The 32-year-old arrives in Hawaii for Saturday’s Ironman Word Championship in the form of her life after a gruelling five-week training camp in Lanzarote
Lucy Charles-Barclay feels like she’s in the shape of her life ahead of her bid to win a second Ironman world title, and she has the data to prove it.
She has spent five intensive weeks training at Club La Santa, a triathlete’s haven in Lanzarote, posting career-record numbers for watts on the bike and lactate levels while running, the latter translating to a theoretical marathon time of sub 2hr 30min – that is if her marathon didn’t follow a 3.8km swimming and a 180km cycle. “These are the best numbers I’ve ever seen,” she says, sounding almost disbelieving.
Charles-Barclay was so blown away by the results that she felt she had to put them to the test, so midway through her training camp she entered a T100 series race near Valencia, and surged to victory against a high-calibre field.
Even over that 100km distance, less than half of a full 226.3km Ironman, it was confirmation of what Charles-Barclay suspected: that she might be unlocking a new level of performance at exactly the right time. She finished runner-up four times at the World Championship in Kona, Hawaii before finally claiming the gold medal in 2023, setting a new course record in the process. Now, after missing last year through injury, she is back in Hawaii on Saturday determined to reclaim her crown.
It has been a long and often painful road to this moment. For years Charles-Barclay couldn’t understand why she was so unlucky with injuries. all over her body with no discernible pattern, and she went to great lengths to investigate, giving herself over to Red Bull’s specialist unit near Salzburg for study.
She eventually received a surprise diagnosis for Coeliac disease which sparked a transformation of her diet and a long education in how her gut responded to food. She replaced the gluten-heavy carbs that had effectively been “poisoning” her before races with rice, chicken and eggs. It took more than six months to fully heal and longer to learn how best to fuel her body, but from there the results were emphatic. Injuries are now rare, and she has become stronger and stronger, reaching levels she didn’t think possible.
The T100 – part of triathlon’s new F1-style championship at glamorous locations all over the world – has been a useful proving ground for Charles-Barclay 2.0. She pulled off a memorable victory in London early this summer and the latest win in Spain has thrown her into contention for a lucrative victory in the overall series.
But the priority is Hawaii and winning another world title. It will be an extraordinary physical test not only due to the sheer distance to be covered over nine gruelling hours but because of the hostile environment on the island, where the intense heat can be stifling, humid air clings to the skin and winds whip across the volcanic plains.
Lanzarote is the best Europe has to offer as a mimic. “It’s super hot, very windy,” Charles-Barclay says. Club La Santa has all the high-tech facilities a triathlete could wish for, including three Olympic-sized pools, a saltwater lagoon, an athletics stadium and a bike workshop, and it attracts the best on the planet all year round.
There, with her husband and coach Reece, Charles-Barclay has been churning through 30 hours of swim, bike, run and strength training each week, ratcheting up her sessions to extreme lengths, like her 32km runs and her high-intensity six-hour cycle rides in deliberately horrendous conditions, so that the Ironman itself might feel almost tame in comparison. Almost.
She has been riding outside to increase her confidence facing the Hawaiian crosswinds, and running inside in simulated heat wearing what looks almost like a giant hazmat suit to artificially ramp up the temperatures. “I looked like a painter-decorator,” she laughs. “It’s so you get used to that uncomfortable feeling that you're going to be racing in when you're in Kona.”
Several running machines were destroyed in the name of those indoor sessions. “We had to keep changing treadmill because the running belt would get too wet from my sweat. I had to do the last 10k run outside because there weren’t any dry treadmills left.”
She has been fine-tuning her unique diet too, to make sure she is perfectly prepared on the start line. “I did a big push on pre-race testing my nutrition to make sure my gut is used to it and I’m used to what it feels like when I run off the bike, which usually doesn't feel great initially, but then you check your energy levels and think, OK, the fueling that I did during the bike sessions is definitely paying off on the run.”
Downtime is a rarity in these crucial weeks and about the most fun Charles-Barclay had in Lanzarote was going for a walk, wishing she was with her dogs at home. She spent her birthday on her own because her husband had to fly home to start preparing for the T100 event. “I went and did a 10k run, and I saw 10 dogs on that run - that’s about as good as it got for my birthday treat.”
But the string of busted running belts is another signal that Charles-Barclay is reaching a new plain, a sign that her body has adapted effectively to the heat. Conditions need to be favourable but it very possible that she takes down her own course record in Kona. The past few days have been spent tapering down the training efforts to be just right for another tilt at Ironman history.
“It’s a very small group of people that have ever won the race,” she says. “It's an even smaller group of people that have ever repeated winning the race [seven women]. So if would be pretty special to do it.
“I think all the years before I've gone in with so much pressure, so much expectation, like a huge weight on my shoulders to try and win, having come second four times. So this time going in, I'm like, well, I have won it. That was the hardest thing, was trying to get that first win.”
Charles-Barclay knows nothing is guaranteed in sport. But she also knows that to beat her this weekend, someone will have to swim, bike and run the race of their life.
“This time around I feel like the pressure is not really on me, it's on the other girls that really want to win it for the first time. But equally, I feel in the best shape I've ever been.”
Category: General Sports
