Even during a ‘rest period’ nine months before the London Olympics, Alistair and Jonny were working relentlessly on their fitness
Back in October 2011, I went on a media trip courtesy of Garmin to the Barcelona Triathlon. Travelling with the small group of journalists and PR people were the Brownlee brothers – Alistair and Jonny – less than a year before the London Olympics were set to take place.
I remember rising wearily for the early-morning flight and as soon as we arrived and checked into our hotel I headed to Las Ramblas for lunch and a drink with the other journos. This was a ‘travelling day’, after all, so I was feeling a bit delicate and surely needed to take it easy?
As it turned out, this was also a day where I learned the difference between a recreational club level athlete like myself and a world-class triathlete destined for Olympic gold.
Alistair Brownlee (Getty)
The previous night the Brownlees had been out at an event until around midnight but nevertheless rose at around 4-5am to do an early morning swim session before dashing to Leeds-Bradford Airport for their flight to Barcelona. They took their bicycles in bike boxes, too, but I don’t remember them having much help from anyone with regards packing and organising it all. Instead, they just rocked up together carrying all their equipment themselves.
Touching down at the hotel, they went straight out on to the roads of Catalonia for a spin of around two to three hours.
Then, as if that wasn’t enough, I saw Alistair and Jonny arriving back at our hotel at about 6pm dripping with sweat as they’d squeezed in a 40-minute run before going for a quick shower and costume change ahead of the Garmin event in the evening where they were happy to mingle and chat with journalists like myself.
Yet here’s the thing. They were apparently in an end-of-season “rest period” before resuming their winter preparation properly a few days later!
So if that’s what they did during an easy week when they had been travelling all day, then I could only imagine what they managed at one of their actual training camps.
In the Barcelona Triathlon itself, they were both content to simply spectate but they also trained that day before flying home to continue their work. The following summer they were rewarded as well as Alistair won the first of two Olympic gold medals as Jonny earned bronze despite a time penalty.
Now, the 36-year-old Alistair has hung up his racing shoes, goggles and bike, although I can’t imagine him stopping swim-run-biking entirely.
Triathlon isn’t traditionally part of AW’s coverage, but the Brownlees have spent such a big part of their career at running events that we cannot ignore them.
Among other things they have often popped up in our results section after racing on cross country (Alistair represented Britain at the Euro Cross) or fell races, especially over the festive period.
AW’s 2006 English Schools coverage
Alistair first appeared prominently in our pages back in March 2006 when he won the English Schools cross-country title (pictured above) a few seconds ahead of Ricky Stevenson.
Whereas Alistair’s career went from strength to strength, incidentally, the talented Stevenson beat Mo Farah in a televised cross-country race in Edinburgh in 2010 but later ended up in prison!
What’s more, such was Alistair’s running ability at his peak, he was ranked No.3 in the UK for 10,000m behind Farah and Chris Thompson in 2013. Such results led to talk of him tackling an audacious triathlon-athletics double at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow although ultimately he stuck to his speciality.
You can read more about the brilliant Alistair Brownlee and his retirement decision here.
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