Jolien Vermeylen was not the only triathlete racing in the pool at the weekend. Lotte Miller of Norway also hopped in to take on some short course racing.
Racing at the SSK Open in Stavanger, Norway, Miller took on the 1500m (25m). She put together an 18:18.75, swimming a well-constructed race. At the 400m mark, she hit 4:49.35 and at the 800m her time was 9:43.89. That second 400 was a 4:53.54 and showed Miller’s consistent pacing throughout.
Indeed, the only time she swam over 1:13 per 100m pace was between 900m and 1000m where she swam 1:14.12. Moreover, her consistency was highlighted by that fact that between the 200m and 1400m marks, her 100 splits were all within 0.72 seconds of one another.
Miller is one of the athletes we noted that we are looking forward to see back from injury this season. Her 2022 was blighted by a herniated disc and then back surgery.
To give context to her swim at the weekend, Miller swam a 1500m (25m) in September 2022 after recovering from her herniated disc and swam a 17:50.23. She then underwent back surgery in the autumn and only really was allowed to return to water in December.
She therefore appears to have regained considerable fitness over the past two months following the surgery which bodes well for her continued return.
Miller is not scheduled to race at the upcoming WTCS Abu Dhabi. Nor is she on any start lists in the next 30 days.
Having achieved a best WTCS finish of 6th at WTCS Abu Dhabi in 2019, Miller is working back to that level of form and fitness. Her racing in Stavanger indicates that her swim fitness is certainly on the upswing and that from a conditioning perspective she is in good shape.
With a little more time, hopefully she will be able to return to the fray at full strength.
