Iñigo Mujika

Triathlete Eneko Llanos (photo contributed by Finisher Triatlon)

Eneko Llanos has just finished the first competitive cycle of the season with another excellent result, finishing third in the prestigious Roth Ironman, Germany, with a sensational time of 8 hours, 2 minutes and 33 seconds. Eneko has been on the podium all season so far, although this time it was not possible to reach the highest step, which was occupied by Rasmus Henning from Denmark. The second spot was taken by German triathlete Sebastian Kienle.

This great race in Roth brings one of Eneko’s most successful cycles of his sports career to an end: he won the Abu Dhabi Triathlon four months ago; he then achieved the third position in the Wildflower Half Ironman, California, one of the most important in the World; he continued on with a victory at Ironman Lanzarote, second in his career; three weeks later he achieved his eigth win in Zarautz, then won the Long Distance European Championships in Vitoria-Gasteiz on June 26th, and closed the cycle with the podium finish in Roth. Eneko will now take a break for a few days, before starting his preparation for Ironman Hawaii and Xterra Maui, both taking place next October in the named Pacific Islands.

In these four months, Eneko spent 36 hours 52 minutes and 15 seconds competing. As can be observed in the table below, Eneko spent 4 h, 1 min and 3 s swimming (10.9% of the total competition time), 21 h, 22 min and 8 s pedalling (57.9% of competition time), and 11 h, 13 min and 35 s running (30.4% of competition time). In addition, Eneko dedicated a total of 19 min and 29 s to the transitions from swimming to the cycling segment and from this to the run.

Eneko’s average competition paces during this competition cycle were as follows: 1 min, 16 s per 100 m during the swim; 38.9 km/h on the bike; 3 min, 50 s per km on the run. It has to be emphasized that we are refering to average paces, achieved in different races, therefore against different competitors and under highly variable environmental conditions: swim in salty water lagoon, open sea, fresh water lake or canal, with or without a wetsuit; bike over flat, undulating or mountainous terrain, but always without drafting; run on flat or undulating terrain; variable temperature, relative humidity and altitude over sea level.

To be able to face such a demanding and successful competition cycle, and all along it, Eneko has swum a total of 448 km; he has spent 302 hours on the bike and has dedicated 104 hours to train his run, in addition to carrying out 40 sessions of strength training in the gym. Obviously, a training and competition program with such level of demand requires a very precise planning, with an exhaustive control of the training loads and the recovery processes, as well as a nutrition plan in accordance with the energy and nutritional demands of the athlete. All these factors, inseparable from Eneko’s extraordinary athletic quality, professionalism and mental strength, have been key to the consecution of the results obtained during Eneko’s four fantastic months.