“There is a bit more nerves than usual, I would say, just because I care.” Like many star athletes, Lionel Sanders counts down the days until Ironman 70.3 Oceanside (Apr. 2). He shares some last thoughts on the season-opener that will provide him with some tough competition.
“You always have cards stack against you, against a guy like Brownlee (Alistair, ed.) who can come out first or second, right at the front, and dictate the entire race. So it takes a bit of a way to race that kind of race, because you know you’re going to have to do it on the run; on the second half, actually”, Sanders says about his race plans.
“Run is definitely in the best form ever”
“I would say Brownlee, Sam Appleton is in good from, Ben Kanute of course, another guy I’ve never raced before: Steve McKenna… They are all good guys, who are definitely going to have an advantage on ‘us’ coming out a bit back”, he says about his competitors. But Sanders himself feels like he’s just as much in a ‘good shape’: “I’m working my bike good, so I’m excited to see where that stands, and my run is definitely in the best form it has ever been in.”
“I want to go up against the best”
Sanders takes us along during some “pretty F****** crazy training”, as he refers to it. “I want to go up against the best guys. I don’t know if I’m there yet, but I’m a lot closer – for sure – than in the past. And I’ve coach Mikal to thank for that. […] You need to do some crazy training, and then you need to express it. No overtraining… but express it on the day. So I’m excited for some recovery, one more week of hard work, and then we put this to the test.”
