CHRISSIE WELLINGTON WORLD IRONMAN TRIATHLON CHAMPION TALKS ABOUT WINNING HAWAII 2008 & LIFE
Physio 4 life TALK 5th NOVEMBER 2008 at Physio 4 Life Putney London - Physiotherapy & Sports Injury Clinic
SW15 www.physio4life.co.uk 0208 704 5998
This is a brief overview of what I want to talk about today. As Mark said I will talk for maybe 30-40 minutes and then we can have Q&A and you can bombard me with questions and I’ll do some signings at the end. I’ve just bought some freebies to give away, sorry guys most of them are tiny and I’ve got short skirts or shorts which would you like for girlfriends and friends obviously? So, I will give some of those away at the end.
I thought I would skip quickly through the background just to save time because I think most of you know more about me than I know about me from reading all the websites, I don’t think when I started this I would have a Wikipedia page or whatever its called as I think you will find out most of the information about me on there. Thankfully most of it is accurate.
So I started off as a kid swimming (pretty badly), then I went to University and carried on swimming, drinking and studying. From drinking and studying, swimming then took a back seat. I started running in 2000 and did the London Marathon in 2002 and then went to live and work in Nepal in 2004 and 2005 and I’ve just got a couple of pictures there of our Summer cycle trip. We cycled across the Himalayas and that’s us cycling to Everest base camp and that’s us at Everest base camp.
I did a couple of Triathlons before I went to Nepal in 2004 but it was really in Nepal that I developed a love for biking and really learnt how to bike and I guess it was there that I appreciated that I was more talented than some of the others at endurance activities so I think when I came back to the UK in 2006, I was more determined than ever to give Triathlon a proper shot so in 2006 I qualified for the world age groups, I managed to win the world age group championships and as they say the rest is history. I joined Team BB, I left my job in January last year and joined Team BB in February and you may have wondered why last year I managed to do what I did, a win at Korea Ironman in August 3rd in Korea 70.3 in September then win the world Ironman Triathlon championships in Hawaii in October.
So what I thought may be more useful for you guys is if I just gave an overview of some of the training that we do and the lifestyle that we lead and perhaps go through some of the mistakes that I see other people make and give you some tips on training, nutrition, on gear and things like that. Some of it is relevant and some of it may not be and then I’ll go through my season in 2008 and then Hawaii – the race, how I prepared for it, the race itself and my nutrition for the race and then quickly go over my plans for 2009 so hopefully I won’t run over too long.
So in terms of training I guess the most important thing for all of us, pro and age grouper, is to keep it simple, to be consistent and to most all enjoy it. The last bit for me is if you don’t love to do sport, you don’t love to train and you don’t love to race, then there isn’t a lot of point in doing it. I mean there are days when you don’t like it but then the majority of the time you’ve really got to love it but then I’m lucky enough that I get paid to do a job that I really, really do love.
The most important thing is that the program is individualised and you need to work out or find out what works for you. You are not the same as the person next to you, you are all individuals so what works for one, might not work for the other and you have different lifestyles, different backgrounds, different goals, different strengths and weaknesses so it is important not to follow a generic plan whether that be for Olympic distance or for Ironman and that’s really what happens within the team that I was in and that I have just left. Most of us were training for Ironman but all the programs were very much adapted to suit our strengths and weaknesses so we were all individuals and we were trained that way.
I think the 3 big mistakes that I see people make especially in some of my age group friends is over emphasis on excessive volume, to the exclusion of quality. A single focus on 3 disciplines so you are looking at yourself as swimmers, bikers, as runners, rather than as triathletes and that’s very important. Lastly, an obsession with data and I think this over reliance on data means you lose the intuition and you lose the feel for your body. Don’t get me wrong, there is a place for data but I think especially in races you need to know exactly for example what race pace feels like and you really need to be very attuned to your body and I think if you are so preoccupied with your heart rate, you don’t get that intuitive feel of your body so I think that’s one mistake that people make is that they don’t learn to read their body.
In terms of my program, we train about 4-6 hours a day, 7 days a week and it’s an equal mix of swim, bike and run. For us really, training is 24/7 because when we are resting, that is part of our training. When we are eating, that’s part of making us strong, that’s making part of our training, when we are sleeping, that’s part of our training so it’s not only about the time when I get my heart rate above 120 or whatever you know every aspect of our life is geared towards training and that can make it very monotonous and very regimented of course and very mono dimensional but I think that’s what being a pro athlete is all about. You need that focus and it is a 24/7 job.
The sessions themselves range – it’s not just continuous aerobic conditioning, it ranges from very easy, long steady work to all out, eyes popping out of your head, balls to the wall kind of work and then everything in between i.e. aerobic race pace work, we do a lot of dual repetitions so I’ll stick it in the 53/11 and grind up hills on my tri bars, just up and down, up and down for an hour and that’s incredibly important and that’s really good for strength and we do the same with the running and we get a real bang for your buck with those kind of sessions and you don’t have to do them for very long but they take a lot out of you and they give you a lot back so it’s not all long, steady aerobic work.
The longest run I do is 2 hours. The longest bike ride I ever do is 4 and a half hours so we are not doing 7, 8 hour rides, we don’t need to. We do a lot of double rides whereby we do say the hill repeats in the morning and then we’ll go back and do another ride in the afternoon which will be a time trial so there might be 4 hours of riding in a day but its split up so you get the quality. It’s not like a 4 hour long steady ride, you know 4 hours it’s 2 hours of hills, time trial in the afternoon and bang, you’ve got 4 hours of really high quality ride.
The other thing that I’ve said before that you’ve got to remember is that one discipline affects the other so yes I am a very fast marathon runner. I might not be a fast marathon runner because I do the wrong training. I might be a fast marathon runner because of my bike training and you’ve got to remember that so if you’re looking to improve your run, you need to look at your biking and you need to look at your swimming and you’ve got to remember that you’re not a runner, you’re a triathlete so your biking can improve your running and vice versa and I’ll get the bike set up later but the same goes for that so I train to be a stronger runner through my bike training.
Strength and conditioning work – I am often asked about that. I don’t do any gym work, the only strength work I do outside swim, bike and run is 50 press ups on my knuckles each day. I do them on my knuckles to strengthen my forearms because that’s incredibly important for the swimming. For us, even though we’ve got all day to train, we don’t want to be doing more training than is necessary and strength work is obviously an extra session. So what we do is incorporate the strength work in with our sessions so we do a lot of paddle work in the pool so we are swimming with paddles and that’s the equivalent to basically doing press ups. It’s very hard as you know, on the forearms and the triceps so using the paddles is like strength work in the pool.
Doing the hill repeats on the run and on the bike is like doing leg press exercises and it’s just as good. There is a place for strength and conditioning, of course there is, as long as it’s targeted and you’re not just doing arbitrary exercises because someone thinks you should do. We don’t do many drills but we do a lot of repetitions in terms of say a lot of 800’s on the track so we do a lot of repetitive work and we don’t do a lot of drills or technique work.
My coach, Brett, was of the opinion that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks so I think a lot of us although older than teenagers and once your motor skills are quite advanced at our age, you can’t change necessarily your running style very easily so what we do is learn to be as fast as you can with what you’ve got and the key is not to try and get a text book perfect stroke so for example in the swim you’ll see a lot of swimmers in my team just come over like and just slap the water like this (arms in the air). The key is not what they look like above the water, (no-one gives a toss about that) it’s what you look like under the water so people spend a lot of time trying to look great entering but just get the bloody thing over concentrate on getting the power underneath the stroke and I guess that what is key of course technique is important but you don’t want to practice so much so as to lose out on some of the benefits of good, solid, hard training.
Rest days – yes we train 7 days a week. A full day off for us is very very rare. If you’ve got a 5k swim and the rest of the day off, that would be classed as a rest day. You’ve got to remember that as a pro we have a luxury that world age groups don’t, we have all day to train, all day to rest if you need to. You guys don’t, so whereas we can rest between sessions, you guys have got to go off to work, you’ve got to look after families, you’ve got to go out to the pub and go out for dinner, go on holiday or whatever and that all takes it’s toll so I do think that there is a place for rest days. I think often they should be less structured than perhaps some programs allow them to be, I think like I said before, you need to develop a feel for your body and respond to your body and know when your body needs a rest and be able to respond to that and allow yourself to take that rest rather than saying every Friday is a rest day. There needs to be a bit of flexibility and you need to be able to listen to your body and if necessary take more rest if you have to.
In terms of the annual cycle, I trained pretty much for 11 months of the year although I’ve only been training for nearly 2 years now so I can’t really say what’s normal but downtime is after Hawaii so I get a month whereby the volume is significantly reduced and I’m only doing about an hour, 2 hours each day and a lot of cross training so I’ll go hiking and I will do some running, some mountain biking – things like that. That does take me away from the regimented swim, bike and run and that is as much a mental break and it is a physical break. I will build up again over December and January and then from February I will be back into the program which pretty much stays the same all the way up to Hawaii and a lot of people do periodisation and I have to say that my program in March didn’t look very different from my program in say August except for the fact that my split times were probably getting faster. I think all the work from Hawaii was done for me back in February, March, April, May so by August all the works in the bank so you don’t want to be cramming in August and preparing for Hawaii then. You know, I was confident in my preparation because I had got that solid background work through from February.
In terms of taper, of course it depends on the race, there are races I did this year where I didn’t taper, where I trained all the way through like “outdo airs” and “timberman” being two examples. I didn’t rest at all before them, didn’t reduce the training volumes and did them almost as I would a training day.
For the 3 Ironmans, the week before we reduced the volume quite significantly. The reduction in volume is obviously proportional to the volume that you do ordinarily so we can’t reduce the volume by too much otherwise our bodies will shut down but we do reduce the volume but the most important thing is that we retain the intensity of the workouts so say whereas my brick session ordinarily would be a 3 hour ride into 15 800’s on the track. Four days before an Ironman it’s a 2 hour ride and 5 800’s but I do those at the same speed that I do the 15 800’s so I don’t do the length slower just because Ironman’s coming up, we do a lot less.
In terms of recovery after the race, we train the next day, not because we’re masochistic (although we are), but because it’s important to get the blood flowing so you don’t want to finish a race whether it’s Olympic distance, whether it’s an Ironman or either ultra crazy Ironman, you just want to do something the next day. We never do anything hard or difficult, nothing to get the heart rate too high, just something to get the blood flowing and that’s quite important.
For the week after an Ironman, we’ll do the run and the swim sessions where you don’t go over 30 minutes each and the bike sessions, 1, 2 hours if they’re steady. If you go over that then the immune system starts to be comprised and that can really impede recovery and then after a week we’re back into full training.
In terms of training locations, this year was Asia and Switzerland and the two locations were important I guess for two reasons. Firstly, that they were secluded so we were kind of isolated from the triathlon world. There were no distractions and we could be very focussed and that’s incredibly important I think to me, I need to be away from distractions and be incredibly focused on swim, bike and run. Also important, were the physical conditions, in Asia it was the heat, in Switzerland it was the altitude and both of these were important to enable us to develop strategies to cope with the pressures that both of those bring. Obviously age groupers don’t have the luxury of being able to train for long periods of time in those types of countries but if you can prepare the best you can either by having a weeks holiday in a hot location so that you can at least find out how your body responds to those kinds of conditions. Go cycling in the Pyrenees if you can you know, just to find out how your body adapts to the altitude. Heat chambers are great, there’s one a Roehampton and there’s some up in my club. You know, get access to anything like that and if you’re doing a race in a hot country that’s incredibly beneficial.
In terms of gear, you’ve got to find gear that works for you, not necessarily the latest and the best equipment and gadgets. I started off as many will know on a second hand climb which I’ve still got which took me to my world age group championship win and then I used it for half of last year so I mean that was a second hand bike I bought for £500 from a mate and I’m incredibly happy with it. Of course, there’s a lot to be said for the fantastic bikes like the one I ride but especially as a UB you don’t have to spend thousands of pounds on a new bike to be able to train and race well. You can race well on more basic equipment. Obviously I can’t go through all the gear that you need but in terms of swim obviously a good wetsuit. Incredibly important to get flexibility around the shoulders, it’s got to fit well. My first race in 2006 was at Greenwich, I borrowed a wetsuit, it was too big, it flooded, I drowned and it was the first race my Mum and Dad ever saw and they vowed never to come and watch me again but I managed to persuade them to come to Hawaii and Frankfurt this year and I promised I wouldn’t drown so yes, it’s got to fit.
Obviously lube around the neck, I use a plastic bag so that my hands don’t get all greasy, you lose the catch on the water so you need something to stop the lube going all over your hands.
Paddles, like I said, paddles are great. You need the correct type of paddles; there are lots of paddles out on the market. There are only some that will actually benefit you in terms of helping your stroke. The ones I recommend and I’m not just saying that because they are my sponsors, the ones I have always used are the tier paddles. They are called Catalyst and the women use the yellow ones and the men use; I think they are black or red in a size bigger. Anyway I would really recommend those because they are one of the best paddles out there on the market.
Goggles – obviously personal preference and you can try them out for size.
Bike – the most important thing is the colour – no it’s not, it fits! Getting a professional bike fit is great but you’ve got to remember that some of the professional bike fits are geared to cyclists and not triathletes so what is aerodynamic in terms of a 50 km an hour time trialist might not be best for a 25, 30, 40km an hour triathlete.
For me, comfort, then price, then aero are the three things you think in ascending order as an age grouper. For me, I’ve got to be able to run a fast marathon off the bike and I know that means I am not the most aerodynamic person in the world and I’ve read what everyone said on the forums and it’s all very amusing because “yes” I might not be the most aerodynamic, I know I’m not wearing an aero helmet but there’s a reason for it. It’s not because I don’t like being aerodynamic but it’s because I want to be comfortable. You can take a look at my bike – my pads for my arms are quite wide apart, not because I like them being out like a chicken but because it opens my chest and it means when I come onto my run, my chest doesn’t feel all bunched up and I can breathe and it’s little things like that. I don’t wear an aero helmet in Hawaii because it’s hot and I need to pour water on my head and it’s as simple as that. I lose so much heat through my head as you can see I am going quite red and if I have an aero helmet, you really don’t lose a lot of heat and it’s just very simple so, what’s aerodynamic might not be best.
If you are looking to buy a bike and you want to do both time trial, Ironman and shorter distance races. I rode a time trial bike with road bars all year because I am not very good at bike handling and that was better for me so you can get a time trial bike and put road bars on it. Alternatively, you can get a road bike and put aero bars on it and you are not going to lose that much time so don’t listen to everyone that tells you that you are going to lose the next step and the next step. Just be comfy and make sure it’s all within your price range because you just don’t want to be taking out loans to get a bike where it’s not going to matter if you don’t shave off a few seconds so yes a road bike with aero bars or a time trial bike with road bars is quite good and you can chop and change.
Running shoes is a personal preference. You have got to try and just make sure you don’t let them wear out. I use Brooks, I also wear orthotics. The orthotics are not to change my running style per say, they are to spread the load in my foot, so if you are prone to getting injuries, especially of the feet and the lower leg, then you might want to get a gate analysis done at a good physio. I have that done, I’ve got a pair of orthotics and the issue I had with my foot never came back and it was as simple as that. They don’t work for everyone, they are not for everyone but it might be worth thinking about if you are prone to running injuries.
Other gear and gadgets – heart rate and power tap, I have already touched upon. Yes, I do think they are useful training tools for some people. I have never used them because I go on feel. I know my body and I like to be able to read myself. I can go easy when I need to go easy and I can go balls to the wall when I need to do that. I don’t need a watch or a power metre to tell me that or to stop me from going too hard I guess. Intuition and repetition is the key and not numbers because I think often the numbers are not that accurate to how the body is actually feeling.
The other thing people ask me about is compression gear - I have read a few bits and bobs of research but I think it’s pretty inconclusive at the moment. I have to say I wear it especially when I am flying and travelling, even when I’m in the car or on a long train journey and I find it incredibly beneficial for preventing a formation – you just get a big tree trunk so it’s really good for that. I don’t know how effective it is at promoting recovery. I don’t wear them when racing; others do, so again it’s something you need to try out.
Injuries and prevention – obviously this is key. Sports massage, sensible nutrition, getting the right bike that fits, making sure your bike cleats are in the right place, that your running shoes don’t wear out, sports massage, all that is key to injury prevention but as a pro and an age grouper, you can’t fear injury. Its part and parcel of what we do and it’s going to happen. It’s how you prevent it and then if it does happen, its how you manage it and effective management is so important and mental strength is as important to the physical treatment that you get when you are dealing with an injury.
Nutrition – eat a lot, about 4 to 5,000 calories a day although I don’t weigh it or measure it or count calories. I would say about 60% carbs most of which, I try to avoid refined carbs like white bread and sugary cereals and that kind of thing. I would stick to oats, brown rice, brown pasta, a lot of potatoes, that kind of thing.
Protein, I eat red meat once a week, chicken and liver. Good fats – nuts, seeds, olive oil on absolutely everything even my porridge. I eat three big meals and I snack in between and if my sessions go over an hour, that’s when I start having energy drinks and things. If I’m under an hour, I don’t use energy drinks. Over about 3-4 hours, then I start having bars and things like that.
2008 – Yes, it was an absolutely amazing season, that was the finish line, Ironman Australia April, then the Ton Yong World Cup which probably wasn’t my finest racing hour by any means, I came in 22nd but I learnt so much from that race . I won’t go into detail but I really valued the experience and I’m really glad I did that race. Then the finish line at Frankfurt which was absolutely spectacular, it was the first race that I could persuade my parents to come and watch and that was Timberman in the States, the world long course championships which were in Amir in Holland and I was so proud to be able to win. It was incredibly important to me and that was a fantastic race and I know a lot of people doubted or questioned me participating in that race because it was 5 weeks before Hawaii. Everyone’s different, everyone prepares for races in different ways, for me, doing this was a fantastic experience not only for the physical strength it gave me but it also gave me a hell of a lot of confidence and mental strength going into Hawaii. So I think it was important for me to do that race and obviously the picture has made it even better.
The optimum number of races, it’s all down to the individual. My friend and team mate, Hilary Biscay is an absolute animal and did 9 Ironmans this year, 4 of which were back to back so she did 2, two weekends and she did another 2 and she won the last one which was absolutely phenomenal! I wouldn’t recommend that unless you’ve got good insurance!
For me, 3 Ironmans and the long course were optimal and that’s what I’ll be doing again next year. It’s important to remember that women are not the same as men and men take longer to recover from longer distance races and it’s down to their testosterone levels and as women don’t have testosterone, we do recover a lot quicker so what might be right for a women, might not be right for a man and vice versa and that’s important to remember.
When I’m picking races, the timings crucial. I need one that’s in Spring, one that’s in Summer and then Hawaii, location is important, the type of course is important and the weather is incredibly important to me. I really like racing in hot weather so hence Ironman UK is certainly less attractive to me for that reason and it is a consideration because I do perform a lot better in the heat and obviously you want to go to races where you stand the greatest chance of winning but then saying that Austria and Rhodes were absolutely pissing it down so I’m glad I didn’t choose those. Frankfurt was slightly warmer.
People asked me what helped me improve this year and whilst thinking about it I guess it was 3 things, firstly speed work and I think my training changed a little bit from last year in that I had a lot more speed work especially on the run. I think I improved on the run significantly due to that. The team environment again, was absolutely amazing, the dynamics changed when I was world champion last year and I really found it incredibly beneficial this year training with some of the top people in the world and they really helped to push me and I’m really grateful for that.
I think, sorting out my head was the third one, you know Ironman is such a mental game especially and I think I drew a lot of confidence from winning last year and I carried through that confidence into my training and into my racing so I think I just had a bit more mental maturity and confidence and I think that really helped me racing this year.
Hawaii – like I said, the week before I got there 10 days before, training was the same and then as I said, we reduced the volume where I did a 4 hour ride on the Saturday and then a 2 hour run and then a 45 minute run on the Sunday and then we reduced the volume and retained the intensity. One practice open water swim which was very important, I didn’t want to go down there too often because otherwise I would have got mobbed although it is important to get an open water swim in at the time that the race is going to start so that you can spot and see where the sun is going to rise and that is really important. I still did hill repeats to retain my leg strength, still did the brick on the Wednesday but the rest day on the Thursday, the penultimate day so we had the rest day on the Thursday and then the Friday I do touch ups (we call it), 30 minutes of each.
I had a deep sports massage about 10 days before, then another one on the Sunday and then I had a couple of light ones leading up to the race. Mark actually came out and it was fantastic because I had a few young niggles in my ankle which he managed to sort out and gave me a Boost for the run which was fantastic. Obviously there are a lot more obligations for me this year in addition to pressures. Time management was absolutely key and it was so important to have a good team around me. This is where my manager comes in – I always had some bodyguards back there looking beefy, he was one of them. I was kind of disguised, I had a cap and a hat so I could go out but seriously having these obligations is what being a pro is all about and it’s especially what being a world champion is all about and I am more than willing to take that for the Hawaii crown.
I see doing press conferences, meeting people and going down to the swim and getting mobbed, it’s all part and parcel of what being a world champion is all about and I have to develop strategies to deal with it and I’m still learning that I think racing Australia and then racing Frankfurt and then going to Hawaii did enable me to develop those strategies to be able to do that more effectively.
I actually did thrive on the enthusiasm of everyone else as I was feeling a bit down one day so I thought I would go out for a walk and the support that you get from everyone really does give you a boost so if you’re a bit nervous then you go outside and then someone screams Chrissie I love you, you’re great, it’s fantastic and it really helps me and I got so many messages from people back in the UK, all over the world just saying good luck and it means a lot, it really does so even though there are added pressures from the public and the weight of expectation is high, I see that as a really positive thing and it helps me.
In terms of calming whatever nerves I may have had before the race, much the same as any other races, I remember from past experiences, I do remember times that I have had punctures and still won. I find that massage helps to relax me, I watch Sex in the City DVD’s over and over again. I chat to my friends about normal things, I have these poems and cards that I carry everywhere for me to read. Just things like that, help me focus, you know, give me a boost, inspire me, relax me and they are all techniques and even as age groupers you need to find out what works for you and develop some techniques so that pre race you can deal with the nerves. Everyone gets nervous but you need to find strategies to be able to deal with those.
Morning of the race, saying that, I wasn’t that nervous, I don’t know why? I was just really excited to race and I think that I had done the preparation. I wasn’t taking the win for granted by any stretch of the imagination but I don’t know why, I didn’t feel that nervous.
When the gun went off, I went out like a bat out of hell! I was really happy with the swim, 56, I wanted to do around 55 so 56, I was pretty happy with. I felt strong when I got onto the bike and unfortunately as you all know, so I won’t go into too much detail, you probably saw it on the internet – filming me going to the toilet. I got a puncture – I did all the change really quickly but unfortunately when I got the puncture I didn’t press down on the tyre so when I tried to apply the CO2 canister, didn’t get the purchase on the valve, CO2 went everywhere.
Luckily, after about 4 minutes Bet Keen came past, I screamed have you got any CO2 and she said “yeh mate you owe me one”. Didn’t even have to stop, she threw it at me and I owe her one and I used it properly and off I went and I’m really grateful to her and she wasn’t really a friend, I met her once at Hawaii last year but it was amazing what she did and I really am grateful and we’ve had loads of emails since. She will be a friend for life and that really optimises what triathlon is all about – she didn’t have to help me and she did and I’m really grateful for that. It got me back on the road, I went into the lead about 130k and I really never looked back when I’m racing, I felt strong, I felt the winds were incredibly tough, very gusty but I think I managed to put about 6 or 7 minutes on the others going into the marathon but you know it’s a marathon and you never know what’s going to happen so I definitely wasn’t positive at that point of the victory and it was only after about 30k that I really knew that my body was going to hold out and that’s when I started to enjoy it, before that I was very focused.
In terms of strategy, I don’t really have one. I just go as hard as I can for as long as I can and it’s as simple as that, I really do. I know my race pace because I have dialled it in, I know it from training, from that repetition I just know how fast I can go for how long and that’s the confidence, I think, that really good effective training gives you.
To win it was amazing, fantastic, overwhelming, exhilarating and to have my family there was just, made a memory I will never, ever forget. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet and it probably won’t until this time next year. I am so honoured and proud to be world champion, I really, really am. To be a British world champion makes it even better and I will really wear the crown with immense pride.
Obviously, now my life has changed immeasurably, it’s very busy and I am trying to keep grounded. I’ve got a great manager that does a lot of the bullshit for me and allows me to focus on swim, bike and run which is fantastic. I’ve got some fantastic, fantastic sponsors that (everyone’s fantastic today), I won’t list them but you all know who they are, they are on my website and they have supported me in many, many, many ways.
I’m really excited about the media attention. I know many of you think that there hasn’t been that much coverage compared to last year. For me it’s been great, it’s been almost back to back since I got back to the UK and what’s exciting it that it’s not only triathlon media.
I did an interview yesterday with the Guardian, I’ve had one with the Observer – how I got my body, very exciting piece. Transworld Sport are doing a full day’s filming tomorrow, I’m speaking to Channel 5 and Mens Health & Fitness, testosterone but so anyway, that’s just to demonstrate that I think triathlon and Ironman and multi sport is getting into the mainstream media and that’s what I see as one of my roles.
Britain’s never had an Ironman champion so it’s not surprising that the media doesn’t care. You know, America, Australia, Germany, they’ve had Ironman champions over the past 30 years so the media knows about the sport so it’s my job now or one of my jobs is to push it in the media. It’s going to be slow, it’s not going to happen overnight but I’m going to do what I can to get it out there, not to promote myself necessarily but to raise the profile of the sport, attract the sponsor, get more participants because that’s the only way in which it will grow.
So finally, very quickly, plans and goals, sorry Mark. Sorry I forgot about the pictures, there’s the finish line, oh there’s my Mum & Dad. There’s my nutrition which I am going to have to skip through but I can go back to that if you are interested. I’ve just brought some samples and then I’ll give them away. This is the drink I use and I do use it, it is my sponsor but I do use it – 3 of those and two bottles during the race so you can try some, take some away and try.
Everyone’s going to ask me about leaving the team and I’ll take questions on it. I have issued a public statement and that pretty much summarises what happened. The team is basically a development, it’s growing into a development team and what they want is a one stop shop whereby everyone’s managed by the same manager and everyone has the same sponsors.
I wasn’t prepared to give up my manager and I wasn’t prepared to give my sponsors so I had to leave the team and the same was true of Hilary and Belinda so I mean that’s what happened. There’s no hard feelings – I would have loved to have stayed with Brett, he’s a fantastic coach but I don’t fit in with their structure any more and that’s really unfortunate. I am so incredibly grateful for everything they did for me but unfortunately I can’t be part of it. I don’t want there to be ill feeling and I’m not bitter so I can answer questions if you want to ask any more but that’s pretty much in a nutshell what happened.
Doors close, others open and I’ve got a new coach, I’m excited, yes I’m apprehensive, yes, I’m nervous, can I do it without Brett? I don’t know but I took a risk going pro and I will take a risk now and I’ve got the drive, the determination and a little bit of experience and I’m determined to succeed.
You never know what’s going to happen but if you don’t give it a chance you’ll never know just I just want to keep winning, keep getting faster, keep getting stronger and I’ve shown this year that I can do both and I can get faster, I can get stronger and I know I can do the same next year so I will give it my best shot under my coach.
Races next year it will look much the same as this year but we haven’t signed any contract just yet but it will be a Spring Ironman, a mid Summer Ironman July Ironman and then Hawaii with probably 3 70.3’s in the middle.
Last but not least, obviously everyone knows how passionate I am about development issues and development related issues. I am really grateful to all of you for paying a fiver to listen to me ramble on today. I mean that money is going to go to MacMillan Cancer Support and Relief because it’s an issue very close to my heart and I auctioned off my special Oakley Breast Cancer Awareness sunglasses. They fetched 600 dollars so this is going to go to Macmillan. It’s a different charity but the same issue and it’s incredibly important to me.
I am also going to auction off my frame so that you are aware. It’s going to go on EBay, not this one; it’s the one I won Frankfurt. It’s just a frame, not the complete bike because I’ve got the components on here so that will go on EBay along with some race kit, some nutrition and bits and bobs. It’s all signed and that will be auctioned on Blazeman on AS Foundation which is what I ran over the line for.
I guess I want to finish off just by saying thank you so much to you all for coming. Thanks to Physio for Life for hosting and the support they have given me. Thanks to my sponsors, thanks to my friends, some of whom are here in the audience and who have given me tremendous support. I am really proud to be British. I am really proud to be a British World Ironman Champion. I will do what I can to be the best ambassador to the sport that I can be and if you’ve got any questions, please fire away.
Question 1. 2012 - Will you change into a different sport for London 2012 sport or crack on with racing IronmanTriathlon for as long as possible?
Yes, much has been made of an interview I did for the Norfolk TV or radio whatever it was. For me Hawaii and New Zealand was like the Olympics. In a way the crown is like my Olympic Golden Medal and if I had to choose, I would choose that one but saying that you know, the Olympics is the ultimate sporting stage and I would be a fool if it were possible not to go for it. Short course track normally requires a totally different skill set to Ironman. Totally different strengths, totally different skills. I don’t have a lot of those skills at the moment. I’m not a great pack rider and I’m not a fast enough runner, it’s whether I think I could develop those skills, I think I could. I’ve got four years to try so yes, Cliff and I are talking about it already and it’s something that I definitely don’t want to close the door on but if it was a choice between doing Hawaii and doing the Olympics I think I would choose Hawaii. There’s also of course a possibly of perhaps shifting into cycling but the time trial is not long enough so unless they bring in a longer time trial I don’t see that my talents lie in those short sharp distances but that’s not to say that with some targeted training so who’s to say I wouldn’t close the door, I’d love to but ultimately Hawaii is where my heart lies.
Question 2 – What’s been your most enjoyable event so far? (Hawaii this year with all your family or Alpe D’Huez or your very first triathlon
For me having my family at the finish line of Hawaii this year (2008) was a dream come true.
I absolutely love Ironman Triathlon because it’s the absolute height of masochism that I love it, it’s painful and it’s just one of the most challenging races out there and I really enjoy pushing myself to those limits but I have to say Hawaii, yes, I mean having my family there was amazing, the atmosphere there this year was fantastic, the support I got from everyone, from every country was really, really great. It made it incredibly, incredibly special – not just my race, not just in the run up but also the finish line up until midnight, it was amazing wasn’t it Mark, it was really was emotive and that’s sometimes more important to me than the race itself being on the finish line at midnight and then afterwards so the whole experience of Hawaii obviously makes it a very special occasion.
Question 3 – When did your mindset change from when you believed that you could repeat 2007 this year? Was it Winter, was it the day of the race? When did you really believe that you could me number 1 again?
About 30K (laughs). No, I mean, I train to win and I’m a very competitive person and I want to win and that’s why I race. I don’t race to come fourth and I’m not embarrassed to say that I race, it’s because I want to win. Having said that, I am never confident in the victory you know, you can’t take anything for granted like you never know what’s going to happen and it really wasn’t until 30k into the run that I knew that my body would hold out and that I thought that the victory was mine.
Up until that I just don’t rest on my laurels and assume anything. I knew that I had done the preparation. But then, this is what’s so exciting for us – the depth of the field is huge now. I guess 10 years ago there were few participants that would fight for the podium, now there’s 10 or more.
Girls are coming in now and running 2 54. I’ve never run a 2 54 so even if I’ve got 6 minutes on them, I don’t know if they are going to come up and bust my arse so you know, you can’t rest on your laurels, there’s too many good girls out there to do that so I’ve just got to keep striving and striving and striving, raising the bars for myself and in doing that I’ll raise the bar for others and then they’ll meet it, keep it up and so it goes on but that’s the only way we will improve.
Question 4 – Why do you think you have been so successful from being a British athlete to being number 1 twice and you’ve never done that before? Why do you think you have been so successful?
Because, I don’t know, I think’s it’s a combination of things:-
I think I have the personality for it. I am very obsessive, very driven, very determined and I always have been in the different things I’ve done in my life whether it’s work, whether it’s academia and now the sport. Everything I do, I do at 100% and you need that as a pro athlete. It that’s not enough, you need good genetics and I think I realised in Nepal that I had something physically that was a bit out of the ordinary and I think that’s really when I decided to take it that step further.
I have always done sport and I think it’s the fact that I have never fulfilled my potential enough. I never gave it my all, I never gave that 100% and until you give that 100% you never know how good you can be so I think it was also the fact that I had never tried. I never tried to be as good as I could be so I didn’t know how good I could be but I think it’s a combination of things, you know that it’s genetics, it’s hard work, it’s drive, it’s determination, it’s the team environment, it’s having girls that push me and guys to push me, people to learn from and those kind of things. It’s a combination. I am grateful that I have found this sport. I don’t regret not taking it up earlier. I think that things that have happened in my life have helped shaped me into a better athlete whether they be sport or otherwise but I am really glad I have found it now.
Question 5 – Quite a lot has been made about your gear selection on your bike, in fact Alan McKeeley and Frazer were talking on race day about Chrissie’s pushing that big gear again. Is that an intentional thing because that’s the style of riding or is it more intentional/deliberate because that makes you go faster?
I have always pushed a big gear and it is what comes naturally to me so when I was in Nepal, I just didn’t change out of the big gear and I think it’s got a lot to do with my leg strength where I’ve got very strong calves, strong quads and I can push a big gear.
We are encouraged to push a big gear and that’s often a misconception that you need to have a high cadence on the bike, you don’t. In long distance racing it serves to push a bigger gear. If you are feeling very tired in a race, most people naturally go up a gear and spin their legs. That is going to raise your heart rate and make you more tired. What you want to do is crank it down and push a big gear to lower your heart rate so push a big gear because that’s how I can go the fastest, it’s what’s natural to me and if I am tired, it enables my heart rate to fall but we do a lot of big gear work so that does make us stronger and get us used to riding a big gear and I think you to do that to benefit as well
Question 6 – what advice would you give to someone who literally started out this year in triathlon?
It always looks quite daunting if you’ve never done one. Two years ago I said, I would never do one as well and that’s in all honesty. I really said to my friend, you’re crazy and I’m one of those crazy people. It does seem daunting when you haven’t done it.
The marathon seems daunting to someone who hasn’t done it and once you’ve done it you realise that anything really is possible if you set your mind to it. I know it’s cliché but it is, if you set yourself a goal and it’s achievable. You need steps to get there so I don’t think I’m going from super sprint to next week doing Frankfurt Ironman, you can’t.
You need achievable steps along the way so you need a program to get you there and I would also suggest joining a club. There are some good clubs in London, some good clubs outside of London to get the support network, the advice, the friends to train with. I think that’s incredibly important and it also makes it fun. Don’t be put off by problems and failure to improve certain things – you will if you keep plugging away, you will get there.
I mean, there will always be set backs, there might be injuries but you will always be able to achieve your goal so I would say set realistic milestones in order to reach that ultimate goal, join a club and get a program going so that you can get on that road and you will do it, if you want to, you will.
Question 6 – I fancy a practice outdoors, can you give us a few pointers (not for you for me) and tell us what motivates you?
Go up and down Box hill a hundred times if you like. It’s a fantastic race, it’s growing each year, it’s a really fantastic atmosphere and I really like supporting it because I like those grass roots, less commercial races. The waters cold so have a good wetsuit, a good hat and get yourself all lubed up and ready to go. It is really cold about 14 degrees, be prepared for any weather conditions.
I’ve don’t it and if its hot, I’ve got onto the bike and I’ve only needed a sleeveless but be prepared for all weather. You might need arm warmers, you might need a gillet and that way you can then strip off.
You will have seen the course map, there is a 18-20k climb, another 20k climb and then Alpe d’Huez so obviously you will need some real climbing training but hill repeats are just as effective, it’s a four hour ride around the Surrey hills so get some hill repeat training in. You need a hill that’s maybe one that’s 1 and a half k for short hill repeats and maybe one that 4 or 5k and try and do those on your aero bars and that will give you a lot more leg strength. If you can get some altitude training before that’s great, if you can’t then obviously the run you’re going to be running at 2000 metres, that the air is going be thin, it’s off road.
I won my race in flats, for the environment it’s OK but if you’ve got some instability. It’s a fantastic race, I don’t know if the video is still on the internet, there’s a video of the race this year and the foods great afterwards and it’s really good. Are you going to do the run course? Yes
Question Why did you leave Team TBB recently?
This year, obviously it’s been publicised in the media and myself, Hilary and Belinda have left the team as have a number of others but Hilary and Belinda are staying together where we are also going to be training in a standard way and there is going to be three other guys training with us so it’s not a team as such, it’s more of a training group.
We are going to go to Australia and we will be leaving for Australia at the end of this month and will be training in Australia up until February/March. If I race Ironman Australia, I will stay there until that race, then we will go to Arizona in the heat and then we will get the altitude either in America over the Summer or come to Europe to the Alps and the Summer camp hasn’t been decided yet but what’s important for us is that we limit the amount of travelling that we do because travelling is (especially across time zones) is really draining and you’ve got to try and limit this. Especially the time cross zones, travelling up and down, they are the two, Australia then Arizona, as yet to be decided.
Question 8 – I read that you haven’t used CO2 canister, I was wondering that’s true but I was wondering do you practice and prepare for these conditions on how to use this stuff?
That’s a Chinese whisper that I don’t use CO2 canisters. The mistake that I made and which I will tell everyone that is not using CO2 canisters for training because when we trained in Asia, we trained in very secluded locations. CO2 canisters are not as easy to come by as just carrying a little pump so I just carry a pump when I’m training. I used CO2 canisters last year in races, in Korea and Hawaii last year I used a CO2. I didn’t use them but carried them.
In Australia this year I had a CO2 with me and in Frankfurt I had a CO2 and then Timberman and Longcourse, I carried a pump so the mistake I made was not using them in training. I have used them and I have used them before but I don’t use them in training. I know how to use them, of course I do. I just didn’t push down hard enough on the tyre to get the purchase on the valve and yes that’s my mistake.
Do you practice general bike repair?
I do most of the maintenance on my bike actually. I can do the cabling, the brakes, changing the cassette. The really detailed work, I just can’t do because I don’t have a boyfriend to carry around to do all these things for me. I should be taking applications. I do the basics myself and that’s quite important to be able to do that. Transitions – race practice, we don’t have specific transitions …….. THE END
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