aquathlon Irongirls wachtebeke

On Saturday the 26th of March the ‘Irongirls’ organized an aquathlon in Wachtebeke. it’s a 500m swim followed by a 5,5km run. After my half marathon on sunday I had another hard training week but this was just another training race. I really looked forward to this one because it was just gonna be awesome :-) we had some big names competing in my category: Carmen de Ridder; a girl I used to swim with about 10 years ago. she’s been in the ‘nederlandse selectie’ for a while and goes really well in open water swim races! Sophie de Groote; her 1st year as a full time pro athlete, she’s going for the same goal as me: 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas. and Jolien Lewyllie: a young girl who’s got lots of talent and is part of team 185 coached by Marc Herremans. So no pressure.. ow and I almost forgot: my mum competed as well! 

we started with a 500m swim. Because it was training and I wanted to get the most out of it  I started at the front. we shared a lane with 5 girls and I had no idea how they were gonna go but they could pass me if they wanted to. the day before I had done a swim training plus power training. push ups, dips that sort of stuff with a backpack. Kind of felt that after 200m, my muscles were a bit sore. I tried to keep my pace the same through the swim. the last 50m I tried to safe my legs a bit. I got out of the water 1st of my lane. Jolien, Carmen, Sophie and Evy were all in front of me plus maybe a couple of other girls. Not sure who was in front of me. 

When I ran into transition Mieke was on the micro keeping the public up to date who got out of the water. I saw there was one girl just leaving transition and I quickly jumped in my shoes and grabbed my nr, and started the chase. after a couple of hundred meters I was just behind her and because it was quite windy I wanted to run out of the wind for a bit but she was going to slow, so I had to go past. I saw Evy running in front of me and I tried to catch her. after the 1st lap I noticed the gap got smaller but Evy wasn’t gonna let me get to her. damn! I ran as fast as I could to get some good training in and I finished in 5th place. I saw my mum starting her run and yelled out at her. she looked strong! 

Sophie finished in 1st place, surprise surprise.. Carmen did awesome and finished 2nd and Jolien got a well deserved 3rd place. they definitely were the strongest ones out there. 

you can see the results here: http://irongirls.be/files/uitslagen/2011_dames.pdf

I had a great day and really enjoyed it! Would love to do more of these races. and it was surprisingly well organized for being such a small race!  a day to remember :-)

half marathon disaster

on sunday the 20th of March was my 1st half marathon of the year planned; in Sluis. I really thought that I would run faster than last year even though I had my 2nd cold in 4 weeks and I was in the middle of a 4 week training cycle.. it was a disaster. From the start on I didn’t feel very good. because of my cold I had trouble breathing and I couldn’t find a rhythm. In the 1st kilometer Reiny jumped passed me and just took off! I was a bit scared he would get hit by the man with the hammer around km 16-17 but he finished really strong. 1:40:54 for you first half marathon is awesome! 

km 1-10 were ok, I couldn’t cool down and kept throwing water over me and that sort of got me through half the race. From then on my lungs started burning and I felt like I couldn’t get any oxygen out of the air I was breathing in. my race was over. switch button from ‘racing mode’ into ‘training mode’ and just finish. It sounds easy but trust me it isn’t. I really had to keep telling myself: Ok, Gwen, take it easy. Don’t force it you’re just gonna do yourself more harm than good. finish it, and use this as training. 

km 10-18 were a bit of a mental rollercoaster. a lot of people passed me! It felt like everyone passed me! I just wanted to stop and go home. but from km 18 things got a bit easier. only 3km, that’s ‘if you would run at the slow pace of 6min/km” only 18min untill you cross the finish. piece of cake! so, I finished in 1 hour 49 min and a bit. I wasn’t even really upset because I was kind of proud at myself that I could just ‘switch the button’. In the passed I would of been really pissed, angry and upset but this wasn’t the race I’m preparing for. this is just part of my training, and training isn’t supposed to be easy. not just physical but also mental training is what I need to work on to go better in my half ironman races. So it probably didn’t feel as the best training I could of done for my body but my mind learned a lot that day! 

Mike, Pieter and Celine also raced. Mike didn’t do any running over an hour for about 8 months and finished in 1:39! Pieter, we all know he’s just an amazing athlete, finished in 1:22. and Celine beat her pb by 5 min and finished in 1:45! 

If you want to see the results you can see them here:

 http://www.racetimer.eu/uitslagen.php?v=%25252Fnl%25252Frace%25252Fresultlist%25252F486%25253Flayout%25253Dracetimer_eu%252526amp%25253Brc_id%25253D2968

1st race, 1st win

A good start of the season with a win in the sprint distance triathlon in Herderen! Just found out my times a couple of hours ago and pretty happy with them. As you know, this was a training race. I just had a really hard training week behind me a definitely didn't expect a win. On wednesday I felt great in training and was ready to race but by friday it was all gone. I had to do this really hard run and there was no way I could get my heartrates up to what they had to be. I suffered so much that day and just completely had it. Luckily I still had a 2,5 hour bike ride on saturday to look forward to.. yay. I do admit that my legs felt a bit better afterwards.
Then, a cruel sunday morning where we had to get up early. I got all my stuff ready the night before so we just had to load the car. We arrived in Bilzen, where the swim was, at around 10 am. there were 2 waves for the women and I had to start in the first one. 11:15 lane 3. I got the lane for myself which was great, did a bit of a warm up swim before and I felt ok. The legs didn't feel great but I don't really need them very much in the swim. I started off at a pretty good pace, trying to take long, strong strokes, never dropped my pace and even picked it up towards the end. in Lane 1 was Charlotte de Kort swimming, she had a great swim start but I saw her dropping back towards the end,  couldn't catch her though. In lane 2, next to me was Elke Conings, from the beginning of the swim untill about a 100 mtrs to go, she was just in front of me. I saw she wasn't doing her tumble turns so I knew what to get her on. the last 4 laps I accelerated end I finished 13 seconds in front of her. 7:43
In the 2nd wave was one really good swimmer, Lisa Stes. she kicked our asses by more than a minute!
After the swim we drove to Herderen for the second part of my race. it was a 4 lap bike leg followed by a 2 lap run. It was quite cold so I did a bit of a warm-up on the turbo and Reiny rubbed my legs in with warm up oil. reminds me of my bike racing times, good times :-)
since I ended up in 3rd place on the swim I was to start in 3rd position on the bike, 1 min 26 behind Lisa and 8 seconds behind Charlotte. I had no idea how strong the other girls were but I have to admit, they looked pretty fit and since my run isn't my strongest, I had to pass and get some time ahead of Charlotte and Lisa on the bike.
I started pretty fast, it was slightly uphill but I knew there would be a downhill bit just around the church. I saw Charlotte in front of me and yelled out at her, watch it: i'm coming. we sort of planned to try and ride to Lisa together and then attack her later. But I flew straight past Charlotte and she didn't get my wheel so I was gonna have to do it on my own. The bike lap was quite hilly but nothing too bad. there was quite a bit of wind as well and I was happy I only had to ride for 20km. At the end of the 1st lap, I completely loved my new bike, it's just amazingly fast! When we rode towards the finish there was a split, the men had to go left on this big hill and the women just had to ride straight ahead up a smaller hill. A few men passed me.., they took there corner and then I saw something that gave me wings: a good 100 mtrs in front of me was Lisa riding up the hill. I was still in the big ring and came back quickly. The last hilly bit to the finish was too steep for the 50 so I changed it back to my 34, spinned up the hill and went passed Lisa. Quickly back in the big ring on the false flat and .. attack! I dropped her, yess! Just had to keep it up now. After the 2nd lap I was using the small chainring a lot more and really thought I was going a lot slower because of that. Had some troubles with my chain as well, it kept coming off when I changed gears. front derailleur needs some fine tuning again.
Last lap I tried to 'recover' a bit and get ready for the run, really took my time to spin up the hill and get in Transition. Then, a quick change of shoes and off I was for a 5km run. I was sort of panicking because the last thing I heard Reiny scream was that they were about a min and a half behind and I didn't think that would be enough. My legs were completely powerless and I didn't feel like I was going anywhere. The guy on mic was convinced I was going to win but I thought he was a bit optimistic... There was another guy riding a mtb riding in front of me who said I didn't have to worry but I wasn't convinced. the 1st run lap was hell, I couldn't get in a rhythm, hamstrings weren't working with me and I couldn't breathe very well. When I first passed the finish line with one lap to go I heard Reiny, Jacob and his friends all yell out at me.  I looked back past the soccer field and didn't see any other girls yet so I knew the chance of anyone coming back would be pretty slim. After about 3,5 km I started feeling a bit better. I ran past the houses, had some little kids cheering me on and then I got to the soccer field. yay! a couple of hundred meters to go and it's over.
Reiny was waiting for me at the finish line, which was really nice! He took some nice photo's too and he filmed my swim!

So, looking back at the race, with racing times next to me, I can say that i'm quite happy with my result. I think I kicked ass on the bike, the only thing that went wrong there was my chain. lap times were: lap 1: 9:43 lap 2: 10:39 lap 3: 9:58 and lap 4: 10:08
I swam ok, but there is still lots of room for improvement, especially after watching my stroke on camera!
And for the run, I was very surprised to find out that I got the fastest running time! a shared, fastest running time, Elke did 21:36 as well. Still need some work on my run though, but i'm very happy with the improvements so far.

below you can see the results from the race:

Uitslag Herderen 2011 Dames
Pl.	Naam		Cat	Swim	Fietstijd	Split	Looptijd	Finish
1	Lossie	Gwen	Dames	0:07:43	0:40:32	0:48:15	0:21:36	1:09:51
2	conings	elke	Dames	0:07:56	0:45:33	0:53:29	0:21:36	1:15:05
3	Stes	Lisa	Dames	0:06:27	0:46:30	0:52:57	0:23:21	1:16:18
4	Debock	Julie	Dames	0:09:28	0:44:52	0:54:20	0:22:25	1:16:45
5	De Kort	Charlotte	Dames	0:07:35	0:47:36	0:55:11	0:24:43	1:19:54
6	Rinkes	Els	Dames	0:11:24	0:46:49	0:58:13	0:23:28	1:21:41
7	Berden	Jessica	Dames	0:09:46	0:48:56	0:58:42	0:24:57	1:23:39
8	Van den Bossche	Ruth	Dames	0:11:34	0:50:38	1:02:12	0:26:05	1:28:17
9	broechoven	an	Dames	0:10:41	0:52:02	1:02:43	0:29:48	1:32:31
10	Nijs	Greet	Dames	0:12:26	0:56:59	1:09:25	0:27:40	1:37:05
11	Callebaut	Klara	Dames	0:11:02	0:59:26	1:10:28	0:33:29	1:43:57
12	Wauters	Ellen	Dames	0:11:37	1:28:51	1:40:28	0:03:32	1:44:00
13	Vermeerbergen	Kirsten	Dames	0:09:21				DNF

The organization was very good as well! Really enjoyed doing this race. I loved the challenging bike circuit :-) Looking forward to seeing the photo's online.
check www.sport-events.be triathlon herderen!!

racing scedule 2011

Hey,  I just entered all my races for this year and thought it was time to let you know what i'm up to. I've got a couple of shorter distance races, duathlons and half ironmans. the shorter distance will be mainly for training.

6th of March: sprint distance in Herderen, Belgium
20th of March: half marathon in Sluis, Holland
26th of March: aquathlon in Wachtebeke, Belgium

the sprint distance in Herderen is gonna be very interesting. 500m swim in the morning, so I can go all out, recover, and then ride 20km and run 5km in the arvo. And... i'll be racing on my brand new Moozes Mistral! check out the www.moozes.com website they got some pretty cool bikes!
for the half marathon in Sluis I would like to beat my pb 1:44:45 and I got the confidence I can do it.
and for the aquathlon in Wachtebeke: my mum is competing as well!!! I've been the mean daughter and entered her for the race. it's only 500m swim and 5km run so i'm sure she can do it.

17th of April: National and European championships duathlon in Horst, Holland
I'm a bit anxious about this one. my first duathlon and since running isn't my strongest discipline, and I have to run 15km at the start and 7,5km at the end of the race, i'm a bit nervous.. at least we got a 62km bike leg as well. After checking last years results i'm really hoping i'll be quite fit by then, the times were fast!

8th of May: Olympic distance in Geel, Belgium
Just a nice training race. hoping to do well and get some speed going for my first big goal this year:

5th of June: Ironman 70.3 in Rapperswil, Switzerland
I'm hoping to qualify for the worlds 70.3 in Las Vegas here, but I think the field will be quite strong. last years winner of the Worlds won this race! It will be my first time in Switzerland so that'll be fun. bike looks challenging but the run is pretty much flat so that should suit me.

19th of June: Olympic distance in Retie, Belgium
I was planning on competing in Brugge(Bruges) but I couldn't get in so decided I would race here. looks like a nice race as well, good training.

2nd of July: Clubchampionship in Vlissingen, Zeeland.
24th of July: Ironman 70.3 in Antwerp, Belgium

i'm racing Vlissingen because i'm from 'Zeeuws-vlaanderen' and as a real 'Zeeuw' I gotta race there. And it's gonna be a good training race for Antwerp.

Antwerp.. not really the race I wanted to do, but it's close to home and my 2nd chance on a Worlds ticket so, .. planning to go waaaay under 5 hours here ;-)

14th of August: Ironman 70.3 in Wiesbaden, Germany
European champs, which I loved last year! really good organized and great swim, bike and run leg. swim is just out and back in relatively clean water, bike is hilly and beautiful and run is pretty much flat. false flat on some bits but nothing too hard. last year I was injured at this race so not my best time still ended up in 3rd place.

If all goes well i'll race the worlds in Las Vegas this year. Clearwater was a great experience but because the course was flat and fast there was a lot of drafting. I had pelotons coming past me! Vegas on the other hand will be more like Wiesbaden, so hopefully I can get a top 10 or (if it all goes well) top 5 place.

Next week is my first race, i'll keep you all up to date on how things go. I am so happy the season starts again! :-) Ready to rock and rollllll

The worldchampionships 70.3

we zijn om 5u 's ochtends opgestaan, niet onmenselijk vroeg gelukkig. rond kwart voor 6 begeefden we ons naar de start. de pro's starten om 6:45 en ik pas om 7:50 dus ik ging ze zeker uit het water zien komen. Reintje en ik hebben daar samen nog even naar gekeken. het zag er rustig uit maar dat bedroog precies een beetje. vreemd genoeg was ik helemaal niet zenuwachtig. sterker nog, ik ben nog nooit zo rustig geweest voor een wedstrijd. toen om 7:50 het startschot ging rende ik meteen het water in. naar mijn gevoel ging het zwemmen ok, er waren wel wat golven en ik heb een paar keer mogen proeven van de golf van mexico: niet zo lekker.. na 36:19 kwam ik uit het water en heb ik de vrijwilligers mijn wetsuit uit laten trekken. echt grappig. daarna mijn zak gepakt voor te fietsen. Ik mocht Diedrik zijn aero helm gebruiken en daar was ik wel blij om. Het voelde al sneller :-) De eerste paar km gingen ok, ik voelde me redelijk sterk. Na ongeveer 10km kwam er een heel peleton(ik overdrijf niet!!) voorbij met 3!! uit mijn categorie. allemaal op een halve meter van elkaar. schandalig, ik had al gehoord dat er veel gedraft zou worden maar die was te gek voor woorden. ik weet in ieder geval dat ik mijn eigen wedstrijd heb gereden. en redelijk sterk ook. over het algemeen was het redelijk snel. fietstijd was 2:36:15 17e tijd. netjes toch. laatste stuk was wel zwaar, ik had op de fiets mijn hartslagmeter aangedaan en die zakte bijna niet onder de 180 maar ik voelde me er redelijk comfortabel bij. ik heb geproobeerd om goed te eten en te drinken en ik denk dat  dat toch is gelukt.
Dan: transition naar het lopen. Ik zag het allemaal wel zitten, normaal heb ik zoiets als ik in het water lig van: ik ga blij zijn als ik op de fiets zit. en als ik dan op de fiets zit denk ik altijd: ik zal blij zijn als ik aan het lopen ben. en dan is het tijdens het lopen meestal afzien. T2 ging ok, toen ik van mijn fiets afsprong had ik wel een beetje wobbly benen maar dat ging al snel beter. vlug de loopschoenen aandoen, petje op en een paar isogels mee en weg was ik. het was de bedoeling dat ik de 2e ronde probeerde om iets sneller te lopen maar ik heb ze eigenlijk allebei op hetzelfde tempo gedaan. De brug die ik zo vreesde viel ook enorm mee. gelukkig! tijdens het lopen stond er elke mijl een voedingsstation en ik heb daar ook bijna elke keer gebruik van gemaakt. alleen cola en iso gedronken en constant water over mij heen gegoten om af te koelen, dat werkte goed. ik kon niet versnellen maar ik zat lekker in mijn tempo. om mij heen waren er veel atleten aan het boeren, overgeven en scheten aan het laten. ik moest de 2e ronde naar het wc maar ik wilde niet stoppen en aangezien die andere atleten ook geen manieren hadden heb ik het maar laten lopen. Ik moest even aan iemand denken(ik zal geen namen noemen) die ik in Oostenrijk heb ontmoet. ze vertelde mij dat ze toen voor het eerst op de fiets geplast had. De dingen die wij doen..
looptijd viel achteraf toch een beetje tegen, 1:56:30
Voor mijn gevoel ging de wedstrijd dus super ook al kun je het niet zien in het eindresultaat. Volgend jaar is in Las Vegas en ik ben van plan om weer mee te doen en mijn tijd te verbeteren.
5:15:31 is niet zo goed dus dat zou zeker moeten lukken.

Morgen vertrekken we alweer richting Belgie, Reinhard en ik willen allebei niet terug.
tot binnenkort.

the evening before

Alle voorbereiding is gedaan. Ik heb net mijn fiets ingecheckt en al mijn bijbehorende wedstrijdspullen. Nog iets meer dan 12u en het gaat beginnen. Ik ben heel benieuwd naar wat ik kan doen morgen. met een tijd onder de 5u ga ik heel blij zijn maar stiekem hoop ik altijd op iets beter! zo nog een keer naar een mooie zonsondergang aan de golf van mexico kijken, nog een beetje eten en drinken(ik kan geen electrolyte drinken niet meer zien!!!) en dan slapen.
voor de mensen die het morgen willen volgen: ik start om 7u50 locale tijd, 13u50 belgische/nederlandse tijd. de proffesionals om 6u45..  www.ironmanlive.com
normaal gingen ze vandaag het zwemparcours uitzetten maar ik heb nog niets gezien. gelukkig is het een 'out and back' parcours dus niet zo moeilijk. als ik maar rustig blijf en niet te veel ga nadenken over haaien enzo.. normale mensen vinden het zwemmen eng omdat er zoveel mensen te gelijk starten of zo, ik ben bang van de haaien. ik weet dat er vrijwel geen kans is dat er ook maar een gaat zitten met 1700 atleten in het water maar toch..  Het schijnt ook dat ze je wetsuit uittrekken als je dat wilt!! ik ga gewoon zitten in T1 en dan zouden ze normaal met 2 a3 man je wetsuit uitrekken, super toch?! Dat scheelt weer een halve minuut, dan kan ik mijn compressiesokken aandoen ;-)
Fietsparcours staat dus bekend om een snel parcours te zijn. blijkbaar is het vooral tussen mijl 25-45 enorm snel omdat je dan meestal meewind heb dus ik weet wat ik daar moet doen.
Dan op het loopparcours heb je dus die brug die je 4x over moet. ik ga mijn hartslagmeter aandoen morgen om te zorgen dat ik daar zeker niet te vroeg in het rood ga. mijn plan is om de eerste ronde(10,5km dus) me proberen rustig te houden en in een goed tempo te komen om zo hopelijk de 2e ronde nog een beetje te kunnen versnellen. of dat lukt zien we morgen..

Morgenavond zal ik proberen om een uitgebreid verslag van de wedstrijd te schrijven. Het gaat er een beetje aan liggen hoe goed het ging wanneer het precies op mijn blog staat :-) Het grootste vraagteken gaat zijn hoe ik met het weer omga..

tot morgen

welcome dinner

donderdag 11 november, 2 dagen voor de wedstrijd.. het begint allemaal heel dicht bij te komen en de spanning begint een beetje te stijgen. Ik ben een paar concurrentes tegengekomen vandaag en ze maken toch allemaal een sterke indruk, ik hoop dat ze ook zo over mij denken.
's avonds was het welkomst diner aan het sand key park. Dat was echt een super ervaring. sand key is een supergroot wit strand en ze hadden daar een hele 'area' afgezet, er was een band aan het spelen, alle vlaggen van alle landen werden rondgedragen en neergezet, volkslied werd(natuurlijk) gezongen,.. kippenvel moment! ik ben heel blij dat ik dit mee mag maken.

Nog 2 nachten slapen, ik moet zorgen dat ik goed uitgerust ben. Dit gaat de eerste wedstrijd zijn dat ik me goed voel! Ik heb er zo een zin in!!!