Chelsea Sodaro is once again excited about her IRONMAN future and feeling revitalised as she prepares for another shot at the World Championship title in Kona next month.
The 2022 winner has arrived on the Big Island for a specialist training and acclimatisation camp with a new team, new bike and an altogether better mindset as she looks to better last year’s third place.
Speaking on the first of a series of Instagram podcasts previewing the big race on October 15, the 36-year-old American admits to having felt her career had reached a crossroads 12 months ago, as she pondered how long she could continue to compete.
Meticulous Kona preparations
She knew that changes needed to be made, and as she focuses on the final few weeks of her meticulous preparations, there is a confidence that those difficult decisions were indeed the right ones.
Switching coaches from the man who guided her to the 2022 championship, Dr Dan Plews, to Neal Henderson sparked an entire support staff switch that has breathed new life and belief into the athlete.
“I’ve made a lot of changes to my team, and I think that can be scary for a lot of athletes,” she says on the podcast. “But I’ve always approached this work with a sense of curiosity and real eagerness to evolve into a better version of myself and into a better athlete.
“I came to a crossroads in my career where I decided it was time to make those big changes, like starting to work with Neal Henderson and moving to Colorado, and working with Ventum and a new swim coach, a new sports psych, a new medical team, and while it’s been really challenging in some ways, it’s also been super reinvigorating for me.
Having fun with good people
“I’m having a lot of fun with the process. I’m surrounded by all these people who are really excited about the project of seeing what’s possible for me here in Kona again, and I think when you’re having fun and when you’re around good people who share your values and who are bought into the mission, it makes the process really enjoyable.
“Of course, the final outcome matters, but in a way, I feel like I’ve already won because I’ve had so much joy in this preparation, and I feel like I’ve put my best foot forward. I just get to go see what that means on race day. Whereas maybe a year ago, I didn’t know how much longer I’d be able to do this. Now I feel really excited about the future, and that’s a fun place to be in.”
Illness and injury may have hampered her season, but having qualified for Kona by battling to a third-place finish at IRONMAN Kalmar-Sweden, she is now excited about where her body is just three weeks away from the biggest race of her season.
“I found myself in a really unique position this year where I wasn’t able to race an Ironman until August, because of some sickness and an injury. And so I went into that race quite underprepared,” she says on the podcast.
“That’s not super fun. It’s not really a way that I like to compete. And so I just had to get over my ego a bit and grit out a finish there, take a week to recover, and then really get back into work in an intelligent and quite calculated way.
Happy with new bike
“I came out here to Kona a couple of weeks ago, and I have a great group of people around me. We hit the training really hard; across, swim, bike, run, and acclimatising to the heat and humidity of the Big Island.
“I actually believe because of my body of work throughout my entire career, I don’t need months and months to get fit. I need a really solid concentrated six-week-long block, and sometimes I think it’s better to have that pressure in a way because you don’t have time to overthink it and overdo it.”
And she arrives with a new bike, having shifted gears to ride with the Ventum group and their new Tempus model.
“I was quite meticulous in the process of finding a new bike sponsor. I tested several bikes in the Velodrome multiple times to see which frame was fastest, and ultimately found my way to the Ventum Tempus.
“The bike is super fast. It fits me really, really well. It has some unique characteristics, like a shorter top tube that really fits my morphology, and it takes some little components from track racing, for instance, with a super wide fork that allows this special airflow and makes the bike really fast.”
Whether she can repeat her heroics of 2022 remains to be seen, but there is no doubting that new faces, new equipment and a new positive outlook are putting her in a strong position to compete.
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