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With Rebekah “Bek” Keat, the 2011 Cairns champion returns to the 2016 race. With her 8:39:24 from Roth 2009 Bek is the fourth-fastest woman over the Ironman distance. After a triathlon career spanning 20 years with a number of great results and at 38 years of age, she is clearly in the second half of her career. She was kind enough to answer a few questions about her years in the sport and the upcoming race.

Racing after Melbourne 2014

Bek’s last Ironman finish was Melbourne 2014 where she finished fourth. After that she didn’t chase Kona qualifying (even though she was probably thinking about it!) and focused on racing 70.3s.

“I have been in the sport since 1996 so 20 years, it’s a long time! I had been pretty lucky with no injuries, until a few years ago when I started racing longer races and doing more of the Iron distances. When I was coached by Brett Sutton I was racing five Ironmans or long distance races in short periods of three or four months. The years have caught up with me, and my body wasn’t holding up like it use to. I wanted to give my body a break, I wasn’t able to get huge run miles in without getting injured. The break has helped me to get back to being injury free and healthy, apart form the usual stiffness and soreness – I’m no spring chicken anymore!

“The goal this season is to execute a great race and be able to celebrate all my hard work with a race that I know I am capable of. I have not raced to my potential in an Ironman since my second place at IM Mt Tremblant in 2013! All I want to do is have a strong swim, bike and run and have fun doing it!!”

Comparing the 2009 Bek to Today’s

For a long time Bek was part of the “Sutto squad”, today she trains under Siri Lindley in Boulder. In addition to a coach-athlete relationship (by now going both ways!), Bek and Siri are also married. I’ve asked Bek how being married to your coach works and how she has changed as an athlete and as a person. 

“The Bek who did 8:39 had a perfect day, today’s Bek is actually faster, stronger and fitter. I know I have much more to give – that’s what motivates me! As I am training better than ever, I know I can go faster than that 8:39, but unfortunately the body hasn’t always been able to produce the results that I know I am capable of!

“As a person I have grown a lot, both emotionally and spiritually. I am very lucky to have met Siri, the love of my life. I am not just content but I am the happiest I have ever been in my life – Siri completes me. I told her when I married her that if me being a triathlete was going to affect our relationship I would quit immediately! That’s how much I am committed and how in love I am with her! Triathlon was the pure love and focus of my life but now Siri is. Even after a bad day I know I can come home to someone that loves me for who I am!”

Photo: Bek and Siri getting married.

“Siri and I have had to negotiate in the past, it wasn’t easy adapting as her partner to having to agree with every single session she gave me! Before I won 2015 Shepparton for the fifth time in a world class field, I had promised Siri I would do exactly as she said – no questions, no negotiating! I had the ‘ ideal race’ apart from tearing my calf at 10 k to go. Siri screamed at me don’t you stop – so I didn’t! I really don’t know how I held off Radka and Yvonne, but I won the race in record time and it felt amazing!

“Since then I am very diligent with trying to do exactly what she says, though at times I want to scream at her or flip her the bird! I certainly had to bite my tongue a lot in front of our team mates when i get angry at a session she has given us – like a “surprise 2km time trial” in the middle of a 5km swim set!

“We have a great balance now. I am writing her run program and she has to do exactly what I write! She is not as good at doing the program as she thinks, she often runs further than I have given her. Obviously she’s not then runner she was when she was wining world cups with 33 min for 10k, but she is going great. She still makes me very proud!”

Photo: Bek winning her fifth Challenge Shepparton with a new course record.

Racing at Texas and Going Into Cairns

Bek lined up at IM Texas and things were going well: She had a strong bike leg and came into T2 in third place, then even moved into second on the run. However she collapsed at the half marathon mark and DNF’d. Just four weeks later she’s backing up by racing IM Cairns.

“It was scary – it’s not the first time this has happened. The last time it was heat exhaustion, this time we think it was a combination of heat exhaustion and lack of calories. The “real” temperature was 110 and 80% humidity, coming from Boulder I was not acclimatized. I got excited when I moved into top 3 only a few minutes behind first and threw my food to Siri to take off in the run. At around the 22km mark I collapsed, my legs went and I couldn’t get back up. I made silly mistakes with not fueling enough and certainly learned my lesson!

Photo: Bek ready to race IM Texas.

“In Australia I am staying with my twin sister Simone and helping her with her amazing twin girls. I am so chuffed and over the moon to be an auntie, it’s amazing and so surreal! We are very very proud! Although Boulder right now is almost as warm, it’s been great to get in some warmer weather training.”

Photo: Bek with her twin sister Simone (left), holding Simone’s new born twins Makayla Blue (left) and Charli Grace (right). 

I’ve asked Siri about Bek’s chances in Cairns:

“I am fired up for Bek. I know she is excited to race in her home country, and has so much to inspire and motivate her throughout the race. We had our sights set on IM Texas. Unfortunately, in Texas Bek had miscalculated her hydration/nutrition requirements considering the 100% humidity. She will never make that same mistake again.

“Bek was in winning form and still carries that same form into Cairns.  She absolutely has everything she needs to race to the top of the podium in Cairns. The work has been done. She just plans to go out there and celebrate all the hard work she has done. Our goal is for her to get out and race to the best of her ability every step of the way. If she is able to do this, I’m certain she will have a tremendous day. She is in fantastic form and just needs to nail her plan to get the very most out of herself on the day!”

(All Photos Supplied by Rebekah)

American Professional Liz Lyles is one of the favorites going into the Regional Championships at IM Brasil on May 29th. She faces strong competition, mainly by last year’s winner Ariane Monticelli, IM France winner Caitlin Snow and two fast German Pros, Mareen Hufe (one of the best bikers in female triathlon) and Kristin Möller (one of the best runners). I’ve had the chance to chat with Liz about the challenges she faces, her last season and the expectations for this year.

Juggling Family and Training

Liz discovered triathlon in 2001, but didn’t turn Pro until August 2012 – after becoming a mother to son Luke (born 2008) and daughter Emma (born 2010). She has to squeeze her training between taking care of the children. When we talked, she asked to start at 9:15am (“because I drop my kids at the bus at 9:10”) – and she had a long run scheduled afterwards.

“Yesterday I had a long swim and a bike. I got home at 3:40 and had to be at the bus stop at 3:45. So I just grabbed my keys and went into the car still in my bike clothes to get the kids. When we got home all I wanted to do is to shower and lay down. Instead I had to do dinner, do the laundry, get groceries and so on. Before a big training block I try to warn everybody because I can get a little impatient by 5 o’clock at night.

“This weekend I’m going to do a Century Ride .. that helps because they provide nutrition, there’ll be other cyclists on the road and I don’t have to watch for traffic on my own. We’ll bring our travel trailer. The kids love camping, so we go down on Friday and camp close to the start. Then on Saturday I do the century ride and a run. In the meantime [husband] Chip and the kids are fishing and having a good time. On Sunday morning I’ll have a long 20-mile run while they do some more fishing, then I’ll come back and join in. It’s a good way for a little family vacation where I can safely train.

“I love looking at rankings and results but I have four hundred other things to occupy my mind: Did my son win his baseball game? Is Emma going to score a goal in soccer? I can’t really compare myself to what other professionals are doing .. it’s a different life. But I’m stoked about having my kids and my family.”

Improving

Liz won her Pro Ironman debut race at Wisconsin 2012 with a sub-3 run. She qualified for Kona 2013 (16th place) and won IM Western Australia with a sub-9 finish. In 2014 she was second at IM Germany and finished Kona in 7th place as the top US female athlete. She started her 2015 season with a win at Wildflower over defending champion Heather Jackson in a finish chute sprint duel and a second place at the Regional Championships in Brasil.

“I won Wisconsin 2012, that was back when I didn’t know how to bike. Being a Professional was fresh and exciting and new. I bike slower, my legs felt fresh at the start of the run and I ran a 2:59:33. My times have come down in the swim and especially on the bike.

“My best IMs were not my wins but when I got second in Frankfurt and in Brasil and of course Kona when I got 7th. If I want to win one of the Regionals or podium in Kona, I have to get stronger and more comfortable towards the last 20 miles of the bike – so feeling fresher at mile 90. But also at mile 112 so I can get off the bike and straight into my pace for the run.

Photo Credit: © Kaori Photo 2016 / kaoriphoto.com / Used with permission.

“The next couple of weeks on the long rides I’ll focus to take in the nutrition. On the bike I try to carry all my nutrition and only stop for water. On the run I’m on my own and no one gives me my water bottle every couple of minutes. It’s much easier in the race with all the aid stations.”

Summer 2015

Liz lined up at IM Canada in Whistler, but she had to abandon quite early on the bike as she was hypothermic in the cold rain that surprised all the racers. Three weeks later she raced IM Mont Tremblant but had a sub-standard 7th place finish in 9:42 and a disappointing 3:24 run.

“The first half of 2015 was great, but then it all went downhill with that stupid cold weather front at IM Whistler. I felt that was my chance to pick up another IM title. I just completed 14 miles of the bike – it was freezing cold. Some guy picked me up in his truck and I later met him in Kona. He said ‘Liz, I rescued you from the side of the road in Whistler’ and I didn’t remember anything. At Wildflower I met a guy who had also been picked up and we rode in the ambulance together to the Expo area. He said he tried to talk to me and that I was blue and shaking, but I don’t even recall much of that.

“I really wanted to race and I jumped into some more Ironman training. When the race in Mont Tremblant started I felt depleted and had a pretty bad race there. And after that Kona was next. I didn’t like training for three Ironmen in a row. I’ll never try that sort of thing again. When building for an IM I really like to race half IMs to get the speed and then take it down a notch for the Ironman in terms of effort.

“My kids go on summer break. All summer I was training for an IM and it wasn’t fun for anyone in our family. This year I’m going to do Brasil and then when the summer break starts in June, I’ll spend some more time with them and don’t want to be stressed about racing. When they go back to school in August I can pick up the big training then. I’m just learning that I have to plan around when it’s going to be easier for me to train. ”

Kona 2015

In Kona Liz finished 14th with a solid race, but that result was overshadowed by a number of great performances such as by the top US finishers Heather Jackson (5th) and Sarah Piampiano (7th).

“I was happy with the swim – I was in the second pack and we had put three to five minutes to the next group. But the Top 10 swimmers more or less rode together while the athletes around me just fell away: Heather Wurtele got her mechanical, Julia Gajer and Rinnie had bad days. The year before I had biked with Heather, Rinnie and Julia in a legal group until about the climb to Hawi where it broke up. I was riding in a group, I felt great, super comfortable pace. This year I don’t know where everybody went, and I was on my own for the whole bike ride. I was just alone pushing. When I was passed by Heather Jackson and Asa Lundstrom after the turnaround at Hawi I didn’t have any energy to go with them. Maybe I lost some speed just training for Ironman. With my fitness I also should have been able to run faster. It was a rough and lonely day.”

2016 Season

Liz approaches the 2016 season a bit differently: She raced a number of 70.3s at the start of season. That worked well for her, she defended her Wildflower title. Now she is looking towards the South American Regional Championship in Brazil at the end of May.

“Looking at a 12 week training block here in Reno it’s hard to stay motivated because I’m always training alone. So this year I’m racing to keep my interest level high. It’s been fun so far – I love getting a bit of rest before the races and then having a couple of easy days afterwards. Panama was just to get out and get some fitness, I knew I wasn’t going to be ready just coming off the trainer. It was pretty hot and humid. My mom and I had a great time to visit the sights. It was a good way to get out but I knew I had a lot of work to do.

“The focus is on Brasil. The weekend before Wildflower I had a hard 20 mile run. Last year at Wildflower it was ‘bike as hard as you can who cares what happens’. I usually like to start the run being down a small gap, to be able to see the front and to pace myself off that. I prefer chasing, but not the three minutes I had last year, maybe one minute. That last downhill run mile is a steep downhill and [defending champion] Heather [Jackson] and I ran it at an all out sprint. This year I pretty much knew I had it so I cruised it down. ‘Okay, Brasil is next so don’t kill your knee.’

“My mom is coming back to Brasil with me this year – we love that place. Last year I had a terrible swim. I got lost and could have been two minute faster on the swim. Around mile 80 the legitimate ten-men-draft packs started to move through. I’m not willing to take a risk [to get a penalty] so I sit up, let them pass and join back in when I’m twelve meters back. It sucks, but it’s what you have to do. I pushed the bike pretty hard last year, maybe too hard so I hope I can run a bit quicker. Coming back to a course I always do better the second time I do it.”

I hope the women’s race in Florianopolis will be as exciting and close as last year when there were six different athletes in the lead on the run. I’m sure Liz will once again be among those that will play an important role. To secure a Kona slot a Top 5 finish should be enough for her, but she has her sights a bit higher: Only winning would be better than last year’s second place. I hope she’ll have a great day of racing on May 29th!

Even though I don’t drink any beer myself, I know that beer is taken very seriously in Texas. In addition to “Shiner Bock” there are a lot of micro-breweries putting out their product, and while the alcohol content of around 8% makes the calorie count pretty high, a lot of triathletes enjoy a nice beer after a hard training session .. or just to relax.

Of course Germans take pride in their beer as well, and breweries sponsor a lot of big sporting events and teams. In the last few years, the German brewery “Erdinger” has supported an Endurance Team consisting mainly of German athletes such as the Raelert Brothers and a few internationals like Eva Wutti or Lucy Gossage. The name of the team – “Erdinger Alkoholfrei Endurance Team” – indicates that the main product they are highlighting is an alcohol-free version of their “Weizen” or wheat beer. Most who have tried it like it as a refreshing, mineral-rich hydration after a long, hard session (or race).

With Julia Gajer and Nils Frommhold two Erdinger athletes will be racing at Texas on May 14th. There are a lot of similarities between these athletes: Both have won IM Arizona (Nils in 2012, Julia in 2013), were 6th in Kona 2014, are coached by Wolfram Bott, had great results in the 2015 summer – but had disappointing races in Kona. Both are looking to score the points needed for a Kona slot but are also serious contenders for the win.

Nils Frommhold

After finishing 6th in Kona 2014, Nils validated his 2015 Kona slot in the Regional Championship in Melbourne in March. With Luke Bell he built an 11-minute lead into to T2 and was in the lead until about 30k into the run when he started to struggle. He still managed to finish in fifth place. While not satisfied with the result and the frustrating end to his race day, it allowed him to focus on doing well at Challenge Roth in the summer.

For German athletes winning in Roth is the next best thing to winning in Kona. There is a fierce competition between Ironman Germany in Frankfurt and Challenge Roth for the “most important” German race – usually Frankfurt draws a deeper field as a Regional Championship, but Roth consistently has the faster times and always has at least a handful of “big names”. Nils had raced Roth in 2014, finishing second only to Timo Bracht and barely missing the 8-hour mark. Winning Roth has always been one of his goals, and he delivered a fantastic race: While Andy Starykowicz tried to race away from the rest of the field, Nils matched his pace and when Andy started to struggle towards the end of the bike, Nils was able to build a 2-minute lead into T2. Similar to 2014 Timo Bracht had the best marathon, but even his 2:45 was only good enough for second place: Nils had a very solid 2:51 marathon and won Challenge Roth 2015 with a time of 7:51, the third fastest time of all IM-distance races in the whole year.

After that career highlight Nils was very motivated for the rest of the season, but he wasn’t able to have a good race after Roth. He raced the 70.3 Championships in Zell am See and was in the second group on the bike. But when he tried to split the group on a climb, he ran out of steam, wasn’t able to put together a decent run and dropped back to 22nd place. To prepare for Kona he went to the heat of The Woodlands, Texas, with his coach Wolfram Bott and a number of other athletes. He felt the training went well and was looking forward to race well in Kona. He was in a good position after the swim but had a flat early in the bike. After a quick fix he tried to race back to the main group but just wasted a lot of energy without making up much ground. He fell back even further on the climb to Hawi, but still went on to finish the race in 29th place.

His 2016 first race also didn’t go according to plan. Nils took the long trip from Europe to race the South American 70.3 Championships in Palmas. He thought a Top 3 was a possible result for him, and was part of a three-men bike lead group, but coming from a long European winter he was not ready for the humidity and heat. Once again he struggled in the latter part of the bike, couldn’t run well off the bike and dropped back to 8th place.

Photo: Nils training on the bike in The Woodlands, Credit: Sarah Fladung

Julia Gajer

While Nils has been coached by Wolfram Bott for a long time, Julia only started to work with Wolfram after her sixth place in Kona 2014. Both Julia and Wolfram were cautious with their expectations for the 2015 season and were mainly focused on 2016. But things went really well from the start: Two second places in 70.3s (behind Daniela Ryf in Mallorca and Camilla Pedersen in Kraichgau) lead to a win at 70.3 Luxemburg. She went on to race well in the Frankfurt heat at IM Germany, finishing second behind a dominating Daniela Ryf but in front of Caroline Steffen. When she finished 6th in the 70.3 Champs without a dedicated preparation, things seemed to be clicking much faster than planned and she had high expectations for Kona.

For Kona 2014 Julia prepared at home in Germany and was a solo traveller to Kona until her parents and husband joined her just for the race. Things were much different for 2015: She prepared in the Texas heat with the Wolfram Bott training group and had a number of obligations after arriving in Kona. She was hoping for a similar result as in 2014, but she knew there were a lot of Top 10 contenders in the race. However, she was not able to fight for a good finish – with bike shoe issues she was never able to put out decent power on the bike and was dropping further and further behind. Shortly after T2 she retired from the race. She was pretty frustrated and after a few days of sightseeing in San Francisco she decided not to end her season quite yet but to race another IM in November.

Julia prepared in chilly Germany for Arizona which is usually a pretty warm race. The weather in Tempe turned out to be cold and rainy. Julia never really got going, but still managed to place herself in second place on the bike and into T2, but never started to close the gap to Meredith Kessler who was on fire and ended up posting the fastest 2015 Ironman. On the run Julia lost one spot to Amanda Stevens who ran well while Julia slogged through the marathon. When she heard towards the end of the race that her gap to fourth place Darbi Roberts was shrinking she rallied a bit to hold on to the last podium spot. She was relieved that the race and her season was over.

In the off-season Julia moved to Austria (her husband took a new job there) and continued to work on her equipment. With Cervelo as a new bike sponsor she had some more options to further tweak her bike position and is very happy with the new setup. She started her 2016 racing with another cold race: 70.3 Pays d’Aix. Cold winds on race morning lead to a cancelled swim and a time trial start with 20-second gaps. Even with arm and leg warmers it took her 20k on the bike to properly warm up. By then she was more than five minutes behind eventual winner Tine Deckers who had a very strong bike. The rest of the bike went much better and she didn’t have too many problems in the strong cross winds. She was in fourth position in T2, and the fastest run allowed her to claim second place. As it was her first race of the season, she was quite happy with her performance.

Photo: Julia on her new bike while training in Mallorca. Credit: Wolfram Bott

Expectations for Texas

Nils and Julia have almost the same goal for IM Texas: They “just” want to have a solid Ironman race. For both of them that includes a decent swim (i.e. starting the bike in the front group), a steady bike and a solid marathon that puts them in a position to fight for a podium spot in the last 10k of the race. If they manage that, they should also be able to secure their Kona slots.

Nils now sits at 865 KPR points, so if he wants to defend his Roth title in the summer (he is on the start list), he has to get the majority of his qualifying points from a good race in Texas. With the cutoff expected to be at 3.500 points for the men, Nils needs a third place (2.890 points leading to a total of 3.755 points) to be reasonably safe for a July slot. There are also eight to ten athletes that can beat Nils when they have a great day so it is hard to predict where Nils will end up, but with a solid race a podium finish is a reasonable goal for him. If he manages to have a great day, he could even be in a position to win the race, but Nils is a bit anxious to race in the heat. He hopes that with some adjustments he can break his string of sub-standard races in warmer temperatures.

With regards to Kona qualifying, Julia is in a better position than Nils. She already has 3.450 KPR points, so with the cutoff around 4.500 points she’ll be safe for a Kona slot with at least a seventh place (1.335 points) in Texas. Unless she runs into problems in Texas, that’s the base goal for her – if things go well, she’ll be racing for her second Ironman win. After racing twice in cold conditions, Julia looks forward to the Texas heat – with the exception of Kona she has always been racing well in the heat. Her second place at the start of the season was encouraging to her and she very much looks forward to have a good race in Texas.

As for the beer company that sponsors Julia and Nils, it’ll be quite some time before “Erdinger Alkoholfrei” will be a legitimate challenger for the top beer in Texas. Even if they face strong competition at the North American Championships, both Nils and Julia clearly have a much better shot at taking the honors at Ironman Texas.

Career Highlights

• Olympic Champion 2008
• 70.3 World Champion 2015

2015 Season

• 1st 70.3 California, 70.3 Barcelona
• 1st IM Frankfurt 7:49:48
• 1st 70.3 Champs

In his 2014 Ironman races, “Frodo” was forced to deal with problems: Three flats in Frankfurt led to a wheel change and lots of lost time, another flat in Kona was quickly fixed but he incurred a penalty when he went back on the course in the middle of a group. But at IM Frankfurt 2015 everything came together for him. He also showed how to beat Sebi: Frodo had the fastest swim and then hammered a new 4:08 bike course record. Sebi was one minute faster than his old bike CR, but he still lost three minutes to Frodo who sealed up the race with a 2:50 marathon, winning by almost 12 minutes.

Frodo continued his domination by winning the 70.3 Championships in Zell am See – again reaching T2 in front of Sebi and building a dominating lead in the first half of the run.

If Frodo is anywhere close to his summer shape, he’ll be hard to beat in Kona with his strength in all three legs and the flexibility that gives him. But there are very few cases of athletes doing well in a summer IM and also in Kona.

(Photo: Frodo leaving T2 at IM Germany, Credit: TriRating)

This is an excerpt from my free “Kona Rating Report” – 150+ pages with tons of information about the Kona Pro races!

Career Highlights

• 70.3 Champion 2014&15
• Multiple IM Winner (Switzerland, Copenhagen, Germany)
• 2nd Kona 2014
• 2-time Olympian (2008, 2012)

2015 Season

• 1st 70.3 Mallorca, 70.3 Switzerland
• 1st IM Germany 8:51:00 (CR)
• 1st 70.3 Champs 4:11:34

Daniela is going from one amazing win to the next – her second place finish in Kona is the only race she hasn’t won since switching to Ironman racing last summer. Her wins include two 70.3 Championships and a new course record in Frankfurt (8:51 in hot conditions). Daniela has made improvements in every Ironman she has raced so far – her bike power is undisputed, and her run times are getting faster as well, even if her fastest marathon is “only” a 3:06 in the Frankfurt heat. If everything goes right in her Kona build and race, no one would be surprised to see a Chrissie-level domination by Daniela. However, I think that she’ll need to run close the 3-hour mark if she want to win – with a 3:07 marathon (as last year) one of the other strong women on the Kona start line will be able to snatch the win from her.

(Photo: Daniela winning 70.3 Champs. Credit: Delly Carr)

This is an excerpt from my free “Kona Rating Report” – 150+ pages with tons of information about the Kona Pro races!