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Phil Graves Talks TriStar And World Records

  • By Press Release
  • Published November 7, 2012
Photo: TriStar

Phil Graves smashed the TriStar111 Record at Milton Keynes this year (3:11:36). The TriStar team caught up with the Brit to get his impression on TriStar racing and his plans for 2013.

How do you feel racing a TriStar111 race? What do you like the most of this format?
Tristar really plays to my strengths. I’m primarilly a cyclist and obviously with the long bike I can get a big lead before the run. It’s also great to practice pacing for longer races as usually the courses are all multi laps so you can race to your race plan accuratly and you dont have to do too much recon of the course

You performance at Milton Keynes was awesome. Nobody before had raced so fast (3:11:46). Your bike segment was incredible 2h:21:10. How did you do it?
I swam hard, biked a bit harder and then ran as fast as i could! The swim is really short so you can go hard and it not really affect you. The bike I just tried to pace it evenly, if anything I did the last 50km faster than the first 50km. The course at Milton Keynes is very fast even though the first 5miles of every lap of the bike is quite testing, I held back on the bits of the course that didn’t suit me and then pushed the parts where I knew I could make up a lot of time on the rest of my competitors.

Do you think you can improve this TriStar111 record in an upcoming event? Have you planned racing Monaco, Split, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro…
Yes I think 3h05min is not impossible, it all depends on the course. I had very poor transitions at Milton Keynes and I did a lot of training the week before, with a decent taper and the correct tire pressure (the road surface is very bumpy and I rode too hard a tire) I think sub 2h 20min would be easily achievable on the bike on that course. I haven’t planned on any more Tristar races but I’m sure I will do some more in the future!

You run in MK in 35:38, pace 3:34. Which is your best time in this distance? Maybe can you run 1-2 minutes faster?
I’ve run a short 34min 10k before but I haven’t really done many, to be honest that was a great run for me off the bike, it’s something I have been working hard on so was good to see some results.

You have won 2 TriStar111 races –Estonia and Milton Keynes. What do you think about this format?
As I said I love it, the whole atmosphere at the races is unique, really great! Estonia was a superb race, it’s such a privilage to race in such georgeous race destinations which is what makes TriStar unique, great races in out of this world destinations.

Is it really fun and easy recovery?
It depends how hard you go as to how long it takes to recover, with the 10k run you can really go hard and hurt yourself but its not like doing a 70.3 or Ironman where the run leaves you feeling battered!

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