Diego Van Loy comes with his speed at Powerman Greece

Diego Van Loy is one of the fastest runners of the sport and comes from Belgium to dominate the Powerman Greece 2019. He runs his first duathlon after 4 years, but he has run 1h11’31” the Half Marathon into a 70.3 IM and 2h44’29” the Marathon into a full IM. So it seems he has nothing to afraid of. Look what he told us about his first steps at multisports and the reasons he is so fast and furious at the running leg. 

When and how did you start duathlon and triathlon?

I did cycling and did then for fun a 10km running competition without training where i was able to run 32:25” ; 2 weeks after I did a 15km in 48:50” … this was the sign to stop cycling competition and start to do some running in combination with cycling .

In may 2015 I did the first Duatlon in my life (Powerman Luxemburg) where I finished 5th overall with only 1 month of some training because of a broken bone in my hipp region .1 month after this I won the french Championships LD duathlon in Cambrai .

With triathlon I started in may 2016 without swimming training . I knew that how longer how better but didnt liked swimming … i finished 9th in a world class field in Ironman Lanzarote … 2 months afterwards another ironman , maastricht where i finished 5th overall . The day after this changed my life because I got a paid contract with an employer to put triathlon 100% as my job for next 5 years ! Now i’m triathlete and I am very happy with every opportunity I got .

Diego, you are one of the greatest runners of the sport. What is the key for that? How many times do you run every week?

I run between 3 and 4 times maximum a week … most of time brick sessions off the bike and interval alactycal . The Long runs i keep for late ironman preparation .

Have you ever considered to concentrate the 100% of your training at running and try to be a professional runner?

I could do this and maybe run 2h12 in a marathon if I put 100% all on running when you see my Lactate testing and progressionCurve … but on worldField this is nothing worth as in Kenia / Ethiopia / Japan there are 3000 athletes going sub 2h06 .

In Ironman its possible to show my big engine and I like the combination of the 3 sports . It keeps me motivating and its challenging .

Why you didn’t participate at international level duathlon races for 4 years?

I only started with my first duathlon 4 years a goo and did the last duathlon 2 weeks ago … powerman mallorca , which I won … 

The 2 years before sponsors wants me to put 100% all on triathlon and not duathlon because of the financial benefits .

What did motivate you to register at POWERMAN Greece 2019?

Powerman is an ideal preparation for my Ironman season … 2h40 explosif race and its not neccesairy to go to Australia for doing a triathlonrace then . The jetlag is so hard every time …