Episode 90 Pro Files: Andrew Horsfall-Turner on Ironman Texas Highlights and Journey from Swimming to Ironman

🎙 Pro Insights from Ironman Texas + Life as a Rising Long Course Triathlete – Andrew Horsfall-Turner Interview

We're still buzzing from Ironman Texas and fired up to bring you another pro interview! This week, hosts Jenna-Caer and Josh catches up with British pro triathlete Andrew Horsfall-Turner (@andrew_h_t) to break down his race in Texas, the dynamics of the new Ironman Pro Series, and his journey from swimmer to pro triathlete.

From drafting dynamics and race surges to fueling strategies and managing life with a growing family, this conversation dives deep into the balance of performance, passion, and perseverance. Plus, Andrew shares his thoughts on racing back-to-back at Swansea 70.3 and Lake Placid, changing coaches for 2024, and the long-term mindset he's bringing to the sport.

🚲 If you’re an age-grouper, coach, or aspiring pro, this one is packed with valuable insights.

⏱ Timestamps
00:00 - Intro & Ironman Texas buzz
01:20 - Andrew’s start in triathlon (thanks to Dad!)
03:45 - From swimmer to pro: balancing the transition
06:30 - Why running was the biggest challenge
09:30 - Typical training weeks & part-time coaching life
13:45 - Changing coaches & re-igniting the process
18:15 - Comparing Ironman South Africa vs. Ironman Texas
21:00 - Big swim packs, pro field tactics & Race Ranger
27:30 - Dealing with injury & the marathon grind
30:00 - Chasing Ironman Pro Series points in 2024
33:30 - Back-to-back racing: Swansea 70.3 + Lake Placid
35:00 - Quickfire questions (including Cornish pasties 😂)
42:00 - Carb strategy, fueling advice & what actually works

🎧 Available on Spotify, Apple, YouTube & wherever you get your podcasts.
📲 Follow Andrew:

Instagram: @andrew_h_t
YouTube: Andrew's YouTube

👇 Drop your favorite takeaway or question for Andrew in the comments!

Transcript

Jenna-Caer (00:06.212)
Welcome back to another Trathlon podcast brought to you by Mana Apparel. We are racking up the pro interviews this week. We're so fired up after Ironman Texas. We wanted to get the insight for what the pro athletes actually experienced come race day as they kick off this Ironman Pro Series. But today we have got Andrew Horsefall Turner on to come chat about his day, tell us a little bit about his season and kind of dive into a little bit more of his experience in the sport so far. But let's start off by saying hi. Andrew, how are you doing this afternoon?

Andrew (00:35.343)
Hi, yeah, really, really good to obviously meet you in Texas and thanks for inviting me on.

Jenna-Caer (00:39.034)
Now we're happy to have you on and get a few more perspectives because Texas was a wicked race out there. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun and lot of suffering at the same time.

Andrew (00:50.063)
Yes, yeah, it was one of those days that, especially in the pro field, was a lot of people kind of highlighted it as like a, you know, maybe that tier just below a world championship style field where there wasn't many people missing. And then we kind of had almost Kona-ish conditions, which, yeah, definitely felt like a big event for sure.

Jenna-Caer (01:09.497)
Definitely a practice day for it. And as always, joined by Josh here. And let's jump into it and just get a little bit of an insight. What got you started in triathlon? How'd you find this sport?

Andrew (01:21.537)
So I've been a swimmer since I literally can remember. So I swam from the age of about six, all the way through university, college here in the UK. And then I kind of finished my swimming career, if you want to call it that, in 2015. And I went into swimming coaching. So I didn't leave sport at all, but I kind of kept myself fit, kept myself involved.

and kind of always had that itch to do something else, but wasn't really sure what that something else was. My dad did an iron distance race here in the UK called Outlaw back in 2017. And I went to watch that with my mom and I thought it was the most ridiculous thing in the world. know, what, cause I think my dad went around 13 hours that day and I obviously I had to spectate for 13 hours and I was just thinking to myself like,

What is he doing? It was his, I think he'd just turned 50 that year. So was his midlife crisis. He was like, I'm going to do an iron distance, Ironman race. But yeah, I I thought he was crazy. And I think that actually, unfortunately, set a little bit of a seed in my brain that actually this challenge could be something for me.

Jenna-Caer (02:20.314)
Thank

Andrew (02:45.649)
And then it took me probably another two years after that to actually kind of do one myself. But I was very much after watching my dad do it, I stumbled upon Lionel Sanders 2017 Kona after the fact. like later in the year, I watched all those videos back. And then that kind of really sparked my interest into 2018. And then I bit the bullet in 2019 and entered Iron Man Wales as an age group.

and then yeah, it's kind of been a spiral spiral since then. I've only been a pro now for, this is my third full year. so yeah, it's, it's, I'm still relatively fresh from the sport. I still feel, like I'm learning stuff every, every year and every, every day almost. but yeah, it's been a super exciting journey and what I, what I thought was crazy back in 2017, I now have a, incredible massive passion for.

and I can't imagine not doing it. yeah, it's crazy how quickly things change.

Josh (03:47.916)
What was the scariest part as you got started in the sport after watching your dad spend 13 hours out there? Obviously the swimming was not going to be a concern, right? And for a lot of us, that is the concern. So between the biking and running, what were you more concerned about and what's been the bigger struggle?

Andrew (04:05.713)
I'd say that I took to, think mentally maybe the cycling in the short term was probably the biggest thing because having never been really on a road bike, I'd done some mountain biking as a kid, as a lot of people do, but I'd never been on a road bike with these little skinny tires. And then obviously then you put tri bars on top of that and that was pretty daunting. But I actually took to cycling really quickly.

Obviously a big engine from being a swimmer. So my progression in cycling just instantly got like, I instantly had like a relatively high FTP and you know, it took me a while to get used to, you know, fueling and long rides. But for that side of things, it was actually pretty easy. But running, running has been a, let's just say it's been a project ever since starting. And I've seen glimpses of, of it clicking and coming together.

but I'm very much still kind of piecing out, what I can see in training. haven't quite seen in an Ironman race yet in terms of, of run performance. and I keep reminding myself that like some of the guys I'm racing against have been doing triathlon like 20 years. so I'm trying to be patient and try not to, to rush the process. but yeah, running has been, running has been difficult being a swimmer my whole life as well. Like I haven't spent time on land. So.

every little run niggle you can ever think of or little injury you can think of, probably had it. And navigating through them has been, yeah, it's been a journey. I feel like it's made me a better athlete because of it, especially I do a bit of coaching now and when an athlete says that they feel a niggle in a certain area, kind of, I'm not a physio by any means or a specialist in that area, but I kind of already instantly know what it might be.

I recommend going to see a professional and say, I think it might be this. So yeah, I think it makes me, it's made me a better athlete and definitely a better coach because of what I've learned along the way.

Jenna-Caer (06:13.402)
Yeah, and that's something we see a lot in swimmers because you have so much aerobic capacity. You just don't have that resiliency to the pounding on the ground. So you're always doing it suspended in water. You get a lot of swimmers kind of in trouble the first little while.

Andrew (06:22.681)
yeah.

Andrew (06:27.521)
think someone, one of my early coaches described it as basically putting a Ferrari engine in like a beat up old car. Cause yeah, it's just.

Jenna-Caer (06:36.474)
When it came to actually deciding to make that shift to being a professional athlete, was there a race that kind of got you fired up to do that or was that the goal after you started to do your first few triathlons and airmans?

Andrew (06:48.817)
Sorry, that was my fault.

Andrew (07:03.791)
Yeah, I think it was kind of instantly one of the things that kind of drew me to the sport. I saw Lionel Sanders racing Kona getting Patrick, getting passed by Patrick. And I think before that, I'd always thought the triathlon was like, you had to be like Alistair Brownlee, you know, super lean, super skinny, just look a certain way. And I think I'm slightly bigger built, slightly more muscular than maybe some other athletes. And

watching Lionel being a more muscular athlete leading the world championship for that long, knowing that I had a talent in sport from swimming, kind of, guess, again, set the seed that maybe I could race professionally and maybe there could be a career path throughout this. So I definitely, even before I did my first race as an age group, I definitely had a bit of a, I think maybe I could be professional.

But I very much believed like it will kind of happen when it happened. took me, well, I say it didn't take me that long. It took me like two and a bit years of being in the sport. I did two iron distance races before getting my license. But yeah, it was definitely, I guess I'm super competitive. And I guess that competitive nature like instantly, as soon as I decided I was going to try triathlon, the competitive side of me just like,

just developed and was like, right, if I'm going to do this, like, I'm going to try and be as, you know, as good as I can be. and that's, that's, guess, what's still my, my key motivator, because I'm not necessarily someone who's, out and out, you know, motivated by say money or, or a particular result. I obviously love to race to win and stuff like that, but, I'm always motivated by just.

being super competitive and seeing improvement. And I think that's quite important, especially in a sport where your career can extend 10 plus years. I'm only 30, so I'm hoping I've got another maybe 10 years of this if I keep improving. So yeah, that's kind of where the mindset came in and also how I I developed quite quickly into the pro ranks as well.

Josh (09:26.986)
I mean, 10 years might be short these days if you look what Cam and Patrick are doing out there too. It's quite impressive and especially considering more young people going right to the longer distances too. So there's quite a disparity in the age now, which not always was the case.

Jenna-Caer (09:29.562)
Yeah.

Andrew (09:31.885)
Yeah.

Josh (09:45.42)
I'd imagine it has to do a lot with nutrition and technology and just your training regimen. What do some of those key weeks look like for you leading into an event like Ironman Texas or even a 70.3?

Andrew (09:58.745)
Yeah, so it's obviously changed over the time. I actually changed coaches this year. So that's been a fun kind of project doing something slightly different than I've done previous years. I guess I actually raced Ironman South Africa four weeks before Texas. So the lead into Texas is probably a little bit, let's just say it didn't go as well as it should have gone.

I managed to pick up a virus, I managed to get a little bit of a knee niggle. That obviously in addition to recovering from South Africa and then trying to rest for Texas, I probably didn't really train properly I'd say between that period. But I guess if I take you guys back to pre-South Africa, a typical week for me is nothing, I guess nothing extraordinary.

I work part time, so I coach on the side. I do a little bit of swim coaching on pool deck and I do some triathlon coaching online. I also have a two year old daughter, which she obviously keeps me pretty busy and I've got another baby on the way next week actually, another addition. Yeah, true, true.

Jenna-Caer (11:12.727)
that's really sweet.

Josh (11:13.737)
You're real busy.

Jenna-Caer (11:17.53)
So that's how you get the air vents out of the way.

Andrew (11:21.777)
But I'm also a firm believer that once you get above say 21, 22 hours, they're all hours. I don't think there's necessarily a massive difference from an athlete who's training 21 hours and an athlete who's training 30 hours, 35 hours. Some people need the 35 hours because they've been doing the sport for so many years that if they don't train 30 plus hours, they're not going to get an adequate stimulus to try and keep on improving.

so I think I'm from that perspective, I'm quite fortunate. And I think, I probably average around, you know, those low to mid 20 hours, like kind of weeks consistently. but yeah, it's very, very normal kind of stuff, like a long run every week with like a decent build. trying to, I, I've played around in the past with like really big long bike sessions as well. And I think,

I found that they fatigued me. again, I think it may be because I'm quite young to the sport. Like I could do these big kind of heroic four hour sessions with loads of efforts at Ironman intensity. you know, I could, I could do them, but I couldn't recover off them and I couldn't adapt from them properly. So we've actually come back to much more of a frequency instead of duration. So instead of riding my bike for six hours, one day.

and then having a day off the bike or having two days off the bike, I am doing like three hours one day, two hours the next day, two hours the next day and kind of just spreading that workload. I think the longest ride I actually did between, I did a training camp in Lanzarote in January where I obviously did a bit more, long, long rides. but between the end of January and South Africa, or even in, even Texas, the longest ride I've done is only four hours.

in duration. So yeah, I think that's working really well. Swimming, swimming about is for me is about consistency as long as I'm as long as I'm in the water, as long as I'm, you know, touching the water for four to five times a week. I'm kind of plus or minus a percent always there or thereabouts with where I need to be to be front pack. So I don't never stress too much about the swimming aspect. But yeah, I guess the

Andrew (13:46.935)
Overall, project for me at the moment is trying to create enough robustness on the bike and continue to create more robustness on the run so that I can put it all together because I've shown on a few occasions now that I can really be in the mix after the bike and I'm just trying to put it together so that I can be at the mix come the finish line.

Jenna-Caer (14:09.624)
Yeah, definitely. that's actually, you mentioned that you changed coaches recently and we seem to be seeing a lot of those coach changes kind of early season here across the pro field. But what was that decision to try something new? Like what was the motivation behind it?

Andrew (14:26.501)
So I was working with a great coach before David Tilbury Davis and we'd worked together for maybe two and a half years, literally since I basically turned professional. And I think what was working really well was the relationship was really good. The knowledge David had was incredible. But what I think wasn't quite working was my ability to adapt.

to the training he was giving me. And I think maybe it was me being a little bit younger in terms of my time in the sport. And also then obviously throwing in, having a newborn, a lot of other things, but we were kind of getting to the point where I kind had a really bad end to last year. The last few races kind of went pretty poorly and we kind of had a good conversation basically saying like, well,

What do we do going into next year to ensure that, you know, what's happening now doesn't kind of happen next year. And I think as an athlete, and I guess this is probably saying the same for a lot of athletes is after doing something for a period of time, you know, two, three, four years, whatever it is, sometimes you need a bit of a change in, in stimulus or a change in a coaching relationship to almost

re-ignite something inside of you. And I think that's what I was probably looking for is just to like buy into something a little bit different. And because I was having some poor results for various reasons, it's very easy to start questioning what you're doing. And as soon as you start questioning the process on which you're following, it's difficult then to see any results from that process. So, it's a good conversation I have with lot of my athletes in the sense that like,

You've got to be a hundred percent trusting in what you're doing with your coach. And if you don't believe a hundred percent in what you're doing, it's never gonna, it's never gonna happen on race day. So it's probably more on me than, than it was on actual David itself. But I think I started to lose trust in the process. And I think the only fair way for both of us to move forward was to, to kind of part ways and for me to try something different.

Andrew (16:54.619)
So yeah, we're still on good terms, me and David. And yeah, I've been seeing some great improvements this year, now working with a guy called Sam Proctor. Very different coaching style, very similar in age to me. He's also got a young family, so I think we connect on multiple levels. But yeah, so far so good. And as you said, I think everyone kind of has their own reason for trying something different. And I think

It's very rare, especially in triathlon and pro sport, that you see a coach athlete relationship extend more than, five years, I'd say. I think that's just how things go. I every kind of relationship runs its course.

Josh (17:43.464)
Right. It's Jenna said it too. I mean, it seems like a lot of people just for some reason, 2025 is the year to change coaches and change it up. But, but the results are still coming. And I think we all need to make changes at all aspects of life, right? At some point you change things up just to, to re-motivate yourself and then go with your discipline and keep going. What was the difference you think in your race days between South Africa and Texas? Like what, went well at?

I mean, obviously time wise, mean, Texas was crazy fast. mean, you said your long ride was like four hours. Like, what's that? 180, 200 K these days?

Andrew (18:16.633)
Yeah, everyone's flying at Texas, yeah.

Andrew (18:21.457)
Yeah, no, my race days in South Africa and Texas are actually very, very different. So in South Africa, there was a very small lead group. We kind of all got out the water and we basically, the three of us at the front basically ended up just solo riding. So we didn't actually ride together at all. I had Magnus Ditlev come past me.

but obviously after very short amount of time realized how hard he was cycling. So, didn't try and follow him. So I basically rode the whole of South Africa solo. and then you flip that then to Texas, come out in a massive group. We basically rode as a group of 15, I think for the first, say 120 K, before everything started to kind of bloom out a little bit. so very different dynamics.

I actually rode more power in South Africa than I did in Texas. But, you know, Texas, rode, well, I rode 359. Whereas in South Africa, we were like four, I was 424, I think. So, you know, almost half an hour more on the bike.

Jenna-Caer (19:37.828)
That's crazy. Yeah, it seemed like just insane conditions in Texas and everyone went under four hours, it feels like.

Andrew (19:43.825)
Yeah, I think it was 13, it might have been 14, but 13 people who finished rode under four hours. And I think from my mem, like I know that there's been a couple of courses in the past such as Barcelona last year and Hamburg, but from my experience, from knowing those races, I believe those two races were pretty like short in distance, like 175 in terms of distance, whereas,

like Texas is a legit 180, know, I can show you the Garmin files. So I think legitimately it's some of the fastest riding we've ever seen in an Ironman and obviously Cam breaking the actual Ironman record was a testament to that as well.

Jenna-Caer (20:17.092)
Thank

Jenna-Caer (20:29.146)
Definitely. Now when you came out of the water in Texas, like you said, it was a bit of a different situation in South Africa. Were you surprised how many pros were all together, like coming out of the water and onto the bike?

Andrew (20:40.497)
Yeah, so my ambition before the race was to try and not necessarily get away on my own, but try and get away with a small group. I thought there would be people like Willie Hirsch, Andreas Salzberg, Matthew Marquardt, and maybe a couple of others. I thought there'd be hopefully a little group of us.

The first kilometer was absolute chaos. I was getting, you know, I thought I got away and then all of a sudden like someone's jumping on my hip. And then, and then next thing I know I'm getting hit in the face and my, I had my go-go punched off my face a couple of times. So it turned into, it turned into more of like a wrestling match than it did actually a swim. So.

Jenna-Caer (21:23.822)
No.

Andrew (21:31.093)
I knew when I got into the canal and I was side by side with a swimmer and I took a couple of looks and realized it was Christian. I knew as soon as I saw Christian that this group is going to be big because Christian is a good swimmer, but he normally only makes the front group if it's a big pack. So yeah, as soon as I knew that Christian was right next to me, my mind shifted from swimming completely. So I completely eased off.

Jenna-Caer (21:42.074)
Thank

Andrew (21:59.737)
And my mindset then shifted to how can I be as quick as I can from the moment I leave the water to the moment I get on the bike? Cause I knew that if you weren't on the bike in the top, say 10 athletes, there's a good chance you could get dropped. So, yeah, I put, put everything into that. think I got onto the bike in fifth in the end. but yeah, it was interesting because even through the first 20 K, I think our group of 22 out the water turn into like a group of 14.

So, yeah, tactically, think I made a very good decision there.

Josh (22:35.852)
Yeah. you, brought up something that a lot of people have heard talk about with this race specifically, when you get that longer train coming out of the water, you need to almost make sure you're in that front seven of 14 or, or that least that front half, because if you're going to pass somebody, you're not going to be able to slide in or slot yourself in legally. And, and if you're in the back and if the front goes off and surges, you're not going be able to react to it either. So

I'm sure when you got off and got up into that front five, you felt like you could settle into the race without having that concern, right?

Andrew (23:09.509)
Yeah, for sure. I think you then have to just play the dynamics of, as you said, that everyone's trying to ride, say, 12 to 14 meters. And we've got race ranger to tell us exactly where that is. So the ability to slot in, it does come up every so often. And there is sometimes an opportunity to say leapfrog one athlete. But you don't necessarily want to put yourself in that position if you are, even if you're in fifth or sixth, because trying to pass five guys is

it's a big effort and it's efforts that you don't want to make in a race. but yeah, I think positioning was one thing I think, for me as well, like trying to ride the course as best as I could. So when I was coming into corners, I would tend to ease up a little bit earlier than some athletes in front of me because I felt that I could take the corners quicker than people. And then I would then roll back into the blue, the blue light.

Um, whereas if you go in close to them and then you take the corner quickly, you're then actually slamming your brakes because you don't want to go into the drafting zone. And then you then have to sprint at say 800 Watts to try and keep up because every, all of a sudden the whole train just starts to go again. So just trying to be as tactical and ride my bike as well as I could to mitigate those situations was, was actually. It was, it was, it kept you very mentally engaged. Let's put it that way.

Jenna-Caer (24:38.874)
Yeah, and we've heard some from some other athletes now that they do have Race Ranger and everyone is trying to stay right within that 12 to 14. It's almost, it's gotten a lot more surgy, I guess, in the pack than they would typically do during an Ironman race. Have you done anything in your training to kind of address some of those smaller surges on those long rides or have you changed at all?

Andrew (24:56.921)
Yeah, so I think, I guess the program I follow at the moment, it leaves a little bit of, you know, we're not doing necessarily like VO2 max focused work right now, but it leaves a little bit of intensity on the bike always, even if we're focusing on more like steady state work. I think that's for the reason of the ability to go there.

I think I'm quite fortunate as well is like from being a swimmer is my kind of anaerobic ability is pretty good. So I don't kind of struggle with those like short bursts. I'm not saying I'm a sprinter by any means. I'm definitely an endurance athlete, but I think I still have a a better top end than a few people. So my ability to push up to, know, if I needed to eight, nine, a thousand watts for

Jenna-Caer (25:46.639)
Yes.

Andrew (25:53.061)
short periods of time, it is there. But as you said there, I think it's just sprinkling it into the sessions and also just understanding that the difference between, I came from an age group race. When I started triathlon and that was very much just ride what's comfortable, ride what you wanna do and just, you don't really focus on anyone else except for yourself. Whereas like now it's very much, you've gotta be super flexible and you've gotta be super

I guess it's willing to do what you need to do to stay in those groups. And I kind of spoke to a few people afterwards and it's actually, it's funny because we have all these like metrics, we have power meters, we have heart rate, we have speed and all this sort of stuff. But when you're riding in a group and the group starts to surge, there's only one thing you care about and that's staying with the person in front.

I can honestly say I didn't look at my power meter or my heart rate or anything once when I was in those situations. It was only when everything settled down that I would keep an eye on those metrics. But that just shows how dynamic racing is now. You basically got to race it like a short course race. You've got to close gaps. You've got to try and hang on. There'll be sections where it eases up completely and you're spinning your legs thinking, like, we're meant to be in a race here.

But you you almost embrace those moments because 10 seconds later, you're 400 watts trying to hang on to the back of the train. So.

Josh (27:27.406)
was the mindset when you got off the bike and had that run course to tackle and the marathon and obviously pro series points to chase down and knowing Christian was probably having a day.

Andrew (27:38.065)
Yeah, honestly, I was very anxious getting off the bike. I picked up a run niggle literally the day before I flew out to America. like the Saturday, so basically seven days out from the race. So in race week, I ran once on the Wednesday and I did a 20 minute jog and my knee was pretty painful. So I was pretty anxious getting off the bike because

I guess there's that small percentage chance that your body shuts you down completely and you can't even run. But fortunately, I actually, I started to run and it was uncomfortable, but it was manageable in terms of pain. But for me, was, I wasn't necessarily focused on the, say the top five of the race. I kind of knew that based on the strength of the field, based on like my previous results that

If I'm trying to race for the top five, I'm probably going to cook myself by 5k. So I was very much looking to try and have the best marathon I could. it just didn't come to fruition on the day. think a number of things, know, being sick in the buildup, not really training since South Africa properly. And then throw in the heat and humidity of the day. And being a British athlete and coming out of the British winter.

I think it was a whole host of excuses that I can keep throwing out. But, yeah, I can honestly say that I gave my, I gave my best effort I could on the day. And I did everything throughout the whole marathon to the best of my abilities to get to the finish line as best I could. I'd say, I'd say I'm disappointed with the overall outcome of it, but I guess.

that sport sometimes and there's so many positives to take from the rest of the race that I'm not dwelling too much on the actual outcome of the run, but more on like my mental resilience from the race, know, things that did go right and things that I know that come next race, which is probably going to be Lake Placid, what I can do better. And I guess that just changes the mindset into like a more of a optimistic

Andrew (30:07.203)
and also motivated kind of mindset where I'm kind of even a few days like we're five days post race now and I'm very motivated to to get back to work and and kind of hopefully have that run that I know I've got in my body come race day in in Placid.

Jenna-Caer (30:27.652)
That's awesome. Now you mentioned plus, and you've done a couple Ironmans here. Are you chasing down those pro series points and going after that as your focus this year?

Andrew (30:36.529)
Yeah, no, definitely, last year I kind of let it go relatively early. I got sick at Texas and then I was like, you know, you need solid races to make the pro series work. So yeah, I'm 100 % working for the pro series. I'm pretty confident that if I can have a solid day in Placid and then I'm also racing 70.3 Swansea and the 70.3 World Championships.

Um, so I'm hopeful that, you know, hopefully I have solid days across those three races. Um, that should put me in the mix, hopefully for the top 20. Um, that would be a, I probably, I'd be really happy with the top 20 this season to, you know, hopefully then seasons to come try and challenge the top 10 and et cetera. Um, but yeah, I'm going to see how plastic goes. There's an outside chance that I grab a knee slot and then that then adds another Ironman into the mix. Um,

But yeah, I'm definitely chasing those pro series points and it definitely makes the racing, I've never, you guys can agree or disagree, but I've never seen in season racing, even in my short period being in the sport, like we have had the last, even South Africa and Texas, racing Martin Van Riel, Magnus Ditlev, et cetera in South Africa and then coming to Texas and having the Norwegians, Rudy, it's...

It's incredible because sometimes you could go seasons without racing some of those big names.

Josh (32:11.074)
Yeah, you've had, gotta go to Peru and race with Justin reality. If you want to get away from all the big, and even there he's always third place. And I know he had a tough week, but I mean, yeah, it seems like every week when we look at the pro fields, no matter where it is, it's pro series or not, it's still a big race, but then you add that pro series. Aspect to it. And it's going to be a world championship quality field of some sort. And

Andrew (32:29.893)
Yeah.

Josh (32:37.986)
How close, you've had a good Swansea, right? I mean, you had a great Swansea last year and...

Andrew (32:41.391)
Yeah, so I finished on the podium there last year and it's now a pro series race this year. So I'm definitely anticipating it for it to be a slightly harder field. But I literally live, so the end of my road is part of the bike course. So I can honestly say that hopefully no one knows the bike course better than me. But yeah, I've definitely got the home field advantage there and it's a super hard British style.

Josh (32:56.834)
Nice.

Jenna-Caer (32:57.213)
no way.

Andrew (33:11.085)
of race where you're either going to hit a pothole or a bush.

Josh (33:16.43)
How close is that to Placid? Because they're both July, right?

Andrew (33:20.529)
So it's seven days out. Swansea is first and then Lake Placid is after. But I was chatting to my coach actually just this morning about it and we both agreed that it's more feasible than any other race because I haven't got to travel for Swansea. So I'm literally in my own bed, roll out of bed, race 70.3. And then because of where Lake Placid is compared to the UK,

Jenna-Caer (33:22.699)
fu-

Josh (33:22.976)
my. Right, I hope so.

Jenna-Caer (33:40.92)
Yeah.

Andrew (33:50.403)
It doesn't require like a big time shift. so I can get away with flying Tuesday or Wednesday so I can have a day or two after the race to recover and then, and then fly out and then, you know, you do a couple of easy sessions and then it's race day again. I've never done a back to back like that before. but you know, logistically speaking and logically speaking, I think it, I think it can work. but yeah, time was hell.

Jenna-Caer (34:20.696)
At least it's short to long.

Josh (34:20.822)
to Cam, talk to Martin Van Riel.

Andrew (34:22.89)
Yeah, for sure.

Jenna-Caer (34:26.478)
Yeah, much better. You're short.

Andrew (34:29.593)
It's relatively short, but I think like the key things are, you know, not trying to, not trying to do anything that week between races that feels bad. So if your body's feeling tired, it's just like, well, don't do that session. Like just take it easy or, and I key things would be like, you know, not overeating, but eating a lot and trying to sleep a lot. think if you nail those two things and then you, can get the body moving pretty well. I don't see why.

you we shouldn't, I shouldn't be able to bounce back, you hopefully to 100%.

Jenna-Caer (35:04.138)
Awesome. Well, we'll definitely be following along there. We've got a couple of kind of quickfire questions that we've run through here with the pro athletes. Nothing too crazy, but we'll start with what's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten during like training or racing? Maybe you're bonked on the side of the road and just needed something from a gas station.

Andrew (35:21.745)
Weirdest thing, I'm trying to think more like long rides. It's if I've gone out for a long ride and I'm like, I'm desperate. Probably. So in the UK we have like, do you have like pasties in the States? So like, yeah. So we have like a thing called a Cornish pasty. Have you ever heard of that?

Josh (35:45.653)
No.

Jenna-Caer (35:45.655)
No.

Andrew (35:46.789)
So down in Cornwall, obviously it was made from Cornwall, so Cornish. It's basically like a pasty, shortcrust pastry on the outside. And then it's got beef, potato, carrot, and a few other things in a mushed up kind of mix on the inside of it. But I can remember a couple of times I pulled over and just walked into the shop and thought.

know, what can I get that's going to get me home and I've seen one of them and I've just absolutely demolished it.

Jenna-Caer (36:21.21)
I this on another one as training in Scotland for a while and a good sausage roll on a long ride when you're like... Okay, if you had to race an Ironman triathlon as a pair with another pro, who would it be? Now, this could be someone that is faster than you, that would push you to go faster, or just someone that would be fun to spend an Ironman hanging out with.

Andrew (36:26.929)
Oh yeah, a sausage roll, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Andrew (36:45.713)
That's a really good question.

Again, I'm thinking someone who's maybe like a good swimmer, good cyclist, and maybe a better runner than me. Yeah, that's really hard. I'd probably have to go with someone like...

Jenna-Caer (36:54.426)
So thank you.

Andrew (37:04.333)
Magnus Ditlev, but I'd have to get him to calm down on the bike a little bit. Because I think he on his day, he can have a really good swim. So I could let him swim on my feet. And then on the bike, if he eased up a little bit and let me just follow his wheel. And I think from from the my brief interactions with him, he seems like a super nice guy. And I think I think he would

Jenna-Caer (37:09.218)
Yeah.

Andrew (37:31.301)
be quietly motivating throughout that marathon.

Jenna-Caer (37:36.536)
Yeah, he's been a popular pick on women. And especially it would be so much fun to actually see some more racing like that sub seven, sub eight, where you can pair up with someone and do a draft fest as you can go.

Andrew (37:36.986)
Yeah.

Andrew (37:46.071)
Yes, yeah, I love the idea of it. think it speaks to the kind of like, I guess nerdy side of me, which loves like aerodynamics on the bike and saving watts and all this sort of thing and and trying to write in group sounds. Yeah, it just speaks to me definitely.

Jenna-Caer (38:05.434)
So fun.

Josh (38:05.782)
Magnus would have a harder time finding someone to draft off of though with his with his size.

Andrew (38:11.877)
You'd have to be going down the route of Felipe Gana and some pro-tour cyclists who are almost the same height as him.

Jenna-Caer (38:15.834)
Okay.

Josh (38:21.806)
Yeah.

Jenna-Caer (38:23.45)
That would be good. Yeah, I remember with Joe Skipper over doing sub seven, sub eight, got all the, well, Alistair put together that pro cyclist kind of team in there. Joe's mindset was just basically, you guys go as fast as you can. They're like, we don't know how it'll go after like two hours, because we've never ridden that long. And Joe's like, I'm just going to try to hang on and see what happens.

Andrew (38:30.352)
Yes.

Andrew (38:39.217)
You

Andrew (38:44.177)
You did it pretty well didn't you?

Jenna-Caer (38:48.022)
Okay, so if Trathlon had a fourth discipline, what would be the activity you would add that would give you the advantage over everyone else?

Andrew (38:57.047)
Jenna-Caer (38:58.266)
We've had everything from beer drinking to hockey to skiing.

Andrew (39:03.569)
Bay drinking that. Nah, I'm not sure I'd be good at that one.

Jenna-Caer (39:07.406)
Yeah.

Andrew (39:09.723)
Probably say something like really random like rock climbing because I think being a swimmer and having a swimming background I think my upper body would be maybe slightly stronger than a lot of triathletes. maybe having, know, give me a chance to train it a little bit but I think I used to be pretty good at pull ups when I used to swim. So yeah, maybe rock climbing that might be a good one.

Jenna-Caer (39:14.692)
Perfect, yes.

Jenna-Caer (39:24.302)
There we go.

Josh (39:36.406)
Are you doing that before the swim as a warm up and then getting in the water? Where would we put it?

Jenna-Caer (39:39.258)
Thank

Andrew (39:40.323)
yeah, I reckon we start with the rock climbing so that everyone's arms are absolutely toast and I think that way anyone who has a good strong background in swimming would really get the benefits I think.

Jenna-Caer (39:53.498)
There we go, new sport coming up. With training and racing, do you have a guilty pleasure song or something that just gets you fired up and ready to go for those hard sessions?

Andrew (40:05.233)
Yes, I've got, I guess, not necessarily one song, but I've got like a, I call it like, I think it's, they would session on my Apple Music. And it's like, maybe like only five songs long, but I know that if I put that playlist on and I've got like hard efforts on the bike or something like that, I know that I can just push that extra percent or two. So I think it's got like Kanye West power on it and

one of the Paramore songs, I I can't remember the name of that song, but yeah, it's a mixture of a couple of rap songs and a couple of rock songs. And I put that playlist on and yeah, you basically just gain 20 watts easy.

Jenna-Caer (40:53.668)
Perfect. And then the last question here, what's a piece of advice you've gotten over the years that really kind of resonated with you?

Andrew (41:02.823)
ooh, good question again,

Probably

Probably about the journey of sport, not necessarily the destination. I the daily grind, as people call it, I kind of enjoy and I kind of thrive in that process. love training and I love the opportunity to push myself. I kind of, I'd probably say the process is the bit that everyone loves.

Everyone loves to win races, don't get me wrong, but you also see a lot of athletes who have a little bit of success and then also have a lot of down periods after that because I think once you get to the finish line, that's kind of like what now mentality, whereas I think a lot of people who strive throughout their whole career, and I definitely think of myself as a bit of an underdog in a workhorse where I...

and keep tripping away, keep tripping away. And I know that I've got big, you know, big potential and results hopefully down the line. And I've had, you know, some good results along the way as well. But I think, yeah, definitely the biggest lesson is just like really, just really enjoy the journey and the process.

Jenna-Caer (42:22.86)
I love that.

Josh (42:23.722)
One question we got from the audience that keeps coming up for our other guests, and I might as well ask it to you as well. And it seems like it's one of the bigger questions these days is how are you fueling your bike during an Ironman these days? Like what are the carbs for hours? How does that look in your world?

Andrew (42:39.377)
Yeah, it's 210 grams of carbs an hour, just 10 more than Cam. I did see the video of Cam saying that and I'm still a bit baffled about how... No, but I'm mainly worried about how he stored it on his bike because I can't think about how to store 800 grams of carbs on my bike.

Josh (42:47.854)
Current news.

Jenna-Caer (42:56.196)
Like, admittedly.

Josh (43:05.496)
A lot of scoops. There's no water in any bottle really.

Andrew (43:07.793)
It's just powder, straight powder. So no, in Texas I did about somewhere between 125 to 130. I say about because I had some residue left in my bottles and I'd be guessing around there. But I'd say, I'd say like the evidence shows that after you go past 120, no one really knows

Jenna-Caer (43:08.568)
Yes.

Andrew (43:36.913)
what happens in terms of absorption? Like are you actually absorbing or are you just, like, because anyone could put 150, 160, 170 grams of carbs into them, but is it just sitting in your stomach or are you actually digesting it, I think is a big question. So I think I'm on like, I think I'm on a safe upper level of like 125, 130 where I seem to feel like I potentially do absorb most of it.

but I think there is still like, again, me being relatively new to the sport. think I've still got potential to, to play around with that. And I've, yeah, I also know athletes that have gone lower, actively gone slightly lower, say 90 to a hundred, because they find that by going slightly lower, the body really absorbs everything and they actually then feel much better on the run as a result. so yeah, it's, it's, an interesting one. I think.

Also, the source in which you get the carbohydrates is really important. think you can just, you know, you've got to mix some sort of form of fructose with your multidextrin or your glucose. Or, you know, I worked with a company called fast food a couple of years ago and they had a completely different carbohydrate source called Glacca something. I'm not a very good sales pitch. Did you? Yeah. So I think there's, there's multiple

Josh (44:59.691)
I have, I actually used it yesterday for my run. Yeah.

Andrew (45:06.097)
ways of getting sugars in. I think some will work better for others. And I think it's about playing around with different combinations. And I think the only way to do that is yeah, practice. And I think when I do anything that's race pace specific in training, you know, even if it's only a two and a half hour ride, but loads of like race intensity work is I'll tend to fuel it like an Ironman. And the idea behind that is actually getting off the bike after two and a half hours and feeling good and feeling like

the session hasn't completely depleted you. cause I think the old school mentality of triathlon training was like, if you're not kind of getting off the bike and feeling like you're going to faint, you haven't trained hard enough. so I'm pretty glad we, I'm pretty glad we've moved past that and we've moved to a place where, where feeling good is the goal. And like, yeah, we want to be a little bit tired, but if you get off the bike and you're feeling good, or if you finish a run session and you feel good.

That's the desired outcome because you're going to then be able to recover.

Jenna-Caer (46:07.418)
Yeah, and especially with one little kid running around and another one on the way. Yeah, completely destroyed after those sessions.

Andrew (46:09.797)
Yeah

My hands will be full of it.

Jenna-Caer (46:17.05)
Now, where's the best way for everyone to kind of follow along with you this season and yeah, see how it's going?

Andrew (46:23.695)
Yeah, my best place is Instagram. I'm Andrew underscore H underscore T. But if you search Andrew Horslaterna, I'm pretty sure you won't find another one. But yeah, I also have done a bit of YouTube in the past. So again, if you want to search me on there, I've got some, guess, if you really search back, you can see a few YouTube videos I made when I was on the journey to try and even turn professional back in 2021. So.

Jenna-Caer (46:33.348)
Fair enough.

Josh (46:33.518)
you

Andrew (46:53.297)
Yeah, there's a bit of history on that YouTube channel and I have every so often uploaded a video. I do like to put them out, but as I said, last couple of years, adding a kid to the mix, you lose that free time a little bit.

Jenna-Caer (47:07.904)
Yes, definitely. Well, fantastic. Thank you so much for taking the time and joining us here today. We sure appreciate it and we got some great insights, but till then we will be following along with your next race coming up.

Andrew (47:21.009)
Thank you very much, it's been great.

Josh (47:23.076)
Thanks, Andrew.