Coffee shop chat with Quentin Foster

Part of TriLifeAdventure is the search for the ultimate cup of coffee and what would a cup of coffee be without some good conversation? As you can imagine many of my conversations end up being about triathlon and all its finer technical details. The one person I can always rely on for company and good challenging conversation is my friend Quentin Foster and while we don?t always agree on everything, the healthy debate that ensues is often very interesting.

It was with this in mind that I thought I should share it with the world so that all of you can comment or add your own experiences and opinions.

To start with it is probably polite and appropriate for me to introduce Quentin to you. The first thing that must be noted is that this guy can run! I don’t mean shuffle along like most of us triathletes, I mean seriously run. Our Sunday sessions at Zoo Lake are brutal and he can keep pace with world class runners like Hendrik Ramala.

Over the last 2 years he has also learned how to ride a bike and as a result is now a serious threat at any race as can be seen by his performances this year. I am sure that with a little more time he will get his swimming to the same level which will almost guarantee him a string of titles in the years to come.

Let’s start by talking about Clearwater. After all our weeks of preparation, I was given the bad news that I would not be able to go. This unfortunately left you to travel alone but carrying my hopes and dreams in your ‘seat tube tubby holder’ (more about that later). Given that the race has a reputation as a draft-fest and that many people diminish its value, often on hearsay and nothing concrete, how would you sum your overall experience?

Thanks to some readings of Eckhart Tolle, I try live off one of his sayings: “accept it, as if you have chosen it”. This is the attitude that I went to Clearwater with. That does not mean that I was just going to drafting like many others out there. After all is said and done, you are left with your own conscience. The organizers try their level best to put on a pinnacle event, in celebration with the worlds best athletes, and the qualified few from selected IM 70.3 events around the globe who want to go to the World Championships. They openly appeal to athletes on a repeated basis in the build up to the race, not to draft and they do try and curb drafting (as you saw in on of the pics with the number of athletes at a penalty tent). Will they stop it – NO, just the same as they will never stop the drug cheats and dopes. The reality is this world is full of cheats; at every level. Ultimately the choice is yours you decide what you want to do. That’s just the way it is. I will not let that distort my reality, cloud my perceptions and more-over rob me of my happiness and joy relative to the Foster Grant Ironman 70.3 World Championships.

Racing with a cause takes some of the edge off post-race blues which takes a bit of personal management especially with overseas races where crossing time zones are involved and we become hypersensitive as our ethereal beings take awhile to catch up with ourselves.

Interesting, I never knew about the Mozambique angle and always just thought it had more to do with it being a technical piece of equipment from your employers Nike.

I guess its not always easy to wear your heart on your sleeve and tell the world about what moves you. I for example have a soft spot for cancer foundations after one of my early sponsors, who eventually died from the disease, gave me money on the basis that I wore the South African Cancer Association (CANSA) logos on my clothing rather than his corporate logos. These days I have other reasons but anything to do with cancer, particularly breast and prostrate cancer remain important to me.

You were recently rewarded for your achievements with a sponsorship from Nike. What does this mean to you and do you feel any additional pressure as a result?

It still has not fully sunk in, but I am so immensely honored to be considered worthy by the greatest brand and company on this planet. The inspiration to others should not about me but rather about the notion that athletes my age can still be rewarded for achieving and delivering on their dreams, the seemingly impossible and in the face of adversity. Yes and no to the last part of the question. Pressure off in terms of some finances for flights and product, but perhaps added pressure to deliver results.

I know that you train consistently and fairly intensively, how would you describe your approach to training now and previously?

My training has not veered too much from when I started with exception of a little more riding on the road which you have helped me with. But the same underlying theme runs through my lifestyle approach to my training: “the more you do something; the better you get at it”. I try to de-formalize my training, choosing not to keep a diary and not really time what I do. Instead I gauge using my internal clock and perception based effort in training. I really try not to plan my training either and will feel my way in the build up to my events. This way I get to really deeply understand my needs at every level. This approach is not for most people, but I am very analytical in what I do so when combined with this approach to training there is a magic that happens for me and that has translated into some pretty cool results.

You say that this approach is not for everyone and I agree on that. I think most people need the structure and advice that comes from a formal plan with a coach or interested party evaluating it on a regular basis. Unfortunately most people don’t do this, instead choosing to spend thousands on equipment in the hope of getting better when the answer lies within their own bodies.
 
The problem I see with your approach is that you have to be very careful of over-training and this requires massive amounts of discipline. The fitter you get and the closer you get to peaking, the harder you end up training and at some point you inevitably go over the edge and into a dangerous place. Having to invest so much time in analyzing your training to avoid this puts a strain on the time you have available for training although like you say “the more you do something, the better you get at it” also applies to this too.
 
I have used the coaching services of Raynard Tissink and Mark Allen and can honestly say that they both worked for me. The pleasure of going to bed at night knowing exactly what I had to do the next morning made it a lot less stressful and easier to get up at 4am (or earlier) to do the session. This year I have tried doing my own thing and while it has been at least as successful as the coaching, I have made a few mistakes. This is not entirely bad because I have learned a lot about my ability and capacity so I can pass that onto a coach in the future and should arrive at an even better result.

I’m not sure you fully understand me. By “more”, I use this term on a holistic level. Don’t think of this just as just a volume thing. It can also refer to frequency. So in context – it has a much deeper meaning and multi-leveled. Also, I have I applied just about every training method you can think of to my running over the years and have come full circle. The best advice I ever got was from the first athletics coach I ever had: “listen to you body”, and this is where I’m at, extending now into my swimming and cycling. Lastly, what I am saying about being analytical, I meant as an enquiring internalization process of pondering over things and has nothing to do with data analysis; after all I am not using any hectic data accumulation devices or timers in training.

We also discussed recovery and these days we see professionals doing 4-5 Ironman races a year. This is over and above the 70.3′s and other races they participate in. While this may be acceptable for professionals, who have plenty of recovery time, the ‘real’ age-groupers that follow suit are probably doing themselves harm.
 
I know that it takes me at least 2 weeks to recover from a 70.3 and probably 3-4 weeks from an Ironman. Even an OLY will set me back a week and if I don’t factor this into my training I end up running the risk of burn out. On the other side though, there is a need to get some race pace efforts in before a major event and this flies in the face of what I have just said. I would like to see some collaboration in the future, much like what we do on the bike and run, where athletes of similar abilities come together for race training in a controlled environment. We are probably some way off achieving this but don’t you think this would be of benefit?

Agreed, but in this sport we get inspiration from others. Inspiration is a great driver in keeping the necessary mental energy needed to train for 3 disciplines. What I love about triathlon and in specific Ironman, is the learning’s run parallel to learning’s in life, and like in life: the more you give the more you get. To your point; collaborative efforts would therefore yield great self-improvement.

That’s all for now but we will no doubt continue our discussions over the coming weeks and months and I will endeavour to capture them here for you. If you wish to comment on anything or pose a question or topic to be discussed, please use the comment field provided below.