Did I do more training?

IRONMAN WISCONSIN 2011

I always think its funny with an Ironman, you sign up & its a year away, then its months, suddenly weeks, days, hours, minutes & next your standing in the water waiting for those last 20mins to go by. You look at your watch & swear that time went backwards. Its probably the same for everyone who has an A event during the year regardless of the sport or event, even those attending the Quilt Conference at the exhibition centre in Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday felt the same! To them a Quilt Conference, discussing materials, designs, weaves, patterns is probably as daunting & requiring in preparation as an Ironman. Unfortunately pre-race events meant I missed this conference & will never know the joys of quilts beyond that of Dunnes Stores!

Arrived into Madison on Tuesday after driving the 2 hours from Chicago. Bike had arrived safe & sound & built it up before bedding in. Spent the next few days scoping out the course & the town. Course had no significant climbs but was hilly the whole way, up & down, with an ok surface. Definitely the hardest IM course I had seen as in addition to the hills, there was a lot of 90 degree turns which you had to slow right down to take. The run was downtown & again a lot of turns, 1 massive hill & a lot of rises. The town itself is a big student town & was cool to hang out in. However the students definitely seemed a lot richer than I ever was back in the UCD days. How many student shopping areas have art galleries, organic food shops, antique furniture places??

As Sunday approached I got more & more nervous, but staying about 5 miles from the race venue meant it was pretty relaxed. We went to the zoo & some friends of mine from when I lived in Idaho came to visit. The day before the race I like to drop off the bike & bags as early as possible & forget about them while just sitting back, reading, watching tv.

The race has a unique transition, firstly its massive, you exit the swim run round & round & round going up a helix into the building where you picked up your bags. Got changed & then ran through a massive car park to collect your bike, before spinning down the helix the far side to start your 180km adventure. Seriously spinning down the helix you are dizzy at the bottom.

The swim started at 7am & I was lined up at the very front. The first 100ms were very civil & I was pleasantly surprised. Then the waves from behind came & I got knocked about. The first buoy was mental but then it got calmer as the 2 lap swim wore on. Reasonably happy to exit in 1:11, wet suit off courtesy of the strippers & up the helix. The atmosphere was amazing. Crowds 4/5 deep either side & they are just screaming at you, absolutely electric.

Grabbed Dean (Ridley Dean not some guy who I just grabbed) & set off on bike, First 4/5 miles were a bit all over the place before you settled into the course properly. The climbs on the back end of the course had some real characters, one viking in a g-string has left a mental scar on me! Got myself a stop & go penalty courtesy of overtaking the motorbike ref on the left while he was talking to another rider. By the end of the first lap I realised I was at the pointy end of the field. The second lap was fairly boring as I was only lapping people & passing the odd pro. The highlight was been nearly knocked off by an over enthustastic volunteer trying to give me my special needs bag, but I never handed in a special needs bag! The wind had picked up & the hills were taking their tole on me. The big test would be how I felt cycling up the helix when I got back to transition & when it felt ok I was happy.

A quick T2 & I felt alright heading out on the run. As I left I was told I was 4th age grouper & by mile 3 was up to 2nd. Part of the run course went through the universities football stadium, an actual lap of the playing field. The stadium is a 70,000 seater & running round an empty stadium was kind of surreal. A big part of the course was along the city’s main street & crowds were huge, a lot of people out drinking & screaming encouragement at us.

The whole first lap was very quiet & things were going well. I was comfortably in 2nd age grouper, feeling ok & was close to or in the top 10 overall. Then at mile 16 things started to fall apart & the next 10miles were a run/walk nightmare, pace dropped from sub 7min miles to 9min miles. I was dying & started getting passed. I even walked quite a bit with last year’s second place finisher, he had exploded even more than I had! Eventually I made it home & crossed the line. The backdrop to the finish was the amazing state capital building. Catchers caught me & couldn’t put me down as I was in a bad way. I sat around for a while but really didn’t feel great, I had blood on my gums from a smack during the swim, which I hadn’t even noticed. I was brought to the med tent & they weighed me. At registration I was 161 pounds, now I was 149 pounds. I don’t know how I had gotten so dehydrated as I was drinking all day & remember peeing during the run & a lot on the bike (smell of shoes are proof). They debated whether to give me an IV or not as they are very reluctant to give them out. Eventually I started to come round & was released to the real world.

After the dust had settled I was told I had finished 16th overall, 6th age grouper, won my age group & had the second fastest bike of the day (1 pro was about 60seconds quicker). All in all this was pretty good news to receive & it meant I would be stepping up on the podium the next day. The next big decision was Hawaii & as the slot was for the 2012 race it was hard to say no to.

That brings an end to my 2011 tri season. As always a big thanks to all at Cycle Superstore for their support throughout the year. A superfast SRAM equipped Ridley Dean & Zoot clothing, runners & wetsuit meant I wanted for nothing & my equipment was easily as good as anything else out there. Others who helped me throughout the season were Kinetica Nutrition (available in Cycle Superstore), the healing hands of Robbie Caraher in Louth Physio Clinic. Robbie has a natural gift as a physio, strange as it sounds he has the warmest hands in the world, even back in January when he would treat me at 8am before opening & turning the heat on his hands were warm. On the coaching side David Tunney & Peter Kern ofpb3coaching.com gave me plenty of feedback as I planned my weekly torture routine. As I outlined before I started taking Xendurance this season, did I feel any different, no. Did I do more training & have less feelings of dead legs, yes. Finally to Annette, friends & family who gave me tons of support throughout my training.

Annette like myself would not be carrying a lot of weight (for “a lot” read any). We were eating out every night in Wisconsin & every time as soon as we finished our main course would be given the bill, never offered dessert. We came to the conclusion that the they always thought “nah those skinny pasty white Irish folk mustn’t eat the stuff”. Well I showed them, in fact our waiter at the diner where I had pancakes the morning after the race asked if I had ever considered professional eating. Watch this space

Liam Dolan
Meath, Ireland

Challenge-Walchsee

Yvonne van Vlerken takes second Challenge-Walchsee-”Kaiser”-crown.

Endurance Team Athlete Mirjam Weerd/NED podiums with 3rd place.

Endurance Team coached youngster Thomas Meusburger (AUT) great 5th in the amateurs.

There were absolutely perfect racing conditions for the 1100 participants at the 2nd edition of the Challenge Walchsee-Kaiserwinkl. 20 degrees water temperature and a wonderful late summer day awarded the team around organizers Andi Klingler and Mario Höller for the excellent race- organisation. Accordingly was the mood already at the start for the second largest highlight over the half distance on Austrian ground. Numerous long distance stars were among the professional starters such as Ronnie Schildknecht/CH, Michael Göhner/GER, Timo Bracht/GER as well as in the the ladies the titleholder Yvonne van Vlerken/NED, local hero Eva Dollinger and the 3-time Dutch Champion on the half distance Mirjam Weerd.

The Austrian resident Yvonne van Vlerken showed up strong in the first discipline and only gave roughly 2 minutes away to her competitor Eva Dolinger, in contrast to the year before where she had lost 4 minutes. The Czech Eva Potuckova had taken over the lead after the swim and could hold this on the bike.

Then in the first of two selective bicycle-loops through the picturesque region all around the „Wilder Kaiser“-massive both Dutchwomen quickly closed in on Eva Dollinger. Weerd had her already in view, van Vlerken was less than one minute down.

Dollinger found connection to a 6-headed group passing her, started to develop a new gap steadily, took over the lead from Potuckova and could bring 3:40min to 2nd transition on van Vlerken and Weerd.

On the selective and idyllic run-course around the Walchsee it first almost looked like a victory for Eva Dollinger. However, Yvonne van Vlerken quickly overtook 2nd Eva Potuckova and seemed not to be impressed by the ride of Dollinger, trusting on her run strength. Van Vlerken ran each loop one minute faster than Eva Dollinger and finally claimed the lead on KM 17.

While van Vlerken ran towards an unthreatened victory, Dollinger who was quickly fading after, had to keep Mirjam Weerd on distance to hold her 2nd rank.

The young athlete from the state of Vorarlberg Thomas Meusburger delivered a taste of his talent in his only third half-distance race and took excellent 5th in one of the strongest amateur categories (M24-29).

In the men’s Ronnie Schildknecht/CH won with a sovereign performance before German Timo Bracht.

Yvonne quote: “I am very pleased with my swim, then when I heard that I was loosing ground after the first loop I was a bit amazed as I was riding quite quickly. But then again the gap after the bike didn’t impress me that much, I didn’t worry. I calculated and knew that I would get Eva Dollinger the latest at the beginning of the 4th loop if I procede with my run-tempo. Exactly that happened and I really enjoyed the warm winner´s welcome by the enthusiastic spectators at the Walchsee.”

Win at Challenge-Walchsee and now onto Kona

Yvonne’s interview prior to Kona

1) How often have you been to Kona before?

First time I went to Kona was in 2007, I didn’t race there but coached my boyfriend and learned a lot about the course, the following up year 2008 I had my best race ever till now on the big Island, I finished 2nd in the Professional Female’s with the fastes Bike time off the day. As I love the Island I had several training camps there and this year will be the 7th time I’m on the island and the 4th time I’m racing there.

2) Could you give us some insight into your training until Kona?

This year is a bit different from the other years, the last 3 years I prepared in Lake Tahoe before I headed to Kona, this year I will do one last race and then travel strait to Kona to do the last preperations. We have some awesome training partners on the island and that’s always good and makes it more fun and easier as well. As I just did a Ironman the end of July I will only do specific training for the big day.

3) Are you planing any races before the World Championships?

Many people ask me if I’m going to Las Vegas for the World Championships Ironman 70.3, I all tell them the same, I don’t want to take the risk to do two of those hard races so close to each other, I choose to focus on the World Championships in Kona. I will only do one more race in the preperation towards Kona and that’s it. As I have done a couple of half distance races this year, I think I have enough Race Kilometers!

4) How is Xendurance helping you during your training, maybe especially during your peak weeks

Heading towards a big race like Kona I always take a little higher dosis then I usually do, especially in the harder weeks I will even take some Xendurance on the longer bike rides and the last long runs. I also take some extra X Vital 40 (Minerals/Vitamins etc.) from Xendurance,, as with Xendurance itselves I take a higher dosis daily! This is just to make shure that I don’t get sick and give my body everything she needs.

Yvonne Van Vlerken
Pro Triathlete

Getting Ready For Kona

Interview; Heleen Bij de Vaate before the big race!

1. How often have you been to Kona before?

I’ve been in Kona for 4 times. 2006 (13th) 2008 (29th) 2009 (did not start because of injury) 2010 (9th)

2. Could you give us some insight into your training until Kona?

This summer I did 2 Ironmans within 3 weeks time, IM Austria and IM Frankfurt. So after Frankfurt I took a little break to reload my body. At the moment I’m in some big weeks training to prepare for my 16 day training camp on altitude in the Sierra Nevada, Spain. This works very well for me. I will come back from altitude 2 and a half weeks for the race. It is exactly the same as I did last year.

3. Are you planning any races before the World Championships?

Yes, this weekend I will do a race in Cambrai, France (a half Ironman distance). This will be a training race, because I don’t taper for this race. The week after I will do triathlon Gerardmer also a half IM distance.

4.How is Xendurance helping you during your training, maybe especially during your peak weeks.

As a professional triathlete you are always balancing on the edge. It is important to stay at the right side of the edge and not fall down. I use everyday the Vital 40. This helps me to stay healthy and it really works.

I also use xendurance everyday. I take 2 times a day 3 tablets. And it helps me to push me through hard sessions. In peak weeks I do a lot of hard sessions and with xendurance I can dig deeper with less muscle pain. And xendurance helps me also with my recovery. So for me there is no excuse to NOT use Xendurance. If you want to get all out of your training then it is a helpful supplement.

3 Weeks Between IM Races

It’s the morning after the race. As usually I slept only a couple of hours, so what can you better do then writing a story for your website. It started as an experiment to see how I would perform in an IM race just 3 weeks afther another IM race. And the second reason that I signed up for Frankfurt was that I didn’t know before hand if I would have enough points to go to Kona. After Klagenfurt I was already sure, so this reason wasn’t a valid one anymore. The 3 weeks in between, the focus was on recovery, some key sessions and tapering. I felt great and was ready to race again.

I like to race in nice and warm weather. But nothing of that we had yesterday. It was rainy, cold and very windy. That made the race really tough. My swim was ok, not great, still my 2nd best split ever. During the bike I felt that although I felt well in training, my muscles weren’t fully recovered. I lacked some power, so although it felt that I was pushing really hard, the result was a lousy bike split. But I still had the motivation to race as fast as I could for the moment. So the run was reasonable good. I passed a few girls and came in 9th.

The result of the experiment is that I’m not fully recovered from an IM after 3 weeks. But I’m sure that I’m going to Hawaii!

Heleen bij De Vaate

Yvonne van Vlerken (Endurance Team Austria) co-favourite in battle for European title with Caroline Steffen, Sonja Tajsich & Co.

To celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the ‘Frankfurter Sparkasse Ironman European Championship’ the host city Frankfurt welcomes triathletes from 55 nations in the region of the Rhein-Main on the 24^th July 2011. More than 2.350 athletes will honour this mega event, whereas managing director Kai Walter is quiet proud to present 70 top athletes from all over the world to battle for the title.

The battle for the female crown of the “European Ironman Championship” guarantees special excitement. After a second and a third place within the last two years Yvonne van Vlerken (NED) is hungry for the only place she never stand on at the end of the race, the top place on the podium. She knows that the way to the top isn’t easy, especially if she risks a look at her strong rivals in the starter field. “Never be too early at your individual peak form” that’s what she learned from all her years of sport experience. Regarding the upcoming event in Frankfurt she claims to fulfil this purpose. Yvonne didn’t take part in any long-distance or Ironman-competition since the beginning of this year. This could give her fitter legs and probably the all-dominant joker when last year second woman Caroline Steffen (SUI) or local hero Sonja Tajsich (GER) are going to search the direct battle with her. Steffen won the Ironman Australia and currently holds the 2nd position in the official ‘Kona Pro-Ranking’ list. But there are major other names in the field world which are all willing to go high at this significant event in Germany

Others to mention are Tine Deckers (BEL) or Desiree Fickers (USA).

Only sad things to mention is that titleholder Sandra Wallenhorst will not participate in the thrilling fight because of a major knee-injury.

Nevertheless, excitement on a high sport level is guaranteed. Due to Sonja Tajsich the field of women participants is “the best of the whole year, straight after Kona”. But none of the top athletes could irritate this matter. They are all looking at their individual performance. And Yvonne is giving us the hint to look at her improvement in swimming. Originally coming from the duathlon discipline it seems as if she really has fun and creates passion within her long-year weakest discipline swimming: „I am feeling pretty comfortable in the water at the moment and I have a time in my head for Sunday. Another goal is to leave the water under an hour in October, at the Ironman World Championship“. Yvonne doesn´t seem to run out of new goals, either on ambition or discipline. But regarding the big challenge in Frankfurt she leaves all the rest to the numerous spectators alongside the race, her pushing competitors and the predicted, for her ideal weather.

After Michael Raelert announced his surprising withdraw form the race Faris Al Sultan (GER), 2005 ironman world champion, counts as the favourites aside Patrick Vernay (FRA) and the 10 times Ironman Australia winner Cameron Brown (AUS).

Media/Live Coverage:
German TV-station will broadcast the race live from 10.15am to 4.30pm. Additionally a live-stream will be available already from 6.30am on www.ironman.de.

As usual you can get written updates and track athletes on: www.ironman.com

3 Wins in 3 Starts

Yvonne van Vlerken takes third victory at 3rd start in Salzburg in front of Mirjam Weerd/NED.

Thomas J. Vonach surprises with a 7th Overall rank in the international field.

While the men´s World Cup in Kitzbühel fell substantially in the water on Saturday, the classic Salzburgerland Triathlon could get exactly two sun-hours in which the race took place after two rainy editions in the last 2 years.

The women´s race was firmly in Dutch hand. It ended with a double-victory of Yvonne van Vlerken who won the race now already for the 3rd time,
and Mirjam Weerd, 3. of Ironman Wisconsin and 4. IM South Africa 2010.

The strong swimmer Weerd led after swim and changed with a cushion of 1:40min on van Vlerken to the bike. Yvonne van Vlerken needed quite exactly 16km and until the peak point of the bike course to neutralise that and take the lead. Both training partners, van Vlerken and Mirjam Weerd, came into T2 with only 40 seconds gap and then made it quite exciting on the run. Mirjam Weerd, reigning Dutch middle distance Champion, surprised with a 38:02min. On the selective 10km-distance. Clearly behind the two Dutchies Salzburg´s Dominique Angerer made the podium of the ladies complete.

In the men´s race Thomas J. Vonach surprised with a 7th overall rank. The Schwarzach resident left the water in 12. Position with a good swim performance and clocked the 3rd bike-time moving through the field up to 7th position. Finally Vonach recorded an end-time of 1:47:22 hours and could hold off short-course youngsters like Daniel Herlbauer with a strong 36:23min run time. The German Alexander Bonauer won the race in front of Alun Woodward/GB and Dejan Patrcevic/CRO. Austrian short -course specialist Paul Reitmayr took 5th overall and was the quickest Austrian in front of Thomas Vonach in 1:45:40 hours.

See results here: http://results1.pentek-timing.at/results/show_results.php?veranstnr=11468

Clever in the water, radical on the bike

Yvonne van Vlerken (Endurance Team Austria) claims victory, sets new course record in the land of 1000 hills. Clever in the water, radical on the bike.

It wouldn´t be enough to have one of the toughest bike-courses on the half-distance with the hills of the Kraichgau-region, the run turned out to be a hot-humid experience which elevated the Challenge to an even more exclusive level.

Yvonne van Vlerken lined up against Rachel Joyce (winner Ironman Lanzarote in ’11, 2. IM South Africa), other strong names in the field were newcomer Julia Wagner / GER, Belinda Harper/NZ and Diana Riesler/GER.

On the ball in the swim

Already in the swim-portion, Yvonne could lay the foundation for the later win. She chose a good start position to escape the start-troubles and could lift off greatly. While the live-ticker read „van Vlerken misjudged start-position“, the result of the “misjudgement” was a personal best performance for the 1.9 km in 27:24min. and after T1 a gap of only 2:21min on female leader Rachel Joyce (who had put 4:30min on van Vlerken in the swim at Ironman 70.3 Wiesbaden last year).

Then on the bike, the Austrian resident immediately put down the pressure, in just about half of the bike-distance the cushion of Joyce and companion melted away, only Julia Wagner succeeded to keep van Vlerken´s wheel.

While Rachel Joyce was down about 1:30min on the new leading duet in a fairly short time, from the back Diana Riesler flew along to show a good performance, but brought with her Rachel Joyce back in the game and exactly that lady should later take the podium-spot from her.

Van Vlerken was in T1 first, closely followed by Riesler, Wagner and Joyce, only 53 seconds separated the quartet.

While Yvonne van Vlerken could open a gap immediately, a fight for the rest of the podium broke out behind. Riesler had to give tribute to her brave ride and was passed by Wagner, then also from Joyce.

Wagner and Joyce fought closely and tried to get van Vlerken, who could stay clear with the quickest run of the day and distanced the two by 1:02 and 1:37min until the finish-line.

Yvonne van Vlerken also could set a new course record, 1:20min below Rebekah Keat´s best from 2010.

Yvonne van Vlerken (quote): „I am very pleased with my swim-performance, because, finally, I could turn over for what I have worked during the last years in the water. On the bike I simply had fun while on the run I had to suffer in the heat and was not sure what the other girls had planned or left in the tank, however, I was prepared for a head-to-head-decision. I am happy about this victory, the build up for this season seems to fit.“

Andreas Raelert won the men´s duel in front of Sebastian Kienle.

MORE INFORMATION ON YVONNE:

www.yvonnevanvlerken.eu

www.facebook.com/YvonnevanVlerken.The.flying.blonde.Dutchgirl

http://twitter.com/yvonnevvlerken

6th Ironman Win for Timo!

Timo Bracht took Ironman Lanzarote today, celebrated the sixth Ironman triumph of his career and crossed the finish line more than 13 minutes ahead of his compatriot Konstantin Bachor. Esben Hovgaard from Denmark became third. The predominant Commerzbank athlete finished in 8:30:34 hours which meant a new course record. The 35-year-old was 5:06 minutes faster than the previous record time set by Thomas Hellriegel from Germany 16 years ago.

“It was two kilometres in front of the finish line when I heard that I was about to break the course record”, said Timo Bracht. “I wouldn’t have expected such a fast time because the wind was extremely strong. And until the second transition zone Konstantin seemed to have a better day than me. Fortunately I had very good legs on the run and I am very happy to start this Ironman season with a victory.”

With the success at Lanzarote Timo has celebrated his second Ironman title in a row. Last year he had finished the season by winning Ironman Arizona and also managed to set a new course record. For the Commerzbank Team the victory of Bracht means the second Ironman triumph of the season – and the season has just begun.

2- 70.3 in consecutive weekends

Heleen bij de Vaate: IM 70.3 Austria, 8th place

“Last week I did a small Europe-tour and at the end Ironman 70.3 Austria in Sankt-Polten: A week ago I was on the island of Mallorca. In the meantime I have been in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and now Austria. Yesterday I participated in the IM 70.3 of St. Polten. It is a beautiful race with 3000 participants. I also did the race 4 years ago so I could remember the course more or less. The swim is divided in 2 parts in different lakes with a 200m run in between, very special and fun. The bike has some climbs and descends, but also a fast flat section on the highway. For me the race went a little bit better than last week, especially on the run. Step by step I will improve towards my top form for this year. It was the first time ever I did 2 70.3 races in consecutive weekends, but the recovery was good enough thanks to SLS3 compression. Next is a training camp in altitude. There the important parts of the puzzle should be added. Like last year, after this camp I hope to be ready for the first full distance Ironman of the season: the 3rd of July, Ironman Klagenfurt.”