Most folks know Dave Mirra because of his BMX Freestyle exploits and some people on this site might even own one of the video games that bear his name. He is also known for his Rallycross skills and a superb string of X-Games victories, but now Mirra is focused on triathlon, doing well and loving it. At last weekend's 70.3 Texas in Galveston Mirra finished in 4:23:57 with a 2:08:18 bike split and 1:33:03 run and grabbed 4th place in M40-44 and a spot for Mont Tremblant.

Slowtwitch: It is good to chat with you Dave.

Dave Mirra: I really appreciate you thinking about me.

ST: We mentioned that you came from BMX and Rallycross, but how did that triathlon connection come up?

Dave: You know what, this is pretty cool. I am from Syracuse, NY originally and live in Greenville, NC now, and I went with my wife and daughters to Syracuse to see family and friends. It was 2012 and the 70.3 Syracuse was going on, and my buddy Eric Hinman said ‘hey would you want to go for a bike ride? It will be a pretty easy ride and we will just do the course backwards.’ I said ok, whatever, and I had a Trek Madone road bike and those guys were on tri bikes. So I did the ride and after 50 miles I thought I was done. I saw people coming out of the water, getting their wetsuits ripped off and I was totally oblivious and it didn’t really impact me at all. But I saw Eric training intensely and very consistent and he was doing Ironman Lake Placid that summer. So I said ‘I am gonna go up there and watch him race - he trains really hard and I want to see what it is all about.’

I brought the kids up and the wife and went up there. When the canon went off and I heard Mike Reilly talking, I found myself tearing up a little bit. I though wow, everyone is here for a reason and worked so hard to get here. They are not just showing up and winging it. And at one point the seed was planted. Later that summer I started working with Eric and his coach Mike Corona, got myself a time trial bike and was fully into it.

ST: Was it that simple?

Dave: Early on Mike Corona said he wanted to put a PowerTap on my bike and go for a ride with me and Eric, and see what my power was coming from BMX. So I got on my road bike and they were on TT ones and I would keep up, and I think my average power was 260-270 out of the gate, never trained. And he said that was very impressive.

ST: So which event was your first race?

Dave: It was a half Ironman in March of 2013 a smaller race called Bayshore 70.4. It features a 1.3 mile swim, 56 mile run and 13.1 mile run and it is out in Long Beach, CA.

ST: And?

Dave: I actually did well. I swam decent, got on the bike and caught the leaders. There were only about 75 to 100 people in it, but I caught the leader on a vaguely marked course that wasn’t closed off to traffic. I even thought I was lost, but I had a great race. I did a total of 3 Half Ironman events in 2013 and now just did one in Galveston and had a good one.

ST: Your bike split in Galveston was indeed very solid. Was that the best one to date?

Dave: It was, it was definitely the fastest.

ST: You are basically a full year into competing in triathlons. What have you learned?

Dave: A big thing is nutrition, and less is sometimes more. Also, when you have easy days you should go easy and on hard days you should go hard. I think when I first got into it I always wanted to go hard. I now try to train smarter, because smarter lasts longer.

ST: What did you do nutrition wise in Texas?

Dave: I got out of the swim and had a bottle of coconut water on the bike to start, and then I would do a swig of Powerbar Perform every 20 minutes, and I skipped the first aid station and did water the rest of the ride. Where in the past I would just do sports drinks and I would cramp and get oversaturated. I think I thought if you go faster you need to get more into you, but your body can only do so much. I did a couple bike splits last year that were very hard and I just could not run after those. This bike split for me was something where I did not want to work really hard and so I was able to run. I made sure I hit my goals leading up to Galveston and I wanted to ride the bike, but wanted ride it so I could run. This offseason I got rid of some sugary drinks and used more water and gels. I am a pretty lean person and I feel kind of weird when I take in too much sugar.

ST: Do you ride with a power meter?

Dave: I do.

ST: Describe your bike setup.

Dave: I have a Cervelo P5/6 and I love it. It is my favorite bike. I have ridden for bike companies for 25 years and this was the first time in my life where I said ‘you know what, I am going to buy exactly what I want. I am under no obligation to ride a certain bike and I have been doing that for a very long time.’ So it was kind of a freedom for me and I love it. I wanted a Ferrari and bought that P5. I also use Zipp carbon clincher wheels and have a Quarq power meter.

ST: I know you punched the ticket for 70.3 Worlds in Mont Tremblant. What is the goal?

Dave: I know where I need to be. My biking is good and I feel good about that. I really need to work very hard on my run and extremely hard on my swim. I want to have a great time, I don’t want to just have an ok time - I want to have a PR for myself. I don’t want to feel that I qualified and can now just soak it all in. I want a PR, and wherever that may fall is to be seen. There will be some amazing athletes there and that is what I love about this sport.

ST: Where did all that bike endurance come from? Endurance a long those lines is not really what we think about when we think about BMX freestyle.

Dave: You know what, I have been on road bikes for about 12 years. I would road bike all the time up in Syracuse, riding from downtown through the country to the small town of Chittenango where I grew up, went to high school and graduated. And there are some great roads up there. Plus I really understand the machine and how to get the most out of each pedal stroke on every rotation. I also didn’t just start trick riding, I rode my BMX bike at 10-years old to the city which was 20 miles away. That was basically my transportation. I was basically 4-years old, learned to ride a bike, never quit, and still ride a bike today. It is pretty wild - my life has been dedicated to a bike in some shape of form.

ST: When did you retire from BMX Freestyle competition?

Dave: Basically my last event was July 2011.

ST: Was that a planned thing or how did that become your final event?

Dave: You know it is crazy, I never really planned it - I just knew it was time. I basically saw a few friends of mine who were riding and had been doing so for a long time and were getting hurt waiting for this one particular event to retire. I had made my run, I loved riding and had a pretty big injury in 2010 in Salt Lake City and then just did not have the drive anymore. It was also a question of risk and reward. So it wasn’t a real finalized ‘oh I am going to retire and do one last event,’ I just did one last event and realized I had to be true to myself. If you don’t care if you are first or last you probably shouldn’t be doing it.

ST: So you basically did the event and walked away.

Dave: Yeah, I wear it on my sleeves. When I love something I work on it every day, but when I am over it I am not doing it and it becomes a chore. Then you have to listen to yourself and decide when it is no longer worth it.

ST: Word has it you went to Kona last year.

ST: I watched my friend Eric qualified in Lake Placid in 2012 and again in 2013 and back in North Carolina my friend Bruce Richter qualified for the 2013 Kona event at the 2012 Ironman Florida. I had also become friends with Ian Mikelson on Instagram and started to work with him, and he also was racing and I wanted to support those guys. I wanted to feel the energy and knew that was going to be The race with the fastest people going to be there. So I flew over with my wife and 2 kids and we got a hotel. We in fact were lucky and stayed at the Queen K overlooking the finish line.

I am not really a star struck person and through all the things I have done I have met a lot of cool people along the way. But while I was there seeing all the fastest people, I was ‘wow, this is insane.’ It was unbelievable, I felt like a little kid and it was awesome.

ST: Was it overwhelming?

Dave: I still haven’t grasped it fully yet, but it gave me the motivation after seeing that and went home and got back on it. I was committed to another level. I think everyone can agree that training over the winter can be tough, especially for people who have been doing it for years and years. I am still very new to it and it is pretty crazy to me what the fastest people in the world put in it to get to be so fast.

ST: Where are you right now in terms of training volume?

Dave: Anywhere from 12 to 16 hours.

ST: And how is that split up?

Dave: It is a majority of running, and I do some good bike sessions. There is also some swimming, but my problem is if there is something to skip, I likely will skip a swim. I know that I can maintain the bike pretty easy, but I need to focus in being able to do those harder runs. And really need to commit to the full plan. Coming from BMX I had always adlibbed so much, for so many years. The structure and the consistency is something I really love about this sport and I just need to follow that plan.

ST: Is Kona luring you now?

Dave: I am not so sure how it will shake out. Right now I am loving the 70.3 distance and I still kind of envy the full Ironman athletes. But I know I hurt pretty bad after a half marathon and can’t imagine doing a full one. I want to keep it fun, build into it and not have pressure. Really treat it as something I really love to do, but avoid the pressure. I have my goals certainly and love the hard work. So Kona one day, it is hard to imagine right now, but it is in there somewhere.

ST: How do you wife and kids feel about your triathlon aspirations?

Dave: They are awesome. My wife is super supportive, in 2011 I stayed with [surfing legend] Laird Hamilton for 6 weeks to get ready for a celebrity boxing match in Las Vegas and saw my family only for 5 days. Anything that requires hard work she is right behind me, and my 6-year old daughter actually did a triathlon before I did. She was the first one in our family who did one.

ST: Will there be more to come now that she has tasted it?

Dave: I was thinking that one day my two daughters and I will be doing Kona together. So that is a long-term thing for us.

ST: Greenville, NC is kind of BMX central with many BMX Pros living there. Have you inspires others?

Dave: I am getting a lot of support, especially now after that last weekend. I think it will trickle down. Because as I said before, once you reach a certain age in BMX the risk versus reward thing comes up. And how rad is it when you can train hard and feel awesome and the risk is not quite as great. Your feeling might get hurt, but not your body.

ST: When was the last time you were in a Rally car and I assume it was a MINI?

Dave: The last time I raced, I was in the mini at the final race of 2013. I was the fastest in the first two practice heats then the motor went. Bummer.

ST: What are your thoughts about risk and reward in that sport?

Dave: Rallycross is a lot of fun and the risk isn't too high. It never bothered me to bang doors with the other drivers.

ST: And what kind of car is your daily driver at home?

Dave: My daily driver is a flat black 2012 ford raptor. My wife has a Prius.

ST: So what is your next race?

Dave: I am doing 70.3 Raleigh, and then RAAM on a team with Dave Zabriskie, Ben Bostrom and Micky Dymond.

ST: Well, that sounds like a completely different story altogether.

Dave: And after that I will do Vineman. How crazy is that?

ST: Will you have legs left for Vineman and Mont Tremblant after RAAM?

Dave: I will either be in really good shape or very bad shape.

ST: Good luck this season and we will likely see you in Raleigh.

Dave: Thanks, that sounds great.

We will follow up with Dave later this summer as his season progresses.