Direct form Rasmus’ homepage.
Danish professional triathlete Rasmus Henning is ready to take on the heat of Ironman China on April 19. He will be leaving Denmark tonight after a couple of weeks of serious training on Mallorca. It will be his first ironman competition for 8 years after he switched from Olympic Distance racing after Beijing.
“I´m really fit at the moment and I´m strong in all three disciplines after a good training camp with lots of good training and long bike rides and runs,” he says. Over the last week he trained 16 hours in two days and 37 hours for the week, including 800 km on the bike.
“Training has gone well for the past weeks and I feel ready for the heat in China. I´m looking forward to racing Ironman again and I´m really excited about the race. My new Boardman bike is really fast and I have had some 2 hour runs in really good speed. If I can avoid mechanical problems and issues in the heat I feel confident of my chances. If I can keep my own pace throughout the race I think it will be enough for the podium and qualification for Hawaii which is my main target this year,” Rasmus Henning says.
The conditions in China is similar to those in Kona, and Rasmus is ready to go full throttle to test himself as good as possible in these conditions.
”I know that I´m one of the favourites in this race, and even though I haven´t raced Ironman for 8 years, my form is usually really good when I have had this long and intensive training leading up to a race. If I´m leading the race after 20k on the run, I would rather try to dig deep than just taking it easy to test my self in Hawaiian like conditions. This is my aim right now, but you never know what happens in a race and the most important thing is to get my slot for Hawaii," Rasmus Henning notes.
Expectations and the competition:
On a fast course in ideal weather conditions Rasmus believes to have an 8:15 race in him with a marathon in around 2:45. The weather is an unknown factor now and it is difficult to see how much the heat will affect the atlethes. Last year the male winner did a 3:10 marathon split and finished the race in just under 9 hours in really hot conditions, so the splits will depend on the weather.
His worst rivals is probably Jozsef Major and Tim Marr.
/Brian Martin Rasmussen - Press Relations Manager
www.rasmushenning.com