Interview with Marino Vanhoenacker

Marino Vanhoenacker

The whole month of August, Playitas has welcomed Marino Vanhoenacker, one of the favorite triatlethes for the Wolrd Championchip IronMan in Hawaii, which will be held on the 8th of October this year.
Marino, born on the 19th of july in Belgium, broke the world record on the 3rd of july this year in Austria in 07.45.58. The old record was standing since 1997 (07.50.27). He could enjoy his record for only one week as his main competitor, Andreas Raelert, broke the world record again with 07.41.33 at the Challenge Roth. The Challenge Roth is also part of the Challenge family, like the half Challenge Fuerteventura which Playitas organises for the 2nd time on the 14th of April 2012
According to Marino the world record is not so important for the triathletes and does not keep them busy during the race. It is more interesting for the media and spectators.
Playitas had some questions for Marino and while enjoying the sun and a cup of coffee in the Palapabar , we start with the interview.

Last year you had the advantage to start the run in front of your two competitors during IM Hawaii ; what happened after that?
It was a kind of tactic plan: Macca always starts fast and Raelert follows. I decided to go in steady fast tempo with the thought to catch up with them, but my lights went off earlier than theirs!

How many maximum trainings weeks to you have in this period? (most trainings schedules are build up in blocks with for example 2 weeks hard training with one week a bit les sor 3 weeks up and one down)
In my stay at Playitas I only have maximum weeks . All trainings are hard and I am tired. Only Sundays are my restdays at the moment. When I am back in Belgium I will have 2 days off and 10 more days of training towards Hawaii. 16th september I will fly to Hawaii and than I have more easier trainings with main focus on climatising.

How many Km´s do you make in this trainings period?
I swim 6 times a week 5-6 km, run 4 times around 20-25km´s and bike around 700 km´s a week, so 30km swim, 85 run and 700 bike.

What is the intensity of these trainings?
The intensity of most trainings is race speed and some are harder/ faster than race speed. An example of a running session can be :5x 1500 in 5.00min; restin between the 1500 meters is 400 meters

Why Playitas?
Because it feels like home; I have been here for a lot of times and know my routes and ways. My family likes to be here as well so they enjoy themselves very much at Playitas. The heat is also good for preparations towards Hawaii. It is very hot here only less humidity than Hawaii, but it comes close.
The first 2 weeks at Playitas, Marino´s wife Elke and daughter Jirte were there as well. Elke is also training for the IM Hawaii as she qualified in Mexico, she will do her third Hawaii IM!

This year without Macca; is it going to be a close race between you and Raelert?
Where do you think you can win?
This is what everybody expect and could happen. We are always very close from eachother; it is never more than 2 minutes. You never know what can happen. Where I can win..., that is hard to say, but i hope somewhere haha!

How come that the "magic" 8-hour finish time is broken so may times lately?
The field of profesional triathletes is getting bigger and bigger. It is not just a few who can train so much and can explore their talent. The competition is much bigger now than it was before.
Also the transition zones can have a great influence on the finish times. In my last race in Austria they had enlarged the way from the swim to the bikes compared to the year before; there you can loose already a lot of time.

Playitas whishes Marino and his wife Elke a great time in Hawaii and a fantastic race! Good luck to both 