Coming back from being down
German pro Andi Böcherer had a very rough 2014 season and also ended 2013 on a sour note, but in 2015 he found new strength and winning ways.
Slowtwitch: How are you doing?
Andi Böcherer: Very well. We just spent two weeks cross-country skiing in Switzerland, and by we I mean my family. It was wonderful and we all had a good time. The kids can ride sleds or ski downhill, and of course can even try cross-country skiing. It is just very comfortable. It is very different from flying to Lanzarote or similar places where you go bike riding and everyone else is sitting around waiting for you. On this trip everyone had a great time.
ST: Did you bring a bike to Switzerland?
Andi: I brought the rollers. This way I could ride a little bit and wouldn’t get lost completely.
ST: Do you ride on them often?
Andi: I always take them with me when I go to races, and during the winter months I spend a lot of time on them, but usually not longer than 90 minutes.
ST: Let us talk about 2015. You ended up having a pretty stellar season. Is that fair to say?
Andi: Yes, and especially when you consider with the expectations I started that year, it was sensational. Of course there was also a bit of luck in addition to having the goods. I won three 70.3 races and when you add up the winning advantages it ends up being only 2 minutes. So it was tight at times.
ST: I don’t think anyone cares later how narrow the margin was.
Andi: Sure, but I was actually really down confidence-wise and then I finally won that first race in France. That then really brought me back. Two weeks later I won again and this time I beat Nils Frommhold, and that made me realize it [success] goes up as fast as it goes down.
ST: Talking about going down, 2014 was a very rough and tough year for you.
Andi: It was absolutely bad. Usually if things don’t go well in sport you usually might just consider doing something else, but if you feel so shitty that you think that you can’t do anything else either, then you really have a problem. It was a very difficult time. I was very close to completely walking away, but I still had some contracts and thus decided to try it again. I was then really relaxed and went into it with the mindset that this is just for fun, and that was helpful. I also had to think often about what Brett Sutton had told Chrissie Wellington – “I think, I pick, I stick.” You have to think what you want, make a decision and then just do it.
ST: When did those thoughts of stopping come up? Was it around the time of that hit and run?
Andi: Already the previous year I had no second half of the season because I had destroyed my Achilles tendon. Before that hit and run I raced in San Juan and that was completely terrible, but it was not until the fall [2014] with the long winter looming that I started thinking about my options. The economic situation in Germany was very good, and that meant getting a job would be pretty realistic. When you can easily find something else the step away is not so difficult.
ST: What would you be doing if you were not racing triathlon as a professional?
Andi: If you asked me now, I would likely say cross-country skiing, but my degree is in mathematics and I would likely do something in the economy. What exactly though I do not know, but likely nothing in the sports industry.
ST: So what happened?
Andi: I was definitely confused, but I can’t really say that I had this enlightening moment and now know how to deal with a situation like it. I basically liberated my mind with my legs. I solved the dilemma by winning races. Of course it would be great to talk about some philosophical moment, but that just would not be true.
ST: Talk about your thoughts at the time.
Andi: It is difficult when you are doing certain sets and can’t do them at a pace you easily had done before. Then you completely have to change your training, and I was not sure if it was going to work. But there are many paths to get to Rome.
ST: What could you no longer do what you had previously done?
Andi: I used to run 20 x 400, at a sub 3 minute per 1,000 meter pace, and now in training I rarely ran faster than a 3:30 pace. That the made it difficult for me to believe that I could even win a flowerpot.
ST: Well, you won more than a flowerpot.
Andi: True, but it was actually entertaining. I had not done a race in such a long time that I just was completely out of a routine when I arrived in Aix. I had driven by myself and was struggling with what to get ready for transition and nothing went automatically. I had to discover everything new again. When I checked in my bike on Saturday I had forgotten my helmet at the hotel, and the venue was 30 minutes away from town. Then I had to drive back, but the town was already shut down because of an Ironkids event and similar. I then parked the car and decided to ride to the hotel with my bike, but could not find it. I then went back to the car and got the GPS, but of course finding the car was not easy either. As I went to the hotel I got stopped by locals many times as they thought because of my black polo shirt I was some kind of security guy. Finally I got to the hotel and grabbed the helmet, and then took forever to find the car again. Basically I spent about 4 hours to check in my stuff into transition, and then I did not sleep well either, as I was very nervous.
ST: What about the race itself?
Andi: I lined up where there was open water and I stood next to a French swimmer. Then bang the gun went off, and I jumped on his feet and we completely blitzed past the field. It was great to feel that you can get it done. I had a 20 second advantage as I jumped on my bike, and then I wondered what I should do next. I then tried to imagine how Sebi [Kienle] would handle this and was convinced he would just push it through from the front. It all fell into place and in that one weekend all doubts disappeared.
ST: Were you on your new Kuota bike already at that time?
Andi: It was my new bike, but I only had it for 10 days, and I basically had set it up at home on the rollers. It is a bit of old school but clearly it works too. I had a pretty good vibe that it was working, but you start against other folks who were set up in the wind tunnel, and there you come with a bike that was set up in your own garage. But that works too. It is not rocket science, it is triathlon, and if you really stomp on the pedals you can win too.
ST: Well, you had won prior too.
Andi: Yeah sure, it can’t be that it is all just gone, but you still can think it might be gone.
ST: You won 2 more races before you went to the 70.3 Worlds in Austria. What was the mindset going in?
Andi: When I raced in Heilbronn I had an absolutely fantastic race, and I was convinced that if I was able to match that effort I would end up on the podium. Unfortunately my run was not great, or at the very least not what I had imagined. But Zell am See was amazing. When you swim at the front of the race, and you end up swimming next to [Javier] Gomez, that is an amazing experience.
ST: How did you like the course?
Andi: It was super. Usually I can tell you how a race will develop, but I miscalculated here. I was convinced that the gaps gained on top of the mountain, would be doubled or tripled by the time you reach the second transition. But in actuality it was the folks who approached the climb a bit smarter, people like Jan [Frodeno] and Sebi [Kienle]. They were faster on the flat section after the climb and they all ran better too. All of those who had hammered the climb suffered in the latter stages of the bike, or at the very latest during the run. It was a tactical mistake, but I did try to win the race. Maybe I could have been third, but I tried to win the race and ended up in sixth place. And sixth place at a World Championship is not shabby.
ST: You were third in Frankfurt at the Ironman European Championships.
Andi: It was absolutely awesome, because Lubos [Bilek] had told me prior “you won’t be able to finish third here.” He said Van Lierde, Frodeno and Kienle are always consistent and never have a bad race, and I thought, I guess we will have to see. But I had to be among the top four to get an automatic qualification spot, and I ended up third. It was perfect. Plus I beat Van Lierde, Eneko Llanos and Andreas Raelert all in one race.
ST: Kona?
Andi: I had done a ton of races already and tried to stay in the rhythm. After Frankfurt I wanted to do Wiesbaden, but ended up with some Achilles tendon issues. It was aching here and there and ended up staying like that until Kona. I had to take breaks of 3-5 days here and there, and thus thought that it still might be able to work out, but also was aware that it may go wrong. Plus even if you feel great in training, it is very different in competition.
ST: How different was your mindset when compared to Frankfurt?
Andi: Frankfurt was exciting, because 2 weeks prior I had that unbelievable race in Heilbronn. It all seemed to just easily fall into place. I basically completely dropped Michael Raelert, Andi Dreitz, Sebastian Kienle and Nils Frommhold after 14k [into the run] so I could take it a few notches back. But it took a lot out of me and I considered not even starting in Frankfurt. During the race it took me very long to get into a rhythm, and it was not until 120k into the bike that it finally felt like something good would happen. But when you see how I started the year and basically had zero points on May 1st, Kona was further away than the moon. It however was a dream to start again there. I knew that running might be going well, but could also go wrong. The swim kind of just happened. I got smacked on my goggles early on, but not hard, and never had an idea where I was in terms of position. It did not feel very hard, but it was one of those cases where it felt easy in that group, but I had no power to move past them. In all the other races of this season including the 70.3 European and World Championships I was either first or second out of the water, and in Kona I had lost time to the leaders. I did however stay calm and was the only one from that group to bridge the gap to the front group. I caught them shortly before Kawaihae, and that is the spot when Sebi [Kienle] typically destroys the group. But that did not happen this time.
I held back on the bike, but ended up struggling after 21km of the run. Looking at the GPS I could see my numbers drop. It was 4:10 or 4:15 prior, but from one km to the next it dropped down to 5:10. Sadly it then stayed there. I was disappointed, but when looking at the whole season I was actually happy.
ST: So what is next this year?
Andi: I am not sure at this time, but likely something similar to last year. But I am also trying to see if I can up it with my marathon time. Currently my best time is 2:55, but when you look at my 70.3 times it should be possible to run faster. It would be great if that would fall into place.
ST: When you return to that race in Aix, will you bring your helmet when you check-in your bike?
Andi: I am sure I will, but there are clearly many other things that can be left behind.
ST: Well, I wish you a great 2016 season and a wonderful time with your family.
Andi: Absolutely.
You can follow Andi Böcherer on Twitter via @andiboecherer
