Earlier this year Laura Philipp talked in depth about the importance of working with her menstrual cycle, and on Sunday in Hamburg came another prime example.
The 35-year-old star showed she is now very much back to full fitness after the bout of COVID which ruled her out of last month’s IRONMAN World Championship in St George.
After returning to action with a win at IRONMAN 70.3 Kraichgau, she headed for IRONMAN Hamburg and came within seven seconds of beating the fastest ever Ironman distance time. That was the 8:18:13 set by the great Chrissie Wellington at Challenge Roth back in 2011.
Laura did set the fastest ever time at at IRONMAN-branded full-distance event, just as she had over the 70.3 distance when beating Daniela Ryf in Dubai in March. She says there was one common denominator for both spectacular performances.
Hamburg romp no co-incidence
Writing on Instagram, she explained: “Is there anything that my races in Dubai and Hamburg had in common? Yes!
“I was in the first half of my menstrual cycle in both races, which is physiologically the perfect time to perform at peak levels.🚀 I was also able to set a new Ironman world best time in both races over different distances. A coincidence? Not in my opinion! A healthy body with a natural cycle(!) is a strong body.”
Laura had talked about this topic in depth during an interview with Mark Allen in his ‘Road to St George’ series, and she re-iterated the importance of it here.
“It further encourages me in my approach to adjust my training to my cycle and to train like a woman, not like a small man! Thank you Coach @philippseipp for supporting me to get the best out of my female physiology!🙌🏻”
Laura over COVID now
Laura was clearly delighted with the Hamburg win – she described it as “mind blowing ” in a Twitter video.
“I felt so good, I’m not really sad that I didn’t get the world record because for me it’s more about my performance and the performance was something I’m super-proud of.
“It was still so sad to miss St George but I tried to use this race as an opportunity to get over the frustration, just to see where I’m at now, and I really surprised myself.
“The biggest win for me is that I feel like I can trust my body again and I think I’m over COVID now so that’s so cool to see. I’m looking forward to the next weeks and next races.”
Eager to face the best
While Laura was roaring to that brilliant victory in Hamburg, elsewhere in Germany Sub7Sub8 was creating huge headlines. Triathlon is hot now and Philipp cannot wait to take on the very best again.
“We have such exciting times at the moment, the level of racing is just awesome and I can’t wait to race against the best soon and hopefully I will be able to show a similar or even better performance. For me it’s time to recover and then go back to work.”
