firstoffthebike.com - Interviews

Craig Alexander speaks before Kona

Your season has been a pretty decent one by all accounts. You had some great results.
Yeah I can’t complain. I’ve won five 70.3s out of the 6 I’ve done so it started off in Geelong and kept the ball rolling in Singapore and Honu which was good to win here on the big island again and then Boise and Muskoka just over a week ago so it’s been good. I think what’s the most pleasing is that I’ve got in really probably my best shape of the year now. So I seem to have timed it pretty well which was the plan initially, to try and have a good season but really to try and be in my best shape in October. So I think my race in Muskoka a week and a half ago was probably my best race of the year so that was encouraging. I feel like my preparation has been good. I’ve done all the hard work and yeah just really trying to put the finishing touches on things now.

Can you believe it’s a year gone already that you’re back on the big island and you’re readying yourself for another battle?
Yeah, time seems to fly as you get older. At times it has felt like it's been a long year but you know it’s been a great year. It’s been an honour to have the mantle as World Champion. It’s something that I’ll remember forever. Hopefully I’ll get to do it again but you never know so it’s something that I certainly enjoyed. I didn’t want to be one of these people who enjoyed it ten years down the track, I enjoyed it right now although it came at a lot of, I guess, responsibility and also more constraints on my time but it was always a pleasure to represent the sport, holding that mantle. It’s something I enjoy immensely and it’s kind of funny. I think back two years ago to ’07 and that sometimes just feels like yesterday. That was my first race here (in Kona). So it’s hard to believe that was two years ago and when I won that was twelve months ago. But time moves on you know, I’ve got a pretty good history at this race and a good track record and hopefully I can continue that in a couple of weeks.

Now one thing that sticks out for mine is your running this year which has been nothing short of sensational. You ran down Chris Lieto in Boise (70.3) which captured a lot of world attention for the dramatic finish photos and then your 1:11 run at Muskoka as well was also super quick. Has that been a focus for you is to make sure that your running is at a certain level or even better than last season?
I wouldn’t say it’s been a focus the run. I think the focus has been to improve in all three disciplines because I think obviously going in as defending champ I’ll be one of the marked men. I won’t be the only one but I really think you need to have more than one string to your bow. You need to have all your bases covered because you never know how the race is going to pan out. People might try and attack you on the bike or whatever. I think the fact that I’ve been running well shows that the rest of my race has been good as well. It hasn’t taxed me as much.

You know I think it’s fair to say that in our sport you run better when you’re riding better as well. So the run in Muskoka was especially pleasing because it came off the back of my big block of training and it’s a hard run and a hard bike course there and I went a couple of minutes quicker than last year. My ride there was much better than last year. Granted it was raining last year when I did that race and made the roads pretty slippery, I have to be pretty cautious. It’s a fairly hilly bike course up there just outside Toronto and it’s long too, it’s about 4-5km long. I was really happy with the way I rode up there. And to run that time off such a hard bike I think gave me some confident that I think my training is on track and that my body has absorbed the workload.

So I seem to have come through the other side and be relatively fresh and in good form. Initially at the start of the year I thought it would be great to get to this race doing all three disciplines a little better. There’s no guarantee, particularly in this race, it's such a long race and there’s so many variables and things that can come into play. I think all you can really do is try and get in your best shape, be mentally and physically read and I feel I’ve done that. I wouldn’t say I’m overly confident. I don’t know what result I can get but think I’m fairly capable of a great performance this year and who knows what result that will lead to. I’m proud of myself the way I’ve prepared this year. I think I’ve got into some good form.

You’re in Kona at the moment and there’s a lot of pros as well who are also making the journey early to acclimatise. What’s the vibe like when you go down to the beach for a swim or a run? Is there a lot of people checking each other out?
Yeah that’s always the way. It’s funny because two years ago I was here four weeks out with Lisa Bentley and there was no-one here until two weeks out. It was actually very relaxed the first two weeks we were here. Then last year there was a few more. This year it’s crazy, there’s a lot of people here, yeah. I guess it reminds you constantly that the race is coming up. It’s like a cloud that’s just hovering there. You see a lot of people down the street and at the pool and stuff. It’s kind of nice to catch up with a lot of people I haven’t seen since last year but as far as checking everyone out, I try and just do my own thing and I think you’ll give yourself an ulcer if you listen to all the stories and watching what everyone else is doing. It’s reasonable to assume everyone is going to be in great shape because it’s the world championship. So you may as well save yourself the suspense and assume that everyone is in great form and that’s the way it should be. It’s the biggest race so it’s safe to say that everyone is going to be in great form. So I just really try and concentrate on my own thing, go to the pool, do my own session and then pack up and leave.

Peter Reid (3 time Ironman champion) said before an Ironman he’d like to get really, really bored. He didn’t do anything, just kept to himself and got really bored so on race day he was at the right level. Is that something that you look at as well? The week before do you like to do nothing or do you like to keep yourself occupied?
Well unfortunately I haven’t got much choice. I’ve got a lot of media and stuff to do. I like to keep it pretty low key though and just hang out with the family. It’s a great place. Particularly my daughter, she loves it here. We went for a swim at Turtle Beach today, she loves it down there. My wife is really good in just keeping things pretty normal whether it’s race week or any other week. I think you’d be well advised to stay off your feet and stay out of the sun that last week although there’s a lot of demands on your time from sponsors and that and other things in that last week. So I try and keep that to a minimum as much as possible. I think I’ve gone above and beyond the call with all my sponsors the rest of the year so I kind of like to be left to my own devices that last week and just hang out with the family really.


And Dave Scott…I’m going back to a bit of history here…Dave Scott said the race for him started 70 miles into the bike. For you, where does the race start?
Yeah, probably there or even later. I think it’s the old adage, you can lose it earlier than that but you can’t really win it earlier than that. It depends on the conditions. 2007 had pretty benign conditions here and then last year, I’ve only been here twice, last year was quite the opposite. It was hot and really windy and speaking to a lot of people after the race; Mark Allen and Dave Scott and Cameron Brown and a few other people. They said that’s more typical conditions to what we got last year. I think if it’s really hard conditions like that then it becomes more of attrition and survival and the race probably starts later than that. You’ve just got to manage yourself and stay in the mix for as long as possible until really late in the race and then make your move. When it’s tough conditions, you can get 10 miles into the marathon and you still have a long way to go from there. So you really want to be within striking distance or in the race at that point but I think you need to dose your effort particularly smartly in these conditions. It’s always hot and humid here and if the wind gets up it can be a brutal day. So you really don’t want to go and blow your lollies too early.

How far can you let someone get off the front? Do you let one of the big bikers get off the front.?How far is too far when they’re up the road?
Well I never let them go, they just go. You always ride as hard as you…well last year I rode pretty much right on threshold the whole way. I was pretty happy with my ride. I’m noted as a runner but I think I was sixth or seventh off the bike last year and it was all bike riders around me. So that’s not bad for a runner. Obviously we had Torbjorn and Lieto off the front and then we had Norman (Stadler), Farris (Al-Sultan), Johannsen whose a big bike rider from Estonia and Eneko (Llanos) and then myself. So I was pretty much surrounded by all the bike riders. But you never let anyone go. I think once again you’re just dosing your effort. You ride at a level you know you can sustain knowing in the back of your mind you’ve got a marathon to run as well. I think I rode a 4:36 last year which I was pretty happy with considering the conditions.

I think it was a minute or 90 seconds quicker than the year before when there was relatively no wind at all in ’07 and we rode as a big group. Whereas last year it splintered. We came out of swim and there was about 30 of us together. By the time we got to about 60km in, there was about 15 of us and by the time we got to Hawi there was probably only 7-8 of us left. Coming back into town in the last 60km we were just in ones and twos.

The wind really made it a fair race last year, it blew all the packs apart and we were just riding in ones and twos. I don’t think you ever really let people go. I was riding pretty much…obviously I knew I had a bit more in the tank but I was riding at a level I thought I could sustain for the whole ride and keep my power relatively constant and knowing that I had a marathon to run. I wanted to run a pretty good marathon. I don’t know what a safe time is to let people go off the front to be honest. I mean you never like to get off in here more than 10 minutes.

That being said, a marathon is a long way and someone who has gone over their limit on the bike can lose 10 minutes in a couple of miles. The most important thing is, obviously you’re getting the splits out there occasionally on the course and it’s never good to hear people are riding away but more importantly I think is how you’re feeling. I mean last year I lost a fair bit of time early to Sinballe and Lieto but in the last 60km I only lost 1:45 to the leader. So that was pretty good, it showed that I rode pretty steady and the last third of the bike ride was probably my best third. To lose less than 2 minute right at the death I think that shows that I dose myself pretty well.

It gave me a lot of confidence, they weren’t just riding away and riding away. It’s funny, you’ve got to be flexible. You never know how the race is going to play out. Certainly last year when we got to Hawi I got a lot of confidence from the fact that out of swim there was 35 of us together or whatever, because everyone wears those suits now so it’s pretty hard for the swim to break up. But by the time we got to halfway, that group had been whittled down to about 8 people and I was still one of them. So that gave me some confidence and I was still with some good bike riders at that point. I was still with Norman Stadler and Timo Bracht was there as well. So you never really want to give too much time away.

So two in a row. How much does it mean for you? Is it everything for you to get another first place?
You know what? I’m not trying to think of that. It would be extremely satisfying to back it up I think. It would be more satisfying. It’s total excitement and euphoria when the first time but I think it would be really satisfying to do it again. Just to do it again, to be able to back it up. That being said, I think on the male side it’s only been done three times; Mark (Allen), Dave (Scott) and I think Tim Deboom are the only three men who have done it. So obviously that shows you how tough it is because of the depth of competition.

It would mean a lot to add your name to that list, it means you’re in a very small and illustrious group. In the 31 year history of the race only three men have been able to defend. More than that, I think when you look at it, most people when they’ve come back to defend have totally fallen apart and not even been on the radar. I think not just to win again but if I was able to put in a solid performance, that would be gratifying. To come and back up a win with a good title defence would be satisfying. So I just think it’s a hard thing to do but I think it would be more satisfying than exciting the second time round. It would be just like a job well done with all the demands on your time and sponsorship commitments and whatnot to be still able to get yourself in that sort of shape and still be competitive and motivated to do well. It would be special.

Good Luck in your pursuit of number two.
Thanks

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