Triathlon legend Chrissie Wellington talks to JOHN COLLINSabout the psychological challenge of taking a year out from the sport she loves
CHRISSIE Wellington is quite simply a legend in the world of long distance triathlon. Turning professional at the age of 30, in her first season she won the 2007 Ironman world championship in Hawaii – a gruelling 2.4 mile swim, 115 mile bike race, topped off with a full length 26.2 mile marathon. Since then she has won the title another three times, picking up an MBE and a Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year award along the way, but she shocked the triathlon community by deciding to take 2012 off.
The Irish Times caught up with her when she visited Dublin last week, as a fundraiser for Crumlin Children’s Hospital and the Jane Tomlinson appeal.
What brings you to Dublin?
“It’s somewhere I’ve always wanted to come to as a professional athlete. I took this year out because I wanted, in part, to try and connect with people on a more intimate one-to-one personal level. It’s very difficult to do when you are training and racing.
When you are training full-time it’s a monkish, mono-dimensional, regimented lifestyle. Training for me is a 24/7 job. With the other things I wanted to do in my life, I knew if I did those they would compromise my training. Seeing more of my family and friends, going to concerts, being at the Olympics, it would all compromise my training and my ability to race. Mediocrity doesn’t interest me. I would never compromise my performance for anything. That’s why I took a year out.”
Do you think you will return to the Ironman circuit in 2013?
“I haven’t decided. I have achieved so much, more than I could ever have imagined. As a professional athlete you have to be very mindful of when to leave a sport. I need to be cognisant of that and ensure I’m not only enjoying the racing, I’m enjoying the process of getting there and the lifestyle you have to lead to be able to achieve those goals.
Training, racing, performing, success, adulation, it’s all very addictive, but that’s not necessarily the right reasons to do a sport – because you crave that high.”
What’s more important for Ironman – physical or mental preparation?
“No amount of physical training will help an athlete unless their mind is prepared. The majority of professional athletes are doing very similar training in terms of swim, bike and run. There’s something else that sets a successful, world-beating athlete apart from the rest. Psychological strength is one of those, not the only one. A willingness to have all your ducks in a row; strength and conditioning, nutrition, rest, recovery, sleep, massage, compression, physiotherapy. I’m often surprised that athletes invest so much time in their training but neglect the psychological side of any sport. Because you know, 30km into the marathon when your legs are screaming, its not your body that will carry you, it’s your head.”
What advice do you have for amateur triathletes?
The most important thing is to enjoy it. Second, emphasise quality over quantity. My running has improved 15 minutes over the marathon by reducing the volume of running I’m doing but increasing the intensity. Develop intuition about your body. Don’t over-rely on gadgets and numbers. You have to have that intuition and listen to your body and its signals. You need to see triathlon as one sport. It’s not three sports. You need to train your body accordingly.”
What’s your current training regime?
I’m training in a very unstructured and unfocused way and I’d be lying if I said that was emotionally easy. It’s not. It’s one of the most difficult things I’ve done stepping out of my comfort zone. Ironman is in my comfort zone. I’m anal and obsessive. I’m driven. I’m very, very structured. I find Ironman easy. Comfortable physically, psychologically easy because I’m satisfying that side of my personality. That’s what people fail to understand. The easiest thing for me to do is to come back. The hardest thing is to take a year out, to step out of my comfort zone, to challenge myself mentally, to be able to cope with not training. That’s what life’s about.”
