Preparation
Just 1 week between my last race, which went horrible, and this race. So not much preparation besides trying to recover and rest up in the hope things would be better this time. The bike course was on my regular training route so I had done most of the circuit multiple times over the years.
Goal for this race was basically to just feel better than the week before.
Location
Registration, swim, T1/T2 and finish line are all located near the "Kanaalbar" in Bilzen along the canal. 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 3 loop setup and the run course was a rolling 2 loop setup.
Swim 0:17:11
- With last week in the back of my head I opted to start pretty slow, it helped that it was a rolling start so I was able to pick my own pace from the get-go. I had open water most of the time so barely any fighting even at the turn buoys. After 5 minutes I dared to increase the pace, as this was past the point where I blew up last week. Pretty uneventful swim, felt comfortable and relaxed all the way through. Assuming the course was 1k, and I swam in a perfect straight lines the pace was 1:43/100m, not my best swim but certainly not my worst swim neither.
- The official results show swim + T1 timing being 21:38, placed 87nd overall.
T1 0:04:27
- No official data, but the difference between the official results and my own recorded swim time was 4:27.
- T1 was pretty soaked because of the rain of the past couple of days, so the grass had almost turned into a swamp so I took my time jogging to the bike, trying to be cautious.
Bike 2:31:44 (46th)
- 3 loop flat course setup, with long straights alongside the canal perfect to put your head down. I recorded 94m of elevation, basically just two bridges to climb per loop. The roads were still wet and slippery so cornering was with a lot of caution.
- Felt pretty good right from the moment I jumped on my bike, the power/HR numbers where much much better compared to last week. So I felt relieved and was happy to go to work. In my mind I had set a target of around 250W to hopefully have some legs left for the run. During the first lap I picked up some groups and tried to drop them, trying to avoid giving anybody a free ride. Another athlete was doing the same and as such we quickly started to work together reeling groups in and surging past them while trying to play the game fair and keep sufficient distance between us. Near the end of the 2nd lap we finally were able to drop the last few of a group that tried to get a free ride and the 3rd lap we didn't see anybody ahead or behind us. During the 2nd part of that last lap I started to feel my legs though and was starting to worry about my run.
- 46th overall time, averaging 39.2km/h, NP of 268W, so pretty close to the 250W I was trying to stay on.
T2 0:02:01 (41st)
Kept my elastic laces in, so relatively quick transition. Just again being cautious in the swampy transition zone.
Run 0:42:25 (97th)
- Once again my watch didn't find a GPS signal so I had no clue what pace I was running at. Just tried to run at a pace that didn't felt to hard nor to comfortable. The run course was more rolling than I had expected. I didn't know we had to climb up some offroad hill and I made a misstep during the first round there causing some instant scare in my damaged knee, but luckily it was just a split second and I never felt it again afterwards. I didn't pass to many people and a few people ran by me but overall not to bad of a run. The second part of the second lap it started to hurt though. I was happy to run under 45 minutes and a little faster than last week because I still feel I haven't been able to train consistently on my running.
- 4:22/k, not brilliant for a 10k, 97th overall running time, so still got lots of work to do. My watch only recorded the last 2k, so no idea how my pace behaved over the entire run.
Overall 3:37:49 (55th)
- 55th overall and 40th in my age group, but more importantly I was happy with how I felt during the swim, bike and run leg. I felt much much better than last week, I assume it was because it was way cooler than a week ago and I was better rested. So overall happy with how the race went.
Result
- Swim 0:17:11
- T1 0:04:27
- Bike 2:31:44
- T2 0:02:01
- Run 0:42:25
- Total 3:37:49
Tags: iLumen Bilzen Triathlon 111 race report, race report iLumen Bilzen Triathlon 111, Triathlon iLumen Bilzen Triathlon 111 race report
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