Austria 70.3

Last weekend Chris and I raced the 70.3 St Polten Ironman in Austria. I was using the race as a preparation for the upcoming European IM Championships in Frankfurt and didn't really taper for the race, but wanted to go hard and check my form.

The race was held in a small town town 1 hour drive from Vienna in a rural location. We stayed in a local guesthouse 10km from the start in a rural location. It was basic, but comfortable and adequate..

Leading up to the race I wasn't feeling well and felt tired and sluggish with some hayfever. In the last 2 days we all slept a lot and managed to avoid the usual pre-race nervousness, despite the fact that we arrived in transition 5 minutes before it closed.

The race course is quite unique with the swim starting in one small lake and finishing in a different lake with a 300 meters run in between. The bike course is on good roads, completely closed to traffic and contains a nice and fast motorway section as well as 2 significant climbs with some technical descending.

The swim went quite well, I got to a clean start immediately from the gun and felt quite relaxed all the way to the exit. I thought the run might affect the rhythm of the swim, but after the run and a jump into the second lake (in my case I just fell in) I still felt good and I came out of the water in just over 33 minutes, which I was happy with.


Onto the bike I was feeling quite strong and passing lots of cyclist. A couple of strong bikers came up and we rode together until we hit the hills and I just didn't have the power to stay with them. I came into transition in just over 2:20, which again I was happy with, but as I tried to run my legs were very tired and didn't want to cooperate.

Here is the power date from the bike:
Duration: 2:24:54 (2:26:38)
Work: 1796 kJ
TSS: 204.4 (intensity factor 0.92)
Norm Power: 221
VI: 1.07
Pw:HR: -22.31%
Pa:HR: -8.35%
Distance: 87.008 km
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 621 207 watts
Heart Rate: 34 178 149 bpm
Cadence: 29 101 82 rpm
Speed: 9.8 70.8 36.0 kph
Pace 0:51 6:07 1:40 min/km
Crank Torque: 0 121 24.8 N-m
Temperature: 15 25 18.0 Celsius

After a few kilometers of the run was feeling a little bit better and tried to hold 4 min kilometers, which was reasonably comfortable, but couldn't go any quicker. I finished the run in just over 1:26 for a total time of 4:31 and 143rd place overall which gave me a 17th place in my age group.
Overall I was happy with my performance, but a little bit annoyed that I didn't have the power to stay with the strong bikers on the hills or run a little bit quicker as 5 minutes quicker overall time would put me in the top 5 in my age group. Something to work on over the new few weeks before the Ironman.

Oh, and a week before the race in Austria I raced a sprint triathlon at Eaton and won my age group. Good start to the season.

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