Brownlee discovers inner nerd for tilt at ‘Sub-7’ iron record
Hpistachio nuts and thickness of wetsuits on agenda as older brother Alistair eyes marginal gains in gruelling challenge
Jan Frodeno is probably not a name with which the wider sports fan in this country is familiar. But he could become a person of some interest in the next 12 months.
This summer, at a small, specially convened event in Burgberg, Bavaria, the German triathlon great lowered his own iron-distance world record in stunning fashion.
In dismal weather hardly conducive to record attempts, he swam 2.4 miles in a smidgen over 45 minutes, cycled 112 miles in a new iron-distance record of 3hr 55min 22sec, and then finished the day off with a cool 2hr 44min marathon for a total time of 7hr 27min 53sec.
It was a whopping 7min 46sec faster than Frodeno’s previous best, which the 40-yearold set in 2016.
Alistair Brownlee, however, reckons he can go another half an hour faster again. The older Brownlee brother retired from Olympic distance triathlon in
June after missing out on selection for this summer’s Tokyo Games, and all of his energies are now devoted to the longer form of the sport.
The 33-year-old insists he has no regrets about returning for one final crack at an event he ruled for two Olympic cycles. But the truth is he left his bid for a third straight crown until perilously late, then struggled with an ankle injury as he tried to make up for lost time.
That ankle, he admits, is still bothersome. He cannot run on it – entering just cycling and swimming events for now. But having undergone surgery in the summer, he is confident he still has enough time to prepare for both the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii, next February – helpfully postponed from next month – and also his own “Sub-7” record attempt, which he announced this year. “Oh, I definitely still think both are still possible,” he says. “The date we’ve set for Sub-7 is early June. And the date for Kona is early February. So yeah, I don’t see that being a problematic clash at all. It was a good thing for me that Kona was postponed, because I was thinking about trying to rush and be in a position to race there. But being postponed gives me quite a bit of time to get ready. Hopefully – and I say hopefully because this injury keeps putting a spanner in the works – I get back and race there to the best of my ability.” Brownlee is pretty phlegmatic. He may not have been able to race in Tokyo, instead watching on as brother Jonny won his first Olympic gold in the mixed relay, but he did not waste his summer months. He spent them plotting his assault on Sub-7, brainchance
storming alongside former Team Sky and British Cycling nutritionist Nigel Mitchell. He says it has brought out his inner nerd.
“Everything from trying to develop the fastest wetsuit we possibly can, to working out what’s the best format and number of people to use in the team [of domestiques] on the bike, to looking at nutrition and maximising the number of carbs that I can absorb in a race or looking at aerodynamics on the bike.”
Unlike Frodeno’s effort, ratified by the Deutsche Triathlon Union with accurate race distances, applicable rules and referees, Brownlee’s will not be an official world record attempt. In that respect, his challenge has more in common with Eliud Kipchoge’s “Sub-2” marathon in Vienna in 2019; a bid to find the limits of human endurance when you allow unlimited pacemakers and special footwear.
Brownlee says he is relishing the
to delve into technical areas of the sport. Areas which have fascinated him for years – nutrition, aerodynamics, hydrodynamics and so on – but which he has never had the opportunity to indulge.
He believes many things the team are discovering could have a trickledown effect on sport as a whole.
“A good example would be the wetsuit. Not to get too boring or technical, but normally the standard is five-millimetre neoprene. The thicker the neoprene, the more buoyant you are, the faster you go etc. But the more restrictive it is…
“So, we’re doing a big project to work out how thick we can have the neoprene in certain places, and using different neoprene in different places, and then different types of wetsuit, and we’re going to test different wetsuits eventually for efficiency and oxygen consumption.
“Our wetsuit sponsor is super excited that what we’re learning will
be able to trickle down to making the ultimate legal suit as well.”
Nutrition is another key area, with Mitchell having been recruited to look into how to maximise carbohydrate and protein intake. The answer? Pistachio nuts.
Mitchell is a big believer in pistachios as an energy source, extolling the “micronutrients” contained in them, “particularly the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin which are important for macular health – it’s easy for athletes to underestimate macular health”. Nothing is being left to chance.
Brownlee says they still have not made a final decision on where the record attempt will take place, but suggests it will likely be at a motorracing track in Europe. “Somewhere closed and controllable,” he says. “I think there’ll be an announcement soon on that front. We really want to get a date and location locked down. It’s a really exciting project.”