IRP - Ben & Kelly Wilson

Welcome to a new section of Tri-Newb! I'm going to call it Interviews with Real People. These chats will be interviews with non-professional, kick-butt athletes. They hold jobs, have children and other pressures to deal with while making training and their health a top priority.

I have known Ben and Kelly Wilson for about 4 years now. Excellent people. They race. Alot. 5Ks, 10 milers, marathons, what have you. They enjoy their athleticism more than most other people that I know. It truly is motivating.

Ben works as a Senior Interactive Analyst at Power Creative, where I also work and they are expecting their first child next month. That kid is going to be awesome.

The Wilson's kindly agreed to answer several questions that I sent them. Ben's answers are in Blue and Kelly's are in pretty pretty purple

Ben, what is your upcoming race schedule?

Well, what with the baby coming in July, I haven't registered for a few weeks on either side. The next thing I know for sure is the Shelbyville Olympic distance triathlon on June 13th. Never done an Olympic distance before! After that, the E.P. Tom Sawyer tri on August 1st.
I belong to a bike racing team (TwinSpiresCycling.com), so I might also get another race in before the season is over. I'm interested in this "Louisville Short Track" mountain bike race series - every Thursday night out at River Road Country Club. $5! Cool.

Kelly, you've completed an Ironman Triathlon. What made you decide to give that a whack?

I had decided to to a half IM, but then my training buddy decided to give the full IM a whirl. I wavered back and forth for awhile (I volunteered in the medical tent the first year of IM Louisville, and it scared the bejeezus out of me), but then my buddy said this: You know if I do this, and you don't, you'll regret it. So, I bit the bullet, forked over the $500 entry fee, and signed over a year of my life.

Can you give a quick overview of your training?

I really don't have a structured training regimen like I should. I focused a lot on the bike this winter, so most of my training was spinning, cycle trainer or even getting out and riding when it was 30-40 degrees out. Winter is also a good time to work on building muscle, like lifting weights, doing machines or whatever. I focused this year on building my quads with squats, as well as working a pretty intense but short "core" workout that I would tack onto the end of whatever I was doing. Lots of crunches.

Stretching. So crucial, especially for those of us who aren't in our 20s anymore. I do a bit of yoga-style stuff at the end of most workouts. The sun salutation taught in most beginner classes is great. Back, core, hamstring, calf, most everything.

In general, I go pretty hard in my training. A little motivation like a good spinning instructor or something like The Sufferfest (

http://www.thesufferfest.com/) really does a great job. I go hard, but not for super-extended periods of time. Get warmed up first (crucial!), hammer some hills on the run or on the bike or sprint a lap in the pool, take a bit of active rest, repeat. I am a big believer in
intervals.

Also, I soak up information about whatever I'm training for (running, tri, cycling, even baseball!) - so this winter I read every cycling book I could get my hands on. How to Race, training programs, maintenance manuals, histories of the Tour de France, etc. YouTube is a must! I relive those clips when I'm on the bike, and think about them on the run.

6 days a week, 2 or 3 workouts a day. A lot of getting up at 4:40 am, a lot of lunch hour runs (it helps if your boss is a runner, and goes with you), a lot of late dinners due to a workout, and a lot of peanut butter.It was usually 2 weeks of hard training, then one week of recovery.
The last few months before the race, it was 3 weeks hard (once, it was a full month).

If you participate in triathlons, what do you wear during the race?

Tri shorts and a tri top! But when I first did one I just wore some running shorts that I swam in a put on a shirt for the bike and the run. Normal shorts really suck to bike in, though - the lycra and the pad pay dividends. Putting on a shirt over a wet body also sucks. There is benefit to not having to change clothes between pool and bike and run.

I also always wear my RoadID and a visor and use that 50 SPF aerosol sunscreen - that shit is magic!
For all my races execpt the IM, where I really wasn't going for speed in transition and wore a Speedo for the swim, I raced in tri-shorts, a Nike racing bikini top, and a tri-jersey (which I would put on in T1).

I became really attached to one pair of shorts - Sugio tri-shorty. They have a really short inseam, which is nice when you're only 5'3". Also, mens tri-jerseys fit me better, since I have a long torso. A visor is good for the run, since you can tuck a wet sponge into it. And GU Roctane is magic. Seriously.

What is one way or one time "life" has interfered with your training?

Geez, all the time - but just finding ways to work it in have made me a more organized person w/ my time. Get up at 6:30 and run three miles - it's actually pretty awesome. Birds are chirping and bunnies are hopping, no one is around. Sweet. The getting up sucks, the getting something done before 7AM kinda rules.

Unless you are doing something totally batshit like the IronMan (which requires 2-a-day workouts), everyone could probably find the time to work their "30 minutes a day" of exercise they are supposed to get.

Well, to reverse the question, we put off having a baby for a year so I could do the IM.

Have you always been active and sporty?

Oh lordy no! I work in the Internet, which means I spent plenty of time dicking around indoors on a computer. However, my mother ran a lot in the 80s and early 90s and I was always around runners during that time. I even did a few 5K runs back then! I played rec-league soccer in high school and college. I even biked a fair amount when I was in my teens with the Boy Scouts. We did a 60 mile ride up to Clifty Falls, Indiana. It would be some 15+ years until I would eclipse the 60 mile mark again.

Kelly started running in 2003 or so, and did a few miniMarathons. She eventually got me out to run and it totally sucked the first few times. There was a lot of stopping and complaining. But soon after I started, I had one of those "oh... this is why people run!" epiphany moments and haven't really looked back. I've done the Triple Crown of Running and miniMarathon three times now.

Uh, sorta. I was on a swim team from age 8 to 16, then coached swimming for a few years, but then I got lazy and fat in college. A medical condition jump started this whole fitness thing.

Does your family support your interests?

I would first ask "does your family UNDERSTAND your interests". Like I mentioned, my mom does - though for a while there I think Kelly's IronMan plans were seriously conflicting with mom's wanting a grandkid. But we got that sorted out.

Kelly's family - I'm not sure they understand, but they certainly do support her. They made it down to the IronMan last year to see her, and that was really cool. Even some cousins and such, too! I would have dishoned them if they didn't.

Once someone has committed themselves to being active and enjoys it - they understand. They *know*, and they'll support you. (Though, I must say I really, really had my doubts about Kelly doing the IronMan. That shit is crazy!)

My family doesn't necessarily "support" it, but they don't *not* support it. They don't really understand it. My mother is convinced that I'm harming myself, and all the training can't be healthy. Ben, on the other hand...well, he's on a cycling team, can out run me, and has caught the tri bug now.

What aspect of your athleticism would you most like to improve on?

There is a saying that goes "[insert sport here] doesn't get easier, you just get faster". I feel like my running has made me a decent endurance athlete, and with the cycling I have come to realize that I don't have "the fitness" to hang with a pack in a race that is only 30 to 40 minutes long. I can go pretty long, but I'm just not fast enough yet - so whatever "fast" is, I want to be that. Losing weight has helped me great - I'm down 10 lbs, added a bunch of muscle over the winter and have been demolishing my modest personal records all year.

I also want to work on my nerves and mental conditioning. Being relaxed can be hard to do, but I like being prepared for a race. Also - mental conditioning, like being able to make good decisions in the middle of the race. That's a hard one to learn, but I never run with an iPod, so I think about all sorts of stuff during training.

While I like to bike, it still kind of frightens me. I don't shift enough.
In general, I'd like to be faster, but eh, we'll see.

Kelly, do you think Robert Downey Jr. will make a good Sherlock Holmes?
I would watch him watch paint dry, so, yes, of course.

Ben. What's your favorite youtube video?

Again, I'm all into this cycling nonsense recently, and I've been following the Giro d'Italia - and Lance Armstrong is back, so just the other day I was watching his 1993 World Championships win when he was 22. He essentially came from nowhere to beat some of the best, and then acted like the jubilant, brash young American he was. The announcer is just flabbergasted as Lance throws his arms up ("they say he's a bit of a showoff with a big head!") and celebrates in the last kilometer of the race. An American winning a European dominated sport, like a big fat slap in the face.

But three years later, he's filled with cancer and given a death sentence. And he shakes his fist at it like he did crossing that line in that video. And he beat it. And then he stunned the world, blowing up the long, storied and sacred history of the Tour De France. Hella American!

It's a beautiful story and it's uniquely American, and it gets to the core of why I do what I do - because 3 years from now...?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXsOR5O5hb0

Any tips for transition areas?

Take your time. I see a lot of people just getting into triathlon that try to do some crazy tri trick like slipping your feet out of your shoes just before the transition area. And they spend a lot of time futzing with all that nonsense, slow to a crawl, fall over or at the very least totally negate whatever potential advantage that might have given you, had you had actually been an elite triathlete wherein that MIGHT ACTUALLY MATTER. So, unless you are in contention for an age group placing or money, just take your time.

One good, easy way to speed up your transitions to A) practice and B) lay out your stuff where it is easy to get to.

Make sure your running shoes are untied, or better yet, use the bungee things for laces. My first tri, I had to stop and undo the knots in my laces.

Are you going to name the baby Lance Usain Phelps Wilson?

Haha - no! Though we did name the baby after Amelia Earhardt, 'cause she was a stone cold fox.

Well, this baby is a girl, so maybe if we have a boy.

Thank you Wilsons!