Xterra Asia-Pacific Championship in Dunsborough
My first Short-Track race in Xterra and the opening of the season
Last time, I wrote about my travel to Dunsborough and my first day in Western Australia. This time, I will talk about my race prep on Wednesday for the short track on Thursday, and my recovery on Friday to be ready for the big one on Saturday.
If anyone is interested, I can tell you more about the food I eat. I am not doing it in this blog, but if you want to know what I eat during race week, message me on Instagram: @quirijnwaaijenberg.
On Tuesday evening, all the pro athletes were invited to check out the short-track course. The whole group rode together. It was a 1.8 km loop, and most of us did a 30-minute ride to check it out. The run loop was the same as the bike loop, but we would cut off 400m. After that, I went home and had a good night's sleep.
On Wednesday morning, I checked the run course for the race on Saturday before the Elite briefing. The run felt quite easy for the first 3 km, but after that, there was a 1 km beach section with a lot of rocks we had to climb over and navigate. After the beach, it was back to transition area 2, where you could pick up your pace again. When I finished the run course, I immediately went to the briefing. The briefing was not special and a bit boring, with no real info other than the course layout and the transition areas.
After the briefing, we could pick up our race packages. We had to use the same bike plate for the short track and the full-distance race, which made prepping the bike super easy. After the briefing, I went home, got on my bike, and did one lap of the full course once again. I felt like I needed more time on the course because it was really technical and windy. There were no big climbs, but some fire roads that went up slightly. After that, I cleaned the bike and put the number on the front. I was number 27; the women's field started at 1, and the men's field started at 20.
On Thursday, Short-Track Day, the start was at 16:30, so we had all day to chill and get ready. I was staying with Scott, and in the morning, we went out for coffee like we did most days and did groceries for a big barbeque with a few other athletes as our dinner plan. After that, we went home and packed our bags. I did some legs-up chilling while Scott went out for an hour ride. We had to be in the transition area before the women's start, which was an hour earlier, at 15:30.
At 14:00, we rode to T2, where we had to put our running gear. Sebastian Neef and I did two loops of the bike course as a warm-up and to check it out one more time. I should mention this was the hottest day that week, with temperatures hitting 35+ degrees. After I left my shoes and a cap in T2, we rode to the beach where T1 was. In T1, you must leave your bike and normally a lot more, but this time it was only a bike, helmet, and shoes. I will tell you later what I left in T1 for the longer race on Saturday.
After that, it became really hot, and most of the guys were chatting with each other while being a bit jealous of the girls who were already doing their swim warm-up and being in the ocean. We now had to wait for a bit more than an hour. After the women's start and watching them ride away towards the bike loop, we stayed at the beach and started our own warm-up. With 50 minutes left, we went for a 15-minute run with some strides to warm up the legs and get ready for the most intense 40 minutes I have experienced since racing Xterra. After the run, I got ready for a swim warm-up and went into the water. During our swim, we had to jump off a pontoon, so I did this already in my warm-up. I did a 5–10-minute swim with two jumps off the pontoon.
At 16:30, we finally started. After the call-up, we went into the water for 2x200m laps. I did okay in the swim, hoping for more, but felt quite comfortable and came out of the water with a Slovakian athlete. I rode with him to T2, where I overtook him and tried to ride away. I had no time to close my shoes, but I thought, "Forget that, I am not slowing down now." He kept up with me on the climbs, but I lost him on the descent and rode away quite hard. On most of the climbs, he came back to my wheel but never overtook me, and we rode towards a Japanese guy whom I overtook on the third lap on the uphill right before going down.
In the last bike lap, I still tried to push a bit more because they were not far behind me. I made a big enough gap to enter the transition first, but with them close behind me, I had no time to sit back. I went all out on the first run lap and built the gap a bit more. I had no idea about my pace; it felt like I was not going fast. On the second run lap, I looked behind me and did not see them in sight, so I slowed down a little bit to save energy. I finished my first short track in 11th place and was happy I wasn’t lapped by the first guys. The hardest part was not drying out completely; the salt from the swim and the sweating on my lips made me feel completely dried out near the end of the race.
On Thursday evening, I had a fun day out during the race and did a 40-minute cooldown on the bike. I was calling my coach for the first 20+ minutes of the ride before I decided I had to turn back and go home. We had a nice barbeque and ate a lot of food. That night, I slept poorly; the adrenaline and effort made my sleep restless and short.
The next morning, we had a ride planned with a few other elite athletes to check out the bike course one last time. I took it easy and had my GoPro with me, so I did a bit of filming. After that, I went home and stayed there for the rest of the day. Scott went out for lunch to a nice winery. Unfortunately, I had to stay home and work on my first assessment for a new unit, which had to be done by Friday night. I finished it by 15:30, luckily. Maybe not the best preparation for Saturday, but at least I took it easy.
On Saturday, I woke up at 4:45 AM. Jeez, that is early. I had my bike and bag ready to go and went to have breakfast. We left at 5:40 from our place to Transition 2, which is a 10-minute bike ride. In transition, this time, I left not only my running shoes and cap but also 1 gel, 1 caffeine shot, and my watch. Okay, I might not be completely honest; I forgot to leave my watch, so I went back to T2 after being in T1 and during my run warm-up. In the end, my watch was in T2. It was a nice ride down the hill to T1, where you prep your bike. This time, I left my helmet, goggles, 2 gels on the bike, 2 bottles, my shoes, and my gloves (in the end, I chose not to ride with gloves, but I left them just in case I wanted to). After that, I did my swim warm-up and tried to stay warm before the start.
The race started at 7:00. We were all in the water, and I was on the left side with two other guys. We had a great start, but when we came close to the last buoy, I lost the feet and swam solo for the remaining 1.5 laps. I almost caught up to some feet because a few guys made a wrong turn, but I got left behind quite quickly again.
In transition, I already knew it was going to be a long day. I tried to ride as fast as I could for the first part of the race, but my legs felt heavy and full of lactate after the first 5 km. I also had an unfamiliar pain in my back during the race. This was the first time I had such a hard time on the bike. I tried to keep pushing and ride as hard as I could but lost a lot of time. Coming into transition was a bit of a relief, finally moving to the last part of the triathlon: the run. I tried to go hard out of transition, which worked quite well. I think I ran under the 4:00/km mark, which felt good. Normally, I have a hard time pacing that well. After 3 km, I turned onto the beach, where I slowed down more than I would have liked. You could see the difference with other elites; I was slower than them on the beach but not on other parts. Going into the second lap, I still wanted to push. I knew I wasn’t doing it for anybody but myself, and I didn’t want to slow down and just finish. I wanted to leave it all out on the course. During that second loop, I twisted my ankle just before reaching the beach because I was tired and went a bit too fast on a descent. This made the beach even worse, but it felt like I knew where I was going that time, and it felt faster than before. Maybe it wasn’t; I can’t really remember it that well. I was just running.
After that, it was back to the finish, where I arrived with Chun calling out my new nickname, "The Dutch Seagull." It felt good giving it my all, even though the result sucked. I know now what I need to work on to get stronger when I come back to Europe.
Quick Sunday recap, went out for a coffee ride with Scott and Sebi Neef. During the Coffee we met up with Solenne Billouin, Kieran the Kiwi and the Italians Michele and Frederico. Did a really nice coast ride with Kieran, Scott and Sebi, after we returned I packed everything and we went to the beach around 16:00 to meet up with the same galls and Tom Fisher joined aswel. Went for a swim in a Huge swell. I had a really good time meeting new people and making new friends. After that we went to see a sunset with each other and went home to eat and get ready for a trip to the airport on Monday. I'll hope to see everybody again at a race or just for a coffee. Thanks for the great week in Western Australia.
What is next? Back to training and Uni in Melbourne. I hope you all liked this long read about the two races I did in Australia. For anybody that wants to race the Xterra APAC next year, reach out to me. I’d love to tell you even more about this absolutely amazing course and beautiful place. And i'll be ready for next race so watch out.
This one will go down in my history books as a place I want to race again.
Next blog will be about back to university and training, but first, I need a recovery week.
The pictures are made by Xterra's photographer Carel Du Plessis!
