Vegan runner picks up triathlon win
Ultradistance runner Vlad Ixel continues to make the transition to triathlon with a 4:41 time in the Davao 70.3 Ironman which gave him another age category win.
Vlad has been recognised for years as an accomplished runner, with dozens of course records among his victories, and an appearance at the World Ultra Trail Championships. Inexperienced on the bike and in the water, the transition has been remarkable.
The recent finish placed him 18th of 1046 competitors in the men’s race, and first of 141 men in the 30-34 age category.
Despite the successes, Vlad feel there’s more to come.
“As a new swimmer I feel that I swim a lot of extra distance due to my inexperience and that cost me a bit of time but overall it’s getting better” he told Great Vegan Athletes.
“Getting onto the bike I dropped my bike computer right away so had to go back and pick it up and lost a bit more time there.” Vlad was placed 6th in his category after the swim and 4th after the bike. From there he had his strongest discipline remaining.
“The run is a hard part as I know I can run a 1:13 HM but off the bike and the heat suddenly 1:30 feels hard and I know with time as I get better on the bike the run legs will only get faster.” Although he still managed a time of 1:36:50 for the 21.1 km run.
“Overall it was an OK effort – still a lot of room for improvement.”
Vegan runner
Vlad has been vegan since making the decision at Christmas 2012, and previously explained “the main motivation was for my health and to be a better athlete. It gives me so much more energy and I recover quicker from my runs. I'm also doing it for environmental reasons because a vegan diet has so little impacts on our planet compared to a meat based diet.”
These days he’s trying to cut his gluten consumption, with a bias towards raw food. With a recent increased training load the Beyond Meat burgers have been appealing and convenient.
“I’m still 70-75% raw but I feel like I been having gluten every night my recovery and energy levels are a little low so for the next 4-6 weeks I will stay 100% gluten free and after that I will just try and keep it very low on gluten.”
Another reason to celebrate is that Vlad, who used to work as a waiter and barman to enable himself to compete is continuing to receive sponsorship and is The North Face are continuing to back him for the next three years.
All in all this means we can expect more from the determined Australian.
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