Preparation
My big A race for this year, no significant injuries leading into the race so I was able to complete trainings as scheduled by the coach. Targets for this race were to have a good race day feeling, swim around 32' as I usually do, have a strong bike ride all the way through and hopefully run around 4:30-4:40 pace.
To prepare, I rode the bike course on ROUVY to get familiar with the layout — the steep sections of the climb, the fast decent, and so on.
Location
Registration and finish line venue are located at the Ferry Porche Congress Center, swim start & exit, T1 and T2 are located at Strandbad Seespitz. Bike course is a big one loop including the climb up to Dienten am Hochkönig and the run course is a 2 loop setup along the borders of the Zeller See.
Stay
I opted to drive to the race venue instead of flying to avoid the hustle of having to pack and unpack my bike, risking it getting damaged, having to cope with public transport from the airport to the race venue or renting a car etc. To avoid a very taxing car ride we split the trip up into 2 parts, first day up to the Holiday Inn - the niu, Mesh Stuttgart Messe where we spend the night followed by the second part from Stuttgart to Zell am See. We arrived a few days before the race to recover from the trip and enjoy the scenery. We stayed at Hotel Latini which was just 2 train stops away from the center of Zell am See and was even closer to T1/T2.
Swim 0:31:38 (AG-14/190)
- Pretty straight forward 1 loop swim, from the swim start heading straight in the direction of the Grand Hotel Zell am See and back. I opted to start relatively to the front to avoid slow traffic in the swim and avoid draft packs on the bike. I started of relaxed and found a good rhythm, for the vast majority of the swim I had clean water even near the turning buoys the battle wasn't to bad.
- AG 7% is one of my better results, a pace of 1:38/100m is also slightly better compared to my normal wet suit swim pace.
T1 0:05:00 (AG-13/190)
- Helped the guy exiting the water in front of me to unzip his wet suit, but he didn't return the favor so as always I struggled to get my zipper down while running to the transition bag rack.
- Managed to win 1 position in T1 from 14th out of the water to 13th heading out of T1.
Bike 2:33:29 (AG-9/190)
- 1 big loop with a major climb up to Dienten am Hochkönig of around 12k, followed by a long descend and rolling terrain for the rest of the course. Riding the course previously multiple times on ROUVY helped a lot, I knew where the dangerous curves were, when to expect the steepest parts of the climb etc. I tried to remain controlled on the climb, but on the steepest parts I had to push well over 300W just to keep moving forward, so impossible to keep the power numbers in check there. Just after the top of the climb I closed the gap to 3 riders going pretty slow downhill, so I tried to pass them as quick as possible to be able to ride my own decent without any interference. The last 20k my legs were really shattered, I was passed by quite a few athletes, struggled to get up the last climb near the castle of Kaprun and was really happy to reach T2.
- Looking at my position at the various checkpoints on the bike course I managed to get up to 7th place at the top of the climb, in the last 10k however where I really started to struggle I lost 2 spots, so I came into T2 in 9th position. 2:33:29 - 34.8km/h - NP = 247W, 89.6km - 942m elevation.
T2 0:03:53 (AG-9/190)
- No cramping when jumping of the bike, so that is always a pleasant surprise but I felt clearly that I already had spend most of my energy.
- I didn't win or loose a position in T2, so I headed out of T2 in 9th position.
Run 1:52:08 (AG-24/190)
- I didn't feel to great from the get go but tried to keep it relaxed, not watching my pace but just running some pace that felt comfortable. Near the end of the first loop heading into the 2nd loop however it already started to hurt. And as expected / feared my lower legs started to feel like concrete at around 12k into the run followed by the tinteling feeling in my hands, at around 18k when I started to get the same tinteling feeling in my mouth I opted to walk for a while for it to fade away. When it resided a bit I managed to jog to the finish line.
- I started off in 9th position, after 7.4k however I was already in 11th position, 15th position at 16.4k and finishing up in 24th. 5:17 per km pace is just bad, not even warm up pace.
Overall 5:06:08 (AG-24/190)
- Controlled swim, went a little to deep on the climb paying for it in the latter part of the bike and the second part of the run was a real struggle.
- Overall happy with my race, that I listened to my body, recognized the symptoms and acted in accordance to it to stay safe.
- 24th in my AG (13%) in an Ironman branded race is not bad at all, last year in Knokke I finished 58th (25%). Although I would have loved to finish within 5 hours!
Some lessons learned
- A really gorgeous race venue, certainly on my list to do again.
- Using ROUVY to get familiar with the bike course was certainly a good idea, even during the fast decent I felt comfortable because it felt like I had done it multiple times already.
- Really need to try to figure out how to avoid the steep decline on the run, better fueling?, lower power output on the bike?, ... Nutrition wise I took a salt capsule and a gel every 30' and tried to drink plenty, maybe try higher carb gels to hopefully have higher energy levels near the latter part of the race.
Result
- Swim 0:31:38 (AG-14/190)
- T1 0:05:00 (AG-13/190)
- Bike 2:33:29 (AG-9/190)
- T2 0:03:53 (AG-9/190)
- Run 1:52:08 (AG-24/190)
- Total 5:06:08 (AG-24/190)
Tags: Ironman Zell am See 70.3 race report, race report Ironman Zell am See 70.3
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