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| Exclusive: Tim Don on the Olympics, nutrition and going it alone |
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With a £200,000 cheque in his back pocket from his triumph at the Hy-Vee ITU Triathlon Elite Cup, a host of other wins, a World Championship bronze medal and a 10k PB still fresh in the memory, Tim Don is feeling good about the 2010 season.
“It’s getting very exciting,” the 32-year-old says. “London 2012 is just around the corner and I’ve just taken a number of big decisions in my career and it’s so far, so good.”
One of the biggest decisions, bearing in mind the Olympics are so close, was to split from the British Triathlon Federation at the end of last year and going it alone. This meant splitting from his coach, Ben Bright, and giving up the funding the BTF were ready to offer.
“I am determined to take part in 2012, but the BTF said that to get the budget I would have to live in Loughborough, use their coaches and nutritionists and sports psychologists and basically do as they say,” says Tim.
“I told them that I was 32, I was just about to get married, I’d been world champion and also the most consistent British athlete over the past few years.
“I also hadn’t had a winter in the UK since I left school in 1996, so to my mind I wanted to do it my way. They said fair enough, but we can’t support you, and that was that.”
His decision means that he is now relying on advice from, in his own words, “friends and past coaches” but there is a more powerful spur pushing him on.
It is Tim’s determination to banish the memory of the 2008 Beijing Olympics where his confidence going into the triathlon was replaced with despair when race officials stopped him mid-race because he was too far behind on the bike leg. Later, he revealed that he was ill prior to the race.
“On a day-to-day basis I try to forget what happened in Beijing,” he says. “Going into the race I was in the best shape I’d ever been in, I was really happy and content and things were going fantastic.
“I was gutted by what happened and without doubt I am looking to go to London to right a few wrongs, but I learned from it. Now I have to get back to the condition I was in and taking it from there.”
Last year was also disappointing – a hangover, says Tim, of his Far East heartache – so 2010 season is his first step on the road to London.
Don is limiting the number of races he is taking part in and concentrating on hitting peak form at specific times, which will be vital for his Olympics.
His other preparation will be to race in London itself, both in the Hyde Park WCS and the London Triathlon.
“It will be great preparation for the Olympics, because it will be run on the same course,” he says. “It’s quite a flat course and a fast run, so I’ll be able to practice that.
“It would be awesome to win in Hyde Park, not least because of what it will do to my world ranking. And although I’ve won world championship races before, I’ve never won in England, so that’s a further incentive.”
Tim’s decisions for this year also extend to switching nutritional supplier. This year he is supplied by ZipVit Sport, which has a growing stable of elite endurance athletes using its products, including pro cycling teams Team RadioShack and Cervélo TestTeam.
Cervélo enjoyed unprecedented success using ZipVit Sport products last season, with a green jersey in the Tour de France and a stage win in all three Grand Tours among the many highlights. It has already won a stage in this year’s Tour, while Thor Hushovd is again in the running for the green jersey.
ZipVit Sport is providing Tim with all the energy bars, gels, drinks and chews, as well as recovery products, in its nine-strong range.
Of these, Tim has three particular favourites – the ZV2 Energy Drink Extreme, which is specially formulated to improve performance in very hot weather, the ZV7c caffeine gels and the ZV8 energy bars.
“The products are really good and I am very impressed with the ZV2,” says Tim.
“I do lots of training in hot environments and lots of our races are in warm climates so to have an energy drink that’s designed for hot environments in itself is awesome.
“Also, the energy bars taste pretty good. Often in the past I have been eating a bar and it’s like ‘yep, I’m eating an energy bar’ but these are like eating something you’d actually want to eat.
“I love the strawberry chocolate bars, they’re just like eating an actual chocolate bar. That’s great, because if you’re enjoying something then you’re going to eat more of it, which is vital, considering it has all the vitamins and minerals that you need.”
When it comes to the gels, Tim is in no doubt as to their effect on his performance. Each 60ml gel contains 51g of carbohydrates and, thanks to the caffeine content, athletes have come to regard them as rocket fuel.
“Caffeine is a great stimulant and is totally under-used by endurance athletes,” says Tim, “so I love the gels. If I have one during a track session, my training partners can tell the difference.
“If I use it quickly I can get an extra five per cent, which means that if I’m going totally flat out and my energy levels are at the max, I’m going to run a few seconds quicker per rep.
“Plus, they are easy to take. Some gels are gooey and bitter. This is quite a big gel but not too thick, so I rip the top off and in two squeezes it’s gone.”
Tim also takes a gel at the 30k mark on the bike, as well as 70 minutes before the race.
Tim’s diet has been devised by his own nutritionist and says his food intake now is a world away from when he started out, when a breakfast more suited for a lorry driver than an international athlete was the done thing.
“When I was younger there was no funding,” he says. “Triathlon wasn’t even an Olympic sport, it was a lifestyle sport, so we’d have massive plates of pasta and then get up the next day and have a big breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast.
“I don’t eat like that anymore. I have a balanced diet and I know the need for protein for recovery, like I didn’t back then. I always have a gel or a bar in my back pocket so I don’t bonk during training and I have learned through experience.
“It’s very different for the young guys coming through now. They’re not making as many mistakes as we did because they are living in the triathlon federation confines from the ages of 16 or 17.
“They’ve got strength and conditioning coaches, psychologists and swim coaches. They do VO2 Max testing and they can also analyse data from older athletes and learn from it.
“It is a world away to how it was, and the results of all that are clear to see.”
Sports nutrition is a huge part of the sport, and fans are as keen to know what foodstuffs the big names are eating, as well as what bikes their riding. Tim is always happy to discuss nutrition, but he always gives the same advice. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it - properly.
“You get so many people who eat two or three bars, try them and say that they make no difference,” he says. “You can’t do that. That’s unfair on the products.
“You need to buy a box or half a dozen and decide that during the week when you’re hungry, instead of having a packet of crisps you’re going to have energy bar.
“Or when you’re doing a swim or on a bike ride, have a gel or a bar as opposed to having nothing and see what the difference is.
“Everyone’s different. They could all be training for the same event or be at the same standard but how people get on with the products individually differs. Some people find that the caffeine gels might be too strong and they prefer the normal gels.
“But to make an informed choice, you have to give them a chance. To make a decision after trying just two bars is ridiculous.”
Tim is content that he has the best nutrition available – “knowing that, plus knowing I have the best bike and best shoes is very important,” he says - leaving the way clear for a season to remember and, all being well, a place in the Olympics in two years time.
“Thanks goodness it’s going to be in London,” says Tim. “That means a lot. I’m from west of London so it’s a familiar environment and it’ll be the right time in my career.
“I just need to get my head down over the next two years and do the fundamentals and try and be consistent with training and let the race results speak for themselves.
“That way I’ll be selected in my own right.” |
Posted: 20 July 2010
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