In the most recent video on her YouTube channel, British triathlete Ruth Astle, who in May finished fifth at the IRONMAN World Championships in St George, Utah gave an update on how her training and preparation is going ahead of IRONMAN Israel on 25th November.
‘Feeling fit but not fresh’
In her video, Astle admitted to feeling “fit but not fresh”, with her swimming “in a good place” and “biking and running coming back”.
One of the strongest cyclists in the sport, Astle will be one of the athletes lining up in Israel next month who will hope the officials are as strict as they were in Kona on a fast bike course which lends itself to pack riding.
The IRONMAN 70.3 Swansea third place finisher, who will be racing her third IRONMAN of the year in Israel, will hope to have recovered completely from the exertions at the IRONMAN World Championships in Hawaii a month ago, where she finished 14th, before going up against some tough competition in Israel.
However, even if Kona has taken some lasting toll, Astle has a track record for performing strongly towards the latter stages of the season.
In 2019, she finished eighth at IRONMAN Western Australia in December, then in 2020 finished fourth at IRONMAN Florida in November, then last year won IRONMAN Mallorca in October and IRONMAN South Africa in November.
With IRONMAN Israel boasting a fast course and a packed start line, the race could offer Astle her best opportunity to back up that top-five finish at the IRONMAN World Championships in St George and earn some valuable PTO points ahead of next season. The Brit currently sits in 26th, and is the 6th British woman in the rankings.
