Racer, not photographer at Openlakes triathlon
Yes, that’s right - we’re not here just to take pictures! Although that has been the majority of the content output recently.
Outside of taking photos at these sport events - I've been training. The big goal is a full ironman in 2024.
The race in mind for the full distance in 2024 is Openlakes triathlon, which takes place in Belgium.
They still had open places for all the distances in September 2023, so I decided to do an Olympic triathlon to test out the course, and get back into tri after a few years of not doing one.
Papa woo and brother Ben were going to join - but things got in the way for Ben, and Papa Woo was ruled out due to injury…
But… we will be there as a trio next year in September. Me and Ben for the full distance (I hope!) and dad for the half. We’re all pretty determined now.
It was also my first time on the other side of the camera at a sportograf event - so thanks to the photographers who were there on the day and captured some cool shots! Also thanks to Papa Woo and Ms.Orla who joined for the weekend, captured photos, cooked, pampered, and supported, which was a massive help not only in the event - but leading up to it as well.
It was a good way to test my current fitness, to scope out the course, and over the weekend I realised a couple of other things that will be key for the big event in 2024.
The power of a support group
This has been a key thing for all of our (me, Ben, Dad) training. We have a whatsapp group where we post our workouts, questions, doubts - and the others come through to help make good decisions, and most importantly - do some kind of training, even if it’s not exactly as the plan says.
I’ve heard and read a lot about the power of being accountable, how having a training buddy makes you show up even when you don’t want to - and this proves it.
On your own, it’s so easy to skip sessions, or make excuses… then race day comes quicker than you thought, and the results aren't what you wanted, and you wonder why. The group prevents that.
The more we train, the better the race day is going to be.
Having support at the race itself was way more important than I realised as well. Since Dad wasn’t racing - I didn't really have to think about any of the logistics other than the race all weekend.
The apartment was already booked, the travel was sorted - with enough room for my stuff and bike, Ms Orla took care of the food for the weekend, they could watch my stuff while I did the swim practice, and help me carry everything to the race on the day, and after.
All that just for an olympic distance! We’ll recruit some more helpers (Becca!) for the full.
Talking of support groups - that’s something we want to build with you. A place where you can meet other people doing awesome things, get answers to your questions, and get inspired to chase your own goals.
Click here to join in!
Having a training plan
For the 2 months leading up to the event, I had been following a 1 year to ironman plan that I found online.
I’ve been cycling a lot, but not doing any real training plans (apart from zwift plans in the winter) - and now that I have a plan, it makes such a difference.
It removes one barrier of getting out to train. You don’t need to think about what to do, what you feel like doing. It’s clear.
You have 6 sessions per week (even with given days to do them, although I was moving it around based on how I felt and what else was happening in the week). So after a day at work, you come home and the session is already decided, you just have to do it.
In just 2 months I already had a lot of days where I would have preferred not to train for one reason or another - but removing that choice, and being able to tick off the sessions as they got done was really positive.
Ok - the online plan might not be the best one, or tailored to me, but the fact that it’s there is really beneficial for the moment.
Race breakdown and lessons
So I already saw the positives of having support, and a training plan - but what did it mean for the race, how did it all go? And what will I keep in mind for the big aim in 2024?
Well the race went pretty well overall. I finished with a time of 2 hours 49 minutes, quite a bit under my (maybe conservative) estimate.
The swim:
I picked my spot on the beach pretty well - my aim was to have enough space to not get caught in the washing machine, but not have the disadvantage of starting right at the back.
It worked quite well, but obviously other people had the same idea - and we all ended up quite a bit wider than we needed to, adding some extra metres to the swim, something I need to avoid in a full distance race.
Into T1:
I got lost - went up and down and in between the rows of bikes trying to find my spot - rookie error, but not a massive problem.
Getting the wetsuit off took a while, but that gave me time to get some food and drink in.
Here I attached my heart rate monitor, and turned on the garmin on the bike and saw my heart rate was at 180bpm! A little bit too high, considering that was only the swim done.
The bike:
I was worried about pushing too hard on the bike (since that’s my strongest discipline and wanted to do well), and despite being worried about pushing hard and telling myself to take it easy, I knew I would push hard anyway… And I did.
The bike course was not flat (this was one of the things we wanted to test out on the course - to see how hard it would be over an ironman distance - somehow I wasn’t put off, that might be something I regret in a year from now).
But I was happy with my time - 1h19 for the 42km course.
A lot of people were struggling on the climbs, clearly my bike training and living close to some very solid climbs has helped me a lot - this will be key for next year as well.
T2:
Somehow I couldn't find my spot again. Ducking under the rows of bikes, up and down looking for my number.. Oops.
It didn’t take too long to find in the end - but this is a mistake that I'd like to avoid going forward.
Onto the run:
“This is going to be a tough run” I said to dad as I passed him coming out of T2 to start my first run lap.
I don’t have a watch, so the run was purely based on feel - and for most of the first lap I felt fine. There was one part where I felt like I was going to throw up - I think too much liquid, and not being used to fueling a high heart rate (nutrition is going to be so vital for the ironman, I need to work on that in training).
I slowed a bit, and carried on going - and all was well, until I got confused about how far I had gone, and how far I had to go.
There was a bracelet system that indicated how many laps you’d done.
We were only supposed to run 2 loops of 5km. But on my second lap, I saw someone with a different colour bracelet running - so suddenly I doubted whether we had to do 2 laps or 3.
I dropped my pace quite a bit - I definitely wouldn’t have been able to complete 3 laps at that pace (I felt close to my limit).
The confusion lasted for the second half of the second lap, and even past the finish line - I carried on to start a 3rd lap just to make sure I didn’t get a DQ by trying to finish early - but after checking with some people, I made a u-turn and crossed the line just under 2 hours and 50 minutes.
A couple of other things:
Our accommodation was about 30 minutes away from the transition and start/finish - and the run-route was the same path we used to walk there. That was a good mental boost, because on the run I knew a bit where I was going, and it was going by much quicker compared to walking it.
Good real-time commentary from Papa Woo for the family - every time I came through transition or completed a lap, he dropped a message in whatsapp to update everyone, and gave me a mental boost as well (that’s why I look serious in all the sportograf photos, but laughing and smiling in his).
What’s next?
We’re all back to training. The goal over winter is clear - time to put in the work and come out stronger.
The main event next year is the full ironman at Openlakes in September.
We will also do a half ironman at Westfriesland in June, a good warmup and check - we should be in very good shape by then.