August 21, 2024 • 32 mins
Welcome to another exciting episode of the Business of Endurance Podcast, where we delve into the stories, insights, and advice of the world's top endurance athletes. Today, we have a truly inspiring guest, someone who has taken the triathlon world by storm with his remarkable achievements at such a young age. Rico Bogen, the youngest Ironman 70.3 World Champion, joins us to share his journey to the top, his training secrets, and his approach to balancing life, fitness, and the business aspects of being a professional athlete. At just 22 years old, Rico has already made history and is poised for even greater success. We'll discuss his partnership with Ku bikes, explore his strategies for maintaining peak health and nutrition, and learn how he handles the pressures that come with being a world champion. We'll also dive into his thoughts on the strength of German triathletes, his race selection process, and his long-term goals in the sport. This episode promises to be packed with valuable insights and actionable advice, whether you're an aspiring triathlete, a seasoned pro, or someone looking to improve your overall fitness and performance. Stay tuned as we uncover the story behind Rico Bogen's incredible success and what drives him to push the limits of human endurance. So, without further ado, let's welcome Rico Bogen to the Business of Endurance Podcast!
Highlights:
- Rico's journey to becoming the youngest ever 70.3 World Champion.
- The challenges of training at altitude and how he overcame them before the big race.
- How his preparation and strategy for 70.3 races differ from shorter distances.
- The importance of nutrition in middle-distance triathlons and how he manages it.
- The impact of sponsorships and how his approach to them has changed post-World Championship win.
- Balancing training, social media, sponsorship obligations, and maintaining a social life.
- The importance of recovery strategies, including physiotherapy and nutrition.
Links:
Click here for additional helpful content.
Connect with Rico Bogen on Instagram & YouTube
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
I'm Charlie Redding and I'm Claire Fudge.
Welcome to the business ofendurance.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
I think we have many good runners, and so it never
gets easier, but I want to bethere in good shape.
But I want to be there in goodshape.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Welcome to another exciting episode of the Business
of Endurance podcast, where wedelve into the stories, insights
and advice of the world's topendurance athletes.
Today, we have a trulyinspiring guest, someone who has
taken the triathlon world bystorm with his remarkable
achievements at such a young age.
Rico Bogan, the youngestIronman, 70.3 world champion,
(00:52):
joins us to share his journey tothe top, his training secrets
and his approach to balancinglife, fitness and the business
aspects of being a professionalathlete At just 22 years old.
Aspects of being a professionalathlete.
At just 22 years old, rico hasalready made history and is
poised for even greater success.
We'll discuss his partnershipwith Hugh Cycles.
We'll explore his strategiesfor maintaining peak health and
(01:16):
nutrition, and we'll learn howhe handles the pressure that
comes with being a worldchampion.
We'll also dive into histhoughts on the strength of
German triathletes, his raceselection process and his
long-term goals in the sport.
This episode promises to bepacked with valuable insights
and actionable advice.
Whether you're an aspiringtriathlete, a seasoned pro or
(01:39):
someone looking to improve youroverall fitness and performance,
stay tuned as we uncover thestory behind Rico Bogan's
incredible success and whatdrives him to push the limits of
human endurance.
So, without further ado, let'swelcome Rico Bogan to the
Business of Endurance podcast.
(02:12):
So, rico, welcome to thebusiness of endurance podcast,
really looking forward tochatting to you.
Wow, you have crashed into theworld of triathlon quickly, and
that's where I really want tostart.
I have to be honest a year agoI hadn't heard of Rico Bogan.
So you then become the worldchampion the youngest ever world
champion, 70.3.
And what an incredible day thatmust have been.
So I'd love to start with thatstory.
(02:32):
What was it like in the buildupto you know?
Where have you come from?
How did you build up to thatrace?
Tell us the story of that race.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Hi together.
I'm really happy to be here inthe podcast.
The world champion was 22 years, so yeah, I'm the youngest,
70.3.
I'm really happy to be here inthe podcast.
The World Champion was 22 years.
So yeah, I'm the youngest, 70.3.
I am a World Champion so Istarted as a young kid in a
sports family.
So my parents are working, butthey didn't do sport as a hobby
and so they.
They took us on every runningcompetition or triathlon
(03:04):
competitions in the area aroundLeipzig.
It's great because as a childyou have these competitions and
can focus on this competition,and that's not so easy to do in
other competitions.
That's very great To get pointsfor the Olympic ranking.
We took the decision to go morein the middle stance and
winning the world championstitle thing.
(03:26):
Nobody expected it for me.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I didn't expect it too, and it was a really stacked
field as well.
There was a, really it was.
It was a.
You beat a lot of the, the verytop names.
Tell us a bit more about thatwin.
Tell us what happened.
How did you feel before therace?
How did you feel during therace?
How did you feel during therace?
And at what point did you thinkI've got this in the bag.
How did that feel?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
It was a little bit, yeah, 50-50 chance if I'm
responding good on the altitudeor not, because it was the first
time.
But yeah, and also in thealtitude camp I didn't feel that
good at the end Last week,although I were there for three
weeks and the last week I wasreally tired and thought, oh,
that's not good, I'm not at myhighest level.
(04:09):
I came down 11 days before therace and it got better day by
day and, yeah, then I was there.
I think on Wednesday I was inFinland and that last brick
session before the race I feltvery good.
So there I felt, oh, I wasreally excited before the race
(04:31):
and then I was out of the waterin third or fourth place, but on
the bike I was all time withthe front.
We had at the beginning a gapwith just three men Jusos
Nieschlag and Mathis Magier andI was there and we had a gap
already and I thought, yeah,here's where I want to be, I
want to be at the front.
(04:52):
And after 50 or 60 kilometers Ithought, yeah, my legs are not
that fresh anymore and a littlebit tired, but at the end it was
a little bit easier and so Igot from the bike and third
position and then, yeah, my legswere new again.
I started to run and it said Ihad good cadence and written,
(05:14):
and there was already my parentswas there, the sidelines, the
cheer, yeah, it looks so goodand and yeah, after three
kilometer I could close the 30seconds gap and I I went in the
in front of the race and now infirst place and, yeah, this was
really amazing and and yeah, thefinish line it's just
(05:37):
goosebumps and, yeah, tears ofjoy and and yeah, and this was
amazing because, yeah, it was along way, my board career
started very early and yeah,everything came down there and
yeah, it was unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, it was absolutely fantastic.
I followed you under two cycles, actually all day.
Yeah, it was fantastic to seeyou finishing and hear the
excitement.
So yeah, so absolutelyfantastic win.
You've got this backgroundcoming from swimming at a young
age and then into 70.3 distance.
Is there anything in particularthat you've changed
strategy-wise in 70.3 racingthat you feel is monumental or
(06:17):
really made a difference?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, preparation for 70.3 is different to shorter
descents.
You have to carbo-oload more.
I would say this was somethingdifferent.
And also, the nutrition is muchmore important than the middle
stance, sprinter stance, becausethere's just one hour and you
have a bottle on the bike andyeah, there you have maybe 30
grams of carbs in the bottle.
(06:39):
But if you don't get it in,then it's also not so important.
But yeah, for middle stance,yeah, you have to train the
nutrition.
Then with the stomach, nothinggets out again and so, yeah,
this was something new and withmy coach, we tried to talk about
this and trying to train thisand training.
(07:02):
So I think that's the mostdifferent to the short distance
and yeah, so I got it very fastwith the nutrition, though
already in the first race it wasokay.
And yeah, on the running I havesometimes problems to get carbs
in me and my coach doing thespeed stuff and all the longer
(07:27):
stuff, so we mix it very good.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
You've mentioned your coach a couple of times already
and I think actually you shareyour coach with claire and
claire also coached by joe.
Given that you're very early inyour career, how did you go
about picking your coach?
What did you look for in acoach?
What was it about joe that youfelt was a good fit?
Speaker 3 (07:46):
yeah, for me it's important to have a good
relationship to the coach and itwas not just what is on the
training plan, so I'm askingvery many questions, or I I want
to know why we are doing this.
So this is very important forme that I can give my feedback
and that I can ask something.
I got a contact to him and Iasked him yeah, is it okay if I
(08:10):
ask questions?
And so that's what I think isvery important in our
relationship that he isadjustable.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
You know you mentioned about a partnership
with a coach is really importantto help support you with that
success and, I guess, trust aswell.
You mentioned partnerships Inthe world of triathlon.
It's becoming more and moredifficult to be able to gain
partnerships and sponsorshipsfor athletes and we've certainly
seen that sort of past.
Covid, obviously you've beenworking alongside Coup Cycles.
(08:41):
What made you choose a Ku bikeor work with Ku Cycles, and how
do you find that bike and thatdesign?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, it looks a little bit different from the
other bike brands.
Yeah, I want to work with thembecause it looks different and
the philosophy behind this isdifferent.
As you have, the hire, a frameor a fork is wider and higher so
that the airstream could gothrough the frame and through
the legs so that it's not broken.
(09:09):
At the beginning it makes sense.
And the context is also aboutwith Joe, and his girlfriend is
a friend of my mom.
There's a program, if I want tojoin, you got measured your
body and then the frame is builtto your body in a bigger bike
company.
I would just be one of many atleast, and there in this company
(09:30):
I'm maybe I'm dead a worldmodel, but I can talk to the ceo
, I can talk to everybody and Ican make also a difference and
it's definitely a bike thatsplits opinion, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (09:42):
But ultimately it's giving you the results that you
want.
What amazing advocate you mustbe for them.
They must be delighted withtheir next generation program.
I'm really intrigued about thiswhole sponsorship thing.
When you won the WorldChampionship, did you suddenly
have this flood of new sponsorstrying to throw product and
money at you?
I'm very conscious thatnowadays it seems to be almost
(10:04):
more about the followers than itis the results that you get as
an athlete.
So how has the sponsorshipdynamic changed?
How was it before you won theWorld Championship and how has
it evolved since, Before theWorld Championship there were
not too many sponsors becausethey believed since the
beginning in me.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
On the first day they said, yeah, he's a really good
guy, he will become a worldchampion.
So they believed from day one.
But otherwise there was asponsor here in Leipzig, my
hometown.
So it was more like a friendwho wants to give me some money
and, yeah, that I can do thesport and my parents paid the
(10:46):
most of travels and so it wasvery important that I have the
parents behind me.
Yeah, after the World Champs itgot, for sure, easier and with
the world title you feel thatsocial media it's getting more
important, that you have topresent them on social media.
I have both and the followersand the performance.
(11:06):
Nutrition is also so importantin the middle sense and there
are so many brands, so, yeah, ittook quite a long time to find
the right partner there itsounds like a full-time job on
top of a full-time job being anathlete, managing sponsorship
and social media.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
as somebody who's still young, how do you manage
training full-time as aprofessional athlete and having
to manage all the social mediaside of things and sponsorship
side of things?
What do you do in terms ofhelping yourself recover
properly and potentially havesome social part to your life as
well?
Speaker 3 (11:42):
I have a good team around me.
So as a manager I have AlexBruck, so he's also the CEO of
Blue Cycle, but he managed theteam BVT for many years, so he
knows how to manage a team orhow to manage an athlete.
And, social media-wise, I havea videographer with me and a
photographer, so Rico Hoffmann.
It's a friend, or at thebeginning it was a friend.
(12:04):
He's still a friend, but nowhe's doing more the YouTube
channel.
He's cutting the videos.
I really try to balance thesocial life and the training
life, that I'm not just focusedall the time on training and so
that I have the social life.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yeah, Obviously, staying healthy and injury
freefree is really important.
Have you got any strategies orkey things that you do that help
you stay healthy or help youavoid injury?
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Yeah, with injury, I have also in Leipzig here a
partner in physiotherapy.
There I could go two times aweek to physiotherapy.
So really cool that also inLeipzig it's possible here.
And then, yeah, I prefer forrecovery sauna.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Yeah, then you relax your muscles and eating is very
important you mentioned the goodeating there at the end and I
was going to come on to some ofyour other recovery strategies
and actually, when you weretalking about racing, moving
from shorter distance into 70.3and how nutrition is really,
really important part of thatrace day, is there anything
specifically that you do from anutrition perspective to help
(13:10):
with either day-to-day fuelingor perhaps your recovery?
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I have not a diet or a drill.
I'm omnivore.
I'm eating everything For me.
I'm not eating that much meat.
So in normal life or normaltraining week I don't need the
meat, not that heavy stuff,especially for running.
It's more, yeah, bread or oats.
(13:34):
Immediately after the session Irecover shake, so that's
working very good.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
I agree, and I think it's not just about getting back
and eating whatever's wrong.
I tend to rip people's headsoff.
I get really hungry if I don'thave, so that recovery shake
saves me, but it's very good.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
The recovery shake and in my younger ages I didn't
do that and and then I came homevery hungry and, yeah,
sometimes cry to my parents whythere's nothing to eat.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Why is dinner not ready?
That kind of makes me think.
Are there any mistakes that yousee young triathletes making
that you've learned now?
Or having a recovery shakestraight after sounds like a
good piece of advice.
Are there any mistakes peoplemaking with regards to nutrition
?
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah, I think the old school was that you don't have
carbs in the training sessions,that you just have water or
sometimes no water.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
So also in swimming, some at least has no water
bottle or something to drink onthe side of the pool sound like
you got some very goodstrategies there in terms of
recovery and being reallysensible around, listening to
your body as well.
Going back to you know thisamazing place that you're in
being the youngest ever 70.3world champion.
(14:48):
That's obviously brought youamazing success, but has that,
to a certain degree, put apressure on you now to perform?
What does that feel like to bein in this situation right now?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
yeah, for sure, a little bit more pressure than
before, but because now I'm notthe underdog anymore so
everybody knows my name, or Idon't want to put too much
pressure on me because tried onso many good athletes there, we
could see all the last yearsthat nobody could win every race
.
So we have so many differentwinners.
(15:21):
And also in the team 100 series, no, nobody won twice.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
I think that's why it's not boring and it's a
really good, cool sport I thinkmaybe there's an underlying
added pressure because germanyhave got such a great history
you mentioned it alreadyyourself it's got this history
of producing exceptionaltriathletes, and we were talking
before the podcast.
I've just come back fromGermany and I was going out and
doing sort of 70, 80 mile ridesand 75% of the ride was on
(15:49):
tarmac but purpose-built biketrails and I was like this is
incredible, I mean, and Icouldn't help but think I wonder
if this kind of infrastructurehelps breed people into cycling
and running.
So why is it that you say, whydo you think that germany
produces such strong triathletes?
(16:10):
And I know when I race I'malways up against some strong
german athletes, so why is that?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
I would say it's we have a good structure, we have
the many swimming pools, andthat's one opportunity and if
you love the sport or if youlove the training, and then it's
just a matter of time that youget to the top and we have a
good infrastructure.
And then the competitions, andthen we had good role models to
(16:35):
focus on them.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I think the swimming pool is a really interesting
point, actually, because in theuk we've got something like 300
swimming pools closed in thelast four years and we have a
real struggle to find goodswimming pools.
And yet it strikes me that somany times we speak to
triathletes professionaltriathletes that come from a
swimming background, and I thinkyou're right, it's important
(16:57):
that we learn to swim at a youngage.
But I think the discipline oftraining that swimming embeds in
you then add also the buildingof the engine also seems to just
strikes me as the UK is missingout horribly by closing
swimming pools, when Germany isclearly proving the opposite
seems to be the case.
Who was your role model whenyou were younger in the sport?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
For me it was mostly Jan Frodeno, because he's so
tall than me.
He was a world model that ispossible with a very tall
athlete.
He won the Olympics.
He won 17.3 and he won the longdistance world championships.
He won everything.
He was a world model for me.
(17:41):
He did also very good businessbesides the sport.
He built his own brand.
He was quite untouchable and aworld model for me and he did
all the very good businessbesides the sport.
So he built his own brand.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
He was quite untouchable and a role model for
me it's interesting to hear youtalk about building your brand
as an athlete as well.
I think that's reallyinteresting.
You touched on there about, ingermany, racing from a really
early age and you mentioned it acouple of times now in the
world of professional triathlon,like, how do you go about
choosing races, likestrategically racing?
(18:10):
When do you choose, like t100over the ironman series as an
example?
So, yeah, how do you start toeven choose which races you're
going to participate in?
Speaker 3 (18:19):
I'm one of 20 athletes who has a contract with
t100, so so I have to race sixraces in the series.
So these six races are yeah,that's in my competition plans.
There are eight races I missedin Singapore, so maybe I do all
of them or maybe I will missanother one, but for this one
(18:40):
it's clear I have to do this.
But it's also great to be therebecause you're always racing
against the best triathletes inthe world, so I'm really
appreciating that I'm there andalways looking forward to race
there.
The running competitions ifit's here in Leipzig or around
Leipzig, I'm doing the runningcompetitions as a training race,
(19:01):
and there I'm talking with Joethe coach, what we implemented
in the training plan and thenhis structures around it.
Yeah, if he has a runningcompetition or a triathlon, then
I'm doing this just as atraining or a good, faster
training.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
You mentioned that the T100 series and that finish
at the Escape from Alcatraz inSan Francisco was just
incredible, wasn't it?
And obviously it was athree-way mad dash for the line.
Obviously, he finished reallystrong that time, but it wasn't
quite enough.
What lessons did you learn fromthat race?
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Yeah, for me it was a great result.
I went to the third place.
I was really happy with it.
Yeah, to have won for such along time With the lead and with
Martin van Riel who was beforethe race.
Everybody said, yeah, it's aneasy win for him because he won
every race or every middledistance race he ever did.
(19:57):
I was quite happy to battlewith him and could stay with him
for such a long time.
And, yeah, for this race Iwould have to train the sprint,
because if I would have a bettersprint then and I could win it,
yeah, we trained a little bitmore on the sprint that leads me
on to what is next for you.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
You know you've achieved some amazing success
already and, being at such ayoung age, you mentioned London
T100 up.
Charlie's a big goal setterhere, so he will be very keen to
know what are your short-termgoals right now and what are
your long-term goals.
Would you think abouttransitioning to longer distance
(20:36):
, like Ironman distance, at somepoint in the future?
Is that on the cards?
Speaker 3 (20:40):
For this year, the goal is, with the T100 series.
The next race is in Londonondon, so at the end of this week, on
sunday, that's the race, and mygoal is always to be at least
in top five and, and, yeah, tobe in on the podium.
It's, yeah, it's.
This is something I can't saybefore, because, yeah, it's
(21:00):
important how you feel on thisday and so many circumstances,
but I'll be there in the topfive and also in the overall
ranking, because you get pointsfor every race and then there's
overall ranking.
I'll be there in the end of theyear in the top five.
That's the goal for this year.
And then in December there'sstill the 70.3 World Champs in
(21:22):
Taupo in New Zealand.
I hope that I can perform there, but it's not easy there
because many short distance guyscome after to the middle stance
.
So I think there we have manygood runners and it will never
get easier, but I want to bethere in good shape.
I can be in the T100 seriesnext year too, so that I'm one
(21:46):
of the T100 series next year too, so I'm one of the athletes.
So I would love to race therenext year and, yeah, with long
distance.
I know that I will do itsomeday, but I don't want to say
If you could just pick onelong-term goal.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
So whether it's a win in particular, whether it's a
win in Kona, so whether it's awin in particular, whether it's
a win in kona, whether it's awin in roth, whether it's a win
of the t100 series, if you couldpick one more career win, what
would that long-term goal be?
Speaker 3 (22:17):
difficult question.
I don't think I would pick thelong distance world champion, so
I don't know if it's on Kona orif it's somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Rico's just been talking about his short-term and
long-term goals, and goalsetting is incredibly important.
You know, the top 1% ofachievers the world over,
whether it's sport or business,write goals.
If you want to be in the 1%,you have to write goals but also
have a or business write goals.
So if you want to be in the 1%,you have to write goals but
also have a system to achievethose goals.
I have a workshop called theLimitless Life Workshop where
(22:52):
I'll show you how to createamazing goals and how to create
a system to achieve those goals.
So if you go towwwthetrustedteam, you can
register for one of our eventscalled the Limitless Life
Workshop.
I will show you how to setgoals and how to achieve them.
We always ask the previousguest of the podcast to ask the
(23:14):
next guest a question, withoutknowing who that is, and the
previous guest was a formerprofessional rugby player turned
ultra runner called LewisRoebling.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I think Claire has got his question lewis asks do
you have any mantras and what dothey mean to you?
So there's any mantras that yousay to yourself by running.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Yeah, so running.
I say sometimes, keep to thecadence.
Or it's also a german.
I say, and as a locker on lifehere, get the size.
So let's keep easy and stayeasy.
Yes, it's just flat.
So I'm always saying this isgoing uphill and then I'm saying
(23:54):
, yeah, keep easy, it's justflat.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Excellent, I like that.
I like that.
That's brilliant, rico.
It's been absolutely brilliantchatting to you.
What an incredible start toyour career.
But equally, what I love aboutchatting to you is and where we
started this conversation wasthat when somebody bursts onto
the scene and having greatsuccess, like you did, it's very
easy to think, oh, they've justsuddenly, they're a natural.
(24:18):
And yet what was brilliantabout hearing your story was the
fact that you have transitionedfrom so much from a youngster
and, of course, we only see thepeak of the mountain, don't we?
But all of that work below hasclearly taken a huge amount of
effort and it's massively paidoff.
So huge congratulations so far.
I'm sure in years to come we'llbe getting you back on the
(24:38):
podcast, having won all of thosedifferent things that we talked
about and as we got the risingstar of the world of triathlon
here.
But huge congratulations, andwe'll be watching with eager
eyes cheering you on in londonand in new zealand obviously not
in person, but yeah, no, I hopeyou have an amazing year and
many years to come.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Yeah, yeah, thank you .
Thank you for the invitation tobeing part of the podcast.
Yeah, he loved it.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
He laughed at it so what did you make of that
interview with Rico?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
it was fantastic to speak to like the youngest ever
70.3 world champion that was.
That was amazing and what anamazingly sensible head on a 23
year old male what he was comingout why did you have to have
male there?
Speaker 1 (25:26):
well, all female, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
I know exactly why you had to have male there, but
just you know, some of thewisdom that he was coming out
with is, you know, you kind oflearn by mistake, but it's
almost like he's already aheadin terms of his thinking he is
definitely wise beyond his years.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I thought he was very grounded and I thought, you
know, just like referencing oryou know, when it's when it's
all becoming a bit too much, abit of time hanging out with my
friends, my school friends or mygrandparents uh, it's just, you
know, really, really sensiblestuff.
What I liked was when we talkedabout being coached by Joe, his
, his confidence to be able tosay, well, I want to do this.
(26:06):
Therefore, can we make thatwork?
And knowing that he needed tosort of kind of stand up for
what he believed in and what hewanted to do, I thought was
really interesting.
What else did you take fromthat interview?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
We touched on it quite a bit throughout In
Germany.
It seems that they, as we dowith a lot of people we
interview they quite young, butthat you know racing really
young seems to be potentially,you know, a key to him being
able to also thrive in this.
You know professionalcompetitive environment as well.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
You know if you've been racing since you're really,
really young and it's very easyto sort of because he sort of
skirted over it, but the factthat he started his career as a
short, short course athlete andrealized that he wasn't winning
anything, so he, very young, youknow, like you said, you know a
lot of the people that willcome out of the Olympics will
(26:55):
will be the athletes that kindof get to the end of their short
course career and thenessentially retire from that and
move to middle course, whereashe has gone and done that at a
very young age, which I think isfascinating because you know he
, he could see that that was hisstrength and he, he had the
courage to switch, much youngerthan most, due to middle, middle
(27:16):
distance and and you can seehim therefore migrating to long
course quicker than perhaps healluded to I think actually and
and you know I'd be interestedto know your thoughts on this
but just thinking about it, youknow the way that he's building
his professional career he wastalking about.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
You know you've got this kind of background of him
coming from this young age in inyou know sport and competing,
and then he's really it's almostlike he's building a business.
You know he's taking all thisadvice from people who have made
it.
So his coach that's this, youknow has been a professional
athlete and now he's coaching atthis level.
He's got Alex Spock from CoupCycle that is helping to manage
(27:54):
him and having all these peoplethat are supporting around him
and taking all of that advice.
You know he's really buildingvery good foundations.
You know he was talking aboutpartnerships.
You know, at the age of 23,being able to negotiate really
good partnerships and not justsaying yes to everything that
was probably, you know, thrownat him after, you know, winning
(28:15):
that title and actually sayingactually does it work for me?
Let me try it out, do I need itand actually do I benefit from
it?
Speaker 1 (28:21):
and I just there's something that kind of comes to
me in terms of it's likebuilding a really good, you know
business and you'll bedefinitely the businessman to
talk about that well, I justthink that, you know, jan
Frodeno was an inspiration, notjust from a from an athlete
point of view, but also from akind of building a business
brand point of view, and youcould see that he's learning
(28:42):
lessons from Jan and he's kindof, yeah, he's, he's building
some building force to bereckoned with.
I think he's, uh, he'sdefinitely one of those athletes
to just keep an eye on.
He's going to go significantplaces and and obviously has
already but continue to seeamazing things from him.
And, um, obviously, by the timethat this episode goes live,
we'll know how he got on in theT100 in London.
(29:03):
Well, another brilliant episodeof the Business of Endurance.
Just yeah, so much wisdom inthere in many young years.
So, yeah, for all the listenersout there, keep on training.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
So, as promised, Rico talked about his very sensible
nutrition strategy, particularlyaround his recovery, but also
his needs for training, and ifyou would like to also have some
insight into protein forrecovery, then if you click the
link in the show notes below,we'll send you a protein
(29:39):
download, so giving you pictureideas, and newly updated picture
ideas of both plant-basedproteins and also animal-based
proteins, so you can make surethat you know how much you need
before and after training.
So click the link below and youcan download those copies for
yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
If you want us to keep getting amazing guests onto
the Business of Endurancepodcast.
We don't ask for you to pay forus.
We don't ask for patronage.
All we ask for is that yousubscribe to the podcast,
ideally on Apple.
Give us a five-star ratingbecause it shows us you care and
, if you've got time, leave us acomment.
One word is fine, somethinglike inspiring or amazing or
(30:20):
something like that, but wereally do appreciate it and it
will help us to continue todeliver amazing guests on what
we hope you find to be anamazing podcast.
Thanks very much.
Jeff and chloe from big moosecharity, we featured in episode
one of season seven, made such agreat impact on the both of us,
(30:43):
we decided to make them ourcharity sponsor for Season 7.
You know, they really touchedme in the sense that I lost my
brother-in-law to suicide inWales and these guys are working
their socks off to help preventsituations like that.
Claire, why did Geoff and Chloereally make an impact on you?
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Coming from a background in clinical nutrition
and working in mental health,to me also it hit a spot in
terms of the charity and howthey are building therapy to
help support people with mentalhealth difficulties, and they've
saved over 50 lives now andalready met their first target
of a million and their newtarget, 15 million, that they're
trying to get to.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
It's absolutely incredible and 15 million is
that they're trying to get to.
It's absolutely incredible and15 million is a huge target
they've set themselves, butthey're speeding up help that
people in desperately in needget, and this help is needed
more than ever.
I know how problematic mentalhealth issues are in today's
world.
So if you think you can helpBig Moose Charity and they're
particularly looking forcorporate partners to help them
(31:48):
raise that 15 million, if youthink you can help them or link
them into a company that canhelp them, the best place to go
to is bigmoosecharityco, or youcan find them on instagram as
bigmoosecharity, or you can evenemail jeff at jeff at
bigmooseco.
I'm Charlie Redding and I'm Claire Fudge.
Welcome to the business ofendurance.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
I think we have many good runners, and so it never
gets easier, but I want to bethere in good shape.
But I want to be there in goodshape.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Welcome to another exciting episode of the Business
of Endurance podcast, where wedelve into the stories, insights
and advice of the world's topendurance athletes.
Today, we have a trulyinspiring guest, someone who has
taken the triathlon world bystorm with his remarkable
achievements at such a young age.
Rico Bogan, the youngestIronman, 70.3 world champion,
(00:52):
joins us to share his journey tothe top, his training secrets
and his approach to balancinglife, fitness and the business
aspects of being a professionalathlete At just 22 years old.
Aspects of being a professionalathlete.
At just 22 years old, rico hasalready made history and is
poised for even greater success.
We'll discuss his partnershipwith Hugh Cycles.
We'll explore his strategiesfor maintaining peak health and
(01:16):
nutrition, and we'll learn howhe handles the pressure that
comes with being a worldchampion.
We'll also dive into histhoughts on the strength of
German triathletes, his raceselection process and his
long-term goals in the sport.
This episode promises to bepacked with valuable insights
and actionable advice.
Whether you're an aspiringtriathlete, a seasoned pro or
(01:39):
someone looking to improve youroverall fitness and performance,
stay tuned as we uncover thestory behind Rico Bogan's
incredible success and whatdrives him to push the limits of
human endurance.
So, without further ado, let'swelcome Rico Bogan to the
Business of Endurance podcast.
(02:12):
So, rico, welcome to thebusiness of endurance podcast,
really looking forward tochatting to you.
Wow, you have crashed into theworld of triathlon quickly, and
that's where I really want tostart.
I have to be honest a year agoI hadn't heard of Rico Bogan.
So you then become the worldchampion the youngest ever world
champion, 70.3.
And what an incredible day thatmust have been.
So I'd love to start with thatstory.
(02:32):
What was it like in the buildupto you know?
Where have you come from?
How did you build up to thatrace?
Tell us the story of that race.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Hi together.
I'm really happy to be here inthe podcast.
The world champion was 22 years, so yeah, I'm the youngest,
70.3.
I'm really happy to be here inthe podcast.
The World Champion was 22 years.
So yeah, I'm the youngest, 70.3.
I am a World Champion so Istarted as a young kid in a
sports family.
So my parents are working, butthey didn't do sport as a hobby
and so they.
They took us on every runningcompetition or triathlon
(03:04):
competitions in the area aroundLeipzig.
It's great because as a childyou have these competitions and
can focus on this competition,and that's not so easy to do in
other competitions.
That's very great To get pointsfor the Olympic ranking.
We took the decision to go morein the middle stance and
winning the world championstitle thing.
(03:26):
Nobody expected it for me.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I didn't expect it too, and it was a really stacked
field as well.
There was a, really it was.
It was a.
You beat a lot of the, the verytop names.
Tell us a bit more about thatwin.
Tell us what happened.
How did you feel before therace?
How did you feel during therace?
How did you feel during therace?
And at what point did you thinkI've got this in the bag.
How did that feel?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
It was a little bit, yeah, 50-50 chance if I'm
responding good on the altitudeor not, because it was the first
time.
But yeah, and also in thealtitude camp I didn't feel that
good at the end Last week,although I were there for three
weeks and the last week I wasreally tired and thought, oh,
that's not good, I'm not at myhighest level.
(04:09):
I came down 11 days before therace and it got better day by
day and, yeah, then I was there.
I think on Wednesday I was inFinland and that last brick
session before the race I feltvery good.
So there I felt, oh, I wasreally excited before the race
(04:31):
and then I was out of the waterin third or fourth place, but on
the bike I was all time withthe front.
We had at the beginning a gapwith just three men Jusos
Nieschlag and Mathis Magier andI was there and we had a gap
already and I thought, yeah,here's where I want to be, I
want to be at the front.
(04:52):
And after 50 or 60 kilometers Ithought, yeah, my legs are not
that fresh anymore and a littlebit tired, but at the end it was
a little bit easier and so Igot from the bike and third
position and then, yeah, my legswere new again.
I started to run and it said Ihad good cadence and written,
(05:14):
and there was already my parentswas there, the sidelines, the
cheer, yeah, it looks so goodand and yeah, after three
kilometer I could close the 30seconds gap and I I went in the
in front of the race and now infirst place and, yeah, this was
really amazing and and yeah, thefinish line it's just
(05:37):
goosebumps and, yeah, tears ofjoy and and yeah, and this was
amazing because, yeah, it was along way, my board career
started very early and yeah,everything came down there and
yeah, it was unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, it was absolutely fantastic.
I followed you under two cycles, actually all day.
Yeah, it was fantastic to seeyou finishing and hear the
excitement.
So yeah, so absolutelyfantastic win.
You've got this backgroundcoming from swimming at a young
age and then into 70.3 distance.
Is there anything in particularthat you've changed
strategy-wise in 70.3 racingthat you feel is monumental or
(06:17):
really made a difference?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, preparation for 70.3 is different to shorter
descents.
You have to carbo-oload more.
I would say this was somethingdifferent.
And also, the nutrition is muchmore important than the middle
stance, sprinter stance, becausethere's just one hour and you
have a bottle on the bike andyeah, there you have maybe 30
grams of carbs in the bottle.
(06:39):
But if you don't get it in,then it's also not so important.
But yeah, for middle stance,yeah, you have to train the
nutrition.
Then with the stomach, nothinggets out again and so, yeah,
this was something new and withmy coach, we tried to talk about
this and trying to train thisand training.
(07:02):
So I think that's the mostdifferent to the short distance
and yeah, so I got it very fastwith the nutrition, though
already in the first race it wasokay.
And yeah, on the running I havesometimes problems to get carbs
in me and my coach doing thespeed stuff and all the longer
(07:27):
stuff, so we mix it very good.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
You've mentioned your coach a couple of times already
and I think actually you shareyour coach with claire and
claire also coached by joe.
Given that you're very early inyour career, how did you go
about picking your coach?
What did you look for in acoach?
What was it about joe that youfelt was a good fit?
Speaker 3 (07:46):
yeah, for me it's important to have a good
relationship to the coach and itwas not just what is on the
training plan, so I'm askingvery many questions, or I I want
to know why we are doing this.
So this is very important forme that I can give my feedback
and that I can ask something.
I got a contact to him and Iasked him yeah, is it okay if I
(08:10):
ask questions?
And so that's what I think isvery important in our
relationship that he isadjustable.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
You know you mentioned about a partnership
with a coach is really importantto help support you with that
success and, I guess, trust aswell.
You mentioned partnerships Inthe world of triathlon.
It's becoming more and moredifficult to be able to gain
partnerships and sponsorshipsfor athletes and we've certainly
seen that sort of past.
Covid, obviously you've beenworking alongside Coup Cycles.
(08:41):
What made you choose a Ku bikeor work with Ku Cycles, and how
do you find that bike and thatdesign?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, it looks a little bit different from the
other bike brands.
Yeah, I want to work with thembecause it looks different and
the philosophy behind this isdifferent.
As you have, the hire, a frameor a fork is wider and higher so
that the airstream could gothrough the frame and through
the legs so that it's not broken.
(09:09):
At the beginning it makes sense.
And the context is also aboutwith Joe, and his girlfriend is
a friend of my mom.
There's a program, if I want tojoin, you got measured your
body and then the frame is builtto your body in a bigger bike
company.
I would just be one of many atleast, and there in this company
(09:30):
I'm maybe I'm dead a worldmodel, but I can talk to the ceo
, I can talk to everybody and Ican make also a difference and
it's definitely a bike thatsplits opinion, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (09:42):
But ultimately it's giving you the results that you
want.
What amazing advocate you mustbe for them.
They must be delighted withtheir next generation program.
I'm really intrigued about thiswhole sponsorship thing.
When you won the WorldChampionship, did you suddenly
have this flood of new sponsorstrying to throw product and
money at you?
I'm very conscious thatnowadays it seems to be almost
(10:04):
more about the followers than itis the results that you get as
an athlete.
So how has the sponsorshipdynamic changed?
How was it before you won theWorld Championship and how has
it evolved since, Before theWorld Championship there were
not too many sponsors becausethey believed since the
beginning in me.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
On the first day they said, yeah, he's a really good
guy, he will become a worldchampion.
So they believed from day one.
But otherwise there was asponsor here in Leipzig, my
hometown.
So it was more like a friendwho wants to give me some money
and, yeah, that I can do thesport and my parents paid the
(10:46):
most of travels and so it wasvery important that I have the
parents behind me.
Yeah, after the World Champs itgot, for sure, easier and with
the world title you feel thatsocial media it's getting more
important, that you have topresent them on social media.
I have both and the followersand the performance.
(11:06):
Nutrition is also so importantin the middle sense and there
are so many brands, so, yeah, ittook quite a long time to find
the right partner there itsounds like a full-time job on
top of a full-time job being anathlete, managing sponsorship
and social media.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
as somebody who's still young, how do you manage
training full-time as aprofessional athlete and having
to manage all the social mediaside of things and sponsorship
side of things?
What do you do in terms ofhelping yourself recover
properly and potentially havesome social part to your life as
well?
Speaker 3 (11:42):
I have a good team around me.
So as a manager I have AlexBruck, so he's also the CEO of
Blue Cycle, but he managed theteam BVT for many years, so he
knows how to manage a team orhow to manage an athlete.
And, social media-wise, I havea videographer with me and a
photographer, so Rico Hoffmann.
It's a friend, or at thebeginning it was a friend.
(12:04):
He's still a friend, but nowhe's doing more the YouTube
channel.
He's cutting the videos.
I really try to balance thesocial life and the training
life, that I'm not just focusedall the time on training and so
that I have the social life.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yeah, Obviously, staying healthy and injury
freefree is really important.
Have you got any strategies orkey things that you do that help
you stay healthy or help youavoid injury?
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Yeah, with injury, I have also in Leipzig here a
partner in physiotherapy.
There I could go two times aweek to physiotherapy.
So really cool that also inLeipzig it's possible here.
And then, yeah, I prefer forrecovery sauna.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Yeah, then you relax your muscles and eating is very
important you mentioned the goodeating there at the end and I
was going to come on to some ofyour other recovery strategies
and actually, when you weretalking about racing, moving
from shorter distance into 70.3and how nutrition is really,
really important part of thatrace day, is there anything
specifically that you do from anutrition perspective to help
(13:10):
with either day-to-day fuelingor perhaps your recovery?
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I have not a diet or a drill.
I'm omnivore.
I'm eating everything For me.
I'm not eating that much meat.
So in normal life or normaltraining week I don't need the
meat, not that heavy stuff,especially for running.
It's more, yeah, bread or oats.
(13:34):
Immediately after the session Irecover shake, so that's
working very good.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
I agree, and I think it's not just about getting back
and eating whatever's wrong.
I tend to rip people's headsoff.
I get really hungry if I don'thave, so that recovery shake
saves me, but it's very good.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
The recovery shake and in my younger ages I didn't
do that and and then I came homevery hungry and, yeah,
sometimes cry to my parents whythere's nothing to eat.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Why is dinner not ready?
That kind of makes me think.
Are there any mistakes that yousee young triathletes making
that you've learned now?
Or having a recovery shakestraight after sounds like a
good piece of advice.
Are there any mistakes peoplemaking with regards to nutrition
?
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah, I think the old school was that you don't have
carbs in the training sessions,that you just have water or
sometimes no water.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
So also in swimming, some at least has no water
bottle or something to drink onthe side of the pool sound like
you got some very goodstrategies there in terms of
recovery and being reallysensible around, listening to
your body as well.
Going back to you know thisamazing place that you're in
being the youngest ever 70.3world champion.
(14:48):
That's obviously brought youamazing success, but has that,
to a certain degree, put apressure on you now to perform?
What does that feel like to bein in this situation right now?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
yeah, for sure, a little bit more pressure than
before, but because now I'm notthe underdog anymore so
everybody knows my name, or Idon't want to put too much
pressure on me because tried onso many good athletes there, we
could see all the last yearsthat nobody could win every race
.
So we have so many differentwinners.
(15:21):
And also in the team 100 series, no, nobody won twice.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
I think that's why it's not boring and it's a
really good, cool sport I thinkmaybe there's an underlying
added pressure because germanyhave got such a great history
you mentioned it alreadyyourself it's got this history
of producing exceptionaltriathletes, and we were talking
before the podcast.
I've just come back fromGermany and I was going out and
doing sort of 70, 80 mile ridesand 75% of the ride was on
(15:49):
tarmac but purpose-built biketrails and I was like this is
incredible, I mean, and Icouldn't help but think I wonder
if this kind of infrastructurehelps breed people into cycling
and running.
So why is it that you say, whydo you think that germany
produces such strong triathletes?
(16:10):
And I know when I race I'malways up against some strong
german athletes, so why is that?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
I would say it's we have a good structure, we have
the many swimming pools, andthat's one opportunity and if
you love the sport or if youlove the training, and then it's
just a matter of time that youget to the top and we have a
good infrastructure.
And then the competitions, andthen we had good role models to
(16:35):
focus on them.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I think the swimming pool is a really interesting
point, actually, because in theuk we've got something like 300
swimming pools closed in thelast four years and we have a
real struggle to find goodswimming pools.
And yet it strikes me that somany times we speak to
triathletes professionaltriathletes that come from a
swimming background, and I thinkyou're right, it's important
(16:57):
that we learn to swim at a youngage.
But I think the discipline oftraining that swimming embeds in
you then add also the buildingof the engine also seems to just
strikes me as the UK is missingout horribly by closing
swimming pools, when Germany isclearly proving the opposite
seems to be the case.
Who was your role model whenyou were younger in the sport?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
For me it was mostly Jan Frodeno, because he's so
tall than me.
He was a world model that ispossible with a very tall
athlete.
He won the Olympics.
He won 17.3 and he won the longdistance world championships.
He won everything.
He was a world model for me.
(17:41):
He did also very good businessbesides the sport.
He built his own brand.
He was quite untouchable and aworld model for me and he did
all the very good businessbesides the sport.
So he built his own brand.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
He was quite untouchable and a role model for
me it's interesting to hear youtalk about building your brand
as an athlete as well.
I think that's reallyinteresting.
You touched on there about, ingermany, racing from a really
early age and you mentioned it acouple of times now in the
world of professional triathlon,like, how do you go about
choosing races, likestrategically racing?
(18:10):
When do you choose, like t100over the ironman series as an
example?
So, yeah, how do you start toeven choose which races you're
going to participate in?
Speaker 3 (18:19):
I'm one of 20 athletes who has a contract with
t100, so so I have to race sixraces in the series.
So these six races are yeah,that's in my competition plans.
There are eight races I missedin Singapore, so maybe I do all
of them or maybe I will missanother one, but for this one
(18:40):
it's clear I have to do this.
But it's also great to be therebecause you're always racing
against the best triathletes inthe world, so I'm really
appreciating that I'm there andalways looking forward to race
there.
The running competitions ifit's here in Leipzig or around
Leipzig, I'm doing the runningcompetitions as a training race,
(19:01):
and there I'm talking with Joethe coach, what we implemented
in the training plan and thenhis structures around it.
Yeah, if he has a runningcompetition or a triathlon, then
I'm doing this just as atraining or a good, faster
training.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
You mentioned that the T100 series and that finish
at the Escape from Alcatraz inSan Francisco was just
incredible, wasn't it?
And obviously it was athree-way mad dash for the line.
Obviously, he finished reallystrong that time, but it wasn't
quite enough.
What lessons did you learn fromthat race?
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Yeah, for me it was a great result.
I went to the third place.
I was really happy with it.
Yeah, to have won for such along time With the lead and with
Martin van Riel who was beforethe race.
Everybody said, yeah, it's aneasy win for him because he won
every race or every middledistance race he ever did.
(19:57):
I was quite happy to battlewith him and could stay with him
for such a long time.
And, yeah, for this race Iwould have to train the sprint,
because if I would have a bettersprint then and I could win it,
yeah, we trained a little bitmore on the sprint that leads me
on to what is next for you.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
You know you've achieved some amazing success
already and, being at such ayoung age, you mentioned London
T100 up.
Charlie's a big goal setterhere, so he will be very keen to
know what are your short-termgoals right now and what are
your long-term goals.
Would you think abouttransitioning to longer distance
(20:36):
, like Ironman distance, at somepoint in the future?
Is that on the cards?
Speaker 3 (20:40):
For this year, the goal is, with the T100 series.
The next race is in Londonondon, so at the end of this week, on
sunday, that's the race, and mygoal is always to be at least
in top five and, and, yeah, tobe in on the podium.
It's, yeah, it's.
This is something I can't saybefore, because, yeah, it's
(21:00):
important how you feel on thisday and so many circumstances,
but I'll be there in the topfive and also in the overall
ranking, because you get pointsfor every race and then there's
overall ranking.
I'll be there in the end of theyear in the top five.
That's the goal for this year.
And then in December there'sstill the 70.3 World Champs in
(21:22):
Taupo in New Zealand.
I hope that I can perform there, but it's not easy there
because many short distance guyscome after to the middle stance
.
So I think there we have manygood runners and it will never
get easier, but I want to bethere in good shape.
I can be in the T100 seriesnext year too, so that I'm one
(21:46):
of the T100 series next year too, so I'm one of the athletes.
So I would love to race therenext year and, yeah, with long
distance.
I know that I will do itsomeday, but I don't want to say
If you could just pick onelong-term goal.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
So whether it's a win in particular, whether it's a
win in Kona, so whether it's awin in particular, whether it's
a win in kona, whether it's awin in roth, whether it's a win
of the t100 series, if you couldpick one more career win, what
would that long-term goal be?
Speaker 3 (22:17):
difficult question.
I don't think I would pick thelong distance world champion, so
I don't know if it's on Kona orif it's somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Rico's just been talking about his short-term and
long-term goals, and goalsetting is incredibly important.
You know, the top 1% ofachievers the world over,
whether it's sport or business,write goals.
If you want to be in the 1%,you have to write goals but also
have a or business write goals.
So if you want to be in the 1%,you have to write goals but
also have a system to achievethose goals.
I have a workshop called theLimitless Life Workshop where
(22:52):
I'll show you how to createamazing goals and how to create
a system to achieve those goals.
So if you go towwwthetrustedteam, you can
register for one of our eventscalled the Limitless Life
Workshop.
I will show you how to setgoals and how to achieve them.
We always ask the previousguest of the podcast to ask the
(23:14):
next guest a question, withoutknowing who that is, and the
previous guest was a formerprofessional rugby player turned
ultra runner called LewisRoebling.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I think Claire has got his question lewis asks do
you have any mantras and what dothey mean to you?
So there's any mantras that yousay to yourself by running.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Yeah, so running.
I say sometimes, keep to thecadence.
Or it's also a german.
I say, and as a locker on lifehere, get the size.
So let's keep easy and stayeasy.
Yes, it's just flat.
So I'm always saying this isgoing uphill and then I'm saying
(23:54):
, yeah, keep easy, it's justflat.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Excellent, I like that.
I like that.
That's brilliant, rico.
It's been absolutely brilliantchatting to you.
What an incredible start toyour career.
But equally, what I love aboutchatting to you is and where we
started this conversation wasthat when somebody bursts onto
the scene and having greatsuccess, like you did, it's very
easy to think, oh, they've justsuddenly, they're a natural.
(24:18):
And yet what was brilliantabout hearing your story was the
fact that you have transitionedfrom so much from a youngster
and, of course, we only see thepeak of the mountain, don't we?
But all of that work below hasclearly taken a huge amount of
effort and it's massively paidoff.
So huge congratulations so far.
I'm sure in years to come we'llbe getting you back on the
(24:38):
podcast, having won all of thosedifferent things that we talked
about and as we got the risingstar of the world of triathlon
here.
But huge congratulations, andwe'll be watching with eager
eyes cheering you on in londonand in new zealand obviously not
in person, but yeah, no, I hopeyou have an amazing year and
many years to come.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Yeah, yeah, thank you .
Thank you for the invitation tobeing part of the podcast.
Yeah, he loved it.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
He laughed at it so what did you make of that
interview with Rico?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
it was fantastic to speak to like the youngest ever
70.3 world champion that was.
That was amazing and what anamazingly sensible head on a 23
year old male what he was comingout why did you have to have
male there?
Speaker 1 (25:26):
well, all female, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
I know exactly why you had to have male there, but
just you know, some of thewisdom that he was coming out
with is, you know, you kind oflearn by mistake, but it's
almost like he's already aheadin terms of his thinking he is
definitely wise beyond his years.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I thought he was very grounded and I thought, you
know, just like referencing oryou know, when it's when it's
all becoming a bit too much, abit of time hanging out with my
friends, my school friends or mygrandparents uh, it's just, you
know, really, really sensiblestuff.
What I liked was when we talkedabout being coached by Joe, his
, his confidence to be able tosay, well, I want to do this.
(26:06):
Therefore, can we make thatwork?
And knowing that he needed tosort of kind of stand up for
what he believed in and what hewanted to do, I thought was
really interesting.
What else did you take fromthat interview?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
We touched on it quite a bit throughout In
Germany.
It seems that they, as we dowith a lot of people we
interview they quite young, butthat you know racing really
young seems to be potentially,you know, a key to him being
able to also thrive in this.
You know professionalcompetitive environment as well.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
You know if you've been racing since you're really,
really young and it's very easyto sort of because he sort of
skirted over it, but the factthat he started his career as a
short, short course athlete andrealized that he wasn't winning
anything, so he, very young, youknow, like you said, you know a
lot of the people that willcome out of the Olympics will
(26:55):
will be the athletes that kindof get to the end of their short
course career and thenessentially retire from that and
move to middle course, whereashe has gone and done that at a
very young age, which I think isfascinating because you know he
, he could see that that was hisstrength and he, he had the
courage to switch, much youngerthan most, due to middle, middle
(27:16):
distance and and you can seehim therefore migrating to long
course quicker than perhaps healluded to I think actually and
and you know I'd be interestedto know your thoughts on this
but just thinking about it, youknow the way that he's building
his professional career he wastalking about.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
You know you've got this kind of background of him
coming from this young age in inyou know sport and competing,
and then he's really it's almostlike he's building a business.
You know he's taking all thisadvice from people who have made
it.
So his coach that's this, youknow has been a professional
athlete and now he's coaching atthis level.
He's got Alex Spock from CoupCycle that is helping to manage
(27:54):
him and having all these peoplethat are supporting around him
and taking all of that advice.
You know he's really buildingvery good foundations.
You know he was talking aboutpartnerships.
You know, at the age of 23,being able to negotiate really
good partnerships and not justsaying yes to everything that
was probably, you know, thrownat him after, you know, winning
(28:15):
that title and actually sayingactually does it work for me?
Let me try it out, do I need itand actually do I benefit from
it?
Speaker 1 (28:21):
and I just there's something that kind of comes to
me in terms of it's likebuilding a really good, you know
business and you'll bedefinitely the businessman to
talk about that well, I justthink that, you know, jan
Frodeno was an inspiration, notjust from a from an athlete
point of view, but also from akind of building a business
brand point of view, and youcould see that he's learning
(28:42):
lessons from Jan and he's kindof, yeah, he's, he's building
some building force to bereckoned with.
I think he's, uh, he'sdefinitely one of those athletes
to just keep an eye on.
He's going to go significantplaces and and obviously has
already but continue to seeamazing things from him.
And, um, obviously, by the timethat this episode goes live,
we'll know how he got on in theT100 in London.
(29:03):
Well, another brilliant episodeof the Business of Endurance.
Just yeah, so much wisdom inthere in many young years.
So, yeah, for all the listenersout there, keep on training.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
So, as promised, Rico talked about his very sensible
nutrition strategy, particularlyaround his recovery, but also
his needs for training, and ifyou would like to also have some
insight into protein forrecovery, then if you click the
link in the show notes below,we'll send you a protein
(29:39):
download, so giving you pictureideas, and newly updated picture
ideas of both plant-basedproteins and also animal-based
proteins, so you can make surethat you know how much you need
before and after training.
So click the link below and youcan download those copies for
yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
If you want us to keep getting amazing guests onto
the Business of Endurancepodcast.
We don't ask for you to pay forus.
We don't ask for patronage.
All we ask for is that yousubscribe to the podcast,
ideally on Apple.
Give us a five-star ratingbecause it shows us you care and
, if you've got time, leave us acomment.
One word is fine, somethinglike inspiring or amazing or
(30:20):
something like that, but wereally do appreciate it and it
will help us to continue todeliver amazing guests on what
we hope you find to be anamazing podcast.
Thanks very much.
Jeff and chloe from big moosecharity, we featured in episode
one of season seven, made such agreat impact on the both of us,
(30:43):
we decided to make them ourcharity sponsor for Season 7.
You know, they really touchedme in the sense that I lost my
brother-in-law to suicide inWales and these guys are working
their socks off to help preventsituations like that.
Claire, why did Geoff and Chloereally make an impact on you?
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Coming from a background in clinical nutrition
and working in mental health,to me also it hit a spot in
terms of the charity and howthey are building therapy to
help support people with mentalhealth difficulties, and they've
saved over 50 lives now andalready met their first target
of a million and their newtarget, 15 million, that they're
trying to get to.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
It's absolutely incredible and 15 million is
that they're trying to get to.
It's absolutely incredible and15 million is a huge target
they've set themselves, butthey're speeding up help that
people in desperately in needget, and this help is needed
more than ever.
I know how problematic mentalhealth issues are in today's
world.
So if you think you can helpBig Moose Charity and they're
particularly looking forcorporate partners to help them
(31:48):
raise that 15 million, if youthink you can help them or link
them into a company that canhelp them, the best place to go
to is bigmoosecharityco, or youcan find them on instagram as
bigmoosecharity, or you can evenemail jeff at jeff at
bigmooseco.
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