Preparation
No injuries to speak of leading into this race, except from a finicky tendon on the top of my right foot, but nothing to serious and manageable. Olympic distance race, so not to taxing on the body neither taking into account my A race in Zell am See a few weeks later.
No specific targets set for this race, just hoping to have a good race day feeling and get close to my previous splits in this race.
Location
The swim is a 2 loop Australian exit setup at the Barefoot Beach which is about 8km from the city center. T2 and finish line are both located in the city center of Lommel.
Stay
As the race venue wasn't to far away and there was no need to leave the bike the day before the race, we didn't opt to stay close to the venue and just made the trip on race day.
Swim 0:26:40 AG-37/127
- 3rd time taking part in this race, so pretty familiar with the race venue by now, straight 2 loop swim with a beach run in between.
- I started near the right and not in the front to avoid the starting chaos and madness. During the first loop my goggles were leaking pretty bad so I was basically sighting with one eye closed. Managed to adjust my goggles during the Australian exit which made sighting during the second lap a whole lot easier. Furthermore a relative uneventful swim.
- AG 29% is not to great, but a time of 26:40 corresponds to a swim pace of 1:38/100m which is actually pretty good and slightly better than my 70.3 pace I regularly hit.
- 2022: 0:28:13 - AG 29% - 1:52/100m (non-wetsuit swim)
- 2023: 0:26:01 - AG 23% - 1:44/100m
T1
- Struggled to get my wetsuit off, but got the zipper down just in time when I got to my bike.
Bike 1:07:18 AG-29/123
- Tried to not go to hard as last time around I blew up near the end, I managed to remain controlled during the entire bike leg.
- AG 23% - 37.6km/h - NP = 251W - 8m of elevation. Compared to last 2 times I raced here a clearly lower power output and AG wise as well the slowest, but I was trying to remain controlled, which I managed to do. Faster than in 2023 but I assume in 2023 there was way more wind as my power output back then was 20W higher.
- 2022: 0:59:59 - AG 7% - 280W - 40.1km/h (slightly different bike course)
- 2023: 1:07:49 - AG 15% - 271W - 39.0km/h
T2 0:01:00 AG-17/123
Run 0:43:09 AG-46/122
- 2 loop setup of 5k each, through the city center with great fan support.
- Started of pretty good, but at the start of the second loop it really started to hurt, looking at the pace it indeed started to drop in the second loop. Looking at my heart rate it was pretty high already in the first loop, so not surprising that I had to pull it back a little in the second loop. But I was able to end off stronger again.
- AG 38% - 4:25/k, comparing to the previous time I did the run here it was almost spot on the same pace and AG %, so can't be unhappy about it.
- 2022: No run due to injury
- 2023: 0:43:35 - AG 37% - 4:24/k
Overall 2:18:07 AG-28/122
- Happy with how I felt during the race, swim was ok, bike was controlled and run was the best I had so far on this course.
- AG 23%, almost spot on the same time and AG % compared to 2 years ago:
- 2022: DNF due to injury
- 2023: 2:18:19 - AG 20%
Some lessons learned
- Better to keep an eye on my heart rate when running of the bike, or you will pay the price later on, especially during a hot sunny day.
- Looking forward to race here again and try to shave off some more time.
Result
- Swim 0:26:40 AG-37/127
- T1
- Bike 1:07:18 AG-29/123
- T2 0:01:00 AG-17/123
- Run 0:43:09 AG-46/122
- Total 2:18:07 AG-28/122
Tags: Hoeks Triathlon Lommel race report, race report Hoeks Triathlon Lommel
Comments
Post a Comment