Craig “Crowie” Alexander won the Ironman World Championship in 2008, 2009 and 2011, and now the Aussie is coming to the Big Island in March to impart his years of triathlon racing knowledge to aspiring and experienced triathletes.
The 51-year-old Alexander will be hosting a triathlon boot camp March 9 to 14 in South Kohala. People can sign up through February.
Alexander competed in his last Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona in 2014 and now is retired from the sport. But he continues to make his mark through Sansego, a triathlon training club he founded in 2015.
Sansego holds boot camps throughout the year in various places in the United States. For the first time, Alexander is partnering Mauna Lani, Auberge Resorts Collection and holding his triathlon training on the Big Island, where the Ironman World Championship has been held for decades.
The bootcamp — which includes five nights accommodations, several meals, one-on-one 60-minute consultation with Alexander and a training program — costs $1,997 double occupancy or $3,097 single occupancy.
There is a local-only rate of $1,597 that opens 60 days before the camp starts. Austin Watkins, director of sales and marketing at Mauna Lani, said about 20 to 24 people have signed up so far.
Watkins said a partnership with Alexander was natural for Mauna Lani because of his sterling reputation as a coach that has been developed over the years.
Watkins loves triathlons and competed in several Ironman races including the championship in Kona in 2016. He’s also participated in Ironman 70.3, known as Honu, and Lava Man.
Watkins has teamed up with Ironman World Champion Dave Scott for a triathlon camp while working at the Four Seasons Resort Hualālai. He said the camps, in general, are a great bonding experience for new and seasoned athletes.
When Watkins first started in triathlons, he said the camps provided a way he could learn and grow a network within the endurance sport community.
As an amateur racer, Watkins said those interested in the sport should embrace the unknown.
“Know your goals and how you’re going to achieve them,” he said.
For the past two years, the championship — which involves a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run — has split the men’s and women’s races on two different days in two locations. This year, Kona will host the women’s race on Oct. 11, while the men will compete in Nice, France, on Sept. 14.
Alexander said the goal behind Sansego is to make the things that he learned and the people he came in contact with during his 25 years of professional racing accessible to every athlete.
Through his years of training and coaching, Alexander said the critical thing athletes need to remember is triathlon training is “never a one-size-fits-all.”
“Great training looks a little differently for each athlete,” he said. “The principles of endurance training are not a secret, never have been. It’s about applying those principles in each individual circumstance.”
During the camp, Alexander said trainers will talk specifically about nutrition pacing, training requirements for the course and its nuances.
During the boot camp in March, athletes will get a taste of the 140.6-mile course’s intensity: high winds; hot, humid temperatures; and 1,800 vertical meters of elevation on the bike course.
Boot camp training includes running in Kona’s technology park, Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai‘i Authority, swimming in Kailua Bay and cycling on Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway.
The training also is great for course reconnaissance for those able to qualify for the world championship.
“It’s never just a one-size-fits-all, and great training looks a little differently for each athlete,” Alexander said. “Even though the principles of training don’t really change, you have to meet people where they’re at in their own journey with their own current level of experience.”
He remembers the first time he watched on TV the iconic swim, bike, run race. It was in the 1980s, with the opening shot from a helicopter showing palm trees swaying with the trade winds, followed by a cut to “superhuman athletes battling through the lava fields.”
Watching athletes race over long distances in extreme conditions of heat and humidity captured his attention and imagination.
Alexander witnessed some of the world championship’s early iconic moments, including Dave Scott and Mark Allen running shoulder to shoulder in 1989. He also watched the 1982 race replay of Julie Moss crawling across the finish line.
“I just thought these athletes are crazy,” Alexander said.
But Alexander would go on to carve out his own path, competing in his first Ironman World Championship in 2007. In his third championship victory in 2011, he broke the course record that stood for 15 years, at 8 hours, 3 minutes and 56 seconds, which he said with a laugh “is pretty pedestrian by today’s standards.”
German Patrick Lange beat Alexander’s course record in 2017 with 8:01:40, and last year Lange posted an eye-popping new record of 7:35:53. Of course, these advances in time also are helped by advances in technology, equipment and nutrition.
Sansego enables triathletes of all levels to train like an elite competitor for up to a week, and take what they learn to incorporate into their own training.
The camp includes time with coaches who specialize in performance mindset, nutrition and strength and conditioning to make “your body bomb-proof.”
Alexander said: “Nutrition is a very big thing in our sport. Fueling your body and staying hydrated, particularly in a climate like Hawai‘i.”
The boot camp also offers one-on-one swim stroke analysis, nuanced bike fit adjustments for more power, aerodynamics and comfort and guidance on how to train and race in extreme heat.
In the boot camps, Alexander said he sees so much enjoyment from the pros to the beginners as they improve their time, or learn more about nutrition and recovery.
“You see athletes light up when they meet their goals,” Alexander said. “People want to learn and improve and get good training in.
“We just try and give them a little bit of a good grounding and all those things so they can hopefully leave the camp and they have the information that they need to go and make smart training choices and continue their journey on their own back in their home environment.”
