The accomplished pro talks about how he stays on his game, despite a busy schedule aimed at a first-time Kona start.
Richie Cunningham is a no-nonsense kind of guy. Inspired by his brother, Cunningham's interest in triathlon began at age 15 and rapidly evolved into a passion. Since then, he has become a dominant force at all distances. In 2013 alone, Cunningham won both IRONMAN 70.3 Galveston and IRONMAN 70.3 St. Croix. He also had seven podium finishes, two of them after suffering a broken elbow when he was struck by a car mid-season.
"Even when injured, there are a lot of things you can do to keep fit. I guess you've just got to have a positive attitude," Cunningham says of the blip in his training. That kind of optimism not only helped him spring back quickly, but carried the athlete on to several more impressive finishes. Shortly after his injury, he placed second at IRONMAN 70.3 Austin with the fastest bike split and, just this year, finished second at IRONMAN 70.3 Auckland and fourth at IRONMAN 70.3 Panama. Between all of his podiums, and the world-wide travel necessary to compete at so many events a year, Cunningham has developed a few strategies to stay on top. Rudy Project sat down with him to pick his brain.
Rudy Project: You've obviously got some sort of system in place to keep your sanity while traveling. Do you have any tips you could share?
Richie Cunningham: There are a few areas where I think a lot of people make mistakes. One is staying hydrated on the plane and while traveling in general. Another is not getting too worked up over missed training. People say, "ah, I've got to train, I've got to train! I've missed the run, I've missed the swim!" You can do something light, but basically a travel day is a rest day. There's no point killing your body and destroying six or seven weeks of training. You've got to relax a little bit.
That's a good point. Travel can add stress, which, compounded with the pressure of an upcoming race, can put anyone on edge.
I think another big thing is that people pack everything in their backpack and they walk around the airport lugging it around. If you carry a heavy backpack around for a few hours, when you get to a race your shoulders will be really tired. Then when you go to swim, you'll feel really off. It's like you've been doing a five-hour weight session walking around the airport. So I always try to use wheeled carts when I travel.
I used to be in the army and I would carry my backpack a lot. After being away for a week marching the whole time, my shoulders would develop a lot more. It can also pull your body out of alignment. Your shoulders become stretched back from the straps, so it kind of puts you out of position for swimming and what you're used to.
Speaking of travel, one place you may be headed this year is Hawaii for the IRONMAN World Championship. What made you want to make the jump to full-distance racing?
It hadn't really interested me in the past, but this year IRONMAN introduced IRONMAN Boulder. I did Arizona five or six years ago and I did OK—I think I was fourth—but it really hurt me. I made a deal with myself that I would never do another IRONMAN again until I was absolutely ready, or wanted to do it. Now that it's up in Boulder, it seemed right. And, if I'm going to do Boulder, I might as well and try to qualify for Kona, so I guess it was just time. I'm getting on in my career, and you've got to do these races for your professional career. I thought this year was as good a chance as any.
Do you have any tips for athletes looking to move from shorter-course triathlon to IRONMAN?
I think I'll be the one searching for tips! I don't have much experience with it myself, but I guess you've got to be willing to learn. I'm a rookie when it comes to IRONMAN, so I'll be seeking knowledge from more experienced guys like Crowie (Craig Alexander) and Ben Hoffman. In IRONMAN 70.3 you can get through on basic nutrition. I've done the same thing for 10 years with 70.3 and it's worked. But nutrition is such a big part of getting through an IRONMAN; you can be as fit as you want, but if you mess up your nutrition, you can mess up your whole day.