Tayler Reid: Triathlete ahead of the Napier Triathlon festival tomorrow

The world's leading triathletes are coming together tomorrow with the 2nd annual Napier Triathlon Festival, including men's and women's elite races.

15 nations are represented across the elite men's and women's fields, with 20 New Zealanders.

The Kiwi's leading the way are 2024 Paris Olympians Ainsley Thorpe and Nicole Vander Kay, and 2018 Commonwealth Games medallist Taylor Reid. 

Ried talks to Piney about the festival. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalk ZEDB and.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
The world's leading triathletes. Tomorrow with the hosting of the
second annual Napier Triathlon Festival, including men's and women's elite
races over the sprint distance, the seven hundred and fifty
meter swim, twenty k bike and the five k run.
Fifteen nations represented across the elite men's and women's fields,

(00:33):
with twenty New Zealanders taking up the challenge looking to
earn vital World Triathlon ranking points at the start of
the twenty twenty five season. Leading the way twenty twenty
four Paris Olympians Ainsley Thorpe and Nicole Vander Kay and
twenty eighteen Commonwealth Games medallist Taylor Reed, who joins us. Now, Taylor,
thanks for taking the time. How are you feeling a

(00:55):
day out from the event tomorrow?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah? Really good. Just got to Napier last night and
cheaped out the course and yeah, really looking forward to racing. Hair.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Now, before we get into this, you've got a new coach.
Tell us how that came about.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Oh yeah, so now coach by Ben riisl coaches a
number of good care athletes, including Hannahburium, Brandon Curry, but
also you know the current Iman world champion, seventy point
three world champion. So yeah, real lucky to have be
on his team and have him on my team. And yeah,
we haven't been working together together very long, but looking

(01:31):
forward to seeing how this first race goes under him.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Basically, what led to the change in coach.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
My old coach, Stephen, Yeah, had a great twelve years
with him, but he had moved into a role with
Tryan's here that he you know, had to dedicate his
time to that and you know, didn't have the you
know time to you know, put all the work into
that takes to coaching me. And so yeah, yeah, made
the move to Ben, which I'm really enjoying.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
That's a long time though with with one coach and
then I moved to somebody new do So what are
the challenges around that? Is should try to forge your
relationship which will be just.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
As effective, yeah, yeah, as different as just a different
training style. Yeah, it was definitely a scary change to mate.
You know, like you said, I've been with Stephen for
twelve years, so it was definitely scary to move. But
the change hasn't actually been too tough, and I really
enjoyed the training style, so it's been great to change
things up after a long time of doing something very

(02:32):
very similar.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
As far as training is concerned, you know, if you're
a runner, you're just trained to run. If you're a cyclist,
you just trained to cycle, same with swimming. As a trithlete,
how do you divide your time?

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah? Yeah, changes week on week and through different phases
of the year. But for me, on average, i'd say
I do around eighty to one hundred k running. Riding
I do mainly an hours probably somewhere between nine and

(03:05):
fifteen hours of riding week, and then about twenty to
thirty k a swimming in the poor week, with two
gyms throwing them there as well, so you can get
up to well over thirty hours of training for the week.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
And when you're looking for improvements, let's just talk about
the sprint distance, because I know you've got seventy point
three coming up as well. But when you're looking for
improvements in the sprint distance, you know, how do you
go about targeting those improvements and then achieving them?

Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yeah, I think I think improvement just mainly comes down
to consistency in our sport and just you know, been
able to put in the work day after day and
focus on the things in your physiology that are you know,
holding you back and just improve on them. But yeah,
I would say consistency is keeping able to show up
day after day and put in the work, which you
know sounds straightforward, but it's often not. You know, like

(03:56):
you've got to battle with injury and illness and other
other time constraints. You know, other other things can get
in the way, So consistency a reconds key.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
And as far as shaving, you know, shaving seconds off
each of the three, are there any one of the
three or which of the three do you feel like
you can make the biggest gains? And in terms of
cutting your times down.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
For me, definitely the run that they will definitely depend
on the course as well, but yeah, the run this
weekend is where I'd say the race. The race is
definitely going to be run on one on the run
this weekend. It's a flat, really fast course, so yeah,
if you put down a really fast run time, that's
going to lead you to a real good race this weekend.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
How guarded were you to miss out on the Olympic
Games last year.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Yeah, yeah, I was definitely really devastated. You know, it's
something that you put all your time and energy into achieving,
and not just yourself, your family or your support teams.
So you're to miss out on a massive a massive
goal like that was pretty pretty tough. But I think

(05:09):
I'm the stronger for it, you know, like, yeah, I
think I've you been over overcoming and I finished with
a strong end of the season last year, and I'm
looking to have a strong start to the season this year.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
You want to talk about what lies ahead, But what
strategies did you use to overcome that disappointment? I could
even hear it in your voice then, you know, it's
probably quite triggering even talking about it. But what strategies
did you use to to get over the disappointment and
try and focus ahead?

Speaker 3 (05:35):
Again, I don't really know if I implement a strategy.
I have a really great, great support network around me
at the time, which that time was my coach and
but particularly my family and my partner Nicole, who was
going to the games, and so I think that really
just helped me help me through it. And then you know,

(05:56):
focusing focusing ahead onto other goals I had and that
was kind of what what got me through that tough,
tough spot.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Has it made you even more determined to get to
LA in twenty twenty eight? Yeah, one percent.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
I think it's definitely.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
Just added added fuel to the fire and just made
me really hungry to you know, look for look for
more ways to you know, improve, And yeah, I hope,
I hope it will lead to some more success.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
I'm sure will. And as I was saying before your targeting,
I think the seventy point three is that the season
opener in Geelong coming up? Is that? Is that the
next thing on your agenda?

Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yeah, yeah, there'll be the next one the agenda. That
will be my first seventy point three, which yeah, I'm
really excited about doing and I hopefully we'll pay, you know,
help out in my short distance stuff as well. So
nexting up a few long course races with the short
course races is going to be like a real, real
fun change to make to my schedule.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Fun it's a good word for it. So can you
can you train simultaneously for sprint distance and seventy point three?

Speaker 3 (07:18):
I think so? You know, you got guys now dipping
out to do Ironman's and then coming down to race
sprint races. I don't know if I will do that,
but yeah, I believe so. I don't think my training
changes really too much with the seventy point three race

(07:39):
coming up. The only real changes spending time on the
farm try bike all right.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Well, the immediate point of business is Napier this weekend. Taylor,
really appreciate you having a chat to us so close
to the race. All the best for this and for
what lies ahead as well. Can't wait to chat again
as you chart your path to LA twenty twenty eight. Awesome,
thank you, No, thank you, Taylor. Taylor read that one
of the leading hopes and the men's race certainly the
leading ki WE hope and the men's race. No Hayden Wi,

(08:06):
No Dylan McCullough in this race tomorrow, so Taylor Reed
will be the leading KIWI contender. Nicole vander Kay, who
is Taylor Ridge partner, is in the women's race along
with fellow Paris Olympian Ainsley Thorpe. Looking forward to this tomorrow.
There's all sorts planned. The elite races are just part
of it. In Napier. The Napier Triathlon Festival. I'm pretty

(08:26):
sure that there are events for the average trith lead
to have a go at, but the elite stuff for
men and women over the sprint distance seven hundred and
fifteen meta swim, twenty k bike, fifteen sorry five k run,
fifteen nations represented and twenty New Zealanders taking up the challenge.
So we'll certainly keep an eye on that for you
tomorrow afternoon and let you know how our kiwi's in

(08:48):
particular go in the elite races.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
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