Ben Hoffman Interview St George Ironman World Championships 2021
Marilyn: Obviously 2022 is a different kind of year. Tell me a little bit about how you feel about the whole switch from Kona to a place like St. George, and having two world championships in one year?
Ben: After coming off a great season in 2019, I was thinking it would be easy to just roll this energy into a big year in 2020. Then everything changed and has continued to change. Mostly, I am just disappointed that we haven't been able to race in Hawaii since then, because it’s obviously been my number one target for a long time now. However, I think the fact that Ironman has created an opportunity to race, in a place that's definitely worthy of a world championship event, is awesome. It certainly doesn’t feel the same but I think that we're used to things being different at this point. While I can't match the same energy that I have for Ironman Hawaii, I think it's a really good alternative.
So, and correct me if I'm wrong here, you have a fourth and a second at the world championships, so far?
Yes, two fourth places and a second.
And you have raced Ironman St. George and 70.3 in St. George ever since I've known you. Over 10 years ago, I remember cheering for you when you first started on that course. And then you did the 70.3 Worlds there not that long ago as well. So a lot of experience at world championships, lot of experience on this course. How does the whole dynamic of this type of course and that level of racing differ in comparison Hawaii?
Like you said, I've been at basically every iteration of the race in St. George, with the exception of one when I was injured after my Cape Epic experience in 2018. I did all three of the St. George Ironmans in 2010, 2011 and 2012. People have kind of joked that I'm the defending champion. I was actually planning on doing the Ironman there in 2020 before everything shut down.
Obviously I have a lot of experience there and I feel comfortable in St. George. But the bigger picture is that I have experience preparing for the big, important races. I'm able to pick one or two races every year, focus on them really intensely and usually deliver a good result at the Ironman distance. The first half of the year, I typically prepare for an Ironman sometime in April or May to start out the year, and this kind of fits into that slot. I have gone to St. George for training camps dating back to college days at the University of Montana, Missoula. I feel the area is inspiring to me and the terrain is really challenging. I'm a strength athlete, so I think those are things that definitely play to my benefit.
In relation to the World Championships in Hawaii, St. George similar in terms of the difficulty and the level of field, but the differences are numerous. Obviously in St. George, you're going to have a wetsuit lake swim which changes the dynamic of the swim a little bit. And then, you're at a little bit of altitude, nothing too crazy there, but something that can influence the race, especially in the swim. The bike course is obviously going to be more elevation gain by a fair margin. The weather conditions are dramatically different in the fact that Hawaii's always pretty predictable: Kona is windy, hot, humid. However, St. George literally could have a snowstorm in May or it could be 95 degrees, howling wind, a dust storm, whatever. I think what it really comes down to is that I feel like I've been able to, in the history of my career, pick and show up on the days that matter. So I'm hoping to do the same thing this year.
The men's race in Hawaii is often quite tactical, and it's no secret that there's a lot of packs and that the first 40k on the bike in Hawaii is pretty important in terms of how the day plays out. And I'm sure training is geared towards being ready for that type of thing. Do you feel that St. George will have those same kind of tactics or do you think it will change quite a bit just based on things like a wetsuit swim or a different type of course?
I feel like it'll be a bit of both. People who maybe have more of a weakness in the swim are going to have more of an advantage in St. George and might be closer initially at the start of the race. Almost any race you go to, including Hawaii, there is a pack dynamic that happens, especially over the first half of the bike ride. I think it's going to be the same in St. George, where there's probably going to be a pretty good size pack. What it really comes down to is how many matches people are burning to stay in that group. There's most likely going to be more carnage than maybe even Hawaii because the course is so hard. People are going to redline it and go away over what they've trained for, just to stay in that group. And they're going to be paying a price for it.
I do think it will separate out more by the end of the ride now that I've seen the course. The climb up to Veyo, the descent and then the climb up Snow Canyon, right towards the end. We haven't really seen something like that in an Ironman World Championships ever. So having a significant climb like that between mile 90 and 100, that's going to be pretty interesting. There will be packs especially early on because everybody is so fit when they show up to a world championship event that most people are going to be able to ride with some kind of group, even if the pace is hot for a good amount of time, 40, 50, 60 miles. But then the explosions are going to be maybe even more epic than they are in Hawaii because of the nature of the terrain of the course.
Tell us a little bit about what you feel like being here in Tucson, in driving distance to St. George. Are there advantages, disadvantages, anything that you take into account with that?
I think there's no question that is an advantage to be here. We're on the same time zone, there's no jet lag that we have to deal with. And you can drive up there, you can take your recovery boots, extra sets of wheels, tires, all kinds of stuff you need in a vehicle. And a lot of my sponsors are US based, so there's probably going to be support there on the ground for me.
The fact that the travel is fairly easy, the climates aren't too dramatically different, they're both pretty arid and St. George, although it's a slightly higher elevation and probably a little colder in winter, has a similar kind of climate to Tucson… I think it is an advantage.
But do I think it'll be like the absolute deciding factor? Probably not. Most of the professionals that are really serious about this race will do what they need to do, be here early and train in a kind of environment that will set them up for whatever race day delivers. And that leads to another point, too: The people that I think are going to do well with this race are probably the people that have done well at other big races before. There's going to be surprises, people that are coming up, but anybody who's delivered at a 70.3 World Championships or especially at an Ironman World Championships, knows what is required to prepare. They look at what the race is, what's happened historically, what they want to do and then how to get there. They do the work that's required. They train for the environment, for the course. So I don't think that it's necessarily going to be some complete surprise of new top athletes just because it's a different course. I think the same people that have done well in Kona will likely do well here too, just because they're professional and they know how to prepare properly.
Back to your original point, I think it's a small advantage. I don't think that it's going to be the major deciding factor, but every little bit helps when you get to this stage in your career when you're racing world championship events. I mean, just taking that extra little bit of stress off being in your home country. I think it is an advantage, and yet I also think that most of the people that are in the Top 10 or 15 who are competing for the real top spots are probably going to do what's required to be ready.
Just knowing you a tiny bit personally, you are someone who dives right into some pretty epic training, which I think for Ironman is awesome. I got a good kick out of the video you did with Heather ("South of the Border – An epic day on two wheels" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw0LSAQilEo)
I can remember having days like that with Scott Molina, Bjorn, Claus, Gordo and those guys back in the day. You are someone who still really works hard even though you're quite talented and have a lot of experience. But you keep it fun within working hard. Every time I've ever ridden with you, you're full of jokes, and we all get a good kick out of your sense of humor.
That's how I've always been wired. I just have always enjoyed being a little bit scared by big days of training. It obviously has some kind of stimulus that's important for what I'm doing. Spending eight hours on the bike gets your body used to spending eight hours racing, going through those highs and lows. But it's certainly twofold in the sense that it also is just good for my mind. I think that that's really important. Most of the top professionals figure out the zone that's good for their mind and their body when it comes to training. But it is something that's often overlooked. People get really caught up in the science and the numbers. Maybe they get down that path a little too far sometimes, they forget that we're not cyborgs and that we actually need to feed our souls a little bit too. Sometimes that can come from a place of a little bit of self-doubt and fear. I like to explore that and to kind of test it because if it comes back on race day, I know how to handle it.
I am also a volume responder and I think I've always played around with it over the years and that's what I end up coming back to. I love the big epic days! Even tomorrow I have a big day on the bike planned and I'm pretty excited about it. I'm a little bit nervous: it might be windy, it might be a little cool, I might be going alone, but I'm going to do it and it's going to be fun. And hopefully it'll give me a big boost for this training for St. George. I love having people along too, it's always been a social thing for me. I like to have other people to do this with and to share that experience with and to see how they respond to the big days of training.
Everyone's a little different. I've done the labs, all the tests and I feel I'm actually a pretty average athlete. I mean, I have decent genes, I think I'm pretty resilient. I think I can handle a lot of training without breaking down, which is its own sort of talent, but when it comes to the VO2 side, I'm pretty average. And I feel like my real skill or talent is probably just the ability to kind of be really consistent and put in good solid work for months on end. Mentally, I'm fairly strong and resilient that way. I actually do believe in myself. It takes a while to get to the point sometimes of believing in myself the way I need to in order to perform. But I'm able to believe in myself. I think a lot of people struggle with that and they just end up getting in their own way.
What absolutely needs to go all right for you to have the day that you hope to have in St. George?
Basically everything really. I think the level of racing is so high now that whoever wins will need to have that perfect day. I think back to my 2019 Kona performance (4th) and feel that it was definitely my best performance to date on the island. Even though I'd been second in 2014, I feel like 2019 was the kind of race that I'd been looking to put together for a long time. I ran in the low 2:40s and was just super solid all day, a mere 40 seconds from the podium. Even Jan had mentioned that he had a “career” kind of day. Previously the record was set on a kind of ‘easy’ day for Kona and to break that record on a ‘normal’ day was super special. I feel like it was a special performance from him, one that you can't expect every time. However, he is that good and thinking he can’t do that again is not a good strategy. There were also two other people that finished in front of me there and there is a new crop of athletes coming up.
In St. George, I feel that the wetsuit swim will keep the gap to the best swimmers manageable and the chase groups bigger. Maybe there will be a larger group of people that are together, which then also means that they're probably together on the bike, which means that they might have a better chance of catching a front group of a few people that did break away. I will have to be really strong on the bike as the course is going to be extremely difficult and I think people are going to really push hard. I used to consider myself a strong cyclist but feel pretty average in the Ironman realm now. The game has just moved ahead to another level. I will have to commit to being the best cyclist I have ever been and be as ready as possible for an extremely hard ride. I am less concerned on the run because I do have the confidence of putting together good marathons over the last Ironmans that I've done. It's not automatic and things can always go wrong, but if I do what I need on the bike, I'll be ready to attack the marathon and run with whoever is there and whoever's running fast.
I feel that if I can keep this training block on the upward trajectory, where things go mostly smoothly or almost perfect, then I think I can be competitive for the top spots in the world champs. But, yeah, it is going to take everything I have, both physically and mentally, in order to be competitive. It's just faster and deeper all the time and I'm going to be 39 this year. Which is a benefit and a negative I think.
You're experienced. You're experienced. Experienced and potentially at the prime of my career, if I get things really right. But it also feels like sometimes a lot more work to get things really, really right at this age, too. When they do come together, they're probably potentially the best they've ever been but the requirements are greater. My life dynamic is a lot different now with a family. These aren't excuses, they are just realities. I'm learning as I go, like a lot of people are, about how to optimize what's probably one of my last super-serious years of racing.
As I get older and as I get closer to the end of my career, I feel more pressure and maybe a little bit of anxiety because I want to prove that I'm still great and still can perform. In my best moments, what I think about the most is how I can just be the best I can be. And I really mean that.
I certainly know about all the other athletes out there and am aware of what they're doing on the race course. I can get a little bit caught up in that sometimes. But really when I slow down, I think about how I truly just want to have the performances where I walk away and say ‘I trained really well for that and then I executed really well on the day’. Anytime I've ever done that in the past, anytime I've showed up at a race and just said: this is an incredible opportunity, it's a privilege to be a professional athlete and to have the support that I do, then I usually end up racing really well just because I'm in that positive state of mind. So yeah, that's kind of more of my objective, instead of obsessing over what result it will be. I really just want to go there in the best possible form that I can have and then express that form on the day. And if I do that, then I'll honestly be really happy and really satisfied. That's what I'm trying to focus on for the year and I would encourage other people, no matter what stage they're at in their career to do the same, because that's the most rewarding thing. Records get broken, there's always going to be somebody winning the next race. Really it's pretty corny, but it's about the journey of preparing for these things and holding yourself accountable, being disciplined and getting the best out of yourself. That's the stuff I think that really ends up mattering, the growth elements of the pursuit of the race and then the races themselves. So, that's what's most important to me, to teach my kids now, too. I'm not really concerned if they win a bunch of stuff. I just want them to work hard and find that hard work is its own reward.