve one bit. I decided to switch to breaststroke because I wasn't feeling to well at this point. After what seemed an eternity and a ton of people passing me, I started to feel better. I started swimming again but at a very relaxed pace to at least make it to the swim exit in one piece.
- Compared to last year I swam about 2 minutes slower (17:59), 1:58/100m is just dramatic, in the pool I probably swim faster during my warm up and cool down laps.
- The official results show swim + T1 timing being 22:12, placed 79nd overall in the men's race.
T1 0:02:29
- No official data, but the difference between the official results and my own recorded swim time was 2:29.
- Took my time in T1, I was just bummed that my swim went so dramatic.
Bike 1:00:53 (47th)
- 4 loop pancake flat course setup, but with lots of corners, so not to many straights to put your head down. I recorded 73m of elevation, basically just one bridge to climb per loop. The loop changed slightly compared to the past 2 editions.
- Never felt great on the bike, tried to push some power but my heart rate was just through the roof. So instead of focusing on power I tried to keep my heart rate under control. But even at 230W my heart rate would not drop under 140bpm, which is about 20bpm higher vs what I would expect at that intensity. So a shitty ride overall, I was hoping I would start to feel better as time went by but really never felt comfortable. Last lap I tried to lower the intensity even more to bring down the HR a little more to hopefully have a decent run:
Lap Time Speed (km/h) Power (W) Heart Rate (bpm)
2022 1 15:47 39.6 264
2 15:27 40.5 276
2023 1 15:59 39.1 263
2 15:33 40.2 274
3 15:49 39.6 262
4 15:52 39.4 258
2024 1 No Data
2 14:50 38.6 263 141
3 14:41 39 272 143
4 15:17 37.5 244 137
- 47th overall time, averaging 37.9km/h, NP of 237W vs 271W last year, so a significant drop.
T2 0:00:39 (18th)
Finally had put my elastic laces in, so not thaaaaat bad of a transition 😏. Actually my best discipline during this race, 18th best T2 😏.
Run 0:45:59 (53rd)
- First 500m I got into a good rhythm, then struggled for about 2k unable to take deep breaths. Until someone a tad faster passed me and I decided to try to hang on to his feet. He dragged me around the rest of the first loop, especially the last 1.5k or so with the headwind. The second loop I started to feel better and got into a better rhythm. Around a minute faster compared to last year, so in the end not to bad. 4:29/k so not great for a 10k, but guess I will take it considering how I felt during the swim and bike part.
Overall 2:09:43 (53rd)
- Around 3 minutes faster than last year, but mainly due to the bike leg being shorter I believe.
- Horrible swim and bike leg, ok run leg.
Result
- Swim 0:19:43
- T1 0:02:29
- Bike 1:00:53
- T2 0:00:39
- Run 0:45:59
- Total 2:09:43
Tags: Triathlon Geel 1/4 race report, race report Triathlon Geel 1/4, Triathlon Geel 1/4 race report
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