Ain-Alar Juhanson

Hi There,

Last Friday I had chance to try my cycling abilitys against the best of my my country. It was 39km TT national Champs on windy but rolling South Estonianian landscape. As I didnt start last year I didnt had any rating so on the start list I was the first to kleen the way :) Actually I did´nt mind as in the triathlons I m often alone either chasing down other or not so often leading the race. Start interval was 1min. like normal and we had 19 pro men on the start list ( well not all of them arent pro cyclists) I went of just after rain stopped so the road was pit wet but tempreture was nice and cool. I set my own coal to hold 400watts average and race equally! I defanatly had to ride above my normal race speed as in Ironman I never go so intentsive. It felt hard and very uncomfortable, during the race I thought it will be probably my worst TT. When I finished with time of 53.54 it took another 4min until next competitor arrive. On final standings I found myself on 6th position just 6sec ahead last years TT champ Jaan Kirsipuu and 1.57 sec behind 21 year old Ag2R pro Tanel Kangert who was new King!

My rcae facts are here 39km , 53.54 sec, 409 watts, 164 b/min, 85 cad, 43.6 km/h

This was my fifth time over here which makes me feel like I am racing at home! I like the Island a lot and it probably shows on my results as well. Over the winter I was lucky enough to train here for 8 weeks in total! I was confident and relaxed like always arriving to the island two weeks before the start. Well … it changed on the race week as all the people were talking about me winning it easily as there was nobody on the start list who could beat me on this course. I tried to explain how competitive this field actually is with lots of young talent and some more experienced athletes who had great desire to win their first IM race. It didn’t help much!

On Wednesday I got my new race wheels and aero bar from Pepe who works for Hed Europe and I was vey excited about that. The Stinger 60 in the front and Stinger 90 at the rear were working absolutely perfectly especially on the fast downhill sections. I had no problem at all finding my own position with the new Vantage 8 aero bar, which is the best I have ever tried for the hilly Lanzarote bike course.

I also changed my nutrition sponsor for this year to SIS which I was already using from January and I was looking forward to how this would work out on the race day. As I am the heaviest Pro on the circuit I know how important is to find the right nutrition plan and one that is effective for myself. I normally use 26 gels for IM events, this time I only needed 17 of them from SIS! The good thing about this was that I wasn’t tired after the bike and there was not one moment when I felt I had cramps!

Race morning I woke up and it caught me by surprise that it’s the race morning! I had my best pre race sleep and I felt well rested! I took my usual cup of coffee and toast with jam and I was ready. Walking into the transition area I got lots of greetings and good wishes from fellow athletes which felt good! I headed to the beach where I found my fan club waving our country’s tricolor and smiling! I am very lucky to have such beautiful and smiling fans always supporting my efforts. It really makes a big different for me.

The swim start is always special in Lanzarote as we all start on the dry land and the first turn buoy is 150m from the shore line! It’s always a very fast first 150m for me! I managed to be 4^th on the turn and then had enough time to settle down to my own rhythm and kept on following the feet in front of me. Unfortunately I was dropped from the 52min pack just before the end of the first loop so I kept going on my own for a while until the next group came which dragged me along until the end. I exited the water with 54.48 and 5mins off the lead which was 1.48 slower then I had planned but losing only 5min to the lead was very good news! Transition areas are surely the places were I have to improve my tactics, I’m just extremely slow on it. On the first one I lost over 1min to the best guys! Finally when I ran through 400m of T1 I got to my bike which to my surprise was hidden behind photographers who where shooting people who were exiting the area. So I had to use my Nordic voice to clear the place, which only took a second or two!

In the first few km on the bike I did not feel myself and it took a major effort to hold my normal training watts. I was still passing people but I was not flying like normal. By km 50 I was already third and I had a legal tail in the shape of Kim Visby who I passed before. I was flying down hills but I was really struggling up hills, which normally isn’t problem for me. I kept on going and soon we caught young Mr. Kohl from Austria who was having a great day. When climbing up the hill to famous Haria they both left me behind. In my favor Kim started to fade a bit and I managed to get back into third position. On top of Mirador del Rio (120km mark) I had a gap of 4.40mins to Bert and 2.00mins to Frederic so I thought I would try to crank up the gear and see what would happen. I was doing well as I caught Frederic on the descent to Puerto del Carmen and I closed the gap to Bert to 4 min at T2. It was still an open race and all I needed was a very good marathon, under 2.55! In T2 I managed to spend some time, not that I like to stay there, but it just takes time! So out on the run I started to work my way back. At km 4 I passed Frederic who had a great T2 and got some 40secs on me. So I was back to second so I decided to run a bit faster then normal to put some pressure on Bert! Well I ran the first 10km in 39.40mins but Bert was running the same. I did the second loop a little slower but Bert was still 4mins ahead showing no signs of weakness! On the third loop I had to pay the price of the quick start of the run. I really struggled out there with speed dropping for 4.45 per km and the gap with Bert grew fast. Also I saw some danger coming from behind in the form of flying Finn Teemu Toivonen who had run me down  in last years Paide Half IM. I had no choice but to just pull myself together and go as fast as possible at this stage of the race. At km 35 Teemu passed me with unreal speed and increased a gap of 40sec within the next 2km. I had to keep on working hard because there were at least 5 guys just 1-5 minutes behind me! Fortunately the finish line came before they could catch me. I was still very happy finishing third as I did not have the best day and there were quite a few guys finishing close after me. Just one mistake and I could have ended up place 7 or 8! Bert was great on the day and he really deserved a win!

I want to thank all my sponsors for the great support and I will let you know about my next races!

My times were as follows:

Swim    54.48

T1        4.08

Bike     5.00.32    (SRM 299watts avg.)

T2        5.24

Run      3.03.48

Total    9.08.37

Best wishes,

Ain