Mirinda Carfrae: 3x Ironman World Champion and 1x 70.3 Ironman World Champion
Welcome to another episode of the Endurance Matters podcast. I am really happy to have Marinda Carper in the studio today. Marinda, welcome.
Mirinda Carfrae:Thanks, Justin. Good to be here. Awesome.
Justin Metzler:Alright. Well, I start off the podcast with the icebreaker question. The question today is you have four world titles, three Ironman and one seventy point three, three children, Izzy, Finn, and Jameson, who are two people you love as much as your kids and one thing you value as much as your world championship trophies or bowls?
Mirinda Carfrae:Oh, gosh. Two people? Well, my husband, Tim, love him as much as my kids, but I don't know that there's anyone else I love as much. I mean, honestly, I don't know. You have to have kids to understand it.
Mirinda Carfrae:Yeah. So, yeah, obviously, Tim's in there, but, outside of that, it's a big step before the next person.
Justin Metzler:Tim twice. Yeah.
Mirinda Carfrae:Melvin, no no. He's not even close. He's our dog, our little Frenchie.
Justin Metzler:And one thing you value as much as your world championship trophies.
Mirinda Carfrae:I don't know if I value those trophies as much as I just, you know, I don't know. I feel like there's not I I can't come up with anything that's as important. If we're talking other trophies, I'd say my Roth lion. But honestly, all of that's just stuff.
Justin Metzler:Yeah.
Mirinda Carfrae:When you talk about family and kids and stuff like that, like, that they're what matters and, everything else is just stuff.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. Absolutely. Well, typically, in the podcast, I start from the beginning, but I have a lot to get through today. Okay. So I think maybe because your career is so long, I wanna start maybe, like, where we are today.
Justin Metzler:So just, like, generally, how are you doing?
Mirinda Carfrae:I'm doing great. Yeah. Jamieson's a little over one now. Finn just turned four a couple weeks ago, and Izzy's she she was telling me this morning, almost seven and a half. So she's a big girl now.
Mirinda Carfrae:Yeah. A few years removed from the sport of of racing professionally, and I finally feel like I'm sort of settling into my post racing career. Obviously, you know, I retired then got pregnant, again, and so my life has really revolved around the kids and still will revolve around the kids. But in terms of, like, who I am and what what my passions are outside of parenting, obviously, that's a big passion of mine. But I'm really enjoying, you know, the commentary side of things, coaching as well.
Mirinda Carfrae:We've started SaltyBears, which is our our training group, our, our triathlon team, and really enjoying that and sort of helping our athletes, achieve their goals now. And and I feel that is pretty fulfilling or, you know, as for as close as I can get to what it felt like for me to chase those goals down. So sharing that journey with our athletes is a lot of fun, and and that's enough for me. Yeah. And, honestly, I'm just trying to get myself back in shape after having Jameson.
Mirinda Carfrae:My fitness, obviously, has taken a back seat. And, yeah, now I'm like, okay. I'm realizing that I need to be in really good shape to feel my best, to be my best. And so this year, I'm sort of the project is getting mom back in, peak shape so that I can, just feel my best and, again, just do my best in every aspect of life.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. That's one thing I was definitely thinking about quite a lot is, you know, as professional athletes and athletes, you get so used to that sort of, like, daily dopamine hit or multiple times daily of, like, executing hard workout. Okay. On to the next. Like, are you missing that now?
Justin Metzler:Are you trying to fill that?
Mirinda Carfrae:A little bit. I mean, I don't miss the grind that much. I'm obviously race trained for over twenty years and, never fortunately had any injuries. So any I didn't have any down. I mean, I had downtime that was only programmed in.
Mirinda Carfrae:So, yeah, that's a long time of just consistent swim, bike, run, and I loved it. And it was amazing in the moment, but I don't wanna go back and do that again. Now I like a good balance of, you know, yes, I think for me having some physical activity six days a week is important, helps me feel good, get that dopamine hit, as you mentioned. And, yeah, I think it's just good for my mental health, and obviously physical health. Yeah.
Mirinda Carfrae:That's kind of it. I mean, I I I sort of see myself in the future pushing running a little bit more. I'd love to go and do, like, the world majors and try and run decently fast, you know, as a masters athlete, maybe the 50 age group or maybe the 45 age group. I'm not sure yet, but that's sort of, like, a little goal of mine in the back of my mind. But from now, I just sort of entering sort of fun competitions, having sort of races on the calendar to to help me stay motivated and, on task as well.
Justin Metzler:Do you think that just gives you maybe a sense of normalcy? Because, you know, your whole life, you've that's just how the thought process is oriented. Like, okay, pick a race, put that on the schedule, you know, make your life sort of revolve around that. Do you still feel like you need to have that in order to feel normal?
Mirinda Carfrae:Yeah. I didn't think that I would need to have that, but I found that when I do have an event or a race on the calendar, it just gives me focus and allows me to then build out a training plan and stick to that training plan. When I don't have a race on the calendar, it's very easy. Moms out there can certainly attest to this. When you have kids, obviously, they come first ninety nine point nine percent of the time, and it's very easy to for them to be like, oh, mom, can you come and do this with me?
Mirinda Carfrae:Don't go for a run. You know, like, you get that asked of you a lot. And I think when there isn't a race or a reason, I'm like, oh, yeah. Sure. I don't need to go running.
Mirinda Carfrae:I'm more retired. And, Tim certainly said that a lot of times since he was retired. I don't need to go run. Let's just go play, you know, kick the football in the backyard. And and there's a lot of that, and we make sure we do spend a lot of time with the kids.
Mirinda Carfrae:But, I'm realizing that for me, I do a better job of parenting. I'm not like I'm more patient and calm, with the children if I've just had that, you know, hour to myself, at some point in the day. Like, that just gives so much more to me so that I can be a better mom. And, I mean, it's not like I'm super cranky if I don't exercise. I just I notice I get a little I have a little bit less patience with the with the kids.
Mirinda Carfrae:So, and, honestly, as I said, everything revolves around their needs and what they need. But if I can just have, like, an hour a day, that just goes such a long way. No.
Justin Metzler:A %. What does your day in the life look like in 2025?
Mirinda Carfrae:Yeah. So, basically, I, you know, co sleep with the little guy. I sort of try to sneak out of bed before he wakes up, get myself maybe a few minutes of quiet before all the kids get up, but, honestly, they're pretty much upright around when I am. And so it's just, getting them ready for school, feeding them, getting them dressed. Usually, Tim might do a workout in the morning or he might be on calls or whatever, so it sort of falls on me to get them ready in the morning, and, it's no easy task.
Mirinda Carfrae:They have their you know, certainly, Isabelle does not have time on her mind or, is ever in a rush to get out the door. So I'm always, like, trying to get them out the door on time. So that's sort of a hustle in the morning. And then I usually drop the kids off at school, and then I'll go work out. So, Izzy and Finn, I have Melinda come in, our nanny, or Tim will be able to watch Jameson while I go do something.
Mirinda Carfrae:And so I drop them off at school. I'll go to the gym or I'll go run, basically, Monday to Friday. That's my plan. After that, I come home, and, then I get to have some office work. So, either coaching athletes, usually check-in with my athletes, see what's going on, make sure workouts are getting done appropriately, see if there's any needs there.
Mirinda Carfrae:And then from there, it's sort of other admin. You know? So running a household, getting groceries, doing laundry, cleaning the house, like, just, you know, general, keep the house running smoothly stuff. So that sort of takes up the rest of my day, and then kids well, Finn's only half day, so pick him up at 11:45, usually go back to, you know, some more office work or whatever after. He gets home, and then Izzy's home at 03:30, and from then, I'm back to mom mode.
Mirinda Carfrae:So it's just hang out with the kids, feed the kids, play with the kids, then cook dinner and and go to bed. Do it all again the next day.
Justin Metzler:Sounds like it's, if not as busy, busier than maybe what it is as the professional athlete. Like 100%,
Mirinda Carfrae:it's busier. Absolutely. There's not really a minute that's not accounted for in some way, and and I do, you know, try to find, as I said, those few minutes in the morning of quiet or, in the day when no one's around is a very rare occurrence where there's no one around or the baby's asleep and I'm in the house by myself. And, they're those, like, zen moments where I can just switch off for a minute. But that's part of parenting.
Mirinda Carfrae:It's what I signed up for. And we, you know, we didn't have one child, we had three. And because we love the chaos and we love, you know, everything that being a family, brings to our lives. So, yeah, we signed up for this and I'm here for it.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. It's interesting. I was thinking about this, actually, with my previous guest, you know, who's a a father as well. And I've been taking on a lot more now, like, business wise and, you know, doing the podcast. And I don't have kids, but I feel like my I have a lot of minutes in the day that are accounted for.
Justin Metzler:And I feel like when I go out to train, I have a lot more, like, appreciation for that time now. You know? And I'm sure it's just tenfold when you have kids. So
Mirinda Carfrae:Yeah. Totally. Yeah. I think, I think back to my racing days, and I felt like I was busy then, but I got to watch Netflix all the time. I got to sit in the NormaTek boots.
Justin Metzler:Yeah.
Mirinda Carfrae:You know, like, there was a lot of, like, chill time, but that was part of the job too. For sure. There really isn't a minute that isn't unaccounted for when you are a professional athlete because the recovery you know, you go into massage, you go into physio maybe, you're, sitting on the couch in the normal protect boots watching Netflix is part of being a professional athlete. And For sure. That was amazing.
Mirinda Carfrae:And but yeah. Now it's it's different. There's no Netflix watching anymore.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. You mentioned, previously that you you don't miss a ton about being a professional athlete. You did that for a long time. Is there one thing though that you look back on and you're like, oh, man, I actually do kinda miss that? Maybe it's the Netflix?
Mirinda Carfrae:No. I I loved just being fit. I mean, just that feeling, like, going into a big race, knowing you've, you know, done all the training, left no stone unturned. And I you know, obviously, I always think back to my big race in Kona, being in Kona that week and just being, like, in unbelievable shape. Like, that is what I miss.
Mirinda Carfrae:Like, doing the work and then having that reward. It's sort of and, obviously, the race itself, the competition, going through all of that, but really just that feeling. And I tell my athletes now, like, appreciate what you've done. Like, you know, you do the Ironman, you mess yourself up. You're a mess for a week after.
Mirinda Carfrae:But it's that fleeting, like, week of I'm in amazing form right now. I can go run. I feel great. I'm bouncing off the walls. And, yeah, I just miss that feeling.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. %. It's hard to hard to replicate that that feeling. Yes. I've got an entire Kona section that I wanna circle back to later.
Justin Metzler:Yep. But one area that I definitely wanna dive into first and foremost is sort of just your experience with training and racing. So the first question that I have is, you know, you famously worked with Siri Lindley for a long time. So I'm curious to talk about and hear about how you got connected with Siri and when you guys started working together.
Mirinda Carfrae:Oh, yeah. So, I had a coach. So when I first started the sport, I met some triathletes at the gym, and they had a triathlon coach. And he asked me to do a triathlon. And so he was my first triathlon coach.
Mirinda Carfrae:He wasn't, a great he wasn't an emotionally stable person, and so that kinda went awry after a few years. And I left him after, like, four or five years, and I was looking for a coach. And Siri actually wasn't even on my radar. But, I guess, you know, five, I came to Boulder for the first time, and that's sort of I'd actually raced Siri in some ITU races, obviously, not really race. She was winning, and I was a junior just for the first time getting starts at World Cup races.
Mirinda Carfrae:So I was, like, getting lapped out on the bike, and she was winning. So I knew who she was, and also my hero at the time was Loretta Harrop, sec silver medal in, Athens at the Olympic Games. Lived in Brisbane, trained out of the same center I trained out of in Brisbane, and so I got to know her a little bit. And so Siri and Loretta were best friends. Siri coached Loretta to her silver medal.
Mirinda Carfrae:Obviously, Loretta and Siri both were coached by Brett Sutton for a long time, but Siri, in that year, helped Loretta prepare and peak for Kona. She also coached Susan Williams, and so they got second and third in Athens. So Siri had retired. I think she was ranked one number one in the world, retired, then next year started coaching. Long story short, Loretta actually suggested well, told Siri that I was looking for a coach.
Mirinda Carfrae:And so Siri reached out to me, which I was kind of shocked by, because I I mean, I'd had some results. And certainly in The US, I'd raced, you know, my first long course races and done really well over the half distance. I'd gotten maybe a podium, a fourth place in a World Cup. So I was sort of climbing the ranks in ITU, distance racing, showing that I had some ability in long course racing as well. And, yeah, she just reached out.
Mirinda Carfrae:And honestly, the email she sent me was what I was just kinda blown away by. She was basically like, I think I can make you a world champion. And it was just like she was all in. And I'm like, I'd never I don't know. I didn't have the confidence in myself that she had in me.
Mirinda Carfrae:So that was huge. Because at the time, I was I was talking to a couple of other coaches. And, anyway, so she was in Australia and said, hey. Come come meet with me. Let's have a chat.
Mirinda Carfrae:And, you know, I went and met with her, and I'm like, a % I'm in. Let's do this. Because just if anyone knows Sierra Leone Lee, she's larger than life. She has such a big, personality. Her it it feels fake, that positivity that she just shines, but I can tell you it really isn't.
Mirinda Carfrae:Like, I she was coached my coach for ten years. I've known her for, I don't know, almost twenty years now. And that energy, she brought to every single session she turned up to. She would go and drive her car behind us for five hour rides. Like, she was a % invested in our dreams, and I felt it.
Mirinda Carfrae:And so yeah. So that's how I got started with Siri. And at the time, she had a a solid group like, Sarah Groff. She had Lauren Groves, their Canadian Olympic athlete, Marybeth Alice, my good friend Mary Miller. Just some really solid athletes in her group.
Mirinda Carfrae:And, yeah, it was a it was a fantastic time. I came to Boulder in o six and trained with the group, and Siri was, you know, coach, and it was it was a lot of fun, hard work. But yeah. A lot of fun. And then I just we just sort of formed a really good relationship, like, just a really good deep trust in one another, as we moved from going initially, my goal was to do ITU and try to make the Olympic team, shifted to sort of half Ironman, and then the seventy point three series popped up.
Mirinda Carfrae:And my focus was then really Kona, but, using 70.3 as a vehicle to learn and develop before moving on to Ironman. And, I mean, Suri had no experience in Ironman coaching. I had no experience in racing it. So it was sort of a bit of a leap of faith for both of us, but I think we just believed in each other so much. And that magic is really hard to come by in terms of that coach athlete, trust.
Justin Metzler:Sure. Yeah. A %. What was one physical element from her training that you felt like really worked, and what was one mental element? Because I know with series training, there's a lot of power like, the power of belief and the there's psychological components in addition to just the hard work.
Mirinda Carfrae:Yeah. I think but, like, both. Right? Like, I think the training is secondary to what she brought for the emotional and mental side. And, you know, her belief was I mean, you know, she would live no stone unturned.
Mirinda Carfrae:She would, like, she would push us to our absolute limits in training a %. She would test us mentally, all the time and physically. But having or helping us believe in ourselves and believe in winning. And, it wasn't even that we really talked about it that much. It was just like, this is how it is.
Mirinda Carfrae:This is what we're gonna go and do. And we're like, alright. You just were on board. That's what we're gonna go do. And so I think it was more just being around that energy every single day, day in, day out, doing the hard sessions together, building a foundation, and then just believing, that it was possible.
Mirinda Carfrae:That was the overriding factor. The program was solid. It there wasn't I mean, if you talk to her, she'll say there's there's magic in the in the actual sessions, but I think I don't think it was any different to what anyone else was doing. I think we were smart about resting when we had to rest. I think we did the hard sessions properly.
Mirinda Carfrae:We just did it right, you know? It wasn't rocket science.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. What I feel like in that type of environment, there's gonna be a decent level of psychological intensity. What and I think over time, if you looked at people coming in and out of that group, there were people that came in, there were people that were that left. What were the attributes that you needed as an athlete for it to stick and for you to stick around and for it to work?
Mirinda Carfrae:I think belief was a big one. Yeah. I I it was and communication, honestly. Like, I saw a lot of athletes come and go in series program and and either they it was almost like they had a falling out because there was miscommunication. And I think that that, for me, has been something that I've done well in my life.
Mirinda Carfrae:I've had good communication with people. I am honest. If I feel upset about something, I'll go and talk to them about it and find out, hey, what did you actually mean, but when you said this? And I think a lot of relationships go awry because something's said and it's never addressed, and then time goes on, something more said. And that just gets built on and built on and built on.
Mirinda Carfrae:And over then there's breakdowns. And then it's like, I don't even know why I hate this person, but I hate this person. And if in the first time you nip it in the butt and say, hey. I don't appreciate that. That made me feel a certain way.
Mirinda Carfrae:And I think that's something that I was really good at, and I think Siri was receptive to that. And so I think, you know, athletes left and and, you know, typically, when athletes left Syria, it was a bad split. It was typically they left, and it was almost Siri was hurt by them leaving, and then she did not deal well emotionally with them, you know, walking away. And so then it was just like, you know, you're out like it's like an ex boyfriend or whatever. Sure.
Mirinda Carfrae:And so, yeah. I saw that happen a lot, and I was like, guys, this is you know, you could we can work this out. But, you know, obviously, it wasn't my place to to step in in any of those circumstances. But I think that's the reason why we did so well. Sure.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. I think a big component of that as well was just there was a a group environment, and it seemed as though it was very female driven.
Mirinda Carfrae:Yeah.
Justin Metzler:What was it like training with a group of females all the time, and how much did you immerse yourself in the group environment versus just working with Siri one on one?
Mirinda Carfrae:Yeah. So this when this first started happening, I had a lot of trouble. So there was a time where Siri and I did split. I should actually mention this part as well because it's a big part of our story in that, you know, I was with Siri at the beginning. There was a solid group.
Mirinda Carfrae:I was just one of the girls. Siri moved to LA with her girlfriend. Everybody left. Like, we they followed her, and then they're like, you're not invested as much as you were before. You've chased this girl to LA from Boulder.
Mirinda Carfrae:You've moved us. This is in a it's good an environment. And so pretty much everyone left her except for me. And so I stayed on, and then we got results. And then everyone wants to work with Siri.
Mirinda Carfrae:And so she was bringing on all my competitors. And so I'm like, what? Like, how how is this fair? Like, why why do you have to coach all these other athletes? And her point was, you know, you having more competition in training is gonna make you a better athlete.
Mirinda Carfrae:And I'm like, okay. But this is Atwater, something we've built. They're coming to you because of what we've done together. Can we, like can I have a say in who comes or who doesn't come? And she was like, no.
Mirinda Carfrae:Like, this is my thing. So we ended up having a bit of a bust up in around 2011. And I just said, look. I need to go try something else. At the time, I felt like I the bike was my weakness.
Mirinda Carfrae:Well, the swim was my weakness, but I just felt like I had opportunity to get better on the bike, and I wanted to go and work with a bike coach. So it was sort of twofold in in that a lot of women were coming into the program that were my competitors, and I felt that I needed to go and try something else. Because I'd been with Syria at that point for five or six years. And we'd won Kona. We got second in Kona, and I wanted to, you know, win Kona again.
Mirinda Carfrae:So I moved away. I worked with a bike specific coach for a year, and then I worked with an ITU coach for, like, six months, and I was not doing well. It was a different relationship. I think the program was phenomenal. I worked with, Matt Steinmetz, and that didn't work as well because he just took care of my bike, and I did the swim and and run.
Mirinda Carfrae:And, you know, that's difficult because you're kinda, like, working against each other. Maybe the intensity on the bike takes some too much away from the run. And, anyway, I think I was a little burnt out by the end of eleven. And then twelve, I started working with Joel. The program was phenomenal, but I didn't have the same relationship with him, and it was showing up in my results.
Mirinda Carfrae:I really wasn't racing well. And so I kinda got to the middle of the year, and Siri randomly had moved back to Boulder, middle of that year. And so I just reached out and said, hey. Can we talk? And we had a chat, and I said, hey.
Mirinda Carfrae:Would you, you know, would you coach me again? And she was like, I would absolutely love to. And so there was because I'd left her on good standings, like, as I said, a lot of the breakups with Siri didn't go well. Al was like, I love you. I just feel like I need to do something different.
Mirinda Carfrae:She's like, I wish you nothing but the best. But it still felt hard to go back and ask her to come back, but I knew that, hey, we had something magic, in our relationship, and I think you're the coach that can get the most out of me and to get me to, you know, back to the top of the sport. And, yeah, and it was magic. I came back, I think, in 2013. I think I got my years wrong there.
Mirinda Carfrae:So I think it was the November when I left her. So beginning 2012. Middle of '13, I came back, and we won 13. We won 14 in Kona. But that was when the group was a lot of good women.
Mirinda Carfrae:We had Jeanie was there at one point. I think there was Jodie, Swallow, Jodie Stimson. There was Amanda Stevens, Marybeth Ellis.
Justin Metzler:There was Leanda there that year?
Mirinda Carfrae:Leanda was there, which was hard for Leanda because she had just won. So she won 12. I came back mid 13, and I think that was hard for Leanda to swallow. So that was sort of a difficult, situation that, I don't know, didn't go so well in the end. Leander ended up leaving Syria at the end of that year, I believe.
Mirinda Carfrae:But, it was great for me. I, like, came back and I came in, and I was, like, just appreciative to be there and, was like old times. And, yeah, I, like, was able to get back to the top and and and win that year. And I think coming back in, I just appreciated having Syria in my corner again. Whereas when I left, it was almost like, oh, like like, why do we have to have all of these women Yeah.
Mirinda Carfrae:In the group. So yeah. I mean, it was yeah. It was hard, but also it made me step away, which I think I needed to then enable me to erase as well as I did in '13 and '14.
Justin Metzler:Yep. Did you always feel as though you were kind of top dog in that group at all times and that maybe caused a rift with the other athletes? I mean, maybe Siri didn't say that, and it wasn't a communicated thing. But did you always feel like I'm the priority here?
Mirinda Carfrae:I think so. Yeah. I feel like, I feel like we just had such a good history, and relationship that, you know, when I certainly when I came back in, I I didn't walk in the door thinking I'm top dog. I walked in the door thinking, like, I'm I so appreciate being here. I'm excited to get to work.
Mirinda Carfrae:But over time, it sort of we just fell back into our own ways old ways. And I don't know. The other women probably did feel that, yeah, Roonies and Siri have something here that we don't have. But I like, I don't know how I could have changed that. That was just sort of how it was.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. And I think inherently, like look. We've both been with training groups before. Like, if you have an athlete who has the potential or is winning world championships, they probably have earned and deserve Mhmm. A certain level of trust, attention.
Justin Metzler:The relationship's just firmer, I think, than maybe an athlete who's come in and is have worked with the coach for six months. That's just
Mirinda Carfrae:life. You know? Totally. Yeah. It is just life.
Mirinda Carfrae:But it was a very interesting dynamic there because I think the 13, Yvonne van Vlerken was on that team. So I think we had, like, five out of the top 10 women in Kona that year. It was crazy. And, like, obviously, Leanda, myself, athletes that had potential to be on the podium. Jodie Swallow.
Mirinda Carfrae:I mean and Jodie was a big personality, very good athlete as well. So that it was it was an interesting and I just, like, kind of almost laughed because I didn't care. I was just there to get better. And I'm like, yeah. And I I think I was confident enough in my own abilities that in that environment, you can either lose confidence or you can thrive.
Mirinda Carfrae:And I think because I had a a deep inner confidence, I was able to thrive in that environment and be like, well, yeah, I got my ass kicked by Jodie today, every single day in the pool, on the bike or whatever. And I don't care. Like, race day is a different thing. Kona's a different thing different thing, and I I know I can, race all of these women.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. You can kinda let them kill each other in training, and then you can elevate when the day actually matters, you know, when there's money on
Mirinda Carfrae:the bike. I kinda loved it, actually. Like, I yeah. So I sort of came full circle in that I hate like, I left because I'm like, I don't wanna try and get with all my competitors to being like, you know, I I believe in what I'm doing. I believe in the program, and I think I can get it done on race day.
Justin Metzler:Yep. So when you came back to Siri the second time, did you work with her all the way up until the point that you switched over to Julie?
Mirinda Carfrae:Exactly. Yes. So I, worked with Siri through till basically, she was done with sport, and I think I felt it, in so, obviously, I got pregnant in '17, had Isabelle, took kind of a, you know, six or eight months off racing. And then in '18, we came back and we raced really well. In '19, I certainly felt that Siri was starting to be pulled in different direction.
Mirinda Carfrae:So that's, she didn't have as many athletes, and she was starting to do a lot of motivational speaking. She was doing a lot of stuff with Tony, and I was really that was what was calling to her. And I certainly felt that she didn't have as much invested in, like, us as she had before. And it was sort of you know, I was pretty disappointed in Kona in '19. I actually was in phenomenal shape all year.
Mirinda Carfrae:I broke my arm five weeks out from Kona, and I still was hoping that I could race well. And then she just wasn't really there for me, that weekend. And that was kind of the end of it. That was like, okay. She's done.
Mirinda Carfrae:I need to find a coach who's invested and excited. And, obviously, my husband, Tim, was working with Julie at the time, and, obviously, I love Julie, was a great training partner and friend of mine for many years. And here in Boulder is, Syria, I think she actually, Syria was still here, but she was, just moving more into her horse rescue and Tony Robbins stuff and motivational speaking. And so we actually sat down and had a meeting at the end of, '19 or the beginning of twenty, and was just like, I think we're done. And she's like, I agree.
Mirinda Carfrae:I was gonna say the same thing. So it was like it just sort of mutually came to an end. She was done with coaching. I was sort of ready to move to another coach because, clearly, she was moving away. And so, anyway, again, a great mutual split.
Mirinda Carfrae:We're like, we love each other. I appreciate everything you've done for me. And yeah. So that's I think she actually might have still coached a little bit after that. But yeah.
Mirinda Carfrae:And then I moved on to Julie.
Justin Metzler:And why was Julie the next decision?
Mirinda Carfrae:Julie was the next decision because I just saw how she worked with Tim, and I actually was already doing swim sessions with Julie. So I'd Siri didn't have a squad or that I could go and swim with. So at that time. So I needed a group, and so Julie let me, you know, pay a fee just to go and swim as she does with a lot of athletes now. And, I just love the way she her energy she brought to the team, her professionalism.
Mirinda Carfrae:Obviously, I had a lot of respect from her for her for her racing days, and it just felt like the the right fit for me, moving forward, like, having a group having a home group and a coach that could have eyes on me, all the time. Yeah. So it felt like a a really good shift.
Justin Metzler:Yep. And where were you at in your career at that point? Because you had won world titles. You had had your first child. Was the conversations with Julie, I'm going for another world title?
Justin Metzler:Was it I just wanna get back to a strong level? Like, where were you?
Mirinda Carfrae:If I'm completely honest, I wanted to so my goal was to win one more Ironman event, and I didn't know if I'd go back to Kona again. Because I at that point so at that point, Isabelle was almost three, I think. Or, yeah, she was a little younger than three, two and a half. And it was almost like, I want more than one kid. My plan was to freaking win twenty nineteen Kona and then, retire and have a baby.
Mirinda Carfrae:But, obviously, broke my arm, didn't get to finish that day, and I'm like, man, I was in I've loved racing this year. I was in such great form. I know I could compete, with the best in the world. I I know I can get up, you know, if Daniella races like she had a few times. Maybe I can't beat Daniella, but I can get on the podium.
Mirinda Carfrae:Like, I can I feel like I can do what it takes to to do that again? But pandemic happened in 2020. And so my goal was to race Saint George seventy point sorry, Saint George Ironman and then decide if I wanted to go and do Kona or if I wanted to, you know, retire and and start a family. So the pandemic kind of made that decision for us. And and then, yeah, we got pregnant and had Finn.
Justin Metzler:This is like a an aside from some of the questioning, but we did you remember the training camp we did in Durango? You're pregnant with Finn. Right? Yeah. That was, like, during the pandemic, we went down to Durango because no one was doing anything.
Justin Metzler:And I remember doing, like you're doing these crazy rides, and you're probably, like, five months pregnant Yeah. Rolling out with us.
Mirinda Carfrae:Yeah. So yeah. You're
Justin Metzler:still staying fit during
Mirinda Carfrae:that time. I stayed fit. Yeah. So I I think because I didn't get that, like, nice ending, I wanted to, you know, you know, have Finn, and then I was had the eye on coming back and racing after Finn. And I thought, yeah.
Mirinda Carfrae:Okay. I'll go and do Ironman after Finn. Yeah. But then Finn came out, and I'm like, I think I'm done.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. Well, you still kept going a bit after that. Right? So, I I have some I guess I wanna back up just a little bit. Like, when you decide to get coached by Julie, were you and Tim at all concerned that that was gonna impact his relationship with Julie and you guys were gonna be in that group training environment together and maybe spending more time together?
Mirinda Carfrae:No. I don't think so. I think, yeah. I mean, we did talk about it, briefly. Tim actually was like, you you should come and work with Julie.
Mirinda Carfrae:So he was sort of, not pushing me, but, like, he was like, yeah. Come and join this group. I think it'd be great for you. I think Julie would be great for you. And we did all sit down and and say, okay.
Mirinda Carfrae:The way you coach Tim is different to the way you're gonna coach me, and I want you guys to keep because, obviously, Tim and Julie had been just getting better and better every year. And and nineteen, second in the world for Tim, was in phenomenal performance.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. Crazy.
Mirinda Carfrae:And so, yeah, obviously didn't want to hinder any of that. So we just talked about how, you know, to manage that and make sure we had good communication if anything felt like it was, changing for them. But yeah. No. I don't think I don't think it really impacted the way she was able to coach Tim and then also coach me.
Justin Metzler:Sure. Do you think it is a coincidence that the two primary coaches that you had in your career were females as opposed to males?
Mirinda Carfrae:I don't think it's a coincidence. I think for me, that's what worked. Having good, connection a good connection, I tended to I mean, that's not to say that I couldn't have raced well under a male coach, but for me, I don't know. I feel like that was a better connection.
Justin Metzler:I should add Erin Carson in there as well as a female strength coach. She's a female coach. Yeah.
Mirinda Carfrae:I mean, if you look if you look at my team, I mean, I had, Wendy Ingram, Shannon Delaney, my manager of many, many years. I had, Erin Carson. I had Siri Lindley. I had powerful women all around me. Yeah.
Mirinda Carfrae:And I don't know. I don't think it's a coincidence. I think that for me, that's what helped me get the best out knowing that I had that team behind me.
Justin Metzler:Sure.
Mirinda Carfrae:Obviously, Tim was part of the team too, but in a different way.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. Absolutely. Well, I've got some general training questions here that I wanna hear your perspective on. Across all the coaches that you've had and all the training that you've done, what's the best session or the your favorite session of all time?
Mirinda Carfrae:Yeah. I mean, this one's kinda well documented. My favorite session was always that sweet spot around seven or eight weeks out from Kona where Crowley was usually in town, Julie would join for that session, Tim would come as well, and we we would do big tea, you know, ride pretty solid, and then come down, into Lyons and then time trial as hard as we could for an hour max effort, hop off the bike and do 10 by mile, at, like I would try to hold six minute miles, go on leaving on the 07:30, so up and down Monarch Road. That session is one that always sticks out in my mind because that was kind of my okay. This is my big test session because I did it pretty much every Kona build.
Mirinda Carfrae:I did it every Kona build. And so feeling good and nailing that session just was like, alright. I'm ready. I've got this. I did it actually in California one year, the first time I ever did it.
Mirinda Carfrae:I think it was before twenty ten Kona. And we went out and I was riding I rode out all up through Topanga Canyon, Malibu, and I think I did the hour out and back sort of pretty far north, Point Mugu, I think, is the rock area, and I did the run off mile repeats on the on the PCH, there. That's the first time I ever did that session and nailed it and felt amazing. Like, it was it's one of those sessions where I'm trying to slow myself down on the run. You know, like, you're like, I'm running too fast and this feels good.
Mirinda Carfrae:And Siri's like, okay, you don't slow down slow down. So those sessions stand out in my mind as the the big, like, tick that box. I'm ready to go.
Justin Metzler:I always think I think I've told you the story when we were running or something. I always think I'm thankful that you guys posted that with the Bob Babbitt chocolate milk thing because that inspired me to, like, really be take professional racing more seriously and kinda make that leap. Yeah. I remember watching those videos and being like, I'm gonna be in Boulder One day. So it impacted me pretty, massively.
Justin Metzler:Another question that I have here is, like, over the course of your career, like, who is your favorite training partner of all time? Because you've trained with so many people.
Mirinda Carfrae:I have two. I mean, I have more than two. Julie Dibbins is one of my favorites of all time just because when she was at her peak racing, I was kinda at my peak too, and we sort of would go back and forth. It was just a fun rivalry. Like, she would have fun with it.
Mirinda Carfrae:Like, I could poke fun at her. I could, like, give her a hard time, and she she would just throw it right back. And so, you know, whether she was beating me or I was beating her, it was like, oh, whatever. Like, we're win like, as long as we're winning. And then in terms of training, I think it was good in that she was clearly the better biker, and I was clearly the better runner.
Mirinda Carfrae:She was actually also the better swimmer. But it was like there was no ego in it. I would go out and we'd run, and she'd be like, yep. Whatever. You're better than me.
Mirinda Carfrae:And then she'd go kick my ass on the bike, and it was great. And then, another one of my favorite training partners is Laura Bennett, who used to live here and race ITU, American Olympian. But, yeah, Laura and I just had such a great strong friendship, and, yeah, there was no ego involved. We both, like, wanted the best for each other. We'd go out and we'd push each other in sessions and, yeah, she was just always a really good, solid training partner.
Mirinda Carfrae:And then Khloe, getting to train with him, I think that that was educational for me, just learning his calmness, relentlessness in what his pursuit was. But his he didn't have an ego about it. He would just go out. He would do the work. He wouldn't have to talk about how good he was.
Mirinda Carfrae:He'd just go out and win. And, just being around that was was really good for me as a young athlete just starting doing Ironman racing when he was already established and winning world titles. So yeah. Obviously, my husband was a pretty good training partner as well.
Justin Metzler:I I can second that.
Mirinda Carfrae:Yeah. I I just I was so blessed to have, like, good strong friendships in the sport and people who genuinely cared for me as a person, beyond my results. And I cared for them the same. So I think that, you know, having a good training partner like that is so important for athletes' longevity in the sport and just overall mental health, like, going out and you know, you spend so many hours with that person riding bikes, you know, thirty hours training a week, you know, fifteen hours on the bike. If you're if you've got a really strong friendship, it's it makes those miles tick off real quick.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. Absolutely. You mentioned the volume there. That's definitely you know, it's always a topic of conversation. If you had to take out the taper weeks and take out your off season weeks, what would you say your total weekly average volume has been throughout the majority of your career?
Mirinda Carfrae:If I had to take so I probably averaged around 80 k running. Well, maybe 70 to 80. And then on the bike, I was probably around three hundred, on average, and swimming, probably 25 k. So I was sort of high in the swim because I sucked at swimming. So I had to be in the water six days a week.
Mirinda Carfrae:But, yeah, like, probably around 80. I I would always at my peak weeks, I wouldn't run more than a like, a hundred and five k maybe. But I was always, you know, pushing up, you know, 80 to a hundred k running, three to 400 k on the bike, and, you know, twenty twenty two to 30 k of swimming. So that was sort of my when I'm training, that was my sort of sweet spot.
Justin Metzler:Sure. Yeah. And would that change sort of in the final build up to Kona, or was it just about the consistency?
Mirinda Carfrae:Honestly, I think throughout my career, it was the consistency that enabled me to race the way I was able to race. Just week in, week out, I didn't miss a beat, didn't miss a session. You know, obviously, unless I was sick or and and I rarely had niggles. And if I did have a niggle, I would let it be known and take care of it right away. Like, I didn't screw around with anything like that.
Mirinda Carfrae:So that was, I think, the reason I was able to have longevity, and the reason I was able to be have longevity is because I was consistent, in my training.
Justin Metzler:You walked me through a day in 2025. Can you walk me through a day in your life sort of in that 02/2010 to 02/2014 period?
Mirinda Carfrae:I think so I walked you through a day. Oh, yes. So 20 yeah. So back then, I would usually, we would train early. We would usually swim first.
Mirinda Carfrae:You know, get up, swim at, like, 05:30, six or seven, depending on where we were in the world, and when we had lane availability. But generally, we'd swim first, come home, have a quick flight to eat, and then get out on the bikes because, you know, weather in Boulder in the summer, thunderstorms come in. So get out, go ride three hours to five hours depending on the day, get off and run off the bike. And I would normally so or if I would swim in the afternoon, I would have always most always have a nap in the daytime. So at some point in the day, I would have a two hour nap every day.
Mirinda Carfrae:So I'd probably sleep eight hours at night, train in the morning, come home, eat breakfast, nap, go back out and train in the afternoon. If it was a double run day, get up, do the hard run-in the morning, come home, eat breakfast, maybe go swim, or straight off swim, come home, two hour nap, go back out and do another session in the afternoon. So, obviously, that long ride day was sort of only twice a week, so I'd either do a three hour ride or a five or six hour ride. They were my two longer rides in the week. And yeah, other than that, it was sort of just filling in the gaps with what else needed to be done.
Justin Metzler:Yep. One more training specific question before we move on to the Kona specific questions. I feel like you always did a really good job, you and Tim together, of taking a proper off season. What is your perspective on the off season, and what mistakes do you see people making in sort of, like, their off season approach as a whole, their break, and then their ramp back into the into training again?
Mirinda Carfrae:I think in general, you have to take a three hundred and sixty five day approach to every year and, figure out where you're gonna peak, what races you really wanna nail, and work back from that. So for me, it was always Kona, you know, for ten years of my my career, and I'd work back from from that race and stick in my races that would lead into it. And everything would have, you know, a progression. So I had early season races up to sort of July. I always wanted to take a break in July, mental break, go away, don't bring the running shoes, bike, nothing.
Mirinda Carfrae:Five or six days off, stay somewhere nice, do everything but triathlon, and, come back fresh mentally and then crush that second half after the season. And then after Kona, sometimes we'd try to tack on a race, but really, we were mentally pretty checked out after that. And, we would always take at least two weeks off. Suri would have us, in our off season, take two weeks completely off, and then it was like a four week build back. And in that four weeks, there was, like, five days of structured training.
Mirinda Carfrae:You can do it any way you want. So you can do two days off, five days on. You could do, you know, sort of two days on, one day off, three days on, one day off. So however you wanted to do that, and it wasn't anything crazy. So it was really, like, six weeks of not really training before we got back into it.
Mirinda Carfrae:So that was, like, a significant break, from the sport mentally. And, I mean, I don't know. These days, the athletes we'll see. You know, a lot of athletes bought burning the candle at both ends, especially now that the pro series is happening and the Ironman series is happening. That takes a really calculated approach to be able to emulate great performances year in, year out.
Mirinda Carfrae:And so we'll see how this year, maybe not so much this year, but two years in, how athletes are backing up and how they're, doing it. But for me, that formula seemed to work well, and we just kept repeating, repeating, repeating. We had the midyear break, and we had the big off season at the end of the year, and then we'd build back again every year.
Justin Metzler:What's your perspective on the athletes now who are burning the candle on both ends and seemingly doing great, just getting better year after year? I've is it an old school approach to look back and be like, I need a six week break? Because my personal perspective is, like, I tried to do that. I tried to skip the off season two years in a row, and it ended in Achilles' surgery. And I took six weeks off after my surgery, and I feel better than I have in, like, three years.
Justin Metzler:So maybe it's just because I am old now in in the context of who's still racing, you know? Yeah.
Mirinda Carfrae:I mean, I think it we were it remains to be seen. I I don't think it's an I mean, there's a lot of technology that's come forward. You know, the run technology, athletes are able to, you know, put in more nutrition in races. They're less beat up because of, the shoes they're racing in, from Ironman races. So athletes, therefore, are doing more races.
Mirinda Carfrae:But mentally, I think it takes a toll. And so I I think I think athletes will burn out. I mean, when you go back, you talk to Mark and Wendy Ingram and all those guys. They used to race Kona, and then they just wouldn't do anything until January 1, the dust off the the tri bike. I mean, we we had two weeks off.
Mirinda Carfrae:Yeah. You know, like, we you know, what you know, we were back doing triathlon training, and and I I say it was six weeks before we were actually back in full force. But you're still training, you know? Like, you were moving along. You you know, you're getting the stuff done.
Mirinda Carfrae:You weren't you weren't taking six weeks six weeks off. But, yeah, I I think I don't think it's an old school approach. I think we're gonna see some I mean, you already see it. You see athletes that are amazing, and then they're completely screwed.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. I
Mirinda Carfrae:mean, I don't wanna put names out there, but, I mean, you can sort of fill in the blanks with athletes. You're like, oh my god. This person's on fire. They cannot do any wrong. You know, two years of just crushing everyone, and then they're gone.
Justin Metzler:Yeah.
Mirinda Carfrae:And then maybe three years later, they come back. Could they have done better if they just raced a little bit less, took a little bit more care of themselves, and just, scheduled their seasons a little smarter? I mean, there are some athletes I I'm thinking about now that are taking that approach. You don't see them race as much. But I think they'll be able to keep rising to the top when it matters.
Mirinda Carfrae:But again, what matters anymore? Like, is a world title the best thing? Is Ironman Pro Series the best thing? I don't know. Is the t 100 the best thing?
Mirinda Carfrae:Like, what are we gonna remember in ten years?
Justin Metzler:Yeah. I think it has really has to boil down to, like, what are you motivated by. Right? Like, a professional athlete's career is finite. You know that.
Justin Metzler:You know, there's gonna be an end date at some point. You want to be able to reflect on your career and be like, I did what I wanted to do on my own terms. And so, I mean, I think you see some athletes now who are maybe getting pulled in financial directions, and they might be looking back and saying, oh, that was my prime, and I wasted it for an extra x number of dollars, which would be a disappointment from my perspective. And I can't speak for them, but, yeah, it's just an interesting time.
Mirinda Carfrae:No. Absolutely. And I actually I found that out really quick. So 10, I won Kona, and all of a sudden, I had sponsors. And all of a sudden, I had, you know, plane tickets and appearance fees to go here, here, here, there, and everywhere.
Mirinda Carfrae:And I'm like, yes. I'm taking it all. I'm doing it all. I'm taking all the money, and I'm gonna go and, cash in because I don't know if I'm ever gonna win another world title, and I have done it now. And I didn't have a great twenty eleven world champs.
Mirinda Carfrae:I had some nutrition, you know, fly off my bike, which I think cost me in the end. But at the end of the day, it was a race that should have gone a lot better. Actually, no, that was 12, the way the nutrition come off. Anyway, I just didn't race as well as I think I could have in 11, and that still haunts me to the stakes. I know I didn't do everything perfectly that year because I chased money.
Mirinda Carfrae:And so that year, I'm like, I'm never chasing money again. I am never gonna compromise the training that I need to do to race well in in Kona. And so, yeah, that dictated the rest of my career and I think in a good way. Like, it I only it took one year to learn that lesson. But, yeah, for me, absolutely, you know, winning that big race.
Mirinda Carfrae:And for me, my driving force was Kona, always was. To win that race multiple times was always my goal. And, yeah, money was secondary to that.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. It's an interesting it's interesting to watch you speak about that because, you know, you can talk about your world championships. Oh, yeah. No. I won this year.
Justin Metzler:I won that year. And they're kind of, like, lumped into a category, but the intensity when you're talking about 12 when you didn't win
Mirinda Carfrae:Mhmm.
Justin Metzler:It's a higher level. Yeah. And so that you know, you're thinking about that. So that's a learning lesson for anyone out there who's maybe not sticking true to what, you know, motivates them. I wanna spend a little bit of time specifically talking about Kona, where you were incredibly successful.
Justin Metzler:You know, your career was made in Kona. What did you do differently? And this doesn't necessarily have to be a training question in the final build up to Kona that you wouldn't do that you would save for Kona in the Kona build up?
Mirinda Carfrae:Yeah. Our Kona taper was always different. And first of all, like, that race was mentally, emotionally. It was my everything. So it was different anyway.
Mirinda Carfrae:Even if I did the same taper, even if I did the same training, it was just different because I planned my whole year around it. The emotional, high or the, you know, the emotions I had to just getting up for the occasion. Right? Like, there are some races you turn up to and you're like, I wanna have the motivation and it's just not quite there. And then, Kona, you're like, it's there.
Mirinda Carfrae:Like, I have it, and I'm willing to just go to the ends of the Earth to win this race. And that was that race for me. But for Kona, we would always make sure we raced four to five weeks out. I did a half Ironman. Muskoka was the race that sort of made sense for a number of years, and then later, Santa Cruz.
Mirinda Carfrae:It was always sort of sometimes hard to find a race, but I tried to race four to five weeks out, and that would be sort of the end of my Kona training. Like, I was pretty much done all the work. And from then, there were a couple of other key sessions, like, key big sessions, but really, I was I was starting to taper. So that's a long taper, or a long time ahead of the race. And, yes, you know, like, you do the half, you recover.
Mirinda Carfrae:I did one more big key session, then I'd go into Kona. I would always go in two weeks early so that I could get my last long ride, which is five hours on the course. My last long run, two hours on the course, two weeks out. And then I would always take, a couple of days off, two weeks out. So this was something that Siri brought in that I wasn't so sure about.
Mirinda Carfrae:And she's like, we're gonna take two to three days off. And I was like, alright. So I was on the big island, everyone's training their asses off, and I'm sitting I'm sleeping in, I'm watching Netflix, I'm, like, sitting, you know, by the pool doing nothing. And so for me, I took I took two days because I I wasn't willing to take a third day out of the pool. And then I did a swim day, and I think oh, sorry.
Mirinda Carfrae:The third the third day, I would swim, bike, and run thirty minutes. Thirty minute swim, thirty minute bike, thirty minute run just to get everything moving again, and then I'd go back into, okay, hard run. And I felt amazing. So once I got everything, you know, I had the rest, I turned everything back on, a couple of hard sessions, hard bike, hard run, last semi hard long ride, last semi hard, so three hour ride or whatever in a hour run that last weekend before Kona, and then normal tape a week. But I felt so amazing in that last week.
Mirinda Carfrae:And I think the confidence you get when you feel amazing on race week, you always wanna feel amazing. And you don't have to feel amazing on race week to have a great day. But mentally, it's so much easier when you're, like, flying
Justin Metzler:Yeah.
Mirinda Carfrae:And, that race week, you're, like, I'm ready. I'm ready to go. Like, let me like a caged lion. Like, let me get out there and let me let me add it. And I think having those two days to just stop, enabled me to get up to the races.
Mirinda Carfrae:It worked for me.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. I know, like, the best races I've had in my career, I feel great on race week.
Mirinda Carfrae:Yeah.
Justin Metzler:And I know that.
Mirinda Carfrae:Yes.
Justin Metzler:And it's kind of like you can talk to yourself and justify, oh, you know, everyone feels bad on race week and whatever. But I you know deep down whether you've nailed the fitness and the freshness and everything is just sort of coming together. Like, if you feel like crap forty eight hours before, it's probably not gonna you're not gonna ride the ship in in forty eight hours. Yes, typically a bit deeper than that or at least it it has been for me. What would you do because you would go to Kona Two Weeks before.
Justin Metzler:Was that enough for your heat acclimation, or were you doing things from a heat acclimation perspective beforehand?
Mirinda Carfrae:Do. Yeah. I didn't I think that was enough for me, and it worked for me. I don't know if I grew up in Brisbane. We didn't have air conditioning.
Mirinda Carfrae:Summers were hotter than Hades. Right? Like, that you know, the summer in Australia was hotter than Kona. And so I don't know if that environment, growing up in that environment, training in that environment when I first started the sport was what stuck with me and I just was good in the heat, or, whether it was just enough. You know, they say it takes about ten days to acclimate if you're in the environment.
Mirinda Carfrae:I tried so Tim tried to emulate my program. It didn't work for him, but I think he would come in and he would train hard. And I would come in and I'll do a couple of sessions, then I have a couple of days off. So the training was done well in advance, for me so that I could take that time, and it was all still in there. So I will I think, yeah, just having that, basically, thirteen to fourteen days on the island before the race was enough time for me to be ready to go and, acclimate and race in the heat.
Justin Metzler:And what about your fueling strategy? Like, sodium fluid demands, was that something that was super calculated? Like, you're doing sweat rate tests and sodium composition tests, or did you just sort of figure it out?
Mirinda Carfrae:So way back when I started the sport, I was in the AIS, the Australian Institute of Sport. And with that, we had access to massage, sports nutrition, you name it, physiology, all the rest of it. But I became really good friends with a sports nutritionist, and so he helped me when I started doing half Ironman. He built out a nutrition plan for, you know, the day before, and race day worked well. And so once I stepped up to Kona, it was only natural that I contact him and say, okay.
Mirinda Carfrae:What do I what do I what do I do? He basically just catered a plan for me with the nutrition. I used goo at the time, and he he I have never done a sweat test in my life. He's like, here are the current guidelines for how much sodium you would need to take in per hour. Just did that.
Mirinda Carfrae:And yeah. Never had a problem with nutrition.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. It's really interesting because this is something I've been thinking about, and I was at I was thinking talking about it with Taylor Knibb the other day and, you know, we were just talking about some of the the science stuff because I'm really into all of that. And, I think my theory is that the best athletes in the world have low sweat rates and low sodium composition. Yeah. They just do genetically.
Justin Metzler:That's like if there is a talent component, like, maybe it's not, oh, you have this massive aerobic disposition, but maybe you just don't sweat a lot. Maybe you don't lose a lot of sodium, and that's very helpful for a place like Kona.
Mirinda Carfrae:Yeah. Maybe. And I can't tell you if that that's what the case was or not. I certainly feel like I sweat I sweat a lot. Like, if I if you put me in a hot environment, then I feel like I sweat.
Mirinda Carfrae:My sweat rate is pretty high, but maybe the sodium content of that sweat is not very high. So maybe, you know, that was something. But, yeah, I didn't have the only year I cramp was when I lost my nutrition in '12. Sure.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. What was one thing, mentally that you would say to yourself when you got on that run? Like, did you have a mantra or sort of any thought process when you would hear, hey, fourteen minutes to Danielle up the road and you gotta you gotta chunk that out and go in the race?
Mirinda Carfrae:You know, that year was different. 2014 coming in, being defending champ, the pressure of the crown is is heavy. And then getting off the bike that far behind Daniella, who was a rookie, obviously, very talented and we all knew she was coming. But to be that far behind, I would I was not positive coming off that bike. I was pretty, like, what am I even doing here?
Mirinda Carfrae:This is embarrassing. And Siri was, you know, about a mile in, crouched on the side of the road, like, you're in the perfect position. And I'm like, what race are you watching? And then I just was like, well, let's just see. Let's just see.
Mirinda Carfrae:I mean, I'm eighth right now. Like, let's try getting the top five. So I just changed my mindset because it was like, I'm not gonna win. Like, I got off the bike. I'm like, I'm not gonna win today.
Mirinda Carfrae:And then I'm like, that was too much for me to, you know, comprehend in the moment. And I'm like, okay, reset. Let's just see how far you can run. You looked after yourself well on the bike. Your legs feel good.
Mirinda Carfrae:And then changed my goal. My goal was top five, and then top five became top three. And then all of a sudden, I'm I see Daniella up the road on the Queen K and, another chance at a at a world title. So, that just kinda shows sort of it doesn't matter what position you're in, doesn't matter where you are, you can never give up until, you know, you finish that race. So that race was different.
Mirinda Carfrae:Other years, like, in '10, '10 was, like, a dream come true year. I swam at the front pack. Never did that since. Never did that before. Chrissie Wellington pulled out right at the, you know, before the race started.
Mirinda Carfrae:And so I was, like, freaked out, because she was in every single scenario that I'd played out in my mind, leading up to that race, that she had won the year before, like, three previous years. And I'd finished second to her in my first year the year before. So all year, I had, you know, her in my sights, her in my mind, and then she wasn't there. And, like, Tim wasn't racing, and he was sort of, you know, with me when I when we found out. And he said it looked like I'd seen a ghost.
Mirinda Carfrae:My face was just white. And then Siri's like, nothing changes. You race your race. Go do what you think. And I, like, swam out of my mind that day.
Mirinda Carfrae:It was the easiest race. I was in the front pack. So now I'm not chasing all day. So I was and I say easiest race, it was not easy at all. But in terms of where I normally get out and I've got to chase to catch the front pack, I was with all the big players, that day.
Mirinda Carfrae:I mean, I think Rachel was up the road. Julie was up the road. I think Julia raced that year, maybe she didn't. But anyway, there were a couple of women off the front, but at any rate, I was with all the main contenders, and I think I got off the bike, and I was right in the mix and just executed a solid marathon and able to win that one. So that was a different mindset.
Mirinda Carfrae:And then 13, I was just ready to tear the legs off the race in 13 after eleven and twelve races where I felt that I didn't perform to my ability. I was, like, just ready to execute that day. And so, 13, I feel like I that was my perfect swim, bike, and run performance on the island. And so that one was just being in the moment, cal just like being calculated, executing every single moment of that race to as much close to perfection as possible and, you know, getting to the front of the race. I think I got to the front of the race reasonably early compared to other races.
Justin Metzler:Sure. Now, back then, you were running low two fifties, and I think a lot of the men at the time are running around the three hour mark, so your runs were always some of the fastest in the field. If you had given yourself carbon shoes then, what do you think you would have done?
Mirinda Carfrae:I don't know. It's hard to say. Right? Like, I don't know. I I think certainly faster.
Mirinda Carfrae:That's my answer, really. Yeah. Yeah. I always my goal was to run two forty eight since I started racing in Kona. I ran two forty nine in Austria once, but never got under.
Mirinda Carfrae:I think I went two fifty in 30 or something. It was my fastest race in Kona, on the marathon. But, yeah, you know, you you think back and wish, oh, man, I wish I had those carbon shoes. But, may I think it makes everyone run faster. So then my running you know, having to run, you know, how much faster than the other women am I gonna have to run to win still?
Mirinda Carfrae:Right? Like, I think everyone's just running faster. Yeah. And at the end of the day, it would be nice to have, you know, a super fast marathon time in Kona, like, recorded, but it you know, that just wasn't my time and The
Justin Metzler:wins were the important piece.
Mirinda Carfrae:No. I think, you know, the the wins yeah. They all win I don't know. The wins come and go. Some years were windy for me, some years were not.
Mirinda Carfrae:I feel like we haven't really had a super windy year for a while. I think because everyone's starting earlier and and everyone's faster, So we're getting out to Harvey and coming home before, you know, the real winds start to pick up. But yeah. What I mean, whatever. I I got to I got to live my dreams, and, that's enough for me.
Justin Metzler:Okay. Well, moving on from Kona here, I've got what I'm titling, Renny's advice column. So I've got five questions because I think you've, like, done it all and seen it all. So I've got five questions here. The first one is, what is one thing you did in training that was a mistake and got you in trouble?
Mirinda Carfrae:Training through illness. Mhmm. I once got got a really bad stomach bug, and I took, like, a day off. It was like like it was legit three days of vomiting and then, you know, a day of vomiting and then two days of the other end. And then I took maybe I don't even know.
Mirinda Carfrae:Maybe I didn't even take a day off, but I tried to train through it and I was crushed. And I ended up having to take, like, two weeks off after, like, probably a month of trying to train and trying to find my way back of just not feeling right to then right the ship. So I learned from there that, okay, you get sick, you take time off, you take care of yourself. It's not worth pushing through.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. Absolutely. What is one thing you did consistently in training that allowed you to have such great longevity and not get hurt and have such a long career?
Mirinda Carfrae:No. I think just, listening to my body and being honest with myself and my coach.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. Yep. That's a good one. For all the parents out there listening, how did you manage training full time and bringing up a toddler? What is one piece of advice for parents burning the candle at both ends?
Mirinda Carfrae:Well, we had a au pair when we had Isabelle, so that was absolutely super helpful and, needed because we were traveling the world at that time. But, yeah, just trying to include them as much as possible. I mean, I I was just at the gym with all three kids. It's obviously a public holiday here today, and they're not at school. So, they all came to the gym with me.
Mirinda Carfrae:So just including them as much as possible, where possible. And, yeah, being okay with missing a session here and there. Like, one session won't make or break, your season and, you know, the kids are your number one priority. You chose to have a family, so they are the priority, but, you can do both.
Justin Metzler:What is one piece of advice you have for young couples out there who are both doing triathlon?
Mirinda Carfrae:Get your own teams. I think you know, I say that Julie did coach Tim and I at the end of our career, but we both had our own managers. We both had our own, like, people, that helped us, especially on race day. I think that's when it really became the big or could have been a big issue. And that Tim had his team and his people helping him, and and I had my team.
Mirinda Carfrae:And it was just like, you focus on you, let him focus on him. That's the best way to get your best performances out. And it took us a little while to figure that balance out because, you know, you're with your partner. You want nothing but the best for them. You're thinking about them all the time.
Mirinda Carfrae:You're but honestly, the best thing for them is for you to focus on yourself. And it's only a moment, you know, those races. In terms of, you know, day to day training, I think there's a lot of benefits in actually having a partner. And, I think you just have to have good communication. Like, I'm smashed today.
Mirinda Carfrae:I knew can you, like, can you please make dinner? Can you please, clean up? I'll I'll get you back. I promise. You know, like, having that nice give and take.
Justin Metzler:That's a good question that I didn't get, the chance to ask earlier. But I was thinking, what was one thing, in sort of, like, the heat of your guys' training that seems simple on paper, like, doing the dishes or cooking dinner, that at the end of a hard training day, you guys just couldn't it was just too hard.
Mirinda Carfrae:Yes. Just every day to day living stuff, you know, like, do yeah. Having a clean house, doing the dishes, cooking dinner. But, again, I think having good communication with your partner is so important and just, like, you know, picking up the slack when the other one can't and making sure that's reciprocated, so it's it it's fair and everyone's getting, you know, their time to get in the boots and relax and and watch TV and yeah. I mean, there's give and take in any relationship, but in triathlon relationships, that energy in the house is sometimes limited.
Mirinda Carfrae:And so, really important just to communicate.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. Absolutely. What advice would you give a young pro who's trying to make a career out of triathlon?
Mirinda Carfrae:I think, young pro trying to make a career out of someone, just find a good coach that you know believes in you fully and is fully invested in your journey. And there has to be a really good mutual respect between you and your coach. I think having that partnership be super strong is is just really important.
Justin Metzler:Yep. Final question here in the advice column is, what advice would you give me? I don't know if you followed my, my highs and lows over the last couple years, but we've trained together for quite some time. What advice do you have for me now? I'm 31 years old.
Justin Metzler:I still feel like I got legs left.
Mirinda Carfrae:No. You absolutely do. For you, just making sure you take care of yourself through this return. I think you know that now at 31. And then, I don't know.
Mirinda Carfrae:I feel like for this year, don't have big expectations. Like, Like, this is gonna be your build back year, and then, hopefully, by the end of the year, there's no niggles. You're at a solid, you know, foundation, and you can move into next year and try to, you know, go out guns a blazing. So I think you found a good coach in Matt Hanson, and, you know, hopefully, that relationship is as strong as I talk about, and I think that will go a long way for you.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. Thank you. I hope that that is the case. We'll see if I can get over this injury, but I have very low expectations, and I'm I don't have a lot pressure to race, which is good. So I don't want like we spoke about before the podcast, I'm not gonna be back, until you have something to say on the Ironman broadcast.
Justin Metzler:Okay. Alright. Well, before we wrap up the podcast, I'm gonna finish with our rapid fire. So the rapid fire questions here they're supposed to be rapid fire, but you don't have to be like super. Right.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. Alright. Who was one athlete that kept kept you up at night or motivated your hardest sessions?
Mirinda Carfrae:The two. Daniella and, Chrissy.
Justin Metzler:What is one thing people would be surprised to learn about you?
Mirinda Carfrae:That I was once an extra in a Jackie Chan movie.
Justin Metzler:Filmed in Australia? Yep. Wow. That's crazy. Alright.
Justin Metzler:I didn't even know that. Yeah. Most memorable race in your entire career?
Mirinda Carfrae:Well, that I have a lot of really good memorable I I think 2033, I feel like I I had the perfect race in Kona.
Justin Metzler:That's cool. And most memorable training session?
Mirinda Carfrae:Yeah. Those are Mylers, on Monarch off off a a long hard bike with Crowley and Tim and, whoever whoever else joined us on on that day.
Justin Metzler:Was it the one they filmed?
Mirinda Carfrae:That we did it that time, but probably not that one. I don't know. I did a couple I I think we Crowley and I did it probably at least three times, so at least three years.
Justin Metzler:So
Mirinda Carfrae:one of them yeah.
Justin Metzler:What is one big goal you want to accomplish in the next ten years?
Mirinda Carfrae:Good question. I don't know. I I need to sit down and think about what honestly, I just wanna be a great mom for my kids. I wanna see them, achieve their own goals, be passionate about stuff. My whole kind of world is revolved around them now and and trying to, you know, bring up amazing little humans.
Mirinda Carfrae:So my goal is to have three amazing teenagers. I don't know if that's those two words go together.
Justin Metzler:In ten years, Izzy will be 17. Right?
Mirinda Carfrae:That's great. 17, 14, and 11. Wow.
Justin Metzler:Probably don't wanna fast forward this time.
Mirinda Carfrae:No. Yeah. I mean, that I I feel like, you know, my next ten ten years is solidly ingrained in parenting.
Justin Metzler:Cool. And who's your favorite kid? No. I'm just kidding. I asked him, and he said he had a favorite.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. He wouldn't tell me who it was, though.
Mirinda Carfrae:He he yes. He says he has but it, I mean, he I do not have a favorite kid. I absolutely there's not they're all equally the same. But, yeah, he he goes back and forth on who his favorite is in the moment.
Justin Metzler:The real question is, who do you think is the most likely of your three to follow in, their parents' footsteps and become a professional triathlete? Tim's answer was Finn.
Mirinda Carfrae:I don't know. Jury's out on the little guy, Jameson, because he's just obviously learning how to walk. I don't know. Finn told me the other day that he wants to be a nanny, a cowboy, and a oh, what's that thing? And a and a singer, I think, like, in a band.
Mirinda Carfrae:Cool. So yeah. I don't know. Triathlon was not one of his things. Yeah.
Mirinda Carfrae:I don't know. Yeah. I mean, Izzy's right now really interested in biking and running. But, honestly, I could I couldn't tell you. Yeah.
Justin Metzler:Awesome. Well, that's all I have for today. We might have to do a part two because I had some questions in here that I didn't even get to, but I really appreciate your time today. Thank you so much for coming on.
Mirinda Carfrae:No worries. Thank you.
Justin Metzler:Peace.
