Why? Because we can.

by Danny Robdrup

Super League Triathlon racing is an incredible experience. Entering this event is something everyone should try once, probably more though.

I experienced Super League in Penticton in 2018. It was a superb event, even if it was shut down early by raging wildfires and smoke-filled air. The smoke took nothing away from the amazing beauty of being in the mountains and the clear lakes of the Okanagan Valley.

The age-group race set up for Penticton was to be a three-day affair. Day 1 was a cycling time trial at Area 27, a local race course meant for super-fast cars.

It was the smoothest pavement I have ever ridden, better than fresh black top on the highway’s edge. We lined up and took off after the pro field, cutting through the air with little resistance from the ground. The course was fast and required some technical ability through the turns. This is where you find out how much you trust your bike, its tires, and your skills.

Your placement after this TT was your starting position for the following day.

Day 2 was a multisport event unlike anything I have ever been in. There are whole new feelings that you get to experience at an event like this.

We started off with a fast, short swim and then straight into a 2km run. You might think that is all, since the bike was completed yesterday… but it is not.

The next part is easy to describe, but difficult on your body. Immediately after completing the 2km run, we jumped back into the water for the 2nd swim. There is something they do not tell you though: there is no blood in your arms.

This means that you do not get to feel them while you are swimming, and it feels like you are going nowhere. Then, just as you start to get feeling back in your arms during the swim, it’s over and you’re onto the next section of the race, the draft-legal bike course.

If only I could tell which bike was mine…

Between all this madness there are transitions. Getting lost is a real threat so it is key to remember which sport is next on your list. Heading out on the run course when it’s bike time will set you back a long way.

The draft legal bike course. This was a unique experience drafting in a group along the edge of grape fields. We were in wine country and the scenery was beautiful  — not that there was much time to look around and admire it. After the hill climb, we got into a solid group trying to catch the lead pack a minute ahead. Taking turns pulling, I decided to back off at the end heading towards the downhill and fuel a bit more for the upcoming run. This also allowed me to avoid any mishaps that could have happened on the descent with a group of riders.

Into transition and onto my favorite part of triathlon: the run. Managing to run past the group of cyclists I let go at the top of the hill, I came across the line in a solid position. Finishing a truly exceptional race felt amazing and I was all geared up for Day 3, a back-to-back sprint triathlon.

Unfortunately, we never got to race the final day as the smoke was dense and it was not safe to get into a high ventilatory effort. That, however, did not take away from the experience that will forever be one of my favorite race experiences to date.

A fast race with lots of great competition, along with a cool medal as a keepsake. A fun event that was great for those who were spectating on a lapped course with a small footprint. In all honesty, this is the route triathlon/multisport needs to take to get into the viewing schedules of people around the world.

Thanks for a great event, Macca and crew!

Vincent Luis. Katie Zaferes. Mario Mola. Jake Birtwhistle. What do they have in common? The coach: Joel Filliol.

Joel has supported athletes to achieve more than 30 World Triathlon Series winning performances as part of more than 90 World Triathlon Series podiums, and 6 overall World Triathlon Elite World Championships Titles.

Tim Ford and James Bale sat down with Joel on an episode of a podcast and came away with a greater appreciation for the art and science of putting together a high performance training squad, and the challenges a coach like him had to overcome in the past year. Here are a few excerpts from that episode.

(This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.)

How did you build this multi-national squad? How do you choose who to take on?

My screening/interview process has evolved over time. Who is open to coaching? How much baggage do they have from their past? Who were their coaches before and why did that break down? What beliefs do they have? What challenges do they have? Can I help fix those?

Some of them have had a series of injuries, psychological issues in the sense of confidence or other areas and it can be very difficult to overcome those. Not to say I won’t try but I’ve got to feel like I can help this athlete, this person get better. And that’s not going to be for everybody.

It’s not a competitive environment in the sense that we don’t want athletes to race each other and challenge each other and ultimately that can lead to wrecking each other from an injury point of view, so you have to have good control of your ego and good self-management in order to function in an independent environment like this. How you can manage your training without too much drama or unrealistic expectations? With the existing culture, anybody we add to that must add to it in the sense it will make it better.

There’s only so many athletes you can support at any one time. The max we’ve had are 15-16 and that starts to get into really boring logistical stuff like pool space, or traveling, doing the workouts where the groups end up getting too big. There’s also a critical mass where if you don’t have enough athletes it can be hard to run specific sessions such as bike sessions and technical crit sessions where you kind of need some athletes around and you need to be able to work together in that way.

With Super League Triathlon and PTO Championship racing tacked on at the end of the World Triathlon season, what does the longer season do to the athlete’s training regime and how do you as a coach address that?

The athletes used to race more French Grand Prix and Bundesliga through the season. My approach has been we’ve had to do less of that so we can train more because the travel, the calendar, the whole challenge, can you actually train enough?

It’s an additional challenge of you having to maintain your health and your energy through the year. For the athletes, everything sounds like a good idea in February but when you come through the summer, a lot of athletes have got niggles through the year and need time off and so that’s been a challenge.

But Super League is such a great opportunity though that it’s more motivating for athletes to try to make that happen. Also there’s good prize money and a lot of promotion they invest in.

I think that how we’ve tried to approach it is to try to find periods in the year where we have a clear block where we can train, we’re not traveling and to sort of recharge for the next phase, perhaps bundle some races together and have a discrete training block. And it’s not easy because the calendar isn’t designed with that in mind. So you also have to choose times to miss out some races and that’s kind of unfortunate. Given the bigger priorities of performance we have to make some of those choices sometimes.

Can an athlete race across multiple formats like Super League Triathlon, World Triathlon, and Ironman successfully in the course of a year?

A number of athletes on the Olympic pathway that I’m working with would love to go into long distance racing and the challenge is often just the timing of these things. We have to prioritise and we don’t want to make the mistake of trying to do too much and end up broken just from traveling around and racing too much.

This year coming up is a great example. You’ve got the 70.3 world champs in September right in the thick of SLT races post-Olympics. It’s one of those ones you have to decide what you want to do. In general it’s a huge positive and I’d like more athletes to have more opportunity to come up in distance to 70.3 or half, it’s very accessible for Olympic athletes. The volumes of training they’re doing, it’s a matter of specificity and prioritization.

In long distance particularly ironman you can’t race very often, you have to prioritise the races you do. That’s the opportunity cost that stops some athletes from moving up in distance. It’s more a matter of the athletes having choices and making those choices. That’s the great part about triathlon; you can choose and specialise in the distances and mix and match to some degree. In a lot of Olympic sports that’s kind of it; you can’t continue the way we can.

We’ve seen some triathletes like Javi Gomez race across a range but even he’s had to step back from some of the ITU racing in order to create some space in order to do that. And then there’s others like Ali Brownlee who made a long-distance commitment and then come back to Olympic towards the Games. It’s possible, but not if you try to do everything.

How did you deal with coaching during the pandemic the last year?

It’s been challenging. What I tried not to do was to rush to fill the pause with something. You couldn’t just continue with training and wait and see what happens, what would pop up.

If we trace the timeline back we were expected to go to Abu Dhabi beginning of March last year. At that time we didn’t know [the Olympics would be postponed] so we had to continue training to some degree but you can’t keep in this holding pattern. And so we had to take rest for some of them and find a way for some of them — if you are from Italy, Spain, France, for some of them they couldn’t train outside for two months. There was a rush to find some way to continue to be fit indoors.

Some of the younger athletes were probably a little easier to manage, they’re earlier in their career so they kind of felt like they have a lot of opportunities. The ones I knew that were really focused on performing in Tokyo, that was a harder transition to go through. If you’re near the end of your Olympic career, you’ve invested in this big block in the winter to get ready and you realise you have to do that again. It’s a real first world problem, but it’s these athletes’ lives. Even as a coach I found it super hard to deal with.

I feel like that pause was important. Some of the ones who got themselves in trouble filled that gap with some extreme challenges. My orientation in my coaching is we have to keep healthy and consistent and ready to perform. Even the transition to so much indoor riding, a lot of athletes had knee issues or leg issues as a result of riding 15 hours a week.

There was a lot of learning about that and also respecting that everybody deals with this differently. I think as a coach we have to be understanding and empathetic that everyone will handle it differently in their environments and personalities. Knowing when to give more space or when to adjust things because if an athlete is feeling stressed they’re not going to be able to recover the same way.

I’m used to spending a lot of face time and one-to-one with athletes and being on deck, and not being able to do that also changes the dynamic because you’ve not been able to observe things the same way. You don’t have the same set of inputs you get from the casual conversations and informal meetings that you have when you’re in the same environment, so we had to create a bit of that. Not everyone wants to communicate in the same way.

Being a coach and follower of the sport of triathlon, what did you think about the Sub7 Sub8 Project?

As a spectacle and looking at the goal, I think it’s doable. I think there’s probably other athletes that could be even better. Anything that promotes the sport can be good. This was on the front sports page of the BBC Online the other day. It can get some mainstream interest.

I’m kind of a purist in the sense that even carbon plate shoes, I’m not a big fan of records falling everywhere due to this. We won’t be able to compare [the Sub7 Sub8] to records in Kona or other records. Triathlon already has a problem with course measurements.

In the same way as the sub-2 hour marathon I’m keenly awaiting a non-drafted, non-paced legit sub-2 marathon. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the other angle but I tend towards the purity of comparing history. Where are you in history? Who’s gone before you?

Probably those times are non-achievable in the traditional formats but it will be interesting to see the athletes go for something unusual and I’m sure people will be paying attention.

Getting proper coaching — whether it’s taking an off-the-shelf training plan or having one custom-built for you by a coach — shortens and flattens the learning curve in triathlon. You no longer need to resort to multiple cycles of trial and error to find what works for you to achieve your goals.

From just starting out with your first race to trying to qualify for a spot in a world championship, having a coach on your side will only benefit you. So how do you find the best coach for you?

Here are my top considerations for selecting a coach to work with.

The coach gets on well and communicates with you. You’ll want a coach whose personality will work well with yours. Sure you want a coach who can be assertive and can push you, but that should happen within a respectful, supportive environment that the coach creates when they interact with you. They also have to be able to make you understand how the sessions they assign for you will help you achieve your goals, and take on your feedback so that you can optimise and maximise your training.

The coach understands your goals and objectives, and your physical strengths as well as your psyche. Being on the same page about what you want to achieve is key. For some people, they may say they just want to finish a race, but their coach can suss out an underlying unsaid objective — for instance, the desire for a new PR or a podium position.

There are some coaches who are easily able to size up how well an athlete responds to training stimulus, simply based on visual examination. Other coaches go off data. Whichever kind of coach you encounter, they should know how to tailor-fit the program to your physical capabilities, and make adjustments along the way as you develop under their tutelage.

Finally, a coach who understands the way you think and what motivates you will be best suited to keeping you on track; they know what to say to get you going, and when to back off.

You, the athlete, should be part of the process with them and “be the CEO of your own company”. This doesn’t mean you should question what the coach has you doing. Good CEOs do not micromanage; they find a person who is qualified for the task, and then gives them the time and opportunity to do it. They may periodically check in on them to see how things are going, and offer feedback and support.

This requires a long-term relationship. Don’t be caught up in results. I see a lot of athletes jump between coaches because Coach X trained last year’s age group ironman world champion so he must know some secret answer, and that’s not the case.

When you see athletes jump from coach to coach, they’ve lost faith in themselves. A lot of times they’re looking for answers in other places; pros are renowned for that.

The most successful professionals have long-term coaches who because of this grow even better at understanding what their athlete needs. Find someone you want to work with for longer than the build-up to just one race. Great athlete-coach relationships are built over a long period of time.

Chris “Macca” McCormack is a four-time triathlon world champion with the biggest winning percentage in the history of the sport. He is a co-founder and partner in Super League Triathlon, CEO of the Bahrain Victorious 13 team, board member of the Pho3nix Foundation, and CEO of MANA Sports & Entertainment Group.

by Sam Hudson

Through decades of food advertising, the message has always been: to be strong, to be powerful you need to eat meat. To be a true man, you must eat meat. But more and more we are seeing that athletes at the top of their game (particularly in endurance sports) are reducing their meat intake and going vegan or vegetarian.

I have been vegetarian for just over two years and it has been an eye-opening experience in terms of the ethics of meat and the nutritional power of veggies. However, what I find most interesting is that in my personal journey since becoming vegetarian (I occasionally have dairy because who can resist chocolate), I have found myself performing better athletically and generally feeling healthier.

Now, I’m not saying that giving up meat products suddenly turned me into Jan Frodeno, Laura Philipp or Lionel Sanders, but these are just a few of the growing number of high-level athletes who have either cut out meat products entirely or significantly reduced them.

I can’t imagine anyone asking Jan if he thinks he could have gone faster at Kona if he had eaten steak in the week leading up to the race, but I have personally been asked many times about whether a meat-free diet is even healthy for someone who is so active.

Even though there are these world-renowned athletes who are capable of astonishing performances without meat in their diets, there is still this misconception that an omnivorous diet is the only way to be strong or powerful. The truth is that there is no clear winner when it comes to diet, and the most important thing is to eat with balance in mind.

I personally believe that the reason my health and athletic performances have improved significantly since changing my diet is because it forced me to take more account of what I eat to ensure I get enough protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. Previously, I would just eat whatever sounded good regardless of what was in it. Now I keep a keener eye on what I consume and feel better for it.

In summary, there is a fascinating counterculture of athletes breaking away from the ‘norms’ of eating meat and not suffering for it. So, don’t go underestimating the power of vegetables and legumes.

Today, Super League Triathlon announced that three-time Ironman World Championship runner-up Lucy Charles-Barclay is racing the SLT Arena Games series in London (March 23) and Rotterdam (April 18).

This is a pretty big deal, because conventional wisdom in triathlon holds that short-course stars smash the competition when they transition up to longer distances. The reverse is rarely the case, as seen when Cameron Wurf attempted to race in the ITU (and got lapped).

Lucy said in the press release:

“I have decided to race the SLT Arena Games mainly because I want to test myself in the shorter distance.

“I have always had that question mark there having gone straight into long course so it will be interesting to see how I fare against some of  the best girls on the ITU circuit.”

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A post shared by Lucy Charles-Barclay (@lucycharles93)

She came into triathlon straight out of Olympic marathon swimming, where she had attempted to qualify for London. Rather than start from short distances as most triathletes do, she dove straight into ironman racing at a relatively young age and found success in it both as an age grouper and then as a pro.

Ironman World Champion Anne Haug raced the previous SLT Arena Games in Rotterdam, but it took her a while to warm up. By the time she had her pistons firing (her runs got progressively faster), the race was over.

With SLT Arena Games, the technical element of swim drafting and bike handling is eliminated due to the solo lane pool swim and virtual cycling on Zwift. Lucy will need no help in the water and is extremely experienced in the dynamics of Zwifting (she is, after all, a Zwift ambassador). Last year, she raced in the Super League Triathlon eSports Cycling series and took the overall victory.

Lucy’s brute speed and power should keep her at the pointy end of things – as long as she starts hot off the blocks.

In recent memory, only one long-course athlete did try to qualify for his country’s Olympic triathlon team (and almost succeeded). That man is no other than Chris McCormack, who after making the Australian shadow squad for London took his newfound speed and won the ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championship.

With Lucy attempting to achieve a sub 8-hour iron distance for the Pho3nix SUB8, some short-course speed focus could be exactly what she needs. For her as an athlete there is no downside to her racing the SLT Arena Games. For me as a viewer and fan of triathlon, the spectacle is going to be awesome to watch.

by Dr. Nikita Fensham

While the pop culture discussion around collagen has mostly revolved around skin care and age-defying and cosmetic concerns, there has recently been a lot more interest in how adding collagen supplements and collagen-rich foods into the diet may help athletes prevent or treat musculoskeletal injury or improve pain. Although more research is required, there is some evidence to show that it is a worthwhile consideration, with currently no reported adverse effects!

So let’s take a deep dive into what collagen is and how it may benefit your athletic lifestyle.

Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body. You find it in bone and soft tissue such as tendons, ligaments, and skin. The collagen peptides you consume in supplements or food is formed from the hydrolysis or breakdown of gelatin, which is created by boiling the skin, bones, tendons and ligaments of cattle, pigs, and fish (1). Both of these forms are rich in amino acids glycine, proline, hydroxylysine, and hydroxyproline (2).

Consumption of gelatin or hydrolysed collagen increases the levels of these amino acids in the blood, and it is proposed that this leads to incorporation into musculoskeletal tissues, enhancing collagen synthesis (2, 3).

Studies, mostly in animals or on human ligaments in a lab, have shown increased levels of a specific blood marker that indicates collagen formation in the bone as well as improved mechanical function of ligaments (2, 3). Furthermore, clinical studies have shown increased cartilage thickness on MRI in patients with osteoarthritis taking collagen (4) as well as decreased knee pain in athletes (5).

(However, as a number of other amino acids are required to form a complete protein, there is no evidence to support the use of collagen in building muscle (6, 7) .)

Currently, it is suggested that collagen or gelatin should be consumed together with Vitamin C as this is required for it to be synthesized in the body. If consuming it fasted, Vitamin C should be taken at the same time; alternatively, if not fasted, just ensure the Vitamin C in your daily diet is adequate (3).

About 15g of collagen or gelatin around 1 hour prior to exercise are the current recommendations for optimal incorporation into the tissues where it is most needed (3), and a powder, confectionary, gummy, or capsule format is preferred over sources such as bone broth as that has been shown to have inconsistent amounts of the amino acids (8) .

Vegetarian and vegan individuals as well as those from religions requiring halal-certified products need to take into consideration that collagen is derived from animal sources. Athletes competing in drug-tested sports should also be cautious about using supplements that have been tested by reputable companies.

In summary, although more research is required, there seems to be little harm in supplementing with vitamin C-enriched collagen, and it may be beneficial in supporting athletes’ bone, tendon, and ligament health, potentially preventing injury or hastening recovery from injury!

Medical disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice and should not be relied on as health or personal advice. Always seek the guidance of your own doctor or other qualified health professional with any questions you may have regarding your health or a medical condition. Never disregard the advice of a medical professional, or delay in seeking it because of something you have read here.

References

1. Close GL, Sale C, Baar K, Bermon S. Nutrition for the Prevention and Treatment of Injuries in Track and Field Athletes. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. 2019;29(2):189-97.
2. Shaw G, Lee-Barthel A, Ross ML, Wang B, Baar K. Vitamin C–enriched gelatin supplementation before intermittent activity augments collagen synthesis. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2017;105(1):136-43.
3. Lis DM, Baar K. Effects of Different Vitamin C-Enriched Collagen Derivatives on Collagen Synthesis. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2019;29(5):526-31.
4. McAlindon TE, Nuite M, Krishnan N, Ruthazer R, Price LL, Burstein D, et al. Change in knee osteoarthritis cartilage detected by delayed gadolinium enhanced magnetic resonance imaging following treatment with collagen hydrolysate: a pilot randomized controlled trial. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage. 2011;19(4):399-405
5. Clark KL, Sebastianelli W, Flechsenhar KR, Aukermann DF, Meza F, Millard RL, et al. 24-Week study on the use of collagen hydrolysate as a dietary supplement in athletes with activity-related joint pain. Current Medical Research and Opinion. 2008;24(5):1485-96.
6. Oikawa SY, Kamal MJ, Webb EK, McGlory C, Baker SK, Phillips SM. Whey protein but not collagen peptides stimulate acute and longer-term muscle protein synthesis with and without resistance exercise in healthy older women: a randomized controlled trial. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2020;111(3):708-18.
7. Oikawa SY, Macinnis MJ, Tripp TR, McGlory C, Baker SK, Phillips SM. Lactalbumin, Not Collagen, Augments Muscle Protein Synthesis with Aerobic Exercise. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2020;52(6):1394-403.
8. Alcock RD, Shaw GC, Burke LM. Bone Broth Unlikely to Provide Reliable Concentrations of Collagen Precursors Compared With Supplemental Sources of Collagen Used in Collagen Research. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2019;29(3):265-72.

(Header photo by The-Lore.com on Unsplash)

by Noelle De Guzman

“What if we could push the envelope by bringing the best together and have them race freely? In other sports it is often outside of championship racing where we see the best competitions occur. It is when athletes take chances and go for it. What would happen then? What could happen when you get a mix of the best chasing a new impossible?”

When Macca wrote this about what would motivate triathletes to challenge the limits of human endurance (What Motivates Champions, part 2), it whet my appetite for something in triathlon that would attempt to achieve what Eliud Kipchoge’s sub-two hour marathon did for marathon running.

That was six months ago. Today, we get what should be huge news not just for our sport but for sport in general. Four of the most successful and decorated athletes in Olympic and triathlon history will attempt not only to break the current world records for the iron distance, but to set an entirely new benchmark: that’s to go under 7 hours for the men, and under 8 hours for the women.

From the press release:

Taking on the landmark sporting challenge in Spring 2022 will be reigning Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee (GB) and half-iron distance world record holder Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR), who will be looking to break the current men’s record of 7 hours, 35 minutes, and 39 seconds by going sub-seven hours. They will be joined by three-time Ironman World Championship runner-up Lucy Charles-Barclay (GB) and dual Olympic medalist Nicola Spirig (SUI), who will be attempting to complete the distance in under eight hours, beating the current women’s record by 18 minutes and 18 seconds.

The Pho3nix SUB7 and Pho3nix SUB8 are scheduled for Spring 2022. While the venue and logistics for this have yet to be revealed, what we do know of it has me abuzz because it’s not what one would have expected coming from a sport that despite its youth seems hellbent on doing things the way they have always been done and making athletes “pay their dues”.

So here are five things that surprised and excited me about the Pho3nix SUB7 and SUB8.

Jan Frodeno and Daniela Ryf aren’t part of it.

You’d think the man who owns the current record and the woman who has come the closest to breaking Chrissie Wellington’s record would be at the very forefront of any major attempt at a world record. But that’s just not the case here.

How many times have we seen these athletes show up on a start list and everybody says, “Well of course they’ll win”? While they may have their own reasons for not signing on, this means the very long shadow these two cast on any sporting event just isn’t present here. And that takes away the predictability that makes watching long distance events boring and a foregone conclusion.

Alistair Brownlee cooked up the idea to go Sub-7.

In the press release, Alistair is quoted as saying: “We sat around a table after an endurance race in Bahrain discussing the world record times and if they could be beaten. The women thought in the right conditions it was possible to go under 8 hours. I thought I could go sub seven hours.”

To shave off a minute or two is within the realm of possibility; athletes do it all the time with new personal bests. Jan bettered Andreas Raelert’s record by six minutes and that was already considered superhuman. But an entire half hour? For Alistair to believe it’s within his reach made my jaw drop.

But this is the athlete who heralded a new way of racing triathlon: aggressive off the front, achieving times competitive with single-sport professionals. He is also arguably the world’s best single-day racer who put himself in the best possible position to win an Olympic gold medal — twice. How can I not cheer him on for trying?

And going by how Kristian Blummenfelt races, he’s going to put his entire self into matching Alistair stroke for stroke and stride for stride.

Lucy Charles-Barclay and Nicola Spirig are tremendous athletes in their own right.

Speaking of how Daniela Ryf has overshadowed many other female athletes, Lucy is one of those athletes who but for Daniela might already have won a world championship or two. And she’s so young and STILL getting faster.

Nicola is a bit more unheralded when it comes to long distance. Although she’s done one iron distance and won it (as well as a host of half distances) as well as marathons, she hasn’t made a big deal about stepping up in distance and has concentrated on Olympic triathlon to great success with her Olympic gold and silver. But did you know Daniela was put on the Swiss Olympic team as a domestique for Nicola?

Technology will help immensely, but the attempt will still be brutal.

Alistair revealed bits of how they would get some assistance from technology: wetsuits that are more buoyant than allowed by regulations as well as drafting on the bike leg. I’m assuming each athlete’s shoe sponsor will also provide their fastest shoes.

Shoe technology has progressed by leaps and bounds in the last few years (practically and literally) – but that doesn’t mean anybody can lace up in Kipchoge’s shoes and run a marathon in 1:59.

For the SUB7 & SUB8 you’ve still got to push the pace, and after that punishing swim and bike you still have to run a marathon.

Talent, training, and drive will still have a lot to do with the times that can be achieved.

It would be an achievement even if they miss the mark.

I keep drawing on Kipchoge but this situation really does echo his sub-2 marathon attempts. I remember watching the first one in 2017 and him barely missing the target by 26 seconds. Despite the disappointment, I was still so inspired that they got that close. Kipchoge took the knowledge and training lessons from that attempt and turned it into confidence to win the Berlin Marathon the following year and break the actual world record.

And then he achieved a sub-2 hour marathon the year after that. Despite what the naysayers said about it not being a “real” marathon and not counting for a world record, in the end Kipchoge’s sub-2 hour marathon was hailed as a massive achievement.

These four athletes are going to do all that is humanly possible to get themselves into peak fitness. And then they’re going to race, let the chips fall where they may. It will be something to watch, whatever happens.

But I do hope they succeed in Defying The Impossible, because Impossible is only what we think it is.

For more information about the Pho3nix SUB7 & SUB8 challenges, visit sub7sub8.com

by Cat Hine

As we enter 2021, it seems easy to overlook the glimmer of hope that we often associate with the start of a new calendar year.  This is the time that we (particularly in the northern hemisphere) often sit down and plan-out the year ahead. We start thinking about booking hotel rooms, searching for local ‘B races’ to support our overall goals, and engineering our training plans so we ‘peak’ for the summer.

Throughout 2020 the world threw multiple obstacles at our ability to train and race.  Time and time again races were postponed and cancelled, sometimes at the last minute. However, it wasn’t just the availability of races (or lack thereof) which stopped many of us. Motivation fluctuated.  Lockdowns prohibited many of us from being able to get outside for longer than one hour at a time.  Swimming pools were closed. And perhaps more importantly, we have been looking after our immune systems and mental health.  Stressing the body unduly for a race that wasn’t likely to happen didn’t seem like the most sensible or responsible thing for us to be doing.

There was a brief period when racing resumed for some of us.  Event organisers put together socially-distant start lines.  Aid stations were unmanned, or not available.  Yet despite the availability of races, social media feeds seemed to be filled with statements about ‘not being fit enough to race’, or comments that reflected the number of times that an individual had made it into a swimming pool that season.

But do we have to be at peak fitness to race?

As triathletes there is something quite ritualistic about race day.  Packing transition bags, making sure we have elastic laces on our running shoes, dragging out our favourite aero helmet preserved for race day… There is also something quite exciting – and stomach churning – about setting an alarm for 4AM and forcing down a bowl of oats in preparation for the day’s efforts.  It’s different from training. Regardless of the weather, aches, pains or an unexpected visit from the in-laws, we’re going to go and do ‘our thing’, and nothing will stop us.

We don’t have to be at peak fitness or fighting for a podium to enjoy this aspect of being a triathlete.  The ability to race, challenge ourselves, and push the limits is something that we should savour.  A local standard distance race will not offer the same spectacle or competition as an Ironman, yet the immediate preparation and race day excitement will be the same.  You may also be surprised who turns up.  I have seen age group Kona athletes rock up to local sprint derbies just because they want to race.

Our 2021 goals may not be as race- or even triathlon-focused as in ‘normal years’, but just because we may not be able to enter or complete the ‘dream race’ that we signed up for (or have a deferred place for) doesn’t mean we have to stop.

So for 2021, let’s race.  Training for such events doesn’t have to compromise immune systems. Perhaps thousands of swim strokes with resistance bands indoors to ‘replicate’ the swim portion of an Ironman is a step too far, but we can still complete the bike and run, right?

This kind of “racing” may not include international travel or Ironman, but we can still set some goals and get competitive on a slightly smaller stage. Off-road or trail routes, 10k targets and virtual races are all possible alternatives. Supporting grassroots events can never be a bad thing!

If organised events are cancelled, then let’s do our own.  Set a date and a time, get up early and smash those goals, whatever they are.

Have you heard of the PTO?

Chances are if you are a fan of triathlon you will have heard those three letters thrown around at one point or another during 2020.

The PTO (or Professional Triathletes Organisation) wants to make the sport of triathlon better. They are looking to follow the success of tennis and golf with their ATP and PGA Tours. I could do a deep dive into how they plan on doing this or the complexities of their business model and could probably write a PhD on the theoretical benefits of an organisation like that for the sport that I love.

Until last weekend, that was about all I could do. It was all hypothetical. We heard what they wanted to do, were promised the biggest race of the year and I was even told people won’t be talking about Kona for much longer.

This weekend saw the inaugural PTO Championship race held as part of the Challenge Daytona triathlon weekend at the Daytona Speedway in the US of A.

What was hypothetical became very, very real.

How did the races go? Paula Findlay won the women’s race and Gustav Iden won the men’s race. There will be an abundance of race recaps, discussions and replays available for you to read and watch, but I want to have a look at the event itself. The things I liked, what I think could be improved and where I see this whole thing going.

What Did I Like?

The Venue

When I heard this race was going to be on a speedway in Daytona, it didn’t inspire confidence in me. Having raced Bahrain 70.3 last year where part of the bike course was on the F1 track, the experience was cool but the venue was a bit… depressing? Lacklustre? What is it about being in a venue built for something as high-octane as a car race full of people being empty? I guess I sort of expected that for this.

Now while I watched this event from the comfort of my living room in Australia (so cannot comment on what it might have been like there), I thought the venue was fantastic.

I see a real future for this style of racing. Was it picturesque? No. But did it provide the platform for an exciting spectator friendly race? Hell yes! Having witches’ hats marking the 20m draft zone made that easy to follow, and the laps made perceiving the distances easy to understand. Being an eternally optimistic person I also couldn’t help myself but imagine the race happening under lights in front of a quarter of a million people. No doubt this would require the entire fan base of triathlon flying to Daytona to watch it but don’t tell me I can’t dream!

The Leaderboard

It seems so simple but is something we very rarely see. Having a leaderboard that was updating regularly made the race much easier to follow. It meant that while the camera was on the leaders you could still understand what was happening further back in the race.

Was it perfect? Probably not. There were times where athletes who were lapped were in amongst the leaders and would therefore not appear on the leaderboard which made it confusing for the half a second it took me to realise this. But in general, it made a significant impact on the viewing experience.

Expert Opinions

Now I swear Macca isn’t forcing me to say this, but having someone who knows as much as he does about triathlon commentating Super League Triathlon is one of the best things about Super League.

If you asked me to pick another triathlon expert who can talk as much as Macca, well I would 100% say Belinda Granger. Belinda was far and away the best thing about the commentary team. I think the whole crew did an amazing job and having a mix of experts and newcomers is actually really important.

As a triathlon fan, I know who is who. I understand drafting rules and the way camera angles make athletes look closer or even things as ridiculous as clipping up your helmet before taking your bike off the rack. The thing is, for this sport to grow we need to appeal to non-triathletes, and therefore having a mix in the box meant that Belinda was able to explain (exceptionally well) to not only her fellow commentators but to all of the people watching a triathlon for the first time.

The great comic book writer Stan Lee always said that every comic is someone’s first ,and we need to take this approach to commentary as well.

I also need to give lots of praise to Kevin Mackinnon who was out on course amongst the action. That was a great level of insight that we haven’t seen at long course racing before.

The Racing

How couldn’t you like the racing? Both the men’s and women’s racing had everything you could want. Big moves, blow ups, injuries (not that you want to see athletes get hurt) and the people who apparently didn’t read the script.

The idea that having the biggest names in the sport racing each other will help grow the sport is in my opinion pretty obvious. If there is a way to have more finishes like the 2018 70.3 Worlds Race (still the best triathlon I have ever watched) or the 2012 women’s Olympics finish (the second best) this is surely it. Big prize purse at an event the athletes have a vested interest in.

Do not forget the subtle change to the distances either. The longer swim combined with the shorter bike and run completely changes the dynamic of the race as well as making it much closer to a three-hour event. Not as big a factor in the women’s race but really think about how significant that swim was. Decreasing the swim to say 1.4km would have completely changed the time gaps for people like Sam Long or Lionel Sanders.

What Could Be Improved?

While I definitely think this event was a huge success, I think there are some obvious areas for improvement.

This is just intended to be feedback not criticism. Some of the comments I have seen online because some people lost their feed demonstrates everything wrong with the internet. They had a technical problem the first time they ever broadcast an event. Get over it!

The Laps

I have already said how surprised I was by the venue. One aspect that I think needs work is the fact that athletes can be lapped. Now I might be saying something controversial here but I think one of the challenges the PTO will be facing is both trying to support the professional athletes (they paid $2500USD to the athlete who came last) and creating an exciting broadcast product.

Simply put, having athletes lapped or impacting the front of the race while they were a lap behind is a bad look. There were multiple times a rider would make a move to the front but not be on the leaderboard because they were actually a lap behind.

To me the easy solution is to add in an elimination rule like they have in Super League. You get lapped, you’re out. I know that this would have serious ramifications for some of the weaker swimmers at the start, but hey, that’s sport right?

We interviewed Holly Lawrence last year and when we asked her how to make the sport look better she said clean up the course for the professionals. In this situation it means removing the slower professional athletes from the course. It makes the race easier to follow and less confusing.

The Racing

See what I am doing here? I put racing under what I liked and now it is back again! One of the biggest issues anyone trying to make endurance sports exciting is the fact that the distances are as long as they are. What this means is athletes can generate huge leads – good for the athlete, but not so good for the viewer. It was so exciting seeing Gustav run through the field and then… He could have been out for a Sunday jog. The focus shifted to what was happening behind him.

On the bike, I think the most exciting element was whether Lionel would make the front of the race. If you watched the final time trial stage of the TdF this year you would have seen the way they displayed the gap, the speed and what needed to be done for the win. I think there could have been a story about Lionel riding through the field, something to capitalise on this mini-battle in the overarching scheme of the race.

We know the PTO intends to demonstrate more live data at their events such as HR, watts and speed so I am expecting to see this rolled out at the Collins Cup next year.

Again, this is not a PTO issue, it is an endurance sports issue. Could the laps in the water be shorter so they run in and out more? Could the run have been made more of an out and back and less of a lap so we see the athletes together more? Do we need handicaps? I wish I had the answers but the best thing is that none of these areas for improvement had a significant impact on the race.

Uniforms

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that I still think Super League is the gold standard when it comes to triathlon broadcast.

Something that I had taken for granted until the Arena Games this year was the uniforms. It was very difficult to tell who was who on the course especially when using the leaderboard as your reference because of the lap thing I previously spoke about. As someone who likes to use my own tri suit as an opportunity to peacock, I understand that many pros might not want to lose that identity or kit sponsorship they rely on.

Maybe set athletes colours or patterns, give them numbers or something like their ITU colours to help them become more identifiable. I wish I had the answer and it is definitely not critical but this is something that again, I think would help the viewing experience improve.

My hype levels going into this race were pretty high. I am a triathlon tragic and how could you not be excited about the promise of this event? I read during the week that the PTO plan to roll out a series of races following this format and I am here for it!

Was this the best race I ever watched? No, that is still the 2018 70.3 World Championship. Was this the greatest triathlon broadcast I ever saw? No, that is still Super League Triathlon. But, this is an incredible starting point.

When you look at this event in the context of 2020 it becomes even more impressive. I will admit that there were times I didn’t think the race would even happen and to see it happen in this way is a remarkable achievement in itself.

The fact of the matter is that this event was not a let down or anything other than a huge success. They got the best possible field together to race an exciting new distance in a venue that has the potential to turn triathlon into not only a great broadcast event but also a great live event. The only reason I am left anything other than over the moon is due to my own unrealistic expectations not being met.

Sam, Charles, Jane and the entire team at the PTO should be extremely proud of what I hope is the first of many events hosted by the PTO. As a fan of triathlon I am genuinely excited to see what comes next!

Tim Ford is a member of our team of coaches. He has gone from being a complete novice weighing well over 120kg to a top athlete with a 4:06 PB for a 70.3. Through his time in the sport he has learned skills which help him to assist athletes of all levels and abilities.

It’s a slow news week in triathlon leading up to the final event of the year at Challenge Daytona, but there’s one athlete on that starting list who definitely won’t be competing – because he can’t.

Andrew Starykowicz (most famously known for setting the fastest bike split in an IRONMAN event) has been slapped with a two-year suspension from competition after testing positive for vilanterol, a steroid used for treatment of various lung ailments but which is banned in professional sport without the appropriate therapeutic use exemption (TUE).

According to IRONMAN’s press release, Starykowicz received the ban for competing without a TUE despite having been warned he would be in violation of anti-doping regulations.

Starykowicz pulled out of competing in the Ironman World Championship last year due to illness, later diagnosed as viral pneumonitis and mucopurulent bronchitis. His doctor prescribed a course of treatment: methylprednisolone (Medrol) orally for five days, and vilanterol through a Breo inhaler for 28 days.

While he completed his course of treatment, he applied with the US Anti-Doping Agency for TUE’s for both. However, only one was granted for Medrol, and retroactively at that; he had already competed at Ironman 70.3 Waco and Ironman Florida when the Medrol TUE was approved, while his TUE for vilanterol was denied.

Due to his post-race test coming back positive for vilanterol, IRONMAN provisionally suspended Starykowicz from competition beginning December 5, 2019 and ordered vacating his wins and repayment of prize money won. (The ban would have extended until December 2022, but since the World Anti Doping Agency have allowed medicinal use of vilanterol from 2021, IRONMAN has shortened the ban to end on January 1, 2021.)

Starykowicz appealed to USADA and WADA to reconsider granting the vilanterol TUE and also elevated the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Unfortunately, CAS in August supported USADA’s denial of the TUE. As a final effort, he requested third-party arbitration — which ultimately upheld IRONMAN’s decision and sanctions.

“The Athlete’s false sense of confidence was based on a negligent misreading of one sentence in a WADA document and his failure to read the second sentence and turn the page to see a full description of permitted therapeutic alternatives. His wife reached the same erroneous conclusion with respect to a permitted alternative, Advair, when she failed to scroll down two more lines on her phone to see that Advair was permitted in a therapeutic dose. The failure of this professional athlete to read the relevant materials cannot be excused as insignificant.”

Interestingly enough, as noted by Triathlon Magazine Canada, Starykowicz had been on record at Breakfast with Bob in Kona 2019 saying he considered TUE’s “doping.” He also proposed lifetime bans for doping.

“If you have anemia and you’re training so hard and you’re so overtrained that you need a red blood cell booster to keep training hard, that’s a problem. If you have asthma that is so bad that you have to use a steroid inhaler just to breathe, you shouldn’t be racing. We need to do away with the therapeutic use exemption…”

Starykowicz has 21 days to appeal to CAS for a second time.

Reactions to this news have been mixed, as he argues the TUE system is flawed and had USADA gotten back to him before he competed, he could have swapped medication out.

Beth McKenzie tweeted her sympathy. “The process is incredibly broken and I’m so sorry you had to find it out this way. Ironman wants to show their anti-doping program is ‘working’ by ‘catching’ people who never intended to cheat. It’s so sad for the sport for so many reasons.”

You might recall McKenzie also received a two-year suspension for having banned substance Ostarine in her urine test, which she claimed — but could not prove — was caused by contaminated salt tablets. She retired while serving the ban, but has since un-retired and is back competing.

However, much of the sentiment and argument are weighted against Starykowicz. As TJ Tollakson pointed out, “He should not have taken the medication. He definitely should not have raced on the medication. He is very intelligent. This was poor judgment.”

Jan van Berkel offered a legal and ethical perspective, saying, “As a seasoned and, when it comes to fairness in competition, very vocal athlete [Starykowicz] should act with even more sensibility when taking medication. In any case of uncertainty, he should not be racing. Intent doesn’t matter in anti-doping. Is he actively trying to dope? Most probably not, but the violation stands as such. Intent only matters when it comes to the penalty. This has been applied correctly by the arbitrator… The substance being taken off the banned list a year after the violation doesn’t matter. In the moment of medication consumption, it was banned.”

In professional sport, as in other jobs, one needs to CYA: Cover Your Ass.

by Noelle De Guzman

Virtual races have existed for some time now in the endurance space, but really hit mainstream awareness in 2020. (Gee, I wonder why?)

The COVID-19 pandemic kept people away from mass participation events around the world, but fueled the boom in sign-ups to virtual races whether single-sport or multisport. Services like Zwift were already well-used to hosting races where anyone anywhere in the world with a subscription could compete. IRONMAN, a juggernaut in the mass participation space, fast-tracked its launch of the IRONMAN VR platform where athletes could upload completed runs, bike rides, and recently swims (recorded on tracking devices or on Zwift or Rouvy) to satisfy the distances required for that weekend’s virtual race. And many marathons and triathlons converted themselves into virtual races so there were some unique occurrences like, say, someone in South Australia completing the Malibu Triathlon.

A virtual race, simply put, is one where a participant wherever their location can complete the required distance whether in a single session or cumulatively during a certain time frame. They then upload this data for verification to qualify as a finisher. Registration can be for free, or there may be fees involved (which usually go towards sending finishers some race swag).

We asked our members about their experience doing virtual racing for the past few months.

For many of them, the virtual races provided much-needed motivation and competition done at their convenience, especially with movement restrictions in place.

“I did a lot of the IMVR races in April/May when the UK was in first lockdown. It gave me some focus and purpose as was really struggling with not working or being allowed out much.” — L. Richardson

“I think Virtual Racing has been a great filler due to the lack of races. I have done 19 out of the 32 IMVR and enjoyed them all. Don’t really race them, just use them for motivation to get out and train on the weekends. Have also done a couple of virtual running races for the exact same reason. Will keep doing them until things get back to normal again. Whenever that will be.” — K. Miers

“Did the Gold Coast Marathon 10k & 21.1 event and have the GC50 15k on 5/12. Considering the current circumstances here in Adelaide there may be a few more.” — S. Smith

“79 zwift races in 2020 so far, Going for 100 by NYE! I love the different grades and different courses. I really love that I can jump online pretty much anytime and there’s a race starting, so it’s really flexible around my schedule, i.e. no real set time I have to do it.” — T. Morwood

“A few Zwift events in the first lockdown – different kind of intensity! Enjoyed the Red Bull event [Timelaps 2020] as that was part of a team. I do want to do a couple of virtual runs but don’t want the flat underneath to complain about the treadmill!” — J. Tugwell

“Raced a virtual 70.3 as the real event was obviously cancelled. All set over one weekend. Really enjoyed it. The social media ‘camaraderie’ or piss taking over the race weekend was fantastic. The organisation team even sent out finishers t-shirts. They even ran age group prizes with very strict rules for fairness. I enjoyed the race. Something to enjoy during Covid.” — A. O’Brien

“I think Ironman got the City to Surf right this year. You could run anytime within a 48-hour period, you had an app to start you and track you on the real course and got the usual updates at the key locations i.e. heartbreak hill. You could print your own virtual bib and you got a medal posted out after finishing (not before).” — R. Warry

While the benefits and enjoyment from doing virtual races can’t be denied, it’s still not the same as the in-person race experience: queueing up at the starting line with hundreds or thousands of like-minded competitors waiting for the gun to go off so they can individually propel themselves forward towards the finish line.

For others, finish rankings felt hollow, as participants don’t share the same course and conditions and virtual platforms can be hacked or gamed.

“If I’m gonna race I wanna race people otherwise it’s just training.” — L. Pritchard

“The virtual events are okay… but I have a tough time getting fired up for them and definitely don’t go all out.” — J. Chapman

“I’ve done a couple VR races this year. They got me moving with a goal. On the other hand they mean nothing. I just missed a half marathon race this weekend because the weather sucked. If it had been real I would have killed it. Mind games.” — M. Mabry

“Did a virtual 10k in the middle of summer. Personally I didn’t love it as I tend to feed off of others’ energy and being by myself made it harder to push through.” — C. Davis

“I have done one of the IronMan VR ‘races’ when they first came out and 2 zwift bike races. The Zwift ones (even thought I joined the right category) wasn’t really a race – top 10 just disappeared like they were on steroids, which wasn’t very good for the morale to keep going.” — H. Cools

“I do plenty of Zwift racing. I find that my bike power has improved since racing. Don’t take it too seriously, set your own goals (eg: stay with front pack for as long as possible) and realise people cheat on Zwift.” — P. MacFarlane

On the one hand, if you feed off chasing competitors down and moving up the field to cross an official finish line to a crowd’s cheers, some races next year have already opened registration in response to the news about successful vaccine trials. On the other hand, virtual races are here to stay whether you’re trying to avoid mass participation events, or just can’t get yourself out to race due to life circumstances (virus or no virus).

Virtual races have resonated and will continue to resonate with many endurance athletes looking to scratch an itch, and will be around for the foreseeable future.

Reigning Ironman 70.3 world champion Gustav Iden and Ironman 70.3 world record holder Kristian Blummenfelt have announced their plan to race the Ironman World Championship in 2021 after the Tokyo Olympics.

The Norwegian duo revealed their intentions during their guest interview on a podcast this week. As training partners and part of Norway’s first national triathlon squad, the two athletes have not only brought their nation into the limelight on the World Triathlon circuit, but have also shaken up triathlon’s half-ironman scene.

As the 2019 Ironman 70.3 world champion, Iden would have had a spot on the Kona pier this year before the race was postponed, and he would have had a shot at becoming both Olympic champion and Ironman world champion in the same year.

He said, “I had a real plan [for Kona] this year after Tokyo. Training plans plotted out, where we’re going to stay, how we’d get Kristian to qualify. And I also had to do a validation race… So we had a plan for getting Kristian to win in [Ironman] Copenhagen and I was just going to finish to validate my race. And then we’d go to Texas and Flagstaff to prepare for Kona and do well there.”

View this post on Instagram

Road to #Tokyo202ONE gives us another year with testing and improvements. What’s your thoughts about the Olympic design that we never got to use this year? #TrueGrit @trimtex @olavaleksander

A post shared by Kristian Blummenfelt (@kristianblu) on Aug 26, 2020 at 12:43pm PDT

With the 2020 race postponed to 2021, Iden now has a guaranteed spot even without doing a validation race.

Blummenfelt — who set a new world record for fastest finish in an Ironman 70.3 in 2018 and then bettered that record the following year — aims to join him on the starting line, and rates their chances of doing well on their maiden try quite highly.

“I think they [the long-course athletes] are kind of thinking the Big Island will be tough — it’s going to be warm, it’s going to be humid, it’s going to be all that and everyone is failing on their first try in Kona but I can promise you we can do the preparation that it will just be an advantage for us,” he said.

Iden added, “First off we have a lot of knowledge now for heat preparation because obviously Tokyo will be really warm and humid. We have done a lot of research and training and protocols, everything we can do to perform in the heat. From our test data and scientists and coaches, we have general knowledge that we can perform on the Big Island.”

The two are aware of the scepticism they are met with, especially as upstart Norwegians coming up against triathlon juggernaut nations like Germany and Great Britain.

Iden said, “I actually thought the long-distance guys would take more notice of us after Bahrain in 2018 [he finished second to Blummenfelt]. I was really surprised that more people didn’t notice. I ran a 1:07 and we rode really fast, but people brushed it off as a stupid fast short course and the times were unrealistic. So when I got to Nice [for the Ironman 70.3 world championship], I was under the radar and the betting sites had me on really low odds. Winning Nice definitely made them realise it wasn’t for show, that it was actually real.”

Kristian noted, “When it comes to long course, it’s more because we haven’t raced Ironman. As we have done with 70.3, we will take it from Day 1… But at the moment our dream is winning the Olympics. The longer stuff can come later.”

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Tag your training partner that you always beat in the village sign sprint 😉 photo: @marcelhilger for @incylence

A post shared by Gustav Iden (@gustav_iden) on Oct 23, 2020 at 6:51am PDT

The two credit their success to the close-knit nature of the Norwegian squad. Iden said, “Since we all have the same training program and the same philosophy, if one guy is performing, it’s a testament to our training. It’s not only a personal win, it’s a team win. If the training is working for him, then later it’s more likely it will also work for me.”

Blummenfelt added, “Since we started training together 10 years ago we always had that big dream about becoming the very best in the world together. It’s a unique training atmosphere we have the group helping each other take the next step.

“In many other groups, the attitude is it’s better to be the best athlete from that country. So you see in the World Series you have a guy finishing 12th place, but he’s Best American or Best British. We have a different approach. It’s way better to get third place and be Second Best Norwegian, or third place and Third Best. If that’s possible, to sweep a podium. It’s better the other guys in your training group have success because it makes it more likely that they will keep doing triathlon, and I will have a training group around me for a longer time. It’s more fun to do it together.”

The Kona goal won’t distract them from their Olympic dreams, however; they will be 100% focused on getting fit to win Tokyo.

Iden said, “I think if you want to win the Olympics you have to go all in for it. You can’t do it halfway. You need to be in your best possible shape for Olympic distance and for the conditions we’ll face. But also in general we are used to doing a lot of volume with our training group. I think that will help us a lot when we’re trying to adapt for the longer stuff afterwards.”

Blummenfelt quipped, with wry self-awareness, “I’ve not won any of the biggest events in triathlon so it would be really stupid of me to try to play both without being one of the favorites going into Tokyo. So I will do everything going into Tokyo and then prepare for Kona after that.”

by Dr. Nikita Fensham

When you think of swim, bike, run, you don’t typically associate it with being a dangerous sport; that’s reserved for contact sports like rugby or boxing, or extreme sports like ski jumping or gymnastics. But, as we emerge, albeit slowly, from lockdowns and the safety of Zwift in our pain/gain caves, readjusting to real environments — with precarious terrain, surrounding road users, and vicious magpies — brings with it an increased risk of getting a bit more acquainted with the ground than you may have wished.

With that in mind, it’s time for a short discussion about concussion: what it is, the symptoms to watch out for, and how to return to work and sport safely after it.

What is a concussion?

Concussion is a traumatic brain injury resulting from any direct blow to the head, face, neck, or body that results in a transmitted force to the head; so, just because your head was not directly involved does not necessarily mean that you could not have sustained a concussion. In addition, contrary to popular belief, loss of consciousness is not a requirement for diagnosis and may or may not occur, and the related symptoms may not be immediately apparent.

In effect during a head trauma, your brain moves within your skull cavity. While it is somewhat cushioned by the cerebrospinal fluid surrounding it so the movement is like slow motion, this movement still causes injury. The immune system responds by causing inflammation near the site of injury to promote healing. However, during the time those parts of your brain are swelling, they are unable to carry out efficiently the functions they’re in charge of. Other neural pathways take on the work until you’ve fully recovered.

The resulting impairment is functional rather than structural and so typical imaging techniques are not usually helpful, unless to rule out something more sinister; there is currently no objective diagnostic test specific for concussion.

How to recover from a concussion

In most cases, the pathology resolves if interruptions in recovery are avoided. So, following the steps to recovery are very important, because one typically feels well before everything has returned completely to baseline from a physiological point of view.

The first step is RECOGNITION OF SYMPTOMS. Following an injury, if any of the following “red flags” are experienced, it is important to seek immediate medical attention at an emergency centre: neck pain/tenderness, double vision, weakness or tingling in the legs, headaches increasing in severity, seizure, loss of or reduced consciousness, vomiting, or increased restlessness or agitation.

Furthermore, if you or someone else witnesses you lying motionless on the ground, struggling to get up or maintain balance, being disorientated or having a blank/vacant stare, these are signs that increase the likelihood that you have sustained a concussion.

Finally, symptoms that you may notice following a concussion are: headache, dizziness, nausea, light or noise sensitivity, difficulty concentrating or with memory, fatigue, and fluctuations in mood.

Therefore, after an injury where you potentially sustained a concussion, you should not be left alone for two hours afterwards, you should not drive, you should not consume any alcohol or drugs, and you need to seek medical attention even if your symptoms resolve.

The next step is to REST. Complete physical and cognitive rest is advised for 24-48 hours after injury, after which you can gradually increase activity. This involves resting at home in a quiet environment, limiting screen time and social events, and sleeping as needed. Evidence now suggests that complete rest beyond 48 hours is not recommended.

The next stage is to RETURN TO ACTIVITY, including both physical and cognitive. Progressing to the next step is based on 24 hours between with no further worsening of activity; if symptoms persist, it is suggested that you go back to the previous step.

Step 1: Light physical activity keeping heart rate less than 50% of max, including walking or stationary cycling. Daily activities such as shopping, using a computer, and reading.

Step 2: Increase activity levels with things like jogging. Return to working part-time, taking regular breaks every 20-30min.

Step 3: Activities involving resistance or co-ordination can now be introduced. Less frequent breaks may now be tolerated, although you may need to make some modifications at work, such as a quieter room.

Step 4: Now it’s time to chat to your doc again and get full clearance to go back to training. Full-time work should now be tolerable, although it is advised that those operating heavy machinery or working from height get cleared by a medical doctor first.

If at any time your symptoms get worse, you experience any of the red flags, your symptoms last longer than 10-14 days (4 week in children), or you are just concerned at any time, please consult a doctor. They will be able to conduct a full assessment as well as refer you to other professionals, such as physios or neuro-psychologists, who can facilitate your recovery.

Don’t rush the recovery!

If you’ve previously suffered from concussion, you become more susceptible to concussions especially during the first year after head injury. Repeated brain trauma can result in the brain failing to heal completely, resulting in post-concussion syndrome: headaches, forgetfulness, personality changes, or worse.

Remember, the long-term consequences of returning to activity too soon or risking a second blow are not worth that sneaky session you decide to do to satisfy the obsessive persona of a triathlete! If this year has taught us anything, it’s to be patient.

P.S. It goes without saying, I hope, but remember to always wear a helmet while riding – they do not prevent concussions, but they do reduce the risk of something even worse happening to your head!

P.P.S. If you want to learn more and download some resources, check out www.cattonline.com

DISCLAIMER

This article should not be considered medical advice and is instead intended to be the opinions of the author. Always seek independent medical advice before making any decisions based on your health.

(Photo by Sayan Ghosh on Unsplash)

by Tim Ford

We all know that triathlon for the most part is an individual sport. You swim, you ride then you run. You can draft in the swim (but no one is going to talk in the water), you can’t draft on the bike (although… some do) and on the run you can run alongside whoever you want but if you are able to talk by that part of the race chances are you should be pushing harder!

It’s one person completing all 3 disciplines. It isn’t the same as football or synchronised swimming where you need to work together for a mutual goal.

Or is it?

One of the biggest lessons about triathlon I have learned from Chris McCormack was that he didn’t do it alone. On race day he may have been the one who put together the final performance, but he got the help he needed to put himself into a situation where he could deliver that performance.

It changed the way I approached the sport. No longer did I just swim, bike and run a bit. I started following a plan and eventually I got a coach. I found an amazing dietitian to help with my fuelling and diet. I started suffering through regular massages to help keep my body in tiptop shape. I started working with a physio (admittedly too late) to overcome injuries and then prevent them from happening. I even found someone who could help with my mind.

Guess what happened? I improved! I improved A LOT.

I have a lot of people ask me, how did you do it and I often feel that my answer “I had a lot of help” isn’t exactly what people want to hear. There is this strange romantic view of triathlon that ‘real’ athletes do it themselves. I mean, some of the biggest names in our sport love to profess how they don’t have a coach, or they just worked it out themselves.

Now as easy as it is for me to say, “yeah, I had help and I got better,” the reality is that this hasn’t been a cheap endeavour for me. I hate to think how much I have spent on triathlon. I can’t even comprehend what it must be like for professionals with actual dedicated teams around them.

Then I started to work with Chris, and this was something we discussed. He was adamant that everyone can benefit from working with others and why should a sport that is famous for being so expensive need to be so expensive?

Since then, that has become the core of what we are trying to do. Create an environment where people work together to improve. The old saying ‘the rising tide lifts all ships’ demonstrates what we are trying to achieve: a collaborative space where athletes learn from each other as well as from the people who know best.

Having issues with your gut when you race? Someone else has probably experienced the same issue and can tell you what they did to fix it. If they aren’t sure, a team dietitian can help.

Not sure how to increase your FTP by a few watts? Someone has probably ‘hacked’ the system and can tell you what they did to do it.

Not sure about which sort of shoe is best for your next race? You’ve guessed it! An MX member can probably help you out.

Lacking motivation? Our members will hold you accountable.

The point is that through being part of what we call a network, you can get answers to any of the questions or issues you come up against. On top of that, we leverage our numbers to access discounted prices and the more of us there are, the more discounts we get. We also work hard to provide our members with extensive training resources to help them improve or educate themselves to be better athletes.

I genuinely struggle to explain to people what we are all about. We aren’t here to replace your local tri club. We aren’t trying to tell you to leave your coach or that you don’t need one. I think the best way for me to try and explain it is that we are here to support all triathletes to be the best triathlete they can be. We want to work with anyone and everyone who wants to help make this incredible sport even better.

So if you are sick of feeling alone or just want someone to bounce ideas off or hey, even help out some other people come and get involved because by working together, we all win!

Tim Ford is a member of our team of coaches. He has gone from being a complete novice weighing well over 120kg to a top athlete with a 4:06 PB for a 70.3. Through his time in the sport he has learned skills which help him to assist athletes of all levels and abilities.

by Jenna-Caer Seefried

Have you ever gained weight during a triathlon or marathon build? It has to be one of the most frustrating situations: you’re training down the house, putting in endless miles, dealing with sore muscles — and still the scale goes up.

There are a few reasons why this happens and, spoiler alert: you probably haven’t gained 20lbs of muscle.  (I’m guilty of telling myself it must be muscle gain.)

I’m sure a few of these points will be no-brainers and you’ve heard them a few times before.

Muscle and Fluid

First of all, the body’s own responses to training can cause weight gain through:

DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) – After particularity hard workouts in the short term your weight will go up as your muscles become swollen with fluid and stiff as they try to repair. This can also be true the first two weeks of a new workout program. If this is the case it won’t stick around and as your body recovers weight will go back to normal.

Legitimate muscle gain – OK, a lot of us will believe this is the reason we are gaining weight or justify it. Yes there is some muscle gain with endurance training but if your scale has gone up 20lbs while doing endurance training, it’s unlikely it’s all muscle mass.

Stress and Cortisol

However, a pretty major cause of weight gain during training is one that is often overlooked: the hormone cortisol.

Cortisol, also called the stress hormone, is a steroid hormone that helps the body metabolize glucose, control blood pressure, suppress immunity, and control inflammatory response. Involved in our “fight-or-flight” response, cortisol stimulates fat and carbohydrate metabolism as well as insulin release to maintain blood sugar levels, triggering a burst of energy and awareness that helps us respond to stressful situations.

Cortisol stimulates fat and carbohydrate metabolism for fast energy, and stimulates insulin release and maintenance of blood sugar levels. The end result of these actions can be an increase in appetite and can cause cravings for sweet, high-fat, and salty foods. With elevated cortisol levels, the body also produces less testosterone, leading to a decrease in muscle mass. With less testosterone to build muscle mass, your body starts to burn fewer calories.

Now, a small increase in cortisol is a good thing because it helps you crush workouts and stay focused. However if you continue to push your body with a tough training schedule and without proper recovery or fuelling, cortisol levels increase and start to work against you.

Yes, not eating enough or under-fuelling can be a cause of weight gain! If your energy needs are much higher than the calories you are eating, it puts your body into starvation mode and increases stress. It takes time and experimenting to find the balance between fuelling your body and over eating. However the easiest way is to eat whole foods to the point you are satisfied. I’m all about the 80/20 rule – 80% of the time real healthy foods, 20% time chocolate and whatever I’m craving.

Cortisol has an intricate relationship with the hormone insulin, which controls our blood sugar. Cortisol prevents insulin from converting blood sugar into fat (because it wants to keep the sugar in the bloodstream for ready use — fight-or-flight, right?). When this happens, the cells of our body can become resistant to insulin, causing the body to secrete more insulin. (High insulin levels are a precursor for diabetes.) This triggers cravings for sweet, high-fat, and salty foods.

High levels of cortisol are also associated with chronic insomnia and sleep disturbances. Poor sleep means poor recovery, which again triggers a stress response. It’s a disastrous feedback loop.

There are a few signs your cortisol levels are too high:

• Disrupted sleep – are you waking up multiple times during the night? Or waking up early still tired and not able to get back to sleep?
• Weight gain – Often around your face or abdomen while the rest of your body remains lean
• Increased thirst and urination
• Mood swings – well, this one may be hard to see the difference if you are in an Ironman training block (being hangry is no joke)

Bottom line: if your cortisol is too high from lack of recovery you are sleeping less, eating/craving more junk food and likely gaining weight as your body is under stress.

Bad Eating Habits

Know that it’s very common and easy to fall into some bad habits that cause weight gain even with hours of endurance training. Even for myself I’m usually the leanest I am in early season and then as I get closer to race day even I add on a few extra pounds with some bad habits.

These bad habits are:

Rewarding hard/long workouts with treats or huge meals – the ‘I earned this’ mentality. Treating yourself when you are active and working hard is not a bad thing, I’m all about balance (and chocolate intake) just don’t make it after EVERY workout – a 5km recovery run doesn’t mean you can eat all the cookies.

Using calories to try to overcome fatigue – I’m so guilty of this one. I’m tired I must need more carbs for this workout when in reality I’m just tired and all the carbs in the world won’t change that.

The best way to avoid weight gain during a big training block is to make sure you balance out the training with recovery, fuel well, and listen to your body when it needs rest.

Need help managing your weight? Get in touch with Jenna to discuss how she can help you.

by Dr. Nikita Fensham

When you think of iron, you may think of Popeye! While spinach might not be the best source, the guy certainly exuded strength and energy. In fact, iron is crucial to many of the reactions that happen in your body, including those involved in energy metabolism. It is also the centrepiece of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen around your body in red blood cells. There are plenty of other functions as well, involving bone and reproductive organ function, but for the purposes of keeping to word limits, we will stick with the ones you care about the most — the ones that are going to make you faster.

Athletes in general — and perhaps women more so because of the menstrual cycle — are more at risk for iron deficiency than the general population. This is because of increased losses that happen due to reduced blood flow to the gastrointestinal tract and subsequent temporary bleeding, with minor contributions from sweat and urine. Foot-strike breakdown of red blood cells is less likely to play a role as the iron released is taken up again. Due to the increased training demands, the risk of a mismatch in nutrition, especially in vegetarian athletes, may also contribute to the risk of iron deficiency. Finally, it is becoming increasingly recognised that a hormone released by the liver, called hepcidin, is upregulated in athletes (meaning an athlete’s cells are more sensitive to it): its role is to block iron absorption from the gut and recycling from immune cells, which further exacerbates the situation!

So how do you know if you are iron-deficient? This is where you book a doc appointment and get some blood tests.

Too often we as ambitious, perfectionist, pedantic triathletes focus on adding more “one-percenters” to our arsenal, rather than building the foundation first. The aero helmet, the [insert name brand here] running shoes, the goggles that tell you how slow you are while you’re swimming… all giving us false hope, or perhaps false ego, that we will perform better.

But while these debits to our bank accounts seem justified, we hesitate to spend extra dollars on groceries or appointments with the doc to optimise our health. Sadly too, however, is that most doctors are taught to manage your illnesses, not your health; so I acknowledge that booking an appointment with the goal of being better than good is often met with a blank face.

Nevertheless, I think you should be empowered to be a partner with your doctor, rather than a “patient”. So this article is designed to get into the weeds of iron for athletes, the testing, and what you can do if things aren’t quite right.

Side note: some tests are unreliable in athletes even though they would be used in the general population to diagnose iron deficiency. You may be deficient in iron but your hemoglobin levels are still maintained in the meanwhile, so you would not be considered “anemic”. Because ferritin, which is the storage form of iron, is upregulated in response to inflammation (and exercise, by implication), it is not reliable on its own in athletes. Furthermore, the iron level in the blood isn’t a great marker either as it is different depending on the time of day and is affected by red blood cell breakdown.

However, if you are indeed iron deficient, evidence suggests that addressing it through food or supplementation is important for both your health and performance.

So the key markers to ask your doc for are:

1. Ferritin – although unreliable on its own, it is useful when used along with other markers to look at iron stores.

2. Hemoglobin (Hb) – this is necessary to see if you are anemic or not, and tells your doc about the severity of the iron deficiency. It can also alert the doc to other causes of anemia that do not involve iron.

3. Mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and mean cellular hemoglobin (MCH) – this is getting a bit technical but these tell us about the “quality” of your red blood cells in terms of size and how much hemoglobin is inside, and can guide your doc in determining your type of anemia, if present, or how much of an effect the iron deficiency is having on your red blood cell production in your bone marrow.

4. Transferrin saturation – transferrin is what transports iron in your blood, almost like a hiker and his backpack! So this marker gives us an idea about the number of hikers in relation to the number of backpacks – if its low, then there are too few backpacks around for the hikers to be useful.

5. Soluble transferrin receptor – this is a bit of a bonus if you can get your doc to order it as it tells us more about the “functional” pool of iron as opposed to just the stores.

A quick look at numbers: in athletes, a ferritin level less than 35ug/l is considered iron-deficient, and when it drops below 20ug/l with a transferrin saturation of less than 16% then the bone marrow red blood cell production is becoming affected. Anemia is an Hb less than 115g/l. Depending on your results and your history (e.g. sex, menses, diet, altitude training), getting tested quarterly to annually is recommended.

Great, so what do you do now? Well, if you’re iron sufficient, then keep doing what you’re doing. The recommended dietary intake is 8mg for males and 18mg for females, but these are general population guidelines to avoid deficiency and there are no athlete-specific guidelines as yet to account for the potentially increased requirements.

Heme sources of iron, such as meat and seafood, are better absorbed than non-heme sources, which means that vegetarian athletes need to pay extra attention to getting in enough iron. Other factors such as vitamin C (enhances absorption of non-heme sources) and tea, coffee, and dairy (which inhibit absorption of iron) should also be considered. Finally, that hepcidin hormone we mentioned earlier peaks at 3-6h post-exercise, so getting in your iron in the 60min post-exercise might be a good strategy to employ.

If you are iron deficient, then you have three options: address dietary intake (I suggest working with a dietician here), oral supplementation, or intravenous supplementation. Intravenous is highly effective but you do need a doc here as it carries some risks as well. Oral supplementation with enterically coated (to avoid gastrointestinal distress) slow release ferrous sulphate is most widely tolerated. Which option applies to you depends on your lab results and history, so it is important to consult the experts.

Hopefully, you are feeling more informed and empowered at the end of this article. I’m a strong believer in taking charge of your health and becoming a partner with your healthcare team in working towards a more optimal human being, rather than only seeking help when the wheels have already come off.

But, being a partner also means respecting the boundaries of your knowledge: be engaged, ask questions, don’t be afraid to ask for testing, but be guided by professionals in the area. Just as iron deficiency will hamper your health and performance, iron overload through unnecessary supplementation is just as dangerous.

There you go folks: everyone can be an IRON(wo)man!

FURTHER REFERENCES

1.         Burden RJ, Morton K, Richards T, Whyte GP, Pedlar CR. Is iron treatment beneficial in, iron-deficient but non-anaemic (IDNA) endurance athletes? A systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2015;49(21):1389-97.

2.         Clénin G, Cordes M, Huber A, Schumacher YO, Noack P, Scales J, et al. Iron deficiency in sports – definition, influence on performance and therapy. Swiss Med Wkly. 2015;145:w14196.

3.         McCormick R, Dawson B, Sim M, Lester L, Goodman C, Peeling P. The Effectiveness of Transdermal Iron Patches in Athletes With Suboptimal Iron Status (Part 1). International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. 2020;30(3):185-90.

4.         McCormick R, Dreyer A, Dawson B, Sim M, Lester L, Goodman C, et al. The Effectiveness of Daily and Alternate Day Oral Iron Supplementation in Athletes With Suboptimal Iron Status (Part 2). Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2020:1-6.

5.         Peeling P, Dawson B, Goodman C, Landers G, Wiegerinck ET, Swinkels DW, et al. Effects of exercise on hepcidin response and iron metabolism during recovery. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2009;19(6):583-97.

6.         Sim M, Garvican-Lewis LA, Cox GR, Govus A, McKay AKA, Stellingwerff T, et al. Iron considerations for the athlete: a narrative review. European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2019;119(7):1463-78.

DISCLAIMER

This article should not be considered medical advice and is instead intended to be the opinions of the author. Always seek independent medical advice before making any decisions based on your health.

The offseason is a bridge between what you’ve accomplished and what your future goals are. What you do in the offseason is determined by the previous season and should lay the groundwork for the next season.

While triathlons are held year-round these days, one cannot continue to train and race without accumulating fatigue and little niggles along the way. The grind of building up, peaking, and racing can also take its toll on you mentally. Taking time off allows your body and mind to recover and heal so that you can be at your peak health when you start training for your target races.

But while you have a plan for how your season will unfold, the way most athletes use their offseason leads to a loss of fitness. When you start training again, it feels like you’re starting from zero every year.

The offseason can and should be used as a time to recover as well as rebuild your fitness. Professional athletes train through their offseason, but differently than in-season work.

Offseason, Part 1: Recovery

I divide the offseason into two parts. To give you an overview of what you should be doing in the offseason, Number 1: take some downtime. Give back to your family. Unwind a little. Take four or five weeks where you just train when you want to, not because you have to.

Many athletes use this period to try out new activities or indulge their love for another sport. This active recovery phase keeps the blood flowing but keeps you free of pressure to hit any set training targets.

A little weight gain may be expected since you are doing less than what you did especially during your peak training weeks. This isn’t such a bad thing. The additional weight is beneficial in three ways:

• gives your body a rest from your “fighting” weight;
• allows you to deliver better on strength workouts; and
• helps you recover better.

Offseason, Part 2: Preparation

The second part of the offseason deals with the kind of work you can and should do leading into the season. Because the offseason usually takes place during the winter months, athletes have a daylight constraint on their training, and long hours on a bike trainer or on the treadmill aren’t particularly appealing.

A lot of triathletes are so caught up with volume; they associate base work with the offseason. Instead, I recommend more strength-specific work that isn’t as time-consuming as volume-based work. This includes the following:

• general strength conditioning through gym work that corrects muscle imbalances
• specific swim, bike, and run workouts that promote better movement and technique and maintain your muscular strength

You do much less mileage, but it is all purposeful. This prepares your body for the season’s training volume and intensity, prevents injury, and improves performance. Your training should concentrate on aspects often neglected by athletes during the racing season: motor skills, training their weaknesses, and strength training.

The key is to keep your motivation and enjoyment high while performing workouts, with options to select workouts that you would not have the time to do or experience on a more race-centered plan. Pho3nix Club membership offers a variety of off-season maintenance plans you can plug-and-play for this very purpose.

You can really build a lot of strength in the offie. When spring comes around, you add some endurance to it and if you’ve got the right strength, that’s a lethal mix. Add to it renewed vigor, and you’ll be sure to smash the training and racing.

Chris “Macca” McCormack is a four-time triathlon world champion with the biggest winning percentage in the history of the sport. He is a co-founder and partner in Super League Triathlon, CEO of the Bahrain Victorious 13 team, board member of the Pho3nix Foundation, and CEO of MANA Sports & Entertainment Group.

Not that there has been a season to speak of, but today Jan Frodeno confirmed what observers had picked up from his social posts.

The three-time Ironman World Champion is definitively out of any racing in 2020 as he heals up from injuries sustained in a bike crash descending Montseny near Barcelona with training partner Nick Kastelein.

View this post on Instagram

If you’re going to get injured, 2020 is probably the year to do it. Time to rest, recuperate and then its back … to training. Happy New Year everyone #frodissimo #keeponkeepingon

A post shared by Jan Frodeno (@janfrodeno) on Sep 4, 2020 at 10:54am PDT

Nick, who sustained a fractured pelvis, provided more context in his post.

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Pressing the restart button on 2020 after fracturing my pelvis last week during a training ride. Both @janfrodeno and I took a tumble last week descending down from Montseny near Barcelona. Jan is dealing with his wounds in the best way possible and I am laying horizontal in a bed for the next few weeks. You never realise the true support you have until something like this happens and those closest to you rally together to help out. Forever grateful!!! I do (in a strange way!) enjoy these hurdles that life gives you so I’m already itching to start the process all over again @oriol_batista @canyon @ryzon_apparel @sramroad @zippspeed @quarq @yogeur.co @genprofessional @centrecenit @g_s_u_s @oakleybike @albertlorza @aneblnc @sara22_ @jessallen1993 @nikhowe @emma_snowsill @eduarddequintana @miquirueda

A post shared by Nick Kastelein (@nickastelein) on Aug 26, 2020 at 11:53pm PDT

While Jan is reclusive when it comes to posting about the specific details of his training, he opened up about the crash in a few posts and stories about going to hospital for scans.

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The world’s most beautiful hospital. Palm trees, friendly staff and as much as I try, I can’t avoid a trip here at least once a year for an MRI. A bike crash, simply overcooking a corner ended bad for me but worse for @nickastelein. A special thanks to @albertlorza @ferranabat and @centrecenit for getting me back in almost no time and able to bring coffee to Nick for a while 🙁 #frodissimo

A post shared by Jan Frodeno (@janfrodeno) on Aug 24, 2020 at 11:45am PDT

We wish Jan and Nick a speedy path to recovery and fitness and hope that 2021 is a better year for racing for everyone.

People 10 years on from my fight with Normann Stadler say what triathlon needs is a rivalry, but when I was doing it, I was the Antichrist! Miss me now, hey?

Kidding aside, rivalries are a necessity for a sport to transcend its own built-in audience and step up into more mainstream consciousness. They draw attention to the sport going beyond head-to-head results to actually create meaning and entertainment value in the clash of two big personalities, because fans become invested in who wins.

It’s difficult to manufacture a rivalry. The most impactful ones arise spontaneously because the two parties are champions in their own right, each trying to pursue a single crown. But there can only be one winner.

I think for great rivalries to occur, there are a few things that need to be in place. Missing any of these, and any budding rivalry a sport seeks to promote merely becomes just another listing of race results.

Rivals don’t have to like each other.

Some rivals get along, like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, and some don’t, like Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Neither direction is right or wrong. It just is.

You can’t put rivalries in a box because the dynamics that arise between two parties may not look the same as that between two other parties, because everyone is different and unique.

Everyone holds Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal up as an example of a “healthy rivalry” because the two of them are friends off-court. So people have created expectations and a restrictive framework about what a rivalry should look like, basing it off what great rivalries of the past have been.

But there is actually no template for what is correct or what will push two competitive, evenly-matched individuals to go at each other with everything they’ve got. Each rivalry takes its own way; once it gets a start and picks up momentum it becomes its own living being, to some degree.

Who are we to define what a rivalry should look like among the world’s best athletes? We forget that this sport is their life; they’ve got a lot on the line and sacrificed much to get there. As a spectator, you’re actually watching someone’s life success (or failure). Of course it means a lot more to them than a weekend race would to an age grouper.

When the stakes are that high they take things personally, and sometimes it does get personal. If you don’t like how one athlete behaves, then don’t follow them — but don’t set rules on how they’re supposed to behave. Yes an athlete needs to be a good sport, but it’s all right for them to be upset, angry, and/or disappointed because that is their reality. They don’t need to hide it.

You look at Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston, Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield, Oscar dela Hoya vs. Fernando Vargas: these guys can’t stand each other and they are not afraid to show it.

And that’s why I love boxing. They realise you need to generate interest by driving rivalries. It’s harder nowadays because there’s so much information about other things and focus is diluted. But boxing is amazing at identifying and promoting rivalries. They have what are called promoters because they’re promoting an event and also these athletes.

For example the match-up between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather: they’re two characters, different kinds of fighters. They were both champions and brought so much momentum to the table, calling each other out because they both wanted a fight. And the promoters fueled and fed that rivalry so that everybody wanted to see that fight happen.

Rivalries arise because of authentic differences.

Great rivalries have two very different characters that force people to pick sides and identify with one.

I never wanted a rivalry with Normann Stadler and Craig Alexander, but it just naturally happened because we are such different people who wanted the same thing that it caused friction.

If you get into a room with 100 people, surely you won’t get along with everyone. What more 100 people who are all after the same prize money and palmares? That’s just natural.

But in the old days there was a level of acceptable tension that enabled rivalries to naturally occur. These days, any tension between athletes seems unacceptable, so athletes tend to hide how they really feel and how competitive they really are in order not to ruffle feathers. But doing that short-circuits the natural process of how rivalries form.

What I struggle with in triathlon is there’s this expectation that just because you swim, bike, and run, you have the same personality or likes and dislikes as everybody else who’s in the sport. With everything on record these days on social media there’s a fear attached to behaving differently from everyone else. Athletes think they need to behave a certain way to attract support from the business types who have gravitated to triathlon. They think they all need to put on this show, smile for the cameras, and hide how much they want to beat everyone else. They then become these Instagrammable little robots.

I think that’s wrong because in the same way a high-powered executive is ruthless in business, I had to be ruthless in the sport because this is my business. The same attitude that got them to the top is the same attitude I have, and our commonality is that we are driven individuals who would run through brick walls to get what we want. The difference is, there’s no social media involved when a businessman is manoeuvring into a hostile takeover.

When you show your uniqueness, your personality, and how much you care about the outcome, you give people something to root for (or against). It sets you apart from the rest of the clones. Some people may see themselves in how you work, how you approach things and relationships, how you view life. Conversely, some people may not find you their cup of tea. But that’s not a bad thing.

If everyone acts the same, there’s no point of reference, no enemy. Everyone wants to look picture-perfect, then expect to create rivalry around just who wins the race. That’s not what rivalry is about.

Look at the football clubs Liverpool and Manchester. They have branded themselves to stand out and apart from each other, and their respective fans have identified with what makes each team different. (And their fans hate each other even if they don’t know each other!)

Rivalries are much easier in mano-a-mano sports, team sports, and match races because there’s one winner and one loser. In triathlon you can come 2nd, 3rd, 4th… and some people are happy with 3rd.

Not showing this hunger to win softens the importance of these wins, to the detriment of interest in the sport and its athletes. This has happened in triathlon. A few decades ago, Dave and Mark were on the Wheaties box (so was yours truly). We were on major talk shows in the US, with bestselling books written by us or about us. But these days only people in the sport follow the sport; it doesn’t generate interest outside the sport.

Rivals are a legitimate threat to each other’s dominance.

You can’t match Manny Pacquiao up with just anybody — not least one who talks a big game but gets knocked out in the 5th round — and call it a rivalry. There has to be a real threat these athletes pose to each other, and some dynamic that brings the interest in the head-to-head battle.

The people you fight make you a champion. The people you race make you great. The people he fought made Muhammad Ali great. If he didn’t have George Foreman, Sonny Liston or Joe Frazier we wouldn’t be talking about him in the same reverential tone. It is the era of personality and stars that ensure that rivalries not only begin but are relevant.

You saw what happened last year when Alistair Brownlee and Jan Frodeno had what looked like a run-in at the Kona finish line. Everyone got so excited because they’ve got history and now they’re moving in on each other again. Guess what: these two athletes do not send each other Christmas cards. They are distinctive personalities who race, think and behave very differently. Outside of triathlon they don’t really have much in common. They are civil to each other but probably are not the closest of peers, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

They both want the same thing, they are both capable of achieving it in their own unique ways and whether they are friends or not is irrelevant to the outcome. This authentic tension is noticeable and this is why the rivalry is a strong one. History, ego, time, passion, ability and personality are all potent mixes in the development of the characters at the centre of any rivalry.

Jan is an intimidating creature. He has such a presence as an athlete, and that momentum is warranted as he is such a big race performer and everybody knows he only comes to race when he is ready. Jan is not one to just make up the numbers. If he is pinning a number on, he is in tiptop condition, and anything less than first is failure.

However, it is in the friendly demeanour he brings to the game where he’s outplayed his competitors. None of these other pros have stepped up because they haven’t realised that his power play is intimidation with results and being everybody’s friend and understanding their process. They not only respect his athletic ability, but also how he is able to soften tension. This makes it even more difficult to find that fighting desire to beat him. He is a nice guy, and subconsciously it can be hard to be athletically cruel to a nice guy. At times this can be the difference between a loss and a win.

But Alistair is one athlete who doesn’t buy into it. He doesn’t need Jan to be his friend. Alistair is obsessively competitive and a complete disrupter to the established normals and/or expected performances. Since he came to the sport, he has been a physical tidal wave that turned the racing on its head, and he was ruthless in his knockout punches of fields. For Alistair, titles or names or championship medals of his competitors meant nothing. In his eyes, he saw himself as the alpha competitor and truly behaved like that in every capacity. His incredible racing resume — and even more so the way he won races — was immediately impactful. He probably thinks he’s a better athlete than everyone he faces, and can’t wait to go toe-to-toe with Jan or anyone else, as he sees himself completely as a winner.

These two are polarising individuals. They are both Olympic champions. Alistair dethroned Jan in the ITU the year after Beijing and became the greatest short-course racer of all time. Jan has positioned himself as the king of this sport, but Alistair doesn’t buy into others perceptions or opinions because in his head, he’s the king. The only reason Jan’s on top at the moment is Alistair hasn’t been racing him. Alistair believes that to the core of his existence, and I think any true professional athlete resonates with that way of thinking.

There are many others who may identify with either Alistair or Jan, and that’s what makes it a budding rivalry. It is the very core of their own self-belief that creates the interest in the competition in the first place. It is these exact behaviours that create the perfect storm of interest when mega stars come together.

On the women’s side any rivalry exists off the back of Daniela Ryf having had such success for so long we want to see someone else challenge her, rather than someone standing up to say directly, “I want to kick her ass.” We’re hoping for Lucy Charles, and the current Ironman world champion Anne Haug. But if the Olympics next year get truly cancelled and Katie Zaferes says she’ll go to Kona, that will be interesting.

Rivalries are held in the public eye.

Athletes can and will be competitive with each other behind closed doors. The resulting tensions however never get labelled as “rivalry” because they’re never talked about in public or in the press.

In triathlon we look fondly back at the rivalry of Mark Allen and Dave Scott, but at the time it was quite intense. Dave owned Kona. For years, everybody would keep talking about Mark dethroning Dave, and Mark would kick Dave’s ass all year. But in Kona, Dave would get into his head. There’s this dynamic of champion versus challenger, and they didn’t shy away from that.

While we look at Dave as an elder statesman now, in his day he was the biggest agitator that ever did our sport. Watch the 1987 race coverage and see the way he talked and applied pressure to Mark and called him out. “Mark Allen has had a fantastic season. He’s won races from January all the way to October. But he’d trade all those races to win here this weekend, and I think he feels that pressure.”

There’s nothing better than both athletes jumping on board that rivalry and milking it, like Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. The controversy generates interest not just in the athletes but also in the sport. Even if you don’t understand the technicalities behind the sport, you become invested in seeing one athlete beat the other.

So you say you want to see a rivalry in the sport? Let athletes be the competitive creatures they are. Pick a side, don’t stand in the way, and let the chips fall where they may.

Chris “Macca” McCormack is a four-time triathlon world champion with the biggest winning percentage in the history of the sport. He is a co-founder and partner in Super League Triathlon, CEO of the Bahrain Victorious 13 team, board member of the Pho3nix Foundation, and CEO of MANA Sports & Entertainment Group.

The term ‘Arena’ conjures images of Maximus Decimus Meridius screaming, ‘Are you not entertained?’ in the movie Gladiator. So did the new Super League Triathlon Arena Games live up to the hype?

Over the weekend we saw the launch of the inaugural Super League Arena Games. A new format from the most innovative triathlon company in the world as they look to navigate the new “COVID-safe” era for events.

This format of racing is a combination of both real and virtual racing (although there is nothing virtual about the effort the athletes put in) in which athletes swim in a pool and then ride and run on their trainer and treadmill on Zwift.

Now, I am happy to admit it, I am a triathlon tragic. I love swim, bike and run and have been so excited by everything that Super League have done for the sport. I complain that Ironman is boring to watch but still find myself sitting in front of the screen watching athletes for hours at a time.

So when all events shut down we saw a massive shift towards eRacing. Ironman launched their IMVR, a suite of cycling events went onto Zwift and Super League launched their own eRacing bike series. With the exception of my excitement when Lionel Sanders used an invisibility boost to win a bike race, I have struggled to get into it.

I cannot put my finger on what exactly it is about eRacing that doesn’t float my boat. I have just admitted to watching an Ironman for 8 hours (which is not edge-of-your-seat viewing). When I heard about Jan Frodeno attempting an indoor Ironman I tuned in and struggled to stay engaged. I tried to watch the Super League eRacing and again, I just couldn’t get behind it.

Here is a completely random non-triathlon fact about me. I love computer games. I can sink literally hundreds of hours into levelling up my characters in a Final Fantasy game that is 20 years old. But put me on Zwift and I ride the same loop every time (Tick Tock) and have levelled up to nearly level 50 without any real interest. It is like that part of my brain is just not there.

So when I heard about the Arena Games I was underwhelmed. Not because I didn’t think it was a great concept (because I do) but because I didn’t think it was for me. I think it is amazing that Super League have worked so hard to come up with a format of racing that not only gives fans something to watch but also an opportunity for the professional athletes to race AND try to make some money.

Now, with all my random waffling (or as I choose to see it, scene setting) what did I think?

What Did I Like?

The Commentary

Macca and Will McCloy have now been working together to commentate these events for years and the rapport that they have developed together is half of what is great about Super League Triathlon. On a recent podcast I asked James Bale if the figures like watts and pace were going to be engaging to the lay-fan and he said, “that is where Will McCloy comes in” and he was right. The way they explained the action and what all of the numbers meant made the viewing experience extremely compelling. Even when the Zwift footage randomly switched to the last-placed female while there was a sprint for second, the desperation in Will’s voice emphasised just how much was on the line and how exciting what we were watching was. In some ways, this small technical hiccup actually added to make the whole experience even more compelling.

The Coloured Jerseys

What a stroke of genius to take the Super League coloured jersey concept and apply it in this new way. Each athlete is given an individual colour to match their avatar. It made it incredibly easy to follow who was who and who was doing what. Again, for people who aren’t as au fait with the stars of our sport, turning the athletes into the triathlon Wiggles was a great way to make it easy to follow.

The Stats

While it is great watching athletes battle it out on the road, it can often be hard to tell just how hard or fast they are going. That was not a problem for the Arena Games. Showing how fast the athletes were running, how many watts/kg they were pushing and having them swim in a pool (which is very familiar to me as an Australian) put everything into context. There has been lots of talk about how these sorts of statistics are going to make racing more exciting and now I get it.

The Racing

You put some of the strongest athletes in the world together for anything and they are going to push it and that is exactly what we saw. What can I say, it was enthralling to watch. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I was absolutely bombarding my wife with what all the statistics meant. The points system meant that every stage meant something. I could not believe how hooked I was so quickly. I was as desperate as Will McCloy when we missed the women’s finish and was on the edge of my seat as Gomez made his attack at the end of the final stage.

What Didn’t I Like?

Every time I even contemplate giving my honest thoughts on something I can hear Will McCloy’s voice calling me negative and I definitely don’t want you to think that I am being negative about the Arena Games. I do however think there are some things which could make the experience even better next time.

The Finishes

One of the best things in a race is watching the athletes cross the finish line and collapse or congratulate each other and show the emotion of what they have just achieved. At regular Super League events, when they have finished with a swim or ride they have still needed to cross the finish line.

I found watching them finish these races a little anticlimactic. Imagine watching them stumble off the bike after buckling themselves for the win to then have to run a lap of the pool to a finish line. In reality, it probably isn’t safe to have that sort of finish line at the moment so I completely understand why they haven’t implemented it but even some crazy graphics on the screen when they finish the race would add another layer of excitement.

The Avatars

It is probably just that seeing Zwift avatars triggers some deep-seated resentment with my own avatar after hours suffering with him. I found watching the athletes on the treadmill or on their trainer much more compelling than their avatars in Zwift. Also, when you build a Zwift world for a race, turn the crowd NPC number up 100 fold… Or…. Put them in a volcano to make the world more on brand with the Arena Games style. This is maybe just a personal preference but watching the avatars who look like they are just out for a casual jog while you are hearing how close the racing is formed a bit of a disconnect in my brain.

COVID-19

Yeah yeah, low-hanging fruit but I heard Will and Macca talk about how great this would be in an actual arena with thousands of people in it cheering and I completely agree. This new racing format is something special. I know that Super League has already indicated that they anticipate this sticking around well after we return to regular racing and I really hope it does. I think we will see a new style of athlete shine in this new form of racing. Imagine a Lionel Sanders doing this sort of event. He can put power down like no one else and doesn’t need to worry about handling or anything!

We heard multiple times that running on these self-propelled treadmills is harder. We know that bike positions can be altered to maximise power when riding on a trainer. The tactics completely change when the swim is in a pool without drafting.

While it is a sort of ‘blessing in disguise’ that Super League has been forced to create this new format of racing, I wish it could have been launched in what I can only refer to as its ‘final form.’

Without intending to, I was not that interested in the Arena Games when they were first announced because I lumped it in with other forms of eRacing which has failed to captivate me this year. In hindsight, I should have given Super League the benefit of the doubt. I have watched every single piece of triathlon content they have produced and I have loved all of it. They have demonstrated just how exciting a triathlon can be and that is exactly what the Arena Games are: an exciting new format of swimming, biking and running that will hopefully scratch the itch for all triathlon fans not only during a pandemic but moving forward in general.

A huge congratulations to Chris McCormack and his team for putting on an incredible event during truly challenging times.

If you haven’t already checked it out, stop reading and tune in immediately.

Tim Ford is a member of our team of coaches. He has gone from being a complete novice weighing well over 120kg to a top athlete with a 4:06 PB for a 70.3. Through his time in the sport he has learned skills which help him to assist athletes of all levels and abilities.

Four-time world champion Chris McCormack sat down with Tim Ford to chat about the state of affairs for triathlon amid a global pandemic.

Macca talks about the Super League Triathlon Arena Games and how they can be exciting to watch as well as another game-changer for the sport.

In contrast to Ironman which has professionals racing in a mass participation league, Super League Triathlon is a professional league first. Triathlon has always supported a handful of athletes as professionals for years, but with Super League, we aim to present the professional arm of the sport as the catalyst for the sport’s growth. (This is the case in all the major sports in the world but was never the primary driver of revenue in triathlon up until we launched 3 years ago.)

We’re dealing with professional athletes, and they do this sport for completely different reasons as I wrote about previously. We’re trying to create a league for them that’s driven for prize money, driven for content, for broadcast numbers and gives validity to professionalism in the sport of triathlon.

When conventional racing came to a halt so rapidly, that didn’t kill off the desire for athletes to compete and it doesn’t kill off the desire for people to witness their heroes or their stars compete in some sort of way.

People are talking about waiting for a vaccine to bring events back, but that’s pinning a lot on hope on an outcome that has no specific time frame on it. Hope is not a strategy, especially when you’re trying to build a league and you’re trying to push forward and stay relevant.

At Super League Triathlon we realised quickly we had to pivot — like many other sports who adjusted their output and their forecasts to adapt and be relevant in this short term — and get back to what we do.

Athletes are most certainly realising that without the platform on which to express their skills, they are just really fit people who post things on social media. I have a heavy heart for many of the athletes as peak performance and careers are measured in single-digit years, and missing a year or two of competition could very much be to miss their peak. I always say athletes age in dog years, so it is hugely disruptive to their careers, even more so than the event and league owners.

We have actually seen in our audience numbers and our content since the pandemic a growing appetite for seeing professional athletes race again. We share that drive and vision, and for myself personally as a former professional athlete I felt a heavy weight of responsibility to my sport to focus on pursuing this vigorously.

It is one thing to talk about it and pass comment and judgment from afar on what “others” should be doing in this environment, and I have seen and read a lot of that from many of the experts in our sport, but the frustration is none of these people seem to action any of their statements. It is easier to stand behind a keyboard at times and just blurt opinions.

Whilst we listened and read, I think our main modus operandus and what I was driving my entire global team to do was to action and not complain. Push forward ideas with purpose, not necessarily aiming for perfection but fundamentally to thrive with the cards we all have been played and work towards getting back to what drives us at Super League Triathlon: passion for amazing racing.

We’ve been talking for years about bringing triathlon indoors. We’ve done some indoor races in Australia in the ‘90s, using velodromes and making it easier to broadcast triathlon, maximising spectators. These races were always very popular visually, and many event promoters have adopted our SLT formats and taken some of these races indoors prior to the pandemic happening. We were looking at a venue in Paris with a velodrome to install a temporary pool in for our 2020 season — and then COVID happened.

From our experience working with Zwift in their cycling races as well as our own esports cycling league, a hurdle we had to jump was really establishing parameters for competition in esports racing. Getting on a wind trainer or on Zwift and riding on your own: is that sport, or is that just exercise? What transitions you from just physical activity and exercise to sport is competition. I define sport as an environment with rules that make for a fair platform for competition with your peers and with yourself. I love sport!

The feedback from Super League athletes was: “we’re dying to compete, but this isn’t triathlon. We’re triathletes doing cycling events on an Esport platform. It is fun and we thank you for it, but it is just one of the disciplines we do and not all of them.”

From our end as the league owners, we began to look at the government requirements of operation in a COVID world, how we could work between our established host cities and many of the cities we were in close connection with, and how we could move forward for the athletes. So basically: what can we do that has relevance to triathlon? How can we create that competitive ecosystem that will bring the best athletes in the world together to race with purpose, responsibility, and an attachment to outcome?

So we decided to move forward with the Arena Games, and instead of going to velodromes we’re going to swimming pools and stationary trainers and treadmills, creating a mix of Esport and real racing delivered in a unique and effective way for the online viewer, but has real relevance and demands for the athletes’ current physicality.

Esports is a completely different game to conventional racing. For instance, Lionel Sanders is a better esporter than he is an ironman athlete. Even though he has finished second in Kona, he’s a lot more successful at esport racing when you put his race winning percentages online against those he has in the real world (I mean that with the utmost respect to Lionel, who is an amazing athlete). With esports, you’re eliminating the things that limit Lionel — handling and race strategy and aerodynamics — and he’s just putting out big power.

Esport cycling and real cycling, whilst similar in action of pedaling, diverge when it comes to transferring these skills to the road. On the road, skill is a much larger component of the racing alongside aerodynamics and strategy. These things are less relevant in the virtual world. Power wins in esport racing and the ability to deliver that regardless of position or size is huge, especially in the cycling component.

Our athlete stars on both the men’s and women’s side of Super League Triathlon are not only the most gifted at swimming, biking and running from a physical perspective, but their handling skills and technique are also factors that put them on the top podium. Super League racing and our course and format designs were built for this very reason. It is what makes our racing the most difficult in the world to conquer.

But when you eliminate these sorts of skills and factors in an arena like the Arena Games, will the podium stars be the same, or is the game completely different altogether? Are our star athletes like Vincent Luis going to be as competitive and successful in the Arena Games as they are in the more conventional Super League races?

Then you have to have COVID-safe policies and procedures, so delivering events like we used to see with big finish lines and crowds — that is gone. Those big mass starts, those days are done. By holding the Arena Games at a swimming pool, we realised we could bring in 30-50 people, meet all the standards that have been set to provide a safe racing environment, and focus on the broadcast and digital experience rather than the in-stadium audience.

What will make this different to watching the Zwift races (which are mainly avatar-driven with quick cuts across to an athlete’s pain cave) is we’re showing athletes where they actually have to transition off the bike or run into the swimming pool and vice versa. You’ve got this crossover between real and avatar.

Also, you’ve never been able to get this up close and personal with conventional triathlon and cycling. You can’t interview an athlete on an actual bike or run course because they’re going down the road too quickly. Now that they’re stationary you’re able to get up close, see their face, potentially talk to them, hear them suffering.

This format also brings in another element: athletes can rely on their coaches being around them. So does an athlete need to be watching what’s on the screen or is it a coach-driven race where the coach can say “Control your power/effort”? Now they don’t need to turn the corner or look up, they don’t need to do anything except follow the coach’s instructions or follow a plan that they’ve implemented.

The Arena Games is like our Hamilton Island race 3 1/2 years ago. It really feels the same. Those close to it see the value and the reasoning and the excitement about delivering competition again, yet still we have some doubters that are unsure of just what this will look like.

What I do find about triathlon is that many times we identify ourselves based on what we don’t like or what we think won’t work. But let’s flip that on its head and start talking about what we do like and what does work. We got that buy-in from our professional athletes. Every single one of them said I’m in, how do I get in, I want to race, whatever you say let’s do it even if it means wiping the slate clean of expectations and the traditional way of doing things.

How do we make a professional league in a relatively boutique sport work in a post-COVID world? What I’m hoping for is that Ironman and these disparate event companies will be a lot more receptive to a group of us coming together and having broader discussions for the benefit of the sport.

For the industry, you have to keep pushing forward. You either get busy with it and try to make change, or give up and just fold it all. And I’ve never been one to give up. I love what I do and love sports, and giving up on that would be like walking away from everything I love. It is just not going to happen.

The SLT Arena Games debut with the first event in Rotterdam on August 23. Stream live from superleaguetriathlon.com.

Chris “Macca” McCormack is a four-time triathlon world champion with the biggest winning percentage in the history of the sport. He is a co-founder and partner in Super League Triathlon, CEO of the Bahrain Victorious 13 team, board member of the Pho3nix Foundation, and CEO of MANA Sports & Entertainment Group.

Macca writes about why you should continue triathlon training even when there’s no racing.

A lot of amateurs I speak to say the same thing, which I think is the biggest mistake they can make: “I’ve got nothing to train for so I’m not going to train anymore.” I say, what are the professionals doing right now? Technically, they don’t have to do anything. There’s no racing for a whole year so they can sit on their hands and do nothing. But if you follow them, every single one of them are training. Why? Because it’s more than the race.

Yes, I was one who used to identify by my racing, but while an event keeps our motivation and momentum in that training environment, we can pull it back a bit and focus on other things and embrace what being fit and part of this multisport community is all about, instead of defining it by “I’m an Ironman” or “I’m doing this race.”

Train for yourself. Why not train for yourself, for your mental health, to stay active and fit and not let this crisis conquer you by quitting? The social, mental and health benefits outweigh any lack of racing. Being active and fit is amazing. It is not until you lose that do you realise just how amazing and important it is.

I think it’s also an important time for us to set personal goals, not race goals and build on those weaknesses. And maybe you don’t need to be as driven; find some balance. Don’t quit on the community or the sport or the feeling because it’s so much more than a race number.

Train for the community you find in the sport. Look at other things that motivate you, the friendships you make in the sport. Look at MX and the conversations happening within our community and people meeting up to train together in a safe way; that is really cool and that’s what basically seeded triathlon in the first place, when triathlon clubs were the epicenter, not races. Maybe we’re going back to that and platforms like MX where we’ve got such a broad group of people coming from all over the world that come together for a common interest.

Train because it can be your comfort zone. I think as humans we’re driven by certainty; we feel more complete, more happy, more centred when there’s certainty. Training — even when there’s no race that drives it — has an element of certainty about it. You just get out and it is meditative.

In this uncertain world that doesn’t look the same as it used to be, focus on the things you can control and the things you’re fortunate about. You’ve got a roof over your head, you can enjoy life and get out and train and do the things you want to do. When you look at it that way, you can start to feel better again. It’s a rollercoaster because change in anyone’s life is hard, and this is forced change which none of us anticipated.

I’ve noticed it with myself; I was on this running rampage and then this crisis in Melbourne happened with new COVID cases triggering new restrictions on movement and travel. My shoulders dropped and it was like “here we go again.” I’ve got a mate I run with every day and for the last 10 days we were feeling demotivated, like what’s the point?

But I actually feel more negative, more depressed, more down, and I was so much more upbeat when I was moving.

So I’ve committed to not letting this thing conquer me. That’s been my change of attitude; don’t let it beat you. It’s not a competition with COVID; it’s a competition to move into this new reality in a more positive way and be light years down the track before other people who didn’t do it as effectively.

Chris “Macca” McCormack is a four-time triathlon world champion with the biggest winning percentage in the history of the sport. He is a co-founder and partner in Super League Triathlon, CEO of the Bahrain Victorious 13 team, board member of the Pho3nix Foundation, and CEO of MANA Sports & Entertainment Group.

Today when I was on the phone to a friend of mine, he gave me an analogy that I found incredibly powerful.

Imagine a ship sitting on a vast ocean. By itself it is subject to the currents, the wind and will ultimately get pushed around without direction until it is lost.

Take that same boat and moor it to something stable. The boat will get pulled; it will get pushed. The tide will raise the boat and lower the boat but at all times the boat has something keeping it in place.

Spoiler alert! In this little story, we are the boat. Each and every one of us. I see so many athletes out there who are currently floating around without direction. Some people have walked away from their training, some people have walked away from the sport and there are even people who are burying themselves by training like they have Kona next week. The point is, at the moment there is a lot of uncertainty. These are tough times for a lot of us and for many of us, we cannot see where we are being pushed or where the current is taking us.

I continue to write articles about this because I really think it is true, for me at least, triathlon is what I have moored my boat to.

There have been some amazing things happen over the past few months but there have also been some really horrible things. I am sure that most people have experienced some sort of uncertainty, inconvenience, fear or other negative experience since the start of this year. For me, there are times where I can feel completely overwhelmed or frustrated.

Then I get on my bike, go for a run or jump in the pool and suddenly it all melts away. My attention is no longer on everything that is going on at the moment. I am not worried about all of the challenges I am facing in the rest of my life. I am focused on my power, or my technique or my heart rate and before I know it, I am not feeling like I was before.

For me, training has become the one constant that I have had over the last few months. It has become the source of stability in an increasingly unstable world. I am not training because I have a big race coming up. I am not training because I am trying to qualify for a race or beat a PB. I am training because I love it. I love how being active makes me feel. I love how it takes my mind off everything else that is going on in the world. I love that for those precious hours I am not carrying the burden that I am becoming alarmingly familiar with.

When things get hard, it is natural for many of us to pull away or spend more time isolated. I have received emails from people saying that they just need to spend some time figuring everything out, or that they have nothing to aim for and are struggling for motivation.

Triathlon is more than just racing. Triathlon is a lifestyle that will endure beyond any global pandemic. Whether you are feeling overwhelmed or need to take a break from training to get yourself centred, there is something incredible about the triathlon community. I have heard stories of some of my tri friends going out of their way to help other triathletes who are struggling. I am blown away by some of the stories I have heard from our buddy system with people from all over the planet who have never met being there to support each other and hold each other accountable or even just check and see if they’re ok.

All this shows me that by mooring your boat to triathlon, no matter how overwhelming, hopeless or uncertain things may seem for you at the moment, you have something holding you in place.

If you are looking for a way to stay connected to the sport regardless of your level or current schedule, our community of athletes and professionals are waiting to give you safe harbour.

Tim Ford is a member of our team of coaches. He has gone from being a complete novice weighing well over 120kg to a top athlete with a 4:06 PB for a 70.3. Through his time in the sport he has learned skills which help him to assist athletes of all levels and abilities.

Macca holds forth at length about the challenges that Ironman and global sport events companies may be facing.

The big takeaway from this whole crisis globally from an events and sports perspective is the uncertainty of it all. We knew it was really bad, but none of us have really lived through a pandemic before. What a virus is, how it works, how it mutates, how infections grow and how that affects a community and an economy is something we’re all learning.

I think every sport, whether it’s Rugby Union or surfing or triathlon, if you’d spoken to us in December and we were all doing our forecasts and planning for 2020, 2021 and onwards — no one anticipated the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these sports were borrowing for expansion, we had huge commitment and excitement going into an Olympic year, and partnerships, media engagement and the foundations of sport as an industry were solid and if anything expansionary.

COVID was like a tidal wave.  It just happened so fast and with such ferocity and immediacy that it took everyone by complete surprise. Suddenly, things had to change.

There’s going to be big repercussions from this especially as the time lags begin to open up: the time between last event and next event begins to expand for many operators and sports. There will be companies that survive and don’t survive, and the landscape will look very different. Within all sports the flexibility of those companies will be the deciding factor in those who survive and those who don’t, along with their balance sheets and to some degree a level of luck. Those companies who borrowed to expand or were highly indebted companies have been clearly punched in the head, and whether that is a knockout punch or they can get up from the canvas (to use a boxing metaphor) will be a mix of many factors.

It is obvious and necessary that things will be different, but different isn’t always bad. If you expect the same product or the same freedom of movement in the short term, you’re going to look at the state of things and say it’s going to be too hard. If you try to look at the positive in these situations and appreciate that this is a moment in history and time that affects the world equally, then you start to move away from feeling like a victim and take that same sort of attitude that drove your business or yourself forward, applying it in a positive and productive way again.

There are days when I wake up thinking it’s just the shake-up we need to get rid of the dead wood and many of the players that can create much of the bureaucratic issues, congestion points and product failures that stagnate growth for any industry. Instead we could have key passionate drivers leading the sport. It is only the driven and passionate that tend to survive in times like this. Less does not always mean it is worse. But there are considerations that are greater than just this sport’s ecosystem; it’s part of the world’s ecosystem, it is part of behavioural economics and the potential of existing in a very different health landscape than we have ever known.

So how do you build a product when you don’t know the certainty of opening borders, or the freedom of movement of athletes and media from continent to continent, or the survival of many of the partners who provide the funding and the sponsorships which much of sport relies so heavily on? Sport has deep-reaching tentacles into human psyche, culture and health, and all of these are affected in a pandemic in substantial ways.  It’s not going to get back to how it used to be in the short term, but it is not the end of sport in that period either.

Having some understanding of the headwinds that all companies in the triathlon and endurance space are facing right now, Ironman being driven 98% by mass participation and mass participation being the most affected of all sports — if Ironman are in trouble and ultimately do not survive this, it would be a tragedy and the worst-case scenario for our sport. Ironman is magnificent: fantastic product, gold standard for mass participation events, it changes people’s lives and across the board has been solely responsible for the exponential growth in triathlon globally.

Debt has been a problem for Ironman, but they’ve also grown the brand significantly by taking on that debt. Debt isn’t always bad if the environment surrounding that debt is positive, but right now that is not the case. Anyone who’s run mass participation events knows that initially those events lose money and take two to three years to grow, so it is quite normal to have to take out loans and invest in these events. When Providence sold to Wanda there were around 120 events in the world. Now there’s 270 plus.

Ironman gets a rough time of it from many people who sit on the sidelines and throw stones but have never done anything remotely as close as driving an organisation of this magnitude in a global marketplace. It is a huge undertaking and so many headwinds and issues, I can only sing some praises to the them as an organisation. Whilst I may have done some things differently, I cannot argue that the drive of the CSuite team at Ironman was the positive expansion of the sport and the brand. I still believe that very much.

Fundamentally I think the problem they’re going to have is their local operators who own the licenses to deliver Ironman events. Ironman as a brand may survive — but the local operator that runs seven events in a region may not, so you lose all those events in one fell swoop. This is where I see a possible major pullback in events at the end of this for Ironman. The brand is solid, but the ocean of events will definitely be a much lower tide at the end of this, as these local operators who deliver these events for Ironman are left high and dry after this pandemic.

You’re going to see a lot of that in Europe, in Asia, and Australia. It’s going to be dependent upon the freedom of movement of people between regions, with many events solely relying on that freedom of movement to survive.

When you’re pitching for a host venue, the first thing you’re doing is pitching bed nights and how many tourists are going to come. They give you a portion of host rights money that helps you set up an event. Not anymore. Large regions like the US aren’t going to be allowed to enter other regions until they’ve got their COVID crisis under control. So racing is going to be more localised. That is going to bring up the question: is there enough of a participant base for a country like Australia to have four Ironmans? Those are the things you have to consider and many of the satellite events regionally that also survive on this will be victims of the over-supply of events. Even if athletes wanted to support those events, they may be unable to due to travel restrictions, quarantine issues, and other governmental policies that could differ between nations.

Pivoting for a company the size of Ironman and trying to be everything to everybody in a crisis that nobody saw coming will be their demise. They have to stay true to their product, which is the mass participation league. Give them a bit of slack. It’s unbelievable what’s happening out there. Will the product be better? I think at the moment they’re looking at all their event operators, trying to support them and help them survive. Ironman lives off the mantra “Anything is possible” and we will wait and see just how true that is.

The mass participation market has driven Ironman’s value. It’s amateurs and age groupers who say, “I only want to do Ironman races. Challenge doesn’t interest me.” Ironman has successfully built that value. People who haven’t done triathlon want to do an Ironman. It’s because the brand is so powerful that it is what “triathlon” is to many people. That’s not Ironman’s fault.

Ironman has marketed their brand very well, and especially because of their ownership of Kona they’ve dwarfed every other race. But now it’s a different world; the Ironman experience may not be the same as it used to be with rolling starts and held over the course of a whole day. And then you have people who have done Ironman brand events who will say it’s not as good because it’s not the same.

The call to triathletes is to experience other races. That’s what triathlon looked like in the ‘90s. People didn’t identify by a brand; they identified by a race experience, and it just happened to be an Ironman race or it happened to be Noosa, or Wildflower. Triathletes do not have to identify themselves solely by the brand or distance they race.

Chris “Macca” McCormack is a four-time triathlon world champion with the biggest winning percentage in the history of the sport. He is a co-founder and partner in Super League Triathlon, CEO of the Bahrain Victorious 13 team, board member of the Pho3nix Foundation, and CEO of MANA Sports & Entertainment Group.

by Alana Leabeater

Mirinda Carfrae was the favourite leading into the 2012 Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada. As she usually did, Rinny started out strong… but later pulled out of the race, citing gastrointestinal distress.

The reason? The superstar Aussie triathlete – a compact 5 ft 3 inches tall and weighing around 52 kg – was trialling a new nutrition strategy: 60-90g of carbohydrate per hour, a recommendation based on a study done on 51 elite male triathletes and cyclists performing a 20km time trial. Given the intensity of the race and the size of Rinny (as well as her being female), pushing in that much carbohydrate was a recipe for disaster.

The 60-90g of carbs per hour is not the only pervasive endurance training strategy that doesn’t work as well for women as it does for men. Consider the messaging around chocolate milk as an example of a ‘perfect’ 4:1 carbohydrate to protein recovery drink; the debate around ice baths for recovery; and, worryingly, the widespread use of a 3-week on, 1-week off periodised training plan for everyone, regardless of age or gender. If you don’t know where these ideas originally came from, what population they were tested on, or how they have been applied in research, it would be easy to think that they are suitable for everyone.

The vast majority of sports science research is undertaken on young, usually highly trained males around 18-22 years old. The results of these studies are often extrapolated to the general population and can be taken out of context by the media. For example, consider the popularity and proliferation of low-carb/ketogenic diets, which were originally tested on obese male populations who needed to lose weight for surgery; but no performance benefit has been recorded in male athletic populations, and studies have shown very poor outcomes in healthy, trained women. Even the 3 weeks on/1 week off training model came from a theory of homeostasis applied by Russian coaches to their male athletes in the 1940s.

If female subjects are included in research (which is in less than 40% of total studies in physiology) they are usually in the follicular or ‘low hormone’ phase of their menstrual cycle, or they are using the oral contraceptive pill (which has its own distinct effects); and they are often grouped together with male subjects for the purpose of analysis. The hormonal phases experienced by women are considered problematic for researchers, giving rise to a distinct lack of female subjects in a number of study areas, not just sports science. Without applying a gender lens to sports science research, it is difficult to tease out the physiological differences which can profoundly affect endurance performance.

So what are the basics you (and your coach) should know in regards to triathlon training and performance?

Let’s start with a short high school PE lesson: the average or ‘textbook’ menstrual cycle is 28 days long, though more women are likely to have a cycle of 34-40 days, and some as short as 21 days. Your cycle begins on the first day of menstrual bleeding, commencing the follicular phase. Ovulation occurs right around the middle of your cycle (approximately day 14), which dictates the start of the luteal or ‘high hormone’ phase.

The luteal phase is defined by much higher levels of the hormone progesterone than in the follicular phase. This has a number of effects on the female body, amongst them:

• An increase in core temperature of around half a degree Celsius
• Delayed sweating response and saltier sweat
• Increased breakdown of protein in the body, which inhibits lean mass development
• Poor access to and storage of glycogen
• ‘Brain fog’ and central nervous system fatigue
• Impaired spatial cognition and reduced reaction time & dexterity

This all contributes to the general feeling of sluggishness, tiredness and irritability that many women may call PMS – but it is, in fact, separate to PMS and a very normal part of the cycle.

In a performance setting, during the luteal phase it becomes very difficult to hit those ‘top-end’ intensities in training, you have a shorter time to fatigue (especially in hot conditions) and you may experience bloating, cramping and GI distress. As well, women in this phase have poorer recovery, may have difficulty sleeping due to the slight increase in core body temperature, and have a greater reliance on fat for fuelling, which uses more oxygen to convert to energy.

Of course, not all women may experience their cycle in the same way. For example, on the day of peak ovulation, some women feel stronger and more invincible, while others may note this as the beginning of a slow decline into the luteal phase. What is important for women is tracking their cycle so they know what symptoms affect them and when, and how they can manage their training with these fluctuations in their normal cycle.

There are a few ways women can do this. The easiest would be a pen and a calendar or diary, and just noting how you feel each day and where you are in your cycle. There are some great apps on the market that you can use too: Clue, Garmin, or – particularly for athletes – Fitr Woman, which contains information on the phases of the cycle and how to manage your training and diet around them. These apps can predict when you are ovulating, but if you want to be really specific, you can test this yourself with a thermometer (noting the slight rise in core body temp), or purchase an ovulation predictor kit from the pharmacy and use it from around day 10 onwards. You will need to track your cycle consistently for at least 3 months to gain a good understanding of patterns in your cycle.

Once you have a better understanding of your cycle, you can then start to tailor your training around it. Most women can benefit from a 2-week hard, 1-week moderate, 1-week easy model, individualised for their particular cycle.

• First two weeks of the cycle: women have a greater capacity for ‘top-end’ work – time to hit those HIIT sessions, V02 max intervals, heavy weights in the gym & long, hard runs or rides, as the female body is primed to lay down lean muscle mass and adapt to hard training. Try and squeeze in 5-6 hard sessions, but allow for 24-36 hrs recovery between sessions if you can, e.g. a morning workout one day followed by an evening workout the next day.
• In the first week of the luteal phase, bring the intensity down slightly and introduce some tempo or steady state work, depending on how the athlete feels.
• In the week before the period, dial it back and focus on skill/technique work or functional movement. This is a great time to work on your weaknesses in the gym, add in some yoga or stretching, or just listen to your body and what it needs – incorporating some parasympathetic (the ‘rest and digest’ nervous system) activation rather than sympathetic (‘fight or flight’) activation from high intensity exercise or a stressful lifestyle.

Note that women with a shorter cycle may only be able to fit 1 week of hard work before their luteal phase kicks in; and, conversely, women with a longer cycle may be able to fit more hard sessions in, depending on if their follicular or luteal phases are longer. This is when accurately reporting when you are ovulating may become more important.

As you track your cycle make sure you track how you’re feeling with your training and nutrition, because this will be really important in individualising your training going forward. It will also help you if your race day happens to fall during your high hormone phase, as you would know in advance some symptoms you might experience and be able to put interventions in place to mitigate these. In addition, tracking mood and training becomes more important as you move into peri-menopause and menopause, where hormones fluctuate greatly and you can no longer depend on a regular cycle (this is a much deeper topic that would require a whole other blog piece!).

While there is so much more to share about training and racing as a female athlete, these are the basics that every female should know in order to maximise their training and their health. Tracking your cycle and using it to your advantage is a woman’s ergogenic aid – it allows you to gain more from what you are doing with less effort, and it prevents those classic pre-menstrual tantrums where you can’t keep up with the group ride, feel sluggish on your long run or simply can’t hit the times you’re used to. It’s all physiology; it’s just that no one has ever explained it to you.

Make sure you practice critical media literacy and don’t take every training or racing tip you read at face value – it more than likely hasn’t been tested on female athletes. Empower yourself with knowledge about your own body and encourage your coaches and male training buddies or partners to learn about it too.

Credit:
Dr Stacy Sims 2019 – Women Are Not Small Men course
Roar (2018) by Dr Stacy Sims
Fitr Woman app

by James Bale

We all have things we are delaying, things we think we’ll do tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, or at some unspecified time in the future. Things that we know in the back of our minds will make us healthier, fitter, stronger, and keep our bodies in better condition, not only for sporting competition but also for day to day life.

We put these things off because we don’t ever really see the fierce urgency of the immediate – we know that a better diet will improve out overall health and tend our immune system. We know that doing the right level of exercise will keep our bodies healthier and stronger. But we put these things off because we always think there is time to make these changes and that that is what the future is for. “I know I should cut down but I’ll do it at some point” “I’m always thinking about improving my diet and losing a few lbs, but maybe next year”

2020 – in my mind – changed all that. Suddenly it mattered, immediately mattered, how healthy we are and how functional our immune systems are. There was no, I’ll make the changes down the road, what you had done and how you have lived up until this point suddenly mattered and was brought into sharp focus.

This year has made me look at how I live my life and reflect on certain things, it has made consider some choices about how I am going to live from now on and make changes now rather than at some point in the future. Things that have been at the back of my mind for some time, but never really had the push to take the step. 2020 has shown that the future is now, we live in the immediate and it is critically important that you are making the best choices for yourself right in this moment because you do not know what will happen tomorrow or even today.

We’re all triathletes, we live fairly healthy lives but maybe 2020 is the time to really dial down into the things you have been waiting to change but keep putting off. Do you really have a healthy diet? Do you really only drink a little bit from time to time? Do you honestly only miss the odd session?

In our community you have access to a range of experts who can help guide you through any changes you want to make. People at the top of their game who can give advice and help you take the steps towards the best version of you, use their expertise and take advantage of the huge range of knowledge at your fingertips.

2020 blindsided all of us, don’t let the warning slip by, if there is something you think you can do, or something you have been wanting to do to improve your health then take the step now and not at some point in the future. It could make the difference tomorrow.

Chances are you have had one or all of your race plans cancelled this year because of the big C-bomb. I am in enough triathlon circles to see the constant influx of announcements about cancellations, postponements and everything in between.

What has really surprised me though is the many different reactions that I have seen. I am shocked to see how many people without races in the future have basically thrown in the towel and said, ‘If I don’t have anything to train for then why train at all?’

To me this does not compute. Not because anybody who has had this reaction is wrong but instead because that thought never crossed my mind. I travel and race a lot. Honestly, it is one of the perks and challenges of my job. Last year, I flew to Canada for four days to run a camp and race a Super League race. It was an amazing opportunity and experience – that left me sick for two weeks. As a sort of new year resolution this year, I decided that I wanted to race and travel less this year and focus on just really becoming a strong, efficient athlete.

Now don’t go blaming me for the global situation we find ourselves in. I swear I wasn’t secretly working in a lab so that I would be forced to stay closer to home. But maybe by explaining why I had decided to wind things down this year you might be able to understand why I think these ‘unprecedented times’ are actually a real opportunity for the longevity of you, dear reader, as a triathlete.

Triathlon asks a lot of us. It is often a real struggle to fit everything in and when it comes down to it, chances are there are a number of things we neglect. For some of us it might be *cough* training *cough* and then for others it might be gym work, mobility work, adequate sleep, mindfulness or all of the things we know we SHOULD be doing but just cannot find the time to do. Next add in the demands of racing. The tuning up for an event with speed-specific work, dropping weight to get to race weight and the stress of travel, packing and the race itself will all ultimately impact on your ability to ‘do it all.’

I said to all of my athletes as soon as all of this started that to me, this is an extended ‘off-season’ and I am not talking about the “eat all the food and drink all the beer” off-season. I am talking about the “get strong, work on weaknesses or inefficiencies, base work” off-seasons that are extremely beneficial but also not very sexy.

How many athletes are in the gym each week? We all know we should do it but as the training and intensity ramps up the gym is probably skipped because it leaves us sore and stiff and hard gym work and fast tempo work are not always each other’s best friends. But you want to be able to keep training harder and longer? You need the gym. How many pro athletes have you heard talk about the importance of resistance training as they age? Here is an opportunity to fit it in.

What about sport-specific strength? Bike strength through low-cadence big-gear work is good for getting your FTP up but it does not directly relate to faster riding. It lays the base for it. Same with swimming. Strength-based swimming is good for burning the lats but you may find your pace per 100m dropping as a result of it. With a race on the horizon, these drops in speed can be alarming and can lead to some panicked conversations with your coach.

By now you can probably see where I am going with this but basically, here is a period where we are all forced to slow down for a while. Being primed for a race is incredibly hard on the body. Being at race weight and ready to go can often lead to people getting sick or injured. Have you ever gotten sick before a race or right after it?

So, by taking the need to be that ‘sharp’ away and understanding that focusing on making your body strong a period without racing becomes a huge opportunity to prime yourself for when racing comes back.

Personally, I am training as much as I ever have but there is nowhere near the intensity I would usually train with and I am absolutely loving my training. I am seeing myself get stronger, I am eliminating niggles that have plagued me for years and I understand that when I do start to focus on specific race preparation, I will be better than ever before.

The even better news is that if you want to, you can work on this without as much volume as you might usually do. Busy at work? Take a couple of extra days off to recover because strength training leaves you fatigued. This style of training does not require your 100% commitment because, again, there are no races coming up.

If you are the person who has decided to stop training because you don’t have a race coming up, ask yourself why do you train? Is it only because of race results or is it because of what being a triathlete does for you as a person and your life? I train to perform when I race, but I race and train to help me be healthy and fit.

That doesn’t take a break and that’s why I can just change the way I train; I will not simply stop because I am not aiming for a specific race.

You may completely disagree with me here and this honestly isn’t a plug for my coaching, but I think this is the ideal time to start working with a coach. Coaches will be able to use this time to really set you up for success. By working with a coach for an extended period of time you will see something much more than improved race results, you will improve your longevity as an athlete.

If you don’t want to work with a coach, then maybe it is a great time to join a community like Pho3nix Club. While your motivation might be lacking, our community will hold you accountable and accountability will never run out.

So while the state of the world isn’t great for those of us who love to swim, bike and run, with a shift in focus this could be one of the best things to happen to triathletes for a very long time.

Tim Ford is a member of our team of coaches. He has gone from being a complete novice weighing well over 120kg to a top athlete with a 4:06 PB for a 70.3. Through his time in the sport he has learned skills which help him to assist athletes of all levels and abilities.

“Who’s better?” and “What’s possible?”

You don’t “play” triathlon or endurance sports. You do them. They are tough and hard and there has to be a reason why you intend to suffer for a result. It is in you as part of your character and being. What separates the winners from the others is a matter of just how much. This does not need to be filtered or hidden.

There has to be a reason behind a professional athlete’s desire to pursue this sport at its highest level, giving up so much of their productive years to dedicate to an ambitious dream.

In Part 1, I wrote about the career necessity of winning, the internal desire to win, and the emotional pain of losing. In Part 2 I want to explore the desire to prove oneself against the best, and that urge to keep pushing the boundaries.

They Thrive on Competition

I know at the start of my career I’d said I want to win Kona titles like Mark Allen. It was a broad youthful statement that stayed with me my entire career. It was part of my dream since I watched triathlon as a boy, and my motivation was driven in those early years of trying to “Be like Mark” (to crib the “Be Like Mike” slogan used by Nike in the 80’s) because I thought he was the best and that was what you had to pursue if you wanted to be like him.

What I really wanted was to feel what it was like to win at the highest level. The biggest influence on my career was Sebastian Coe winning the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles in the 1500 meters (watch here). The world media had written Coe off and turned their back on him to embrace a new champion, Steve Cram. Then Coe crossed the line first, beating Cram. He showed a big “How do you like that” gesture, raising his two arms out parallel to the ground and pointing at the media. This gesture was rich with emotion and honesty and authenticity.

Coe won on the biggest stage in the world, and his emotion was so inspiring I had my father buy me running shoes so I could experience that same thing one day. These unfiltered displays of human emotion are so powerful, they changed the course of my life by me just seeing them on a TV screen.

When I won Kona again in 2010, it wasn’t about how many titles I won. I realised I was personally motivated not just by the competition and inspired by the champions who came before me, the standards they set, but more so by the honesty with myself of pursuing my own Sebastian Coe moments through preparation and belief, and the drive to push and achieve that, no matter what others think. It was my Sebastian Coe moment in so many ways.

I always saw it as a responsibility to at least pursue a better outcome to my career than the athletes before me had achieved. I wanted to race the best at every opportunity and sought that type of competition my entire career. Unlike many of my peers, I was not a single-continent racer who would set up a training base and race locally for a season. For me the sport was all year and on every continent. If there was an athlete star or a talent I heard about, I had to race them. I subconsciously treated every race I ever did with the same intensity I saw in Sebastian Coe when I was a child. I was driven to race, and I fed off that adrenaline.

During my Ironman racing days especially early on it was imperative for me to race the world’s best at every opportunity. The sport was then owned by the Germans, so despite residing in the USA, I was drawn to racing in Europe as this was where the talent was. I would go to Germany, Switzerland, or Belgium and race the world’s best every year in their home country. I would try and beat them despite their home court advantage. I found strength in challenging them when the momentum was on their side. Being an underdog motivated me immensely, and I thrived on European racing for this reason. Titles were important, but to me head-to-head combat was the most honest answer to the question every athlete indirectly wants to answer: “Am I better than him/her?” I would seek answering that question all year. Titles were just a product of this.

Today this is not done as much. Many athletes are very selective with where and who they race in a season. The sheer volume of races available allows many people to shape a shadow career on the back of races that no one competes at. They have the number of branded titles in their racing resume, but because they don’t race the best and refine their craft enough, they stand no chance at world championship level.

At times it seems more important to accumulate a bunch of wins than to take on your peers every chance you get. But when you retire, you seriously don’t look back at titles. You reflect on races — those races that test you and are a showcase of character of your competitors and yourself. Most of these are not title races. Some of my toughest battles and most memorable wars had nothing but pride on the line. No world titles, no regional championships, no national title; just a pure racing battle against another competitor.

To give Jan Frodeno absolute kudos, he is one of the only athletes in the modern era that continues to choose races around competing with the best. Most of the events he selects are stacked. And I have to give it to him, Daniela Ryf and Alistair Brownlee. They race people; while they are accumulating titles, they do it on the biggest stages and not in a controlled environment. Roll out the “Next Big Star” and it won’t be long before one of these athletes goes head-to-head with them.

The sterility of today’s racing has robbed us of this in some way. In championships we do see some amazing racing, but the importance of strategy intertwines with competition and you often never see athletes pushing each other. The fact that we only get to see these head-to-head races nowadays at championship races is a tragedy for the fans and for these athletes who thrive on this type of motivation to push themselves and establish new limits.

They Continually Push the Limits

What if we could push the envelope by bringing the best together and have them race freely?

In other sports it is often outside of championship racing where we see the best competitions occur. It is when athletes take chances and go for it. What would happen then? What could happen when you get a mix of the best chasing a new impossible?

This happened in Roth in 1996, when Lothar Leder and the world’s best came together and smashed the magical 8-hour mark in the ironman for the first time. Stoking a competitive environment, taking away the title chase, and just bringing an event with the world’s best throwing down without consequence would be amazing. Then this could set the tempo for the next generation to build upon.

This may be to some youngsters their Sebastian Coe moment: one of those races where both the time, the competition and the result all blend into the perfect race. Just what is the current crop of athletes capable of achieving if they just all threw down and let go?

At some point it’d be great, like in athletics, to see these guys go for an actual endurance mark that shows what is humanly possible. What could Jan Frodeno, at his peak, be able to achieve? How fast can he go? What if we pitted him against a youthful, dynamic, half-his-age athlete like 70.3 record holder Kristian Blummenfelt — or an Olympic champion like Alistair Brownlee who has had Jan’s measure through all their ITU years, is a lot younger than him, and is now migrating to this long-course racing?

Let’s build a project where the world’s best go after it, and may the best individual win on that day. It doesn’t shape or influence who they are or take away their titles and what they’ve already accomplished. It is a raw head-to-head battle where we throw caution to the wind and we push barriers of what is and isn’t possible.

How can we create a racing environment that creates a battle we all want to see? That’s why everyone watched that 2018 70.3 world championship race in South Africa. It was seven men off the front including Javier Gomez, Ben Kanute, Sam Appleton, Jan Frodeno and Alistair Brownlee — all going for it. And that’s what made that race spectacular, especially when Jan, Ali, and Javi took off after the bike. They threw caution to the wind and ran a 67-minute half-marathon. We talk about those three dominating the race, but if you watch closely it was actually Ben and Sam who set up much of the pace from the onset. The three champions who took the podium benefited from the pacemaking of the others. The outcome of that race was next level.

They rewrote the books.

And now that most of these athletes have all started racing ironman, I’m intrigued to see just how fast someone could potentially race this distance using and controlling all the conditions. What is the limit if every other factor is perfect on one day? Just how fast can you go? What are you able to do? What can your human body produce?

Is taking more than half an hour off the current record and breaking 7 hours possible? Seven hours is almost mystical, requiring an athlete to swim at Olympic open water medalist pace, ride a bike with the fastest professional cyclists on the planet on their best ever day, and then drop a marathon quicker than any ever delivered in an Ironman. Can it be done?

Pacemakers in running have existed for years. It in no way eliminates the competition or the drama of a race. In fact it amplifies it. It removes to some degree the strategy and the race head, and gets us quickly down to the rawness of the emotion and physical capabilities of the athlete. There is simply nowhere to hide. So let’s set the swim, bike, and run pace with pacemakers, and put the world’s best athletes in an environment where they have to compete and hang on. It would sure make for some incredible viewing.

I’ve had conversations with Jan and Alistair on this exact thing. Interestingly, both had very different answers. One said it is not possible and the other says, it is not impossible. Both athletes agree that only the mind would be the limiter, and the pain and suffering of an attempt like this would be like nothing else ever done, almost barbaric in its rawness and severity.

Alistair is the greatest Olympic distance athlete of all time, and his arrival on the circuit reshaped the way athletes raced this distance. He is the greatest disrupter to ever race the sport and along with his brother is responsible for the way it is raced today: aggressive from the gun. The Brownlee brothers dropped this racing style and mindset on the sport and made the champions before them, even the current Olympic champion at the time, look obsolete and pedestrian very quickly.

The athletes that have come through in their mould almost singularly focus on perfection in each discipline. You will hear many triathletes say “triathlon is one sport,” but the new generation are world-class in each discipline of the sport. They benchmark their goals off the best in each discipline.

The outcome is what we now see with tremendous talent in short-distance racing at Super League Triathlon and ITU/Olympic level. It is absolutely remarkable that many of these athletes qualify for the Olympics in both triathlon and also the individual sports within it. This mindset is yet to truly migrate across to the long course ranks. It is coming with Jan Frodeno, but this next younger generation will hit long-course racing like a tidal wave.

As the reigning Olympic champion, Alistair believes he can break 7 hours for the ironman if the conditions were set perfectly and the same rules in cycling applied to the bike leg. A lot of people may say well, “that’s not triathlon” — but it’s part of ITU triathlon, which is still triathlon. Ali is motivated by the X factor of trying to understand just what he is capable of doing. This is what makes him stand out in this sport. This is why when you ask him something like this he doesn’t give you a quick, off-the-cuff response. You can see him truly ponder the question. It is like you can see him calculating what he thinks he is capable of doing against the current standard. You can see why he disrupted the sport the way he has and changed it forever. He is a champion with a “let’s do this” attitude.

I’ve spoken with Kristian Blummenfelt about it as well. Without hesitation he said he doesn’t see the current records as anywhere near human potential, and cheekily hinted that he was very eager to mix things up and establish faster times. His response was typical of the new wave of athletes’ mindset: “I would really like to find out what that feels like.” You have to love the enthusiasm of the young guys.

Kristian came across to Ironman 70.3 racing and smashed the world record by two minutes. He came back a year later and did it again, setting a mark almost seven minutes quicker than anyone had done before him. He put that call out to the universe in the weeks before the race, and everyone laughed. The guy ran a 66-minute 21km run off a sub-1:58 bike split. In his own words he said he swam average and was disappointed he had to take up so much of the riding pace early. He thinks he can go “much faster.”

Of course what is typical to the status quo is that after he broke the record, his peers and others came out trying to justify why they haven’t done it themselves or tear down why the record was established. It couldn’t be that Kristian just raced like he always does and has now changed the way we race this distance. Admitting this would mean admitting that many of the athletes racing now may have a use-by date unless they step up their game. So it is much easier to say the course was short, or the conditions were perfect, or the Norwegians who were all over this race at the front worked together.

What Kristian delivered is next level, but more so it is his mental belief that the current established marks are there to be broken which is the point of discussion. It is the winner’s mindset we talk about: bring me your best, bring me your targets, and I will go after them. That attitude is authentic and inspiring. The average will find excuses and reasons, while the exceptional will continue to raise the bar.

When Lothar Leder became the first man to go under eight hours for the Ironman in 1996, that sub-8 became a mystical mark. Now we have the technology to measure and maximise exertion to go faster (power meters, aerodynamics, bikes, wheels, shoes) and the talent has stepped up to racing Ironman resulting in a bumper crop of sub-8 times in the past five years. It also wasn’t that long ago in 1956 when Roger Bannister’s four-minute mile was the mark of running prowess, but now even high school kids are doing it.

Back in 2009, which is not that long ago, the best marathon runners of the time said we would never see the breaking of the two-hour mark in this century. It happened less than 10 years later because one man opted to not believe what his competitors saw as the limits of human potential. I guess he was “ahead of the times.” Eliud Kipchoge’s Breaking 2 near-miss and his subsequent INEOS 1:59 success show that limits exist only in our minds, and the boundary of what is humanly possible continues to push outwards.

So, is 7 hours possible in an ironman? Many say no it isn’t, and “who cares?” Maybe that is so, but what is most interesting is that the younger generation think it is possible. I love the fact that they don’t see the current standards as barriers, and I would sure love to witness an attempt at it.

When we view times or targets as limits, these become a wall to progress because they sneak into our psyche and subconsciously restrict us. It takes courage and often a laissez-faire, almost childish ignorance or inexperience to break from the mold and “chase the crazy.” These champion athletes have that, but is it that they are crazy, or is their view of what’s possible different from ours?

That is the attitude and the style of racing I love, and I just love that this type of racing attitude is shaping our sport’s future. That would be true endurance racing at its core, pushing the boundaries of what the human can endure. Bring it on guys. As a fan of sports, that is one race I would love to see.

Chris “Macca” McCormack is a four-time triathlon world champion with the biggest winning percentage in the history of the sport. He is a co-founder and partner in Super League Triathlon, CEO of the Bahrain Victorious 13 team, board member of the Pho3nix Foundation, and CEO of MANA Sports & Entertainment Group.