70.3 Les Sables-d’Olonne
After my first 70.3 triathlon, I made it back to the top of the world after a forced break of almost 8 months, I had to recover for a really long time for the first time. Normally I need 1-2 days and then I'm back in full training! But due to the long break with the illness, I was extremely exhausted after this race. Before the next race, 70.3 Les Sables D'Olonne, I set a new training record with 3 weeks of 25h training and no fever! Fever-free for the first time. It went really well and I was just happy. As soon as I arrived in Les Sables, I felt even better. The weather was simply amazing and that motivated me to train! I was mentally and physically ready and looking forward to the race. But I was also extremely nervous! The standard at this 70.3 was really high.
Rico Bogen, 70.3 World Champion, Youri Keulen, T100 winner, Clement Mignon, Top 20 Worldranking, and many more Germans who are very strong! 7:00 beach start! Even as small children, the four of us practised the beach start, dad threw the ball into the sea and the four of us boys followed 😉 so after a few metres of running into the sea, I was already in a great position. I've struggled a bit with my swimming speed over the last few months because I just haven't done that many kilometres yet. However, I was fast today! As there were a lot of athletes at the start, it was like an ITU race. Of course, I felt really good and was fighting my way up another 2-3 places in the first boye. I was in 4th position behind Rico and was now focussing solely on breathing and holding my position. Very often athletes try to swim forwards to improve their position a little. They do this by slowly swimming from their feet to their hips and then forwards. As soon as you have someone on your hip, it slows you down and the athlete behind you can swim up.
Triathlon is a sport where you have to have really great endurance and I just didn't have it yet. Although I'm super fast and fit in the swim, bike and run, that doesn't mean that I'm also fast in the triathlon. I fought my way through the last 5km to the finish with pain in my tired thighs and calves. It was so hard because many athletes were right behind me and I just wanted to finish in the top 10 and so I definitely pushed myself far beyond my limits. I ran as fast as I could with pain in my calves (from the many hours and kilometres of sport) and fell to the ground at the finish. I felt this calf for another 3-4 days 😉 9th place, 5 seconds ahead of 10th place and 30 seconds behind 8th place (last place for the prize money) and all this in a 70.3 race that lasted 3h45 for me! The standard in triathlon has risen dramatically and that motivates me! I was super happy with the time, the placing and the points I got from the PTO. I'm now motivated to get back into training with a view to my annual Ironman Frankfurt goal! Until then I will have a little over 6 months of training in my body and that will definitely make me a lot faster and more robust!
Endlich am Aargauerstalden die letzte brutale Steigung, bevor es ins Ziel gieng! Ich holte noch mal alles raus und überholte in der Steigung noch ein paar der Athleten vor mir. Doch in der Fläche vor dem Ziel spürte ich dann die Schmerzen in den Oberschenkeln, ich bin etwas zu hart rein. Nun nichts anmerken lassen und schön aufrecht Richtung Ziel! Ich konnte die Athleten hinter mir in Schach halten und rannte voller Freude und Erleichterung ins Ziel! Es geht also immer noch, meinen Körper zu fordern und näher ans Limit zu bringen. Im Ziel hatte ich eine Zeit von 54:28, stolzer Schnitt von 3:22 mit 180hm! Das war ein weiterer Meilenstein auf meinem Weg zurück ins Leben!
But I know exactly what happens when someone wants to overtake and you can also feel it when someone ‘sneaks up on you’ 😉 So I swim to the side where the athlete is trying to overtake and kick very hard with my feet, sometimes hitting the person's arms! Sounds hard but it's the only way to keep someone who wants to overtake at a distance. That way the athlete has to get back in line and I can concentrate on the front feet again. With a very good position, I then got on my bike and tried to simply ride on the rear wheel of the athlete in front for the time being. Save energy and wait and see what happens! Athletes overtook me from time to time and I also overtook 1-2 athletes who were not riding well technically. Due to the many bends, you always lose some time and that costs a lot of energy to catch up.
This meant that I was always a little faster in the bends than those in front of me and could then let my legs hang on after the bend until the ‘Race Ranger’ was back on orange or off (up to 15m orange, no light more than 15m, blue 10-12m, red under 10m). After the 90km at 46km/h, my legs were ready to run. I didn't have to push myself to the limit, but it was exhausting enough that my legs were a bit tired. With a great transition, I made it from 6th to 3rd place at the start of the run. I felt great and ran a 3:20-3:15 pace and it didn't feel too fast at all. The running style felt smooth and relaxed and I thought I could run a half marathon like that. But suddenly after 20 minutes my legs got heavy out of nowhere and I lost speed straight away. I could barely hold a 3:30 pace and realised that it was getting harder and harder to stay relaxed. In the last 10km I had to fight harder than ever before! Due to the almost 8 months without training, I lost a lot of fitness. Although I was able to regain a lot of speed and fitness in all disciplines during these 5 months of training, I was clearly still lacking training hours.