Gina Crawford: Triathlon Tribe Interview

Sponsors: KSwiss, Ceepo, JUCY, BlueSeventy, Rolf Prima, Leppin, Em’s Power Cookies, Oakley, Continental, Keywin, Cycleworkz.

Hometown: Christchurch, New Zealand

Favourite training session: Rest Day?? Just kidding. I love speed running sessions; good satisfaction of a session well done.

Favourite movie: Pride and Prejudice (but the BBC mini series version).

Ultimate goal: To enjoy racing and to win as many races as I can.

TT: Gina, thanks for your time. What is the latest since Ironman Coeur D'Alene?

GC:  I am back in NZ training. It is pretty cold and icy (I fell off my bike the other day on the ice), but I am enjoying my training sessions all the same.

TT: What do you put your disappointing performance at Coeur D'Alene down to?

GC: At the beginning of the year I made all my plans and booked and paid for all my travel; I have since learnt that in Ironman it is best to be flexible and not to book trips too far in advance. For the last three years I have travelled to Europe and have been away from home for months on end, this year I wanted to be home more in order to keep working and to spend more time with my family, and so opted to do several Ironman races in separate trips so I would only be away for just over a week at a time. Ironman St George in May hit me pretty hard being at altitude, I was very tired the weeks after the race and cut my training right back to 20 hours from the usual 30 but was still feeling pretty exhausted. I decided to instead focus on achieving a good performance at a shorter distance Korean race, and if all went well I would cancel my trip to the USA to compete at Ironman CDA. Unfortunately, the Korean race was cancelled and so I decided to give Ironman CDA a go. Physically my endurance just wasn’t where it should have been having not put in the hours on the bike or run and mentally I didn’t feel prepared for the distance. In hindsight my training would have enabled me to do a number of shorter distance races well and that is what I should have done. The positive is that because I didn’t do the marathon run and I had a good break afterwards I am now feeling much, much better. I am enjoying my training again and am getting excited about getting myself back into good Ironman shape.

TT: How did you find the travelling around America? Were you fresh for the race?

GC:  No it wasn’t good. We travelled the 14 hours or so to San Francisco and then we drove 16 hours in the car over 2 days to get to the race. I was very jetlagged. Travelling to the USA is the bad jetlag direction, I always feel great coming back but terrible going over. Another week would have been a good idea to be adjusted for the race, especially for an Ironman distance.

TT: So what is the plan for the rest of the year?

GC:  In a few weeks I am heading over to Noosa to train for a few weeks. This will be my third August in Queensland and it enables me to do some really good long training which just isn’t possible in Christchurch (too cold) at this time of year. Then I will race an Iron distance race (the Rev3 triathlon) in mid September in USA.

TT: What sort of training are you going to put in between now and your next major Ironman in September? Can you give us a daily breakdown of a typical week for you?

GC: While I am in Australia I will do 4 swim sessions of 1.5 hours. 4 bike sessions: Two of them will be endurance rides of between 4-6 hours, 1 speed type session and 1 strength session such as hill reps. And I will do 4 run sessions: One endurance run of between 2-3 hours, 1 run off my long bike ride, a speed run session and a strength hill rep type session. Also I will do a bit of gym work. It should be around 30 hours per week which will hopefully whip me into Ironman shape.

TT: Does altitude training play much of a role in your training?

GC:  No I live at sea level and the times I have been up to altitude I have gotten sick. I found racing Ironman St George really tough at 900-1500m elevation and I even felt Ironman CDA which was around 700m. If you train at sea level it is probably best to do the races which are not so high up!!

TT: How important do you view gym and weight work within your training regime? How often do you do core work?

GC:  I started doing gym work in about April of this year. It has been a huge help to me. I had a muscle balance assessment and I found the whole right hand side of me was weaker than the left. The gym work has helped with that and I am not getting as many sore muscles when I run and I feel that my cycling technique is smoother. Although it may not have shown in my recent results I hope that it will over the next few months and years if I stick at it. I also incorporate core into these sessions which I do twice per week.

TT: What is the hardest session you do on a regular basis?

GC:  I always find the long run the hardest session of the week. The longest run I have done is 3 hours (apart from in the race) and it was enough!! It’s funny as the easiest run I find is the one off the long 5-6 hour bike ride, but starting a run from scratch always feels so much worse.

TT: You must be honoured to be New Zealand’s fastest ever women over the Ironman distance. How do you view the state of the sport in New Zealand, are there many junior coming through the ranks in which you see a lot of potential in?

GC:  Triathlon in New Zealand is huge. We have so much talent here for such a small country of just 4 million. There are lots and lots of kids’ races here which attract thousands of kids; we even have tiddler’s multisport for the toddlers!! I am sure New Zealand will continue to produce some great triathletes especially as SPARC (Sport and Recreation New Zealand) has labelled triathlon as one of the target sports for the 2012 Olympics (given our successes in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics) and has increased the funding considerably. Triathlon New Zealand has therefore been able to formalise things and now has squads for the 2012 Olympics and development squads for the 2016 Olympics. These squads are travelling together to train and race in USA and Europe over the winter as well as having training camps in New Zealand over the summer. As for Ironman it’s usually something that triathletes give a go after competing in the Olympic distance for several years (I’m kind of an exception coming into the sport at an older age with no triathlon experience) so it’s not really something the really young kids get involved with, but New Zealand’s success will greatly be strengthened with Sam Warriner coming into the mix, and Bevan Docherty has also said that he will step up after the 2012 Olympics, so that will be very interesting!!

TT: I believe you used to be a swimmer. Do you have any regrets over becoming a triathlete? Do you sometimes wake up and wish you only had the one discipline to train for?

GC:  I was a swimmer but I wasn’t exactly a great swimmer!! I swam from a young age until around 17 years old. I was never really that good at swimming, butterfly was my best stroke. I never set foot in a pool again until I decided to give triathlon a go 8 years later. Running and cycling were completely new to me so I found triathlon very exciting. Yes sometimes when I am lugging my bike around the airport and forking out outrageous bike fees I wish I was a runner who only had to pack their running shoes!!

TT: To leave us on a lighter note. If you could be any superhero in the world, who would it be?

GC: Bella Cullen (once she becomes a vegetarian vampire). Amazing strengths and abilities and married to Edward Cullen.

TT: Thanks for you time and all the best.

NOTE: ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT OF David Glasscock 
www.davidglasscockphoto.com