Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
lucy charles-barclay Feels like he’s in the position of his life ahead His attempt to win a second Ironman World titleAnd he has the data to prove it.
He spent five intense weeks training at Club La Santa, a haven for triathletes LanzarotePosting career-record numbers for watts and lactate levels on the bike while running, the latter translated to a theoretical marathon time of under 2 hours 30 minutes – that is if his marathon was not followed by a 3.8km swim and 180km cycle. “These are the best numbers I’ve ever seen,” she says, sounding almost in disbelief.
Charles-Barclay was so amazed by the results that she felt she had to test them, so in the middle of her training camp she entered a T100 series race near Valencia, and won against a high caliber field.
Even at that 100km distance, less than half of the entire 226.3km Ironman, it was confirmation of Charles-Barclay’s suspicions: that she could unlock a new level of performance at exactly the right time. She was runner-up four times at the World Championships in Kona, Airport Before eventually claiming the gold medal in 2023, setting a new course record in the process. Now, after missing last year due to injury, she is back in Hawaii on Saturday to reclaim her crown.
The journey to this moment has been long and often painful. For years Charles-Barclay could not understand why she was so unlucky with injuries. There was no obvious pattern on his entire body, and he made great efforts to investigate and handed himself over to Red Bull’s expert unit near Austria for study.
Eventually she received a surprising diagnosis of celiac disease, which led to a change in her diet and a long education in how her intestines responded to food. She replaced the gluten-heavy carbs that effectively “poisoned” her with rice, chicken, and eggs before the race. It took more than six months to fully recover and even more time to learn how to best fuel her body, but from there the results were powerful. Injuries are now rare, and she has become stronger, reaching levels she never thought possible.
T100 – part of Triathlon’s new F1-style championship at exotic locations around the world – has been a useful proving ground for Charles-Barclay 2.0. he pulled A memorable win in London The latest win earlier this summer and in Spain has put him in the running for a lucrative win in the overall series.
But the priority is to win Hawaii and another world title. This would be an extraordinary physical test, not only because of the enormous distance to be covered in nine grueling hours, but because of the hostile environment on the island, where the intense heat can be stifling, the humid air clings to the skin and the winds blow across the volcanic plains.
Lanzarote is the best product offered as an imitation in Europe. “It’s very hot, very windy,” says Charles-Barclay. Club La Santa has all the high-tech facilities a triathlete could want, including three Olympic-sized pools, a saltwater lagoon, an athletics stadium and a bike workshop, and it attracts the best on the planet all year round.
There, alongside her husband and coach Reece, Charles-Barclay is churning through 30 hours of swim, bike, run and strength training each week, stretching her sessions to extreme lengths, such as her 32km run and her high-intensity six-hour cycle ride in deliberately terrifying conditions, to make the Ironman itself feel almost tame in comparison. About.
She is riding outside to boost her confidence in facing Hawaii’s headwinds, and running inside in fake heat in what almost looks like a giant hazmat suit to artificially raise the temperature. “I looked like a painter-decorator,” she says, laughing. “It’s so you get used to that uneasy feeling you’re going to run into when you’re in Kona.”
Many running machines were destroyed in the name of those indoor sessions. “We had to keep changing treadmills because the running belt got so wet from my sweat. I had to run out the last 10km because there were no dry treadmills left.”
She’s also fine-tuning her unique diet to make sure she’s completely prepared in the beginning. “I put a lot of emphasis on testing my nutrition before the race to make sure that my gut has got used to it and I’ve got used to how it feels when I run off the bike, which usually doesn’t feel good at first, but then you check your energy levels and think, OK, the fuel I fueled up during the bike session is definitely going to be beneficial on the run.”
Downtime is rare in these important weeks and the most fun Charles-Barclay had in Lanzarote was going for a walk, wishing she was at home with her dogs. She spent her birthday alone as her husband had to go home to start preparing for the T100 event. “I went and ran a 10km race, and I saw 10 dogs in that race – that’s as good as a birthday gift to me.”
But the string of broken running belts is another sign that Charles-Barkley is breaking into new ground, a sign that his body has effectively adapted to the heat. Conditions should be favorable but it’s very possible he breaks his own course record at Kona. The past few days have been spent winding down training efforts for another tilt in Ironman history.
“It’s a very small group of people who have ever won the race,” she says. “It’s an even smaller group of people who have won the race over and over again.” [seven women]So it would be very special to do so.
“I think all the years before that I went in with so much pressure, so much expectation, a big weight on my shoulders to try to win, coming in second four times. So this time going in, I feel like, OK, I won it. That was the hardest thing, trying to get that first win.”
Charles-Barkley knows nothing is guaranteed in sports. But she also knows that someone will have to swim, bike, and run the race of their life to beat her this weekend.
“This time I feel like the pressure isn’t really on me, it’s on the other girls who really want to win it for the first time. But at the same time, I feel in the best shape I’ve ever been in.”