Ironman 70.3 Knokke-Heist Race Report, Belgium, 8 September 2024

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Preparation

No mayor bumps in the road leading up to this race, besides one canceled race mid August due to likely Covid. 
Besides going sub 5 I didn't really had to much goals for this race, plan was to have a controlled swim, keep power around 250-260W on the bike and keep heart rate around 140bpm on the run.

Location

I selected the Knokke race as it's one of the closest IM branded races for me. 


Logistically not the easiest race, especially for fans & family! The Ironman village and check-in are located at the old casino of Knokke, swim start and T1 are located in Sluis which is about 10k from Knokke, T2 is located at The Taeye Sportstadion in Knokke and the finish line is located on the dike in Knokke. So basically it's all over the place. No idea why they don't just swim in the sea and make it logistically way way easier. 

Stay

We stayed at the Fletcher hotel in Sluis, just a few hundred meters away from the swim start. This made things a little easier for me on Saturday, but not so much on Sunday. On Saturday there was a traffic jam from Knokke into Sluis to prep T1, this was not a problem for me as I could just walk to T1. Then I managed to go quickly over to T2 before the traffic jam went the other way. On race morning this meant that I first had to drive to T2 to leave my car there and then take the shuttle back to T1 to get ready for the start. Having the hotel so close meant that I could drop of my pump, go to the bathroom etc. without to much of a hassle. 

Swim 0:31:16 AG-28/232

  • One loop setup in a canal starting in Sluis. I thought the swim was gonna be very crowded as the canal isn't super wide, but in the end it wasn't to bad, only in the very last part circling back in Sluis and heading to the exit it was crowded, but nothing to bad or nasty. I was able to keep a steady pace all the way through and remained in control, no sighting problems neither, so overall a good swim. 
  • AG 12% is decent to good, pace 1:38/100m, so happy with how the swim went.

T1 0:05:20 

  • Was a bit confused in T1 as I thought we had to drop our bike bag of in the big cardboard boxes in T1, but apparently not, we just had to hang them back where we took them, so I lost a bit of time there, but nothing mayor. Didn't loose any position through T1.

Bike 2:24:03 AG-26/232

  • One loop, flat and non technical setup. The only important factor was the wind, dang it felt like from the 90k, about 80 were against the wind. 
  • I tried to keep my power in check and remain steady around 250-260W. I never felt strong on the bike and at around 70k I really started to struggle and the power dropped off. The wind made staying in the aero bars very very tricky from time to time, especially with my 90 front wheel. Nutrition wise I took a gel every 45', a salt capsule every 30' and tried to drink 1 bottle per hour. 
  • AG 11% is pretty good, certainly taking into account that I was dropping off near the end. I gained 2 AG positions on the bike. Actually thought I had ridden worse than that!
  • 37.3 kmph average speed, 47m of elevation and 245W NP. Bit surprised that I was still pretty close to the 250W mark as I felt like I wasn't anywhere near that during the last 20k. Actually looking at the charts afterwards I don't really see a significant drop in power, heart rate or cadence, so it wasn't as bad as I thought while being on the bike. 

T2 0:02:39

  • I noticed the jump of line way to late, so had to go full into the brakes and jump of at the same time, kicking out my rear bottle and hitting my ankle against a crank in the process, luckily nothing to bad. Because it wasn't a controlled movement at all both legs immediately cramped up and I had to stand there a few seconds before I could start to walk / job into T1. Racked my bike and took my time going through transition, actually gained 1 position surprisingly, so I came out of T2 in 25th position.

Run 1:56:55 AG-158/232

  • 3 loop, mostly flat with one short steep "climb" in the park, non technical setup. 
  • Running out of T2 my quads felt really bad, wanting to cramp up with every step. Luckily that faded away about 1k into the run. I tried to run controlled based on heart rate, keeping it around 140bpm. The first lap that felt ok, however looking back after 1 lap I had already dropped to 30th position. Near the end of the 2nd lap my legs started to get really really heavy and I had dropped to 32nd position. 
  • In the beginning of the 3rd lap the wheels came off, my legs were really heavy and I started having a tinkling sensation in my hands, when I started to get that same feeling in my lips I started to get worried and decided to not take any risk so I pulled the plug and started walking. From the moment I started to walk I became really dizzy and I had to walk 2 aid stations to walk it off before I felt confident enough to try jogging again. From there on I managed to easily jog to the finish line dropping further to 58th position in my AG.
  • Run AG 68%, so basically as bad as it gets. 
  • Nutrition: gel at 5, 10 and 15k, salt capsule every 30' and taking water and iso from the aid stations. 


Overall 5:00:10 AG-58/232

  • Swim: smooth and good swim.
  • Bike: faded around 1h45, so not to happy about how that went. 
  • Run: good to ok for the first 2 rounds, 3rd lap the wheels came off, but made it to the finish line after shutting things down and walk a section. 
  • Mixed feelings about this one, wanted to go sub 5, even with the weak bike near the end and the shitty 3rd lap on the run I almost hit that mark, so not an entirely bad day out there.

Some lessons learned

  • Need to rethink my training / nutrition strategy, falling flat after 1h45 when pushing 250W shouldn't happen.
  • Not sure what happened on the run, just ran out of carbs/energy? Maybe increase gel intake from 1 every 45' to 1 every 30', or use higher carb gels to get closer to 90gr carbs/h. 
    • In hindsight my best guess is that my blood circulation wasn't good enough. First symptom were heavy feet / legs, so probably blood wasn't being pumped up enough from my feet / legs. Then I started to have a tinteling feeling in my hands, probably because not enough blood was getting to my hands. Then my lips / mouth started to experience the same, so also most likely due to a lack of blood circulation. From the moment I started to walk I felt dizzy, which would make sense as the heart rate drops and as such the blood circulation gets even worse, so the brain receives less blood / oxygen. 
    • One way to address this is to start using compression socks again, which should help the blood circulation. To be able to do so I need to train with them though, to make sure they don't trigger my calf injuries again.
  • Didn't feel healthy at all on the run and walking was the only correct decision to make at that point.
  • Amazing crowd support on the run while you run on the dike!

Result

  • Swim   0:31:16     AG-28/232
  • T1       00:05:19
  • Bike    2:24:03     AG-26/232
  • T2       00:02:38
  • Run     1:56:55     AG-158/232
  • Total   5:00:10     AG-58/232



Tags: HIM Knokke-Heist race report, race report HIM Knokke-Heist, 70.3 Knokke-Heist race report, race report 70.3 Knokke-Heist, Ironman 70.3 Knokke-Heist race report, race report Ironman 70.3 Knokke-Heist

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