Chris McCormack Reflects On Hamburg

Chris “Macca” McCormack proved he could play with the young guns with his 26th-place finish at the Dextro Energy World Championship Series event in Hamburg over the weekend. Here, he talks with Inside Triathlon editor-in-chief Courtney Baird about the race and how he bettered his DNF in Kitzbühel. McCormack is currently training with the Australian team in France.

Inside Triathlon: Congrats on your race. Can you give us a little insight into what you went through out there?

Chris McCormack: It was a lot of fun, to be honest, and to have a body that is keen to cooperate was nice. Kitzbühel was tough two weeks after Ironman—I was so flat and tired. But now I was where we expected to be after 1 month of work. The swim was very rough, and these kids are so fast off the start. After you settle around the first swim buoy and fight your way through, the swim is pretty easy and laid-back, to be honest. You can’t really move forward because of the guys in front of you, so you just sit and swim. The bike was relatively easy. The ability to draft does make the game a little easier on an overall perspective. The frustration can come when guys in the group just don’t want to work and are happy to let the race unfold in front of them. When you are in a second group, the race is still up the road, so working should be the mindset until you hit the front bunch. Some of these guys just don’t think that way, and that in itself is frustrating. I think this is why the Brownlee boys [Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee] are doing what they do. They are not waiting for anyone, and this “sitting-in” tactic that has been a common theme in this style of racing is putting many athletes on the back foot. It’s an attitude thing and this will change with time as more and more races get ripped apart by fast swimmers who are keen to work and also run quick. The mindset has to be different.

PHOTOS: Chris “Macca” McCormack

The run was pretty much where I expected it to be. There is still lots of work to do, but around 31:30 is where we saw ourselves. I must admit that the drafting on the bike gives some athletes the ability to run much quicker. This is something you have to consider. Non-drafting races tax every athlete on the bike at a relatively similar percentage over time. So their runs are somewhat affected. In this style of racing, even though you are all off the bike together, some guys have rested much more than others and this enables them to run much quicker. The Swiss were a great example here. They did nothing on the bike and ended up racing well on the run. Only last week I ran 1 minute quicker than all the Swiss guys when they had to ride the bike in a non-drafting event [The 5150 Zurich]. We all got off the bike together in Zurich the week prior, but they simply did not have the legs to run then as the bike had hurt them. This is a big part of the game with ITU and something I have taken on board, that’s for sure.

Inside Triathlon: It looks like you’re heading in the right direction in terms of qualifying for the Olympics, but you remarked after the race that you still have a lot of work to do. What are you specifically looking at improving?

Chris McCormack: I need to get the little things done right, my transitions and not give away time with penalties through habits you acquire racing in non-ITU sanctioned events. We need to tidy these little things up, and we have much more room for improvement in my run. I am sure Brad [Kahlefeldt] and the team here in camp will tell you that. My run is coming along really well and we have a huge upside to that, I am sure, but I just need to be delicate with the excess threshold work as it is so new to my game. We are running 31:30 already, and I think we have another 1 minute there of improvement in a short space of time. My strength is good—it is just a matter of building that threshold that I don’t have [from the] years of Ironman work. This will come because the base is so solid. I am absolutely loving the process, and I think the Aussie team is loving having me in camp. They have named the success over the weekend in Hamburg as “The Macca Effect,” as we have had a really great time in camp, and I have really focused on building a solid foundation and camaraderie amongst the entire team. I think this was missing before. We are much more social as a team (something that I love) and I think this is feeding the training energy in camp. I will get better training with these guys, and I really feel like my chances to make this team grow day by day. I am getting more confident the more I do this!

FILED UNDER: Features / InsideTri TAGS: Chris McCormack / ITU World championship series

Courtney Baird

Courtney Baird is the editor-in-chief of Inside Triathlon magazine.

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