Q&A With American Olympic Hopeful Matt Chrabot

Inside Triathlon’s Courtney Baird caught up with American Olympic hopeful Matt Chrabot as he prepares for the ITU World Championship Series Grand Final in Budapest. Chrabot finished fourth at the most recent World Championship Series event, in Kitzbühel, Austria. It was the best ITU finish by an American this year.

Written by: Courtney Baird

Triathlete.com: You’ve had a breakthrough season this year with a 9th place finish in Sydney and a fourth place finish in Kitzbühel. To what do you attribute to this recent breakthrough?

Chrabot has broken through in the ITU World Championship series in 2010. Photo: Janos Schmidt/Triathlon.org

Chrabot: I guess you could say I got my act together. I stopped screwing around in between workouts and hard days. I also took myself less seriously. Sounds a bit more complicated than it really is.

Triathlete.com: I read that you’re living outside Paris while you prepare for Budapest. Is that true? If so, what’s the training like in France?

Chrabot: Yes, I’m living in Poissy. The training is good…except when you show up for a track workout and come to find that the gates are locked (which happened 10 minutes ago). Can’t stress over it though. There are some great running trails less than a mile away, so I’ll just do it in the woods and measure the distances with my GPS watch.


Chrabot has broken through in the ITU World Championship series in 2010. Photo: Janos Schmidt/Triathlon.org


Triathlete.com: The Olympics are only two years away. How is your preparation going to change as we get closer and closer to the Games? And what would it mean to you if you qualified?

Chrabot: Well, basically, the course is currently set up to be a pure runner’s race. It’s pretty much a symbol of what the ITU racing has become in the past several years: a flat, boring bike then a runner’s race. Running is my main focus and has been for the past few years, whether my results have shown it or not.

Qualifying for the Olympics is huge! Racing in the Olympics is the very pinnacle of the sport—any sport for that matter. But simply padding my résumé is not why I want to compete. I’m all about racing at the highest level.

Triathlete.com: What’s your day-to-day life like as you live and train as an Olympic hopeful in Colorado Springs?
Chrabot was edged out by defending champion Matt Reed at the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon. Photo: Paul Phillips

Chrabot was edged out by defending champion Matt Reed at the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon. Photo: Paul Phillips

Chrabot: It’s fairly uneventful. Days and weeks blend together as one giant blur. It’s broken up by races and trips around the world. Living at the training center definitely has its advantages, though. Mixing it up with other athletes from different sports from around the world is a great way to share ideas on life and training as an elite athlete.

Triathlete.com: You’ve mentioned on your blog that ITU’s courses are too “easy.” Why is this? And what’s the perfect course for you and why?

Chrabot: From what I hear, these races are expensive and complicated to put together. The ITU and its organizers get so caught up in this that they tend to take the easy way out and just come up with a simple and convenient course in the end. The feedback on my blog I received from some of the athletes and ITU was very positive. They’re looking to include more difficult courses sometime in the future…it makes racing more exciting!

The perfect course for me would include an ocean swim with giant surf, hilly bike with steeper climbs that are over a mile long, some technical descents, and a rolling hill run course. I have no idea where to find a place like that. Maybe the Rio 2016 course?!

Triathlete.com: The pronunciation of your last name is a little confusing for some. How exactly do you pronounce it?

Chrabot: It’s “Matt Shär-bòt.”


Chrabot was edged out by defending champion Matt Reed at the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon. Photo: Paul Phillips

You Get What You Pay For (that’s a freakin’ metaphor. I know these things are expensive)

Yesterday in the race briefing the ITU reamed us out for acting like goofballs on the bike in London and not creating enough buzz with the media.

First of all, I think the ITU has come a long way, and is doing an excellent job. I’m glad to see the athletes are really starting to engage themselves with the age group athletes, etc. Now that I got that out of the way, here’s what I’m really going to write about.

You want real trash talk, just put a microphone in the middle of the bike pack…you’ll have to bleep out half the words for TV though…

The ITU and media want exciting races. Big City, Big Crowds. BC. All the WCS races seem like they’re modeling after the final day of the Tour de France on the Champs-Élysées. The first half of the race is all smiles and waves, the last 20Km is all out racing. There’s the beautiful scenery of Paris, but it’s designed for the sprinters. Only a handful of guys have a legit shot at the win. Breakaways rarely succeed that day.

With the courses we’re racing on, it reminds of exactly that. Accept we get yelled at for waving at the camera and crowds. Big City, Big Crowds? It ends up being Boring, Crappy racing. You don’t need incredible background scenery to come up with an epic race. It’s the same thing every time. The same guys in the top 10. If the viewers want to watch something with beautiful background scenery, don’t you think they’d watch the Discovery Channel instead?

Sure, let’s have the races like Hamburg and London, but how about a killer race course like the Escape from Alcatraz? Only the strongest, most well round triathletes will shine. Maybe the same guys who place in the Top 10 will still all be in the top 10. We can only speculate for now.

As of right now the athletes representing the rest of us are also some of the most successful guys in the sport. Not only that, but you guys work your ass off, and I fully commend you on that. Thanks for all your hard work and what you do. They’re badasses, but the guys are sort of like the sprinters racing on the Champs-Élysées. Now, if we race on one or two impossibly hard courses a year, you might have to take a pay cut if you can’t hang and not get your usual top 10 finish, or just skip that one in the series. And no, I don’t feel like running for a committee anytime soon.

Tomorrow we’re racing in the beautiful town of Kitzbuehel…in a valley surrounded by alps and epic climbs. There won’t be any of that in our race though. You’ll see it in the background, but we won’t be there. I’m not suggesting we race on more dangerous courses, but if the racing is going to be more exciting, we’re going to have to race challenging courses.

Ok, tomorrow will be tough, especially if it rains like last year. Cold, wet, windy, rainy….miserable. (Man, that was hard! I didn’t even make the main pack! )What the television viewers really want to see are ocean swims with giant surf, long steep climbs, technical bike courses (quit it with the 180 degree turns already), and hilly runs. Challenging courses that will rip the race to shreds because they’re hard, not because it’s dangerous and guys are crashing.

Oh, not all the athletes will like a hard race? Then stay home you sissy.

Now, back to preparing for tomorrow's race...

Racing Hurts, Quit Being a Pansy

The 2010 season has been another breakthrough year for me. Kicking things off with a half marathon in February running a 1:10 on a hilly course with heavy volume and limited tempo work to consistently performing in just about all of my races.

3 Podiums thus far:

1^st Miami International, 2^nd Monterrey World Cup, 2^nd Lifetime Fitness Triathlon.

Recently, I guess I should say I “took part” in the World Championship Series London. The race took place in Hyde Park and was a test run of the Olympic course. Just about all the athletes showed up 100% ready. I too thought I was one of those guys.

Now before I go on, I’m not one of those triathletes who writes Sappy-All-About-Me-Pathetic Post Race Blogs. Who actually read those? Boring! I’d rather have an extra bold 24 ounce coffee, eat a high fiber multigrain muffin, and watch an episode of Dr. Phil while stuck in traffic on a hot summer day with no A/C. Now if your bad race was epic in any way, do tell… I find it difficult to talk about myself on a regular basis, so as you can see my blog posts tend to be a bit limited.

Welp, I had a bad race. Yup. Late afternoon race starts have been my Achilles Heel. Looking at the performance of my “participation” (I dare not call it a “race”) now in hindsight, I think was a good thing. I had a great swim then a fairly solid bike. Things were going according to plan. After that it turned sour.

Could taking 51^st, having to hop the fence in the middle of the run to take a dump in a port-a-john then get back in only to have the same urge 1km again before the finish actually be a good thing? Perhaps. I had the same problem at the World Championships last year in Gold Coast. Just when I thought I solved the problem stemming mostly from a miscalculation of nutrition, I’m irritated and back to the drawing board 10 months later.

Consistency is the name of the game when you are a professional in any occupation. One hit wonders come and go. Doing it well is a priority if you want to make some money or go places. I’ve come into this sport from the bottom of the totem pole. I’ve made lots of mistakes… and repeated some of them. The key is you have to learn from your mistakes and make improvements, not make the same thing again, and carry on.

Performing fairly well for the past year has been great. But lately I’ve gotten lackadaisical; I’ve gone back to some bad habits. Staying up late and having a few drinks the night before key workouts, drinking too much coffee on occasion, and goofing off a little more than I should. Nothing excessive, but I know what my threshold is now. When you’re still kicking ass, making money you wonder where that tipping point is. The fine line between kicking back, and kicking too far back.

Losing to Matty Reed by less than 10 seconds at Lifetime Fitness Triathlon, taking 3^rd in a four way sprint for 3^rd place at a French Grand Prix the following weekend, and a pathetic showing on the Olympic course the third and final weekend; it’s time to trim the fat. Sunday’s piss poor performance in Hyde Park kicked me repeatedly in the nuts then said “wake up and stop screwing around!”

Ok, this sounds a bit better: Taking to 2^nd to one of the greatest non-drafting experts of our time while beating the current 2x Ironman World Champion by a minute, then the following weekend sprinting against two Olympians with multiple World Cup Victories (Kris Gemmell & Fred Belaubre) and the 2008 World Junior Champion (Vincent Luis) along with two of the best guys on the planet taking 1-2 (the Brownlee brothers) isn’t a bad two weeks. But! Capping a 3 weekend race series off with a 51^st place finish in London is bad and a good wake up call. That and a 26^th place finish at the Des Moines World Cup is both disappointing and unacceptable.

No, it’s not time to race less, but better preparation and more careful planning will do the trick.

The best triathletes in the world race towards Olympic glory in the ITU draft legal format. Period. Either I have to show up ready at 100% and throw down against the best, or pack up and “go longer”… oh don’t worry those are on my hit list, but further down the road… business first, fun later.

M

___________

Upcoming plans:

To get a month of high quality sea level training in at a training camp with Jarrod Shoemaker and Greg Rouault in Poissy, France after Kitzbuhel WCS beginning mid August to prepare for World Championships in Budapest in September.

For now, back to Colorado Springs.

Silver at the Monterrey World Cup in Mexico

I flew into Monterrey with just a few days of recovery under my belt from the WCS race in Sydney. I was feeling fresh, ranked #1 in the race, and optimistic about a great performance in the Fundidora Parque. The race venue was a former steel foundry from 1900 to 1986. The park contains several industrial buildings from the old Foundry making the park a famous Archeological Industrial Site in Mexico full of beauty and ambiance. It also contains extensive walking tracks, an artificial lake, playgrounds for children and a 2.1 miles (3.4 km) permanent Formula 1 road course which is popular with joggers, bicyclists and inline skaters. An ideal place for a triathlon in a city setting.

Only problem was that the canal we were swimming in was terribly narrow and compact. It kind of meandered its way from city hall in down town to the Park where the race took place.

The start pontoon was set up at the widest part of the canal. After only 150-200m or so, it bottle necked then curved to the left. If you couldn't get out fast enough in the opening 50m, it was easy to get spit out the back...which happened to me.

I made a poor decision by picking one of the worst spots on the start line. Should have stuck with my initial gut instict by starting on the far right.

The water was only about waist deep, so it made for a very shallow swim. I had such a great swim in Sydney, I thought I'd have something similar in Monterrey. Boy was I wrong.

Coming out of the water about 60 seconds down from the leading group of 10 or so, I was lucky to have in company some of the best cyclists in the race. We were able to close the gap down to about 30 seconds. Because of my American teammates and friends up the road, I was hoping the main field wouldn't catch them but at the same time the gift of too much time would almost render our run performances meaningless.

Out onto the run, I was able to run down everyone by the end of the 3rd of 4th lap. Catching the race leader, Joao Silva, was out of the question. The race for the last 2 podium spots was on. I put in a big surge to try and shake off Manny, Seth, and the German, Greg Buchholz.

I noticed I felt much better while I surged, so I just maintained that pace until I picked it up once more right before the finish. In the end I held off the German and former U23 World Champion and cruised in for a 2nd place finish.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my performance. After such a rough swim and getting kicked in the chest very hard, I'm happy to still take home the silver and have the fastest run of the day.

For now, I'll relax during these next few days and prepare for the next World Championship Series race in Seoul, Korea on May 8th. My dad, who lives in Tokyo, is flying up to watch the race. I'm really looking forward to having family at a race on the other side of the world from home!


M

9th Down Under!

(From USATriathlon.org)
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - American athletes got off to a strong start in the first event of the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series Sunday with a combined three top-10 and five top-15 finishes in Sydney, Australia.

USA Triathlon takes a look back at last weekend's action and looks ahead to this week's biggest races on the elite calendar in what will become a regular weekly feature on usatriathlon.org.

Chrabot, Kemper Post Top-10 Showings
National team standouts and Colorado Springs, Colo., residents Matt Chrabot and Hunter Kemper took ninth and 10th, respectively, on the men's side. Chrabot crossed the finish line in 1:51:56, and Kemper was close behind in 1:52:07. Click here for USA Triathlon's recap of the race.

"Preparation heading into this race was the best ever," said Chrabot, who won the Miami International Triathlon March 14. "I proved so by coming out of the water in the top 10 and opened up a significant gap late in the bike. Unfortunately, I couldn't bridge up to Hunter in time so we could work together on the bike and save our legs for the run. I was a bit fried coming off the bike, but still felt very good.

"After leading the run for almost 5k, I was confident I would hold off the chase pack, but my legs grew very tired, and I started to fade fast. Ninth is a great finish in a WCS race, but I wish it could have been closer to the podium after such a monster effort."

Project 2016 team member Chris Foster (Redondo Beach, Calif.), who had already logged three top-six finishes in ITU Pan American Cup events in 2010, impressed with a 14th-place finish in 1:52:40 - just 33 seconds out of the top 10. Kevin Collington (Orlando, Fla.) of Project 2012 was 35th in 1:54:50. Full men's results are available on the ITU website.

Matt Chrabot Featured on The Endurance Planet Hour

Endurance Planet March 24, 2010

People have been butchering Matt Chrabot’s last name for years. He’s been called everything from “Shar-bow” to “Crabpot.” But after his win at the Miami International Triathlon, Chrabot (pronounced shär-bòt) will be a recognizable name to professional triathletes everywhere.

Listen to Matt in this Endurance Planet podcast.

Austin Half Marathon; 1:10:22

Recently, I decided to make an effort to "step up" as "they" tend to call it, and run a half marathon. I flew down to Austin, Texas to test out my running legs to RACE my first ever Half Marathon. I ran the Virginia Beach Rock and roll Half Marathon back in 2003 under my friend Tim Norton's name and ran somewhere in the 1:50 range...

I flew into Austin to do the half as just a gauge to see where my fitness is at for this time of the season. As an ITU triathlete where the races are won with the fastest run times, a half marathon is a great way to see what I'm able to hold at around a tempo run effort.

This wasn't used as a test for an Ironman 70.3 effort. It's been a week since I raced and am finally fully recovered. My legs hurt so bad afterward. I could barely walk at all. I don't know if I can hurt that long in a 70.3. Maybe in Clearwater...since it's practically draft legal and I wouldn't have to work that hard on the bike...

The Race
If you're ever thinking of running Austin, expecting to run fast you'll be in for a surprise. It's very hilly. There's some nice rollers in the first 10K, which is how I took it out in 32:15, but shortly after that there are these short, small, steep hills that totally zap you away from your rhythm.
At 10 Miles I came through in about 53:00. I wanted to throw the towel in at this point. My legs were beginning to cramp bad and all the Tex Mex started to catch up to me. I think my 12th mile split was around 6:00 or something. The last little bit is down hill right past the capital.

Kudos to David Fuentes for sticking it to me. We came through 10Km together then he put two minutes in me by the finish.

Pain is a good thing sometimes, it says you're still in the game and haven't given up.

Up next: Miami International Triathlon; March 15th.

Victory in Huatulco

What a way to end a season! The 2009 training and racing year has been a learning experience. Testing out different training and racing strategies, technique, and abilities. After what felt like a roller coaster of performances, I ended it on a high note. My goal for the last race of 2009 was to crack onto the World Cup podium for the first time.
It’s rare that a professional athlete in any sport can pull off victory in the last competition of the season on the big stage. No this wasn’t World Championships, but a World Cup win is solid.

The more I mature as an athlete, the more I find myself repeating races I’ve been to before. For most of my career, I’ve been racing on a race course in a new city or country I haven’t been to before. When I come back to that city the following year I know where to go for good restaurants, safe places to ride, if I should bring a trainer or not, and whether last year’s hotel was worth residing in again. Since I love racing in Mexico because of the food, culture, and hospitality I never really had a problem any of the five times I’ve come to visit.

If you’ve never been to Central America or South Mexico, it’s hot…all year round. Planning for the race is a given. No wetsuit and wearing lots of extra clothes while training. If you aren’t already on your limit, shedding a couple pounds is less weight you have to carry out on the course when your body feels like a dead carcass in those closing miles. Cutting my weight down a tad was part of the plan.

The bike course has an insanely steep hill. Hills are fun and all but when it’s 100F degrees with no shade, you tend to have a different approach.
I had this theory after 2008’s World Cup that a breakaway was possible. Hard, but possible. A solo attempt early on would be suicidal. I love racing the bike, so I began to get excited right from the water exit. I even took the first bike prime on lap 2. Pushing the pace a little to shake a few of the weaker riders was part of my plan. Attacking up the hill on lap 3 after I sprinted for a prime was not. Looking back a month later, I attacked. At the time, I just “tightened the screw” a bit more.



In cycling, a rider only has two bullets in his pistol, not six. One for an attack or to bridge to a breakaway, the other is for the sprint at the end to win.
I’m not even half way through the bike and I already use up a bullet. In triathlon, you can’t use the other on the bike because of the run. There’s only one bullet. One shot. If you have a bad swim, and have to bridge on the bike to the main field you’re already down to one. Going all out until you’re about to puke then settling back to a sustainable race pace is tough because of the run. Unlike the bike, there’s no coasting on the run. When it’s extra hot, it’s easy to miss fire. You can have an empty chamber by the time to have a reality check and see you’ve got at least thirty minutes left of racing.

So I think I miss fired. That’s ok, because I was planning on making a move anyways. Just not early in the game on a hot, hot day. I used a bullet…On accident… So I had to go with it. I didn’t look back and just rode steady. By the time my next closet competitor, Ruedi Wild, made an attempt to bridge up I had too much of an advantage with little real estate left to sit up and wait for some help.

The run was just gravy. That’s my big focus, so it came the easiest. I’m a swimmer that thinks he’s a cyclist, but is absolutely obsessed with and really wants to feel and move like a runner. (Make sense? No? Me neither… That’s triathlon.)

Thanks for reading.

Age Group Tip: Coping With Jet Lag

from the new www.triathlon.org 3.0!

With many athletes, both Age Group and elite, having to travel across several (or in some cases, a lot of) time zones to the Gold Coast ITU Triathlon World Championships, they will feel fatigued and may be unable to sleep at an appropriate time. They may also suffer a loss of appetite and concentration, and some people experience constipation and general malaise.

These symptoms are the result of the body’s internal clock trying to ‘retune’ to a new schedule and individuals are affected by jet lag in different ways, for example the effects may be worse in the mornings. Jet lag is generally worse when travelling east, so if a return journey is heading back to Europe or Africa it should not be as severe as heading west to Australia.

Top Tip 1
Try and adjust your body clock before you travel. Go to bed an hour or two earlier than normal and get up earlier. This will have the effect of getting your body clock moving towards the different time zone.

Top Tip 2
Reset your watch as soon as you get on the plane and don’t keep converting it to the timezone of your home country.

Top Tip 3
After food has been served, normally in the first hour or two of the flight, try and sleep. Ideally you should get at least four or six hours, but even small naps are beneficial. Make yourself comfortable, recline your seat and use eye-shades.

Top Tip 4
Take additional food and water onto the plane with you and drink plenty of fluid throughout the flight to avoid dehydration. Avoid alcoholic drinks, tea, coffee or cola style drinks that contain caffeine; they will make it harder for you to sleep.

Top Tip 5
On arrival from a long haul flight, such as to Australia, you usually arrive early in the morning – try to avoid natural daylight for the first part of the day but also try to avoid sleeping. If you need a nap make sure this is not for longer than 30min. Staying awake until normal bedtime will mean you get a good first night’s sleep which will help your body adjust quicker.

2nd in Chicago Triathlon

I had an excellent time in Chicago. I stayed with Jillian Wagner and Mike Ronkoske. A great couple. In fact, so great that Mike went to St. Bedes Elementary school the same time I did! He is two years older than me, so we really don't remember each other. Two years apart feels like a generation with you're in elementary school. We had fun reminiscing about our old teachers.

They live almost to the top of a high rise right near the Pro athletes' transition. It only took me a couple minutes to roll down there race morning.

The night before the race I noticed I wasn't feeling too well. Turns out I had a slight temperature so I popped a couple Tylenol and hoped for the best. When I awoke on race month I wasn't feeling quite 100%. All I could do as take things slow, one step at a time praying that I felt better by the race start. I wasn't feeling bad enough to the point where I should be making phone calls about making the right decision to race. I figured if I kept it to myself and not hear myself say that I'm not feeling right, things will eventually start to come around.

As the morning went on, I began to feel much better. I made my way down to transition wearing a long sleeve shirt. Temperatures have been cool lately in Chicago. Cool for Chicago...in the summer...which meant the 60's. In 2007 when I raced, it was very warm and I ran out of water on the bike, costing me to finish outside the money.

After setting my brand new Blue Triad up, I pulled my wetsuit on and jogged my way over to the start area....about a half mile away. My Aunt Suzie and Bela came out so see the excitement, so I told them I wouldn't let them down especially after a solid performance the weekend before at Nationals.

During the swim, I found myself next to Matty Reed and behind Tim O'Donnell. These two guys are some of the best cyclists in the business and I knew that if I was going to have a great race I'd have to suck it up and some how stick with these guys coming off the bike. We've already lost Andy Potts' feet by the half way and he started to build a lead which I hoped to get back sometime early on during the bike.

Exiting the water I found myself in 3rd and held that position until I eventually caught Andy on the bike. I haven't been training much on my non-drafting cycling this season so without giving much thought to the 2nd half of the bike, I pushed the pace. Andy wasn't going to let me get too far, so we exchanged the lead for a few times before Matty Reed cruised by.

Last summer Andy and I rode the whole bike together at the Escape from Alcatraz before he popped me about 2 miles into the run on the first set of stairs. This was my second opportunity in a non-drafting race to try and beat him.

Shortly after Matty went by us, I was riding a few meters to Andy's right when he suddenly clipped an age grouper who had no idea the pro men were barreling down Lake Shore Drive doing almost 35MPG. Both of them hit the ground hard. A few seconds later Cameron Dye came up along side and we both muttered, "that was close." Word on the street Andy didn't have any broken bones or severe damage. Just very serious road rash.

I talked to his coach and my swim coach, Mike Doane today at swim practice and says he's going to attempt to spin on the bike. Hope you have a speedy recovery Andy!

After Andy was out for the count, Matty put about 40 seconds on me and Cameron Dye heading into T2. By this time, I totally forgot about the way I felt the night before and was on a mission to run Reed down. Some of the time checks people gave me were way off, 20 seconds, 1:40, 30, :60. I had no idea what to believe. Matt's such a tall guy that I would be able to see him easily on the strait aways. I barely saw him. At the 3mi turn around I didn't make up much of any time. The gap stood at 40 seconds. Afterwards, I slowly began to fade and ended up finished almost a minute back by the end. Tim O'Donnell had the fastest logged run of the day and was creeping up on me.

2nd place and 1:49 on that course is pretty respectable.

Thursday I'm off to Gold Coast, Australia for the World Championship Finale, or I get I should say the World Champs!

I had a great track session today and am looking forward to the race next weekend 3PM Brisbane, Australia time.

Check out www.triathlon.org for great live coverage of the race.

Cheers mate!

MC