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Up close with Aileen Reid

Aileen Reid is one of the premier women on the ITU circuit, but perhaps you know her better as Aileen Morrison. After last year’s Grand Finale in Auckland, Aileen got married and now wears the name Reid on the back of her Irish tri-suit. Aileen is a two-time WTS medalist and will wear #5 at the San Diego WTS.

Slowtwitch: So you are no longer Aileen Morrison?

Aileen Reid: I’ve given up my maiden name but I’m sure people will know who I am. Helen Jenkins changed and is easily recognized as Helen Jenkins so I’m hoping it will be similar for me. I got married last year after the Grand Finale. The Grand Finale was on Saturday, and we watched the Juniors race on Sunday. Monday was a bank holiday in New Zealand and then we got married Tuesday on a little island called Waiheke just off Auckland. It’s still less than 6 months ago. My husband David is from Northern Island, not far from where I’m from. He was a runner so he’s a bit more into athletics than triathlon. We used to work together when I had a real job in the real world.

ST: What work did you do before triathlon?

Aileen: I earned my degree, spent a little time traveling then I worked as a development officer in Athletics for Northern Ireland- Working a lot with kids and organizing athletics in schools. Then I went from that and decided to do my teacher training. I went back to university and trained as a PE teacher but as soon as I finished I had decided to go full-time in triathlon.

ST: Where are you based? It seems like you’re always on the road or at a camp.

Aileen: The last 5 years I’ve been in Lisburn which is just outside Belfast in Northern Ireland. They have an awesome swim club, a really good cycling club and it’s just down the road from the Northern Ireland Sports Institute. So I was able to do a lot of training there pretty well and just go away around Christmas time for some warm weather training. Just in January of this year I joined Darren Smith’s group so we’ve been in camp from January until we competed in Auckland, and we just moved onto Sedona, Arizona.

ST: Darren Smith runs a pretty premier group. Who is currently in the squad?

Aileen: In the group we’ve got Kate Roberts, Katie Hewison, Jodie Stimpson, Anne Haug, Annamaria Mazzetti. There are a couple of long distance girls- Annabel Luxford, Kate Baker and Michelle Wu. There are a good handful of boys too.

ST: Your squad tends to travel around together, yes?

Aileen: Pretty much we follow a similar pattern. Some of the girls may want to race a non-draft as something extra or seek out certain courses. There are 8 races in the World Series. We may not do all 8 but I’m sure some of us will be in each of them.

ST: Why do you think athletes that were highly successful in that group moved on?

Aileen: Last year there was sort of a changing of the guard. Some girls moved on to new things and Darren took in some new girls. Lisa (Norden) wanted to buy a house and I’m sure people have partners who they spent a lot of time away from. Everything works in 4 years cycles. You try something for a while and after a while you need to move on. I can completely see what happened and really it’s the same for me. I did what I did for 5 years and was coached by an awesome coach but it was time to move on and try something else. There’s nothing wrong with trying new things.

ST: To most you burst onto the scene in 2010 with a Bronze in Hamburg.

Aileen: That’s pretty fair to say. It was very special to me. About 2 weeks before that we had the European Champs in Ireland and I came 6th which to me was my breakthrough race. It was special because my parents were there. Triathlon Ireland was trying to put on a big show for the European Championships, it’s a pretty hard continent to do well in. Sixth for me was a standard of achievement and something to show that all the hard work was going in the right direction. But at the same time I was going to Hamburg and thinking ‘OK I’d be happy with a top-15 finish’ and just to be in that group in the end and running with those girls, end up in a sprint and get a bronze medal out of it- it was beyond what I thought I could do. After I did it I had to pinch myself to realize that I was there. It was really special.

ST: And last year you earned silver at Madrid, and Madrid has a tough bike course with a massive hill.

Aileen: While cycling may not be my strong suit I’ve made an effort to work on my weaknesses. Obviously that’s something you need to do. I had a pretty good strength & conditioning coach, and my coach at the time, Chris Jones, would often make me run off a hard bike and run after gym sessions. So I was used to tired legs and that was probably the thing that got me through Madrid.

ST: Four years ago you were competing at Continental Cups and last year you were ranked in the top 20 for the World. What do you contribute your steady improvement towards?

Aileen: Well obviously my coaches. Chris Jones, the head coach of Triathlon Ireland was my first coach. He met me at a Talent ID day. He said ‘I’ll coach you’ and I said ‘OK.’ He was at my first international race and I was crying in my cornflakes thinking I was going to get lapped out and he was the one to tell me ‘No, you’re not going to get lapped, just do this and do that.’ And he was really able to read what sort of athlete I was and the things I needed to work on. He knew how to get the best out of me.

ST: Your bike in London really stood out. You certainly weren’t lacking any national pride

Aileen: Yeah, my custom Mondo from Planet X is class. I’m very lucky to have the guys look after me and help me stand out from the crowd!

ST: Ireland as a whole is on the up in triathlon.

Aileen: Yes! Con Doherty came third in the junior worlds at Auckland. He’s a real role model to younger athletes. He wasn’t a swimmer but he’s definitely a fighter. When we watched him in the junior worlds it was amazing to watch someone battle so hard and not give up. It was raining hard that day and he just did not care. I came from a swimming background. I hadn’t done much cycling but had done a bit of running and there are plenty of athletes like that out there in Ireland. It just takes someone to come along and say ‘OK you can swim, run and we’re gonna teach you to ride a bike.’ So I was really lucky that Triathlon Ireland had that Talent ID at the time. They’re really pushing Junior Talent ID at the moment. Every six months they’ll hold a day and the young kids can come along, try out and if they’re any good they’ll get invited back. We now have some Junior coaches and Triathlon Ireland is starting to build not just in terms of Age Groupers and amount of competitions held but also for Junior and Senior athletes.

ST: How do you like working in Darren’s squad opposed to working with Chris?

Aileen: I find it very different but it’s all the things I needed. Darren is at all of our sessions and works a lot on skills, technique and tactics for both training and racing. Also I’m training with a group of world-class tri-athletes so I’m learning stuff from them too. Things are different but different is good.

ST: Long term goal is Rio 2016?

Aileen: Well before that I have the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014. Right now that’s the main goal. The Commonwealth Games will have a mixed relay and that will be our first time to try it out in a major championship event. There’s a strong possibly Northern Ireland will field a relay. Myself and Gavin are both from the North and there are two male juniors really on the up who would be pretty good. We just need to work on getting a second girl.

ST: I need to know, just how bad are the hills in Auckland?

Aileen: Yea they’re pretty tough but I was prepared for it this year. Darren had us do hill reps to work on our strength on the bike. Obviously Madrid is pretty tough and we’ve yet to do the new Kitzbuhel course yet but Auckland is certainly up there in terms of difficulty.

ST: I’m really excited to see what happens at the new Kitzbuhel course.

Aileen: Same. It’s really good for us as athletes that the media is taking a bigger interest, and that means changing some race formats. We have to adapt a little to hilly climbs, mixed relay events, sprint races. Those were all probably designed for better media coverage. If better media coverage improves the popularity of our sport and the uptake by Juniors, then I’m all for that. It’s good.

ST: How have smaller fields affected the racing?

Aileen: I think that was just something that should be expected after the Olympics. Some people are taking some time off- getting married, having babies, retiring, people have put off treatment of injuries and things like that. Also you take into consideration that the races begin in the Southern Hemisphere and move to Europe. If you actually look at the start list for Quarteira in Portugal you’ll seen that there were 75 men and 35 women as well as 50+ Junior men and women. There are a lot of athletes in Europe that maybe aren’t willing to travel in the start of the year. I think that once the races move to Europe there will be bigger fields.

ST: How do you like being on the circuit? Has it become mundane?

Aileen: I think if it was mundane I wouldn’t be doing it. When triathlon gets boring for me then I won’t do it but it’s certainly not boring. Every day is different and I’ve been to some of the most beautiful places in the world and I’m very blessed to be able to live the lifestyle that I am. I’ve met so many people from around the world and made friends with people that I may have never met. It’s a really awesome thing to be able to do.

Of course I miss being home but I don’t miss it to the point of crying. The whole time while I was in Canberra I thought of the amazing weather. I stayed with a family and they were really nice. With the 21st century we have Skype and I was able to talk to my husband every day. He was even able to come and visit for a short while. You’re not going to be around forever so you might as well enjoy the world while you’re still young.

ST: Any non-triathlon hobbies?

Aileen: I like going to the cinema. If I’m at home then myself and David will go out to eat probably once a week. That might not seem like a lot for some people but we like to do things together. I also bake and enjoying cooking. Generally the rest of the time I’m hanging out with friends or recovering.

ST: Do you have a favorite thing to bake?

Aileen: Protein cookies! I’m sponsored by a company called Optimum Nutrition. Obviously their bars are really good but I also use their Vanilla Hydrowhey to make protein cookies.

ST: Well thanks for sharing you time with us.

Aileen: Thanks for thinking of me. I’m delighted. I’m also doing the Formula 1 race in San Diego. It’s all the things I need to work on. It’s going to be a really exciting yet really tough race. I’ve never done a race like that before. It’s scary, I’m sure it will be tactical and crazy.

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