Steel City man Chad Holderbaum
Chad Holderbaum races with a pro license but manages a full time job and family too. Last year at Ironman Chattanooga the Pittsburgh, PA resident finished 7th and that was a positive step for the triathlete in his second season on a pro/elite license.
Slowtwitch: How are you Chad?
Chad Holderbaum: I’m doing very well Herbert, thanks for asking.
ST: We saw you last at Ironman Chattanooga where you looked to have a solid day. Would that be a fair statement?
Chad: Yes, that is a very fair statement. Last year was my second year racing with an elite license and my biggest takeaway from Ironman Chattanooga was that I have a legitimate shot of competing at the pointy end of the field. I’ve been racing Ironman since 2004 so have been in the sport for quite some time now and have steadily been chipping away year after year and finished in 7th place at Chattanooga with an 8:30. I’m very excited to see what happens in 2015 and beyond.
ST: But I believe originally Chattanooga was not on your schedule.
Chad: You are correct. If memory serves me correctly, my original plan was to race Ironman Wisconsin, but given the timing of the race and the juggling of some family projects, including selling and building a new house, Chattanooga was the best option with regards to being able to put in the proper focus and build cycles leading up to a fall Ironman race.
ST: How did you like the layout of the race, including the downriver swim?
Chad: The layout of the race was great although I must admit that the 116-mile bike was a curve ball. The downriver swim added a different dynamic to the race. The lead swim pack contained a majority of the pro field and made for a frustrating bike. Mainly frustrating because I was near the back of the pack and everyone was evenly spaced apart which meant that unless you put in a massive surge to get off the front, you were pretty much confined to riding with the group all day long.
ST: Not everyone understands that big pack problem. Can you explain why it is so hard to pass if you are sitting at the back of a big pack?
Chad: In a pack like scenario each athlete is typically spaced 12 meters apart and there is a rule against slotting in. This means that if you are in a pack of 20 guys evenly spaced 12 meters apart and you are last in line, the only way to make a pass would be to pass all twenty athletes at once. As you can guess, the energy expenditure required to do this is very high and it’s a very risky move. Also, once you start the pass, you are committed and if you decide that the pace is too hard and you can’t make the pass in the required time limit, you can get a penalty.
ST: Had you previously gotten a penalty like that?
Chad: No. I’ve never had a red card, nor blue card, in long distance racing but I have witnessed incidents where other athletes have gotten called.
ST: What about the city of Chattanooga itself?
Chad: This was my first time visiting the Chattanooga area and I must say I was impressed. Chattanooga is on my schedule for 2015 and I plan to use it as my first race to hopefully give me a shot towards qualifying for Kona in 2016.
ST: But you had some issues this season.
Chad: Unfortunately I’ve had a rocky start to the year. I had planned on racing Puerto Rico 70.3 in March but had a minor hip issue, which prevented me from toeing the start line. In April, I relocated to Austin, Texas for six weeks in order to train close to my coach, Derick Williamson. While out on a training ride in the rain, I took a bend to quick and went down hard on the asphalt which resulted in another DNS at Texas 70.3 and a planned DNF at IMTX. I used the race as a good swim, bike training day. I’ve been able to stay positive though as you can only control the things you can control and if I’ve learned anything over the last 11 years of triathlon, injuries happen and all you can do is stay focused, keep your mindset positive and use these setbacks as lessons learned towards improving in the sport.
ST: This past weekend you got to race again, this time at 70.3 Eagleman. How did that go?
Chad: Given the circumstances, the race went well. It was my first race back after a rough couple of months with injuries and unfortunately I had a mechanical on the bike when my aero bars came loose. I came off the bike in 11th and ran my way into 8th pro male. I’m not one to make excuses and I know that I still have a lot of work to do if I want to get onto the podium.
ST: Are you your own mechanic when it comes to your bike?
Chad: I try to do a majority of the basic adjustments on my own and I do consider myself handy with a wrench, but I leave the major fixes up to my local bike shop. I rode on the Eagleman course both Friday and Saturday pre race without issue and have not made any recent adjustments. It was just bad luck and with the integrated bars on the Trek Speed Concept, it’s not something you can easily access to make sure the bolts are still torqued per the spec. As I mentioned, I don’t like making excuses and even without the mechanical, the race proved I still have work to do if I expect to be competitive.
ST: Pittsburgh, PA is where you reside, does that mean many hours of indoor riding for a good part of the year?
Chad: My wife and I have called Pittsburgh our home and it truly is a great city and the triathlon community, especially the Pittsburgh Triathlon Club, is very supportive. I live twenty miles east of Pittsburgh at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. During the winter months I do end up spending a lot of time indoors but to be honest, I do not mind it. There are always various opportunities to cross train through XC skiing, mountain biking, which in an indirect way, prevents burn out from the sport. That being said, my wife Jennifer has been very supportive of my racing career and we have been fortunate to travel to warmer climates during the colder months for extended weekends and 4-6 week focused training camp stints. I’ve also been fortunate through my “day-job” as a Program Director for Westinghouse Electric Company to get to travel to warm destinations about once a month on business trips. Needless to say, my bike box has become a staple checked bag on pretty much all of these trips.
ST: Is that Westinghouse day job why you talked about “racing with an elite license” versus “turning professional?”
Chad: Exactly. Don’t get me wrong, it is kind of cool to wear a bib number that says Professional Athlete on it and I’ve always dreamed about being a pro athlete ever since I was a little kid, but I feel very few people are actually able to make a living at the sport and can call triathlon a profession. I took my elite license when I turned 33 years old and financially it didn’t make sense to give up my career and given the flexibility at Westinghouse, I telecommute a majority of the time, I was able to chase my dreams in the sport while still being able to provide for my family.
ST: Do you mostly train by yourself, or do you have folks you ride, run or swim with?
Chad: I would estimate that I do around 70% of my training solo. I swim at the University of Pittsburgh Masters Program. Jen Michaels, my swim coach, is a former Division I swimmer from Texas A&M and has been running the swim program at Pitt since 1996 and has been working with me in the pool since 2009. One of the best parts about the sport of triathlon is all of the great people that I’ve gotten to meet and become friends with over the years. I especially need to recognize two of my training partners, Matt Mauclair and Jeremy Cornman. These two guys have pushed me not just in training but also in racing the past 6-8 years and have turned me into the athlete I am today. Knowing that these guys were out there day after day putting in the work gave me the motivation and drive in order to be the best that I can be. When I walk away from the sport, I’ll be satisfied knowing that I’ve put everything into it that I could. I also want to use my triathlon career progression as a model for my son and to teach him that dreams whether they be sport, education or career, can be obtained with hard work, passion and drive. I don’t consider myself the most talented athlete there is, however I know the work that it has taken me to get to this point and there are so many lessons that could be learned and applied to other aspects of life and nobody can take that away from me.
ST: How did you connect with Matt and Jeremy?
Chad: I’m not sure how we met exactly, but I know that the three of us were always doing the same races and posting similar times to one another so it just seemed logical to train with these guys. The friendships created and memories are really what it is all about when it’s all said and done.
ST: So what is next for you?
Chad: I had planned on racing all Challenge Family Americas event the remainder of 2015 but when they announced the elimination of the prize money at their Americas full distance races, I had to go back to the drawing board. My new plan is to focus on Ironman Whistler on July 26th and Ironman Chattanooga on September 27th.
ST: Had you already registered for any of these Challenge races?
Chad: Yes, I had already registered for Challenge Atlantic City. But we also were not encouraged to sign up in advance. If they would have asked me to commit, I would have registered for sure for the other Challenge races this summer.
ST: Why do you think that so many pro purses are disappearing?
Chad: I think it is because it is hard to quantify and measure the value in a having a pro field and prize purse. It has never been clear to me what the desired outcome of the pro field is for the race organizers and how do you work towards a desired outcome if you don’t even know what that is. It’s like sailing a ship with no destination and without a map. It’s also not clear to me what the expectations are of us and how the pros can help the race organizers produce additional revenue to show such value. Maybe there are conversations occurring between WTC and Challenge Family with the pointy end of the pro field, but I’m not aware of them if they are. What I see happening right now is a pro field showing up to a race, racing and then collecting a check. It’s time for the pro field and race organizers to start thinking out of the box. Otherwise, I feel the downward trend will continue.
I know there have been athletes which have been outspoken about not caring if a pro field is at a race, but all I know is that when I was coming up through the sport, I really looked up to the guys racing pro and it was one of the driving factors that made me push myself week in and week out.
ST: Anything else we should know?
Chad: First I’d again like to say thank you for reaching out and taking the time to interview me. Slowtwitch has been a website that I’ve read since being introduced to the sport and I’m very humbled to say the least to be featured on your site.
I’d also like to say thank you to all of my supporters over the years including my wife Jennifer, parents, family and friends. Also huge thanks to my sponsors Top Gear Bicycle Shop, Powerbar, XTERRA wetsuits, BASE Endurance the Project942 Racing Team and my triathlon family over at Moxie Multisport.
You can follow Chad Holderbaum on Twitter via @chadholderbaum
