(smooth music)
- Alright then, guys.
Have you ever wondered what pro triathletes
do on race morning?
How early they might arrive in transition area
or if they've got any particular pre-race checks,
if there's some superstitions
that they've gotta get out of their head
before the gun goes off, perhaps?
- Well, if you have, then you'll be glad to know
that Frasier and myself have recently caught up
with a few pro triathletes to ask them just that
and a few other race day related questions.
(smooth music)
- Can I only pick one thing?
- Uh.
(speaks foreign language)
- Nice one. - Is that okay?
(speaks foreign language)
- [Interviewer] In the morning, what checks are you doing
first thing in transition?
- As soon as I get to transition, I'm checking my tires,
because that's probably the most complicated
thing to change.
Then, I'll check my Di2 battery, and then,
that's all I check, really.
Then, it's kinda putting my shoes on,
putting my nutrition.
Maybe with Ironman, we have those bags,
so go and check if I've done that the night before,
that that's all okay, but normally it is.
So, those are the first things I check.
- And that's just a routine,
regardless of the race, isn't it?
- Yeah, for me, it's all about routine.
No, you know, whether it's Kona World Championships
or my local fish and chipper down the road,
I'm still, yeah, getting, you know, same routine.
- Michelle, what would you do when you get into transition
in the first thing in the morning?
Like, check, what's your checks?
- You know, you go through the whole routines.
You check your bike bags, your running bag,
and then, of course, the last thing you check is your bike,
to make sure that no one has touch it during night.
You know, that the wheels is pumped up,
the energy's on the bike, and you know,
and then I walk through transition,
just to make sure that I don't (beep) it up.
- First I go to my bike, put the bottles in the bike,
and, you know, check if my power meter's working.
Check the pressure of the tires
and, you know, spin the chain.
Just make sure that everything is working.
Maybe pump more air into the tires, and--
- Then you're done?
- Then you're done.
Oh, maybe I click my shoes into the pedals.
- Oh. - I do that, and then,
I go check my transition bags, run bag.
- Done. - Bike bag, done.
- What are your sort of morning checks
in transition on race morning?
Are you quite particular?
- Yeah, I think, for me, obviously,
the good one is making sure
I got the right gear on the bike.
And literally, I lay everything on the bed
in the room the night before, as I'm packing it,
to make sure it's all there for when I get there
and that all the bolts are tight on my legs and things.
- Again, pretty important there.
- So, what do you check in the morning, Mark?
- Well, actually, due to previous issues and experiences,
I always check my brake calipers and my tires,
just to make sure that neither are rubbing.
Long story short, I did a whole Ironman 70.3 race
with my tire rubbing against my brake caliper.
Needless to say, it was a pretty tough day out.
- Well, that is all very well, as long as you get there
early enough to have the time to do those checks, right?
- Alright, Andy, how early do you arrive
in transition on race morning?
- I get there a good couple hours before, to be fair.
I got a lot of legs and things to put in place,
so I need to make sure everything's working.
- I think that's fair enough.
- I'm one of the guys who wants
to go late to transition zone,
but still, if you want to do an Ironman race,
you cannot be too late,
because you also don't want to stress yourself.
So, it's around about one hour to the race start.
- Usually one and a half hour before the cannon goes.
- [Interviewer] For any race?
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] Any distance?
- Maybe not an Olympic local distance race.
Or, maybe even there, because you have to check
in your bike on race morning.
- I get to transition about 60 minutes
before the race, minimum.
Sometimes a little bit more, unless it's a split transition,
and then, oh, it gets very complicated.
- But that doesn't matter how long the race is?
Half Ironman, full Ironman, same.
- No, half Ironman, 70.3, full Ironman, ITU.
Unless there's a practical reason, you know,
in terms of security and things like that.
But, yeah, at least 60 minutes.
- Bish, bash, bosh, in and out.
- In and out like a fiddler's elbow.
- Well, I have got to say,
that is similar to myself, really.
I'd always rather be nice and early,
chilled and relaxed,
rather than rushing around and panicking.
Anything that you do differently, Frasier?
- No, not particularly, Mark.
To be fair, I'm not the most punctual at the best of times.
But there is one particular race
that I do recall getting there and being ready
for what I thought was the start,
but then realizing the swim was one mile down the beach,
'cause it was a point to point swim.
So, needless to say,
that was a rather quick run down the beach.
- That sounds a little bit stressful.
Well, when that is all done and dusted,
is there anything that you quite like to eat
straight after a race?
- Not particularly, I mean,
it depends on the state my stomach is in.
But if it's all good and well and I'm able to cope with it,
some pizza, burger, those types of tasty things.
- Well, that sounds pretty nice.
But on that note, we did ask a bunch of the pro triathletes
what they like to eat post-race.
- [Interviewer] What do you eat straight after a race?
- Straight after a race?
I would love to say that I was taking a protein shake
and being really smart about my choices,
so I could recover faster,
but I would say I eat everything that I feel like,
and that could be, that's probably a lot of crap food.
The first years I was in Kona, you know,
my go-to place was Taco Bell. (laughs)
Because we really didn't have that in Denmark,
so I just went there and had my nachos
with lots of extra cheese, and--
- [Interviewer] Just straight up the hill and--
- Really, just, yeah, totally.
And that was the worst part,
because Taco Bell is up the hill, you know?
So, like, oh my god, yeah.
Not planning again.
- Usually I like to go for something with salt,
because I had all my race fuel liquids,
which are very sweet, so a pizza would be nice.
- Sometimes, you just want food.
Like, real food, so I tried, one Ironman,
I came in transition, and there was only sausages.
And I'm like, I don't really want sausages
and french fries right now.
I want some real food.
But otherwise, I kind of eat whatever there is.
But then again, I make sure that it's also
something that my body needs to, yeah.
- [Interviewer] So, there's not something
that you always have to have.
You're not superstitious, or--
- No, no, no. - No, just, yeah.
- I eat whatever.
I can eat candy, whatever there is.
Drink a Coke, maybe, you know. (laughs)
- Don't really eat that much straight afterwards,
which I know is a bad thing, but if anything, a good pizza.
I like a good pizza.
Some good toppings.
- I'm with Andy, there.
It is all about pizza post-race.
You just can't really go wrong with pizza, can you?
- No, it's pretty tasty.
- Well, now, moving on.
Is there anything stupid that you have done
during a race for yourself?
Because, personally speaking,
I've got quite a good story, here.
Because Ironman 70.3 Dublin, which you will remember,
I was leaning onto the bike
when my foot slipped off the top of my bike shoe.
And, yeah, it wasn't pretty.
- No, you ended up with a lot of blood.
But I do recall riding at FTY
and watching you run back towards me
to collect your bike shoes, which was a little bit odd.
- Well, yeah.
So, basically, my foot slipped off,
went into the spokes, which wasn't nice.
So, a bit of blood there,
but I did manage to keep the bike upright,
but I lost my bike shoes in the process.
Went back and collected them, got my chain unstuck.
And then I was so cross with myself,
I rode like a madman for 20 or 30 minutes,
caught up with you guys,
and then decided I'd sit on the front
and just churn the power out.
Needless to say, I blew up.
- Yeah, not the, not the-- - Park around the run,
and then Frasier came past me again.
- Smartest racing in the world, but.
- [Interviewer] Is there anything stupid you've ever done,
maybe when you were younger, or things in a race
that you think, oh, why did I do that?
- Yeah, one time, it was one of my first 70.3 races,
I forgot to put my bib number on,
and then I had to stop,
run back through the whole transition zone,
and it was a long one, it was in Monaco.
- Oh, yeah. - It was also a nice course.
And then I need to find my bag again,
because it was already dropped somewhere.
And yeah, bad.
- But you got it? - Finally, I got it,
and I had a good time.
I was not able to run for the top spots at this time, but--
- But you raced. - I had fun, and I raced,
and I really enjoyed that race.
- Tim, what is the most stupid thing
you've tried to eat in a race.
- I think it was when I was in the London Youth Games,
so I was young, it was a swimming pool swim.
Had Scott Tinley swimming trunks on,
they had a nice little pocket at the back.
And that was when the Lucozade Energy, little sweet tabs.
And I thought, I'm gonna take some of those on the bike.
So, I put them in the pocket, did the swim,
came out, and I went to get them, and I was like,
what is, oh no, yeah, they dissolve in water!
So, I had Lucozade all over my bum, and, yeah.
Well, I didn't actually, I consumed some of it, but,
yeah, that's pretty stupid.
- Was it a nice orange color?
- Yeah, my bum was, afterwards.
I had to get help watching it and stuff.
- So, talking about stupid things you've done in races,
if I go back into the recesses of my mind,
and remember, pretty much, the first race that I ever did,
internationally, as a junior.
I was so nervous, running FT2, that I may have forgotten
to take my helmet off.
- Oh, classic, I love it.
Well, I've really enjoyed that from all the pros today,
and what it does highlight is,
the pros aren't all that different from us guys.
They are human after all.
So, some really funny stuff there.
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