Jürgen Zäck in Thailand

It is a bit of a shock to see Jürgen Zäck at home in Laguna Phuket Thailand, sunburned, handsome and still a fit 5-feet 11-inches tall and 172 pounds. Minus just a few wrinkles, he is precisely his 1989 racing weight and those abs remain cut and the legs are still powerful. He is racing now - but only occasionally and he plans to be at Kona next year - 10 years after his retirement as a professional - when he turns 50.

But this time around he will be racing the 50-54 age group after qualifying at Ironman Malaysia in time of 10:18:23. His fearsome bike prowess, with which he once held the record at Ironman Hawaii (4:27:42 on a Quintana Roo in 1993) and at Ironman Europe in Roth (4:14:16), has now come down to humbler air. He rode a respectable age group mark of 5:07:49 at Ironman Malaysia and his once sub-3 hour run came in at 4:03:22.

Zäck and Wolfgang Dittrich were the original German triathlon überbikers, to be followed in succession by Thomas Hellriegel, Normann Stadler, and the newly crowned überbiker prince Sebastian Kienle. In his day, Zäck was given fearsome nicknames like The Punisher, The Intimidator and Zack Attack for the fear he struck into the hearts of super runners from Mark Allen and Dave Scott to Peter Reid and Luc van Lierde. Now, his work is coaching and encouraging a range of athletes from beginners to age groupers to a few pros at his headquarters at the amazing $120 million Thanyapura sports facility just 10k from the Challenge Laguna Phuket race start.

On the day of this interview, Zäck was a genial, multitasking host not only to the interviewer he was giving a swift and informative tour of the impressive Thanyapura facilities, but offering rapid-fire supportive hellos to some kids he coaches who were competing in the Challenge Junior race at Thanyapura and who enjoy and benefit from his positive attitude and deep bank of knowledge of what it takes to be a complete triathlete.

The next day, Zäck cruised to the finish of the adult race - Challenge Laguna Phuket - with virtually no special training . He finished 6th in Men’s 45-49 in a time of 5:29:21. His 2:24:33 bike split was 13:45 behind winner Ruedi Wild, 4:58 minutes faster than Melissa Hauschildt. He had plenty more in the tank if it was important. But the numbers are no longer as important as they once were. Not now, in this meaningful, peaceful new chapter of his life.

Slowtwitch: When did you encounter Thailand?

Jürgen Zäck: It started in 1994. I had no idea where Phuket was when I got invited to the Laguna Phuket Triathlon. Then I found out it was in Thailand. I finished 4th that year in Kona, and I was traveling to all the TV talk shows in Germany for two weeks. So I had to turn down the invitation. The next year I was invited again. That was when my father passed away so I couldn't go either. In '96 they invited me a third time. That is when I fell in love with a girl in Kona and I decided to stay in Hawaii with her instead. In ’97 they invited me for a 4th time. So I said OK. They were are very persistent and I decided to go just to be polite.

ST: What was your notion of Laguna Phuket before you got there?

Jürgen: I didn't like my idea of Asia that much. I didn't like spicy food. I didn't like the crowded cities like Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur and the Indian cities like Calcutta. I didn't like the heat and humidity. So it was initially not appealing to me to do a triathlon there. Somehow I took their invitation on the 4th time.

ST: And what was the reality?

Jürgen: I stayed at the Banyan Tree Laguna Resort. It was awesome. The race was well organized and I came back for a second year in '97. Same VIP pro treatment from Laguna. Afterwards I flew home and decided I need to go back on my own because I hadn't seen Thailand. This was just the race. And it was amazing. I stayed in a villa resort. Awesome. But this is not the real Thailand. So I came back and I traveled like a back packer. I went to the north of the country. I went to Phi Phi Island. I went to Bangkok. I stayed in cheap places. I was bathing in rivers and under waterfalls in the north. So I saw all different areas in Thailand. That is when I really fell in love with the country. Suddenly all the things I thought I didn't like before - the food, the people especially the religion - I loved.

ST: Thailand has many religions.

Jürgen: Yeah. The nice thing about Thailand is these religions get along very well. The Muslims and the Buddhists and Christians stay peaceful. So I discovered Phuket as a holiday - and also a bit of a training destination. So before I went to San Diego to prepare for Kona, I always spent a few weeks in Phuket just to get started in warm weather conditions. And then after I retired - 2005 was my last year racing as a pro and in 2006 I was retired - I came to Phuket and served in the race organization. I was the head race marshal for the Laguna Phuket Triathlon for a few years.

ST: You never have been a triathlon tech obsessive - watching your heart rate monitor, the power meters, all the gadgets. From what you tell me, you are not that man. You are more interested in a wider world, in matters outside of triathlon?

Jürgen: I am not into the gadgets. It looked like this when I was riding a high tech TT bike. But I was more into old fashioned stuff. I trained mostly without heart rate monitor. No power meter.

ST: Like Dave Scott raced for the most part?

Jürgen: Exactly. In November 2010 I met Klaus Hebben, a developer who is the owner of this place called Thanyapura. He is a very nice gentleman who wanted to show me his sport facility with a private school. I thought, ‘OK. This guy has a school and a pool and a locker room and he called it a sports facility.’ And he was so nice I said, ‘OK I'll check it out.’ I saw a world-class 50 meter pool with many lanes. I saw his school, the meditation center. I saw the construction and the map of many more things that were going to happen. Then we had a talk and both decided I should start working here and establish a triathlon community. So that’s what I did. And I made sure we started to offer group training.

ST: Who were the first triathletes you invited to use the Thanyapura center?

Jürgen: The first people who came were expats living here. There was already a triathlon community - but they were all spread out. Some people didn’t like to train with the other people. And there were different sorts who were training together in small groups. So I decided to attract these people first.

ST: What came next?

Jürgen: So that was my first goal - to attract the expats from Phuket. And the next step was to get a few of the people I knew from Europe to come over here. The word spread quickly. And then we explored the Asian market like Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and also Bangkok.

ST: How does the magnificent sports facilities combine with the school?

Jürgen: After we attracted the Asian business, the next step was to establish an elite program for younger athletes at our school in Phuket combined with our facilities. So we have a private school - Phuket International Academy - with a boarding school and fellowships for talented kids in tennis, swimming and triathlon. And we gave away six scholarships to triathlon. And those kids today were winning all the races at our Challenge Junior event.

ST: One of your athletes, Kyle Izzo from Chicago, was 2nd.

Jürgen: And his brother Brett, who didn’t race, is even faster. CHUCKLES So it was very successful for this team. We do also attract a lot of pro athletes to train here. We had Belinda Granger here and the Brett Sutton squad for a time.

ST: Who were some of the pros who decided to train here?

Jürgen: Belinda Granger, Caroline Steffen, Casey Munro and Paul Ambrose. Frederik Croneborg of Sweden was actually the first. He was one of the athletes I was coaching and decided to stay here. He came from Shanghai where he was based and moved to Phuket. He has been here almost four years.

ST: I am guessing he didn’t want to live in a crowded city of many millions and pollution with few places for safe long rides to train?

Jürgen: It was also a place that is getting too cold in the winter.

ST: Hasn’t Thanyapura recently attracted more big names?

Jürgen: Then we got Chris McCormack a year and a half ago to train with us. He ended up staying here as well and became the Executive Chairman of Thanyapura. So he has a job here now. And soon we are going to have Nils Frommhold, Jan Raphael, Natascha Badmann, Faris Al-Sultan and Leanda Cave have also trained with us for a while. A lot of pros came here and many of them want to come back.

ST: Tell us about the effect Thanyapura had on some pros?

Jürgen: Frederik Croneborg was actually the first. He came four years ago. He improved a lot when he was here. He won Challenge Atlantic City and he also won Ironman 70.3 Taiwan last year. So he is actually a very big name in Asia and especially in the heat races.

ST: Tell us about your Triathlon Academy staff.

Jürgen: We have a good team of coaches which is me and Ben Hammond of Australia; Brooke Langereis, a female triathlon coach from Australia; and Ricky Phanthip, who is our Thai coach. He is also the fastest runner on the island and one of the fastest duathletes in Asia. He also started four years ago with me. He built a Thai running group called Born Free to Run, which is a charity organization. They get donations and give sports equipment so that all the Thai kids in the neighborhood are able to take part in triathlon and running activities. That has been doing really well.

ST: What is the volume of triathlon training sessions through the seasons?

Jürgen: At the moment our triathlon program is all year round. We offer around 20 sessions per week and it is like a non-stop triathlon camp. The number of participants per session is between 20 and 40. On the long bike rides on Sundays sometimes we have 60 or 70 people. This is open for anybody because we also want to integrate the Thai cyclists.

ST: How do you deal with the traffic I saw on the ride from the airport?

Jürgen: We stay on the main roads and just go from here to Phuket town or to Patong with traffic. But for the most part, we actually go from Thanyapura north to east or cross the bridge to the mainland where it is a paradise for cycling. The road quality is very good. There is not much traffic. The terrain is nice – we have lots of rolling hills and also flat parts. And there are some extremely steep climbs of up to 20 percent. So we’ve got it all. And there is a big cycling community here on Phuket. And we have excellent local bike shops that encourage people to start cycling.

ST: I presume not all local Thais are well off. Do people of modest means get used bikes?

Jürgen: The Thais are very particular with their bike material. They are saving their money to buy good frames, carbon wheels. And they maintain their bikes very well.

ST: The Thais I have seen in the sport are very athletic, even graceful?

Jürgen: They also are very well positioned on their bike. All the Thais look very good. And there is some quite good talent among the teenagers.

ST: Tell us about the founder of Thanyapura.

Jürgen: Klaus Hebben is a triathlete himself. He is a developer who made his money in the oil business and in the stock market. And then he retired and sailed around the world and when he came to Phuket and he looked up the hills at night and the beach and decided to stay here for a while because it is so beautiful. He has never left since.

ST: Why did create this magnificent facility?

Jürgen: The inspiration I think came from Ted Pulaski. [Pulaski, a former U.S. Marine officer was a triathlon enthusiast who worked for the J. David organization which was shut down for operating a Ponzi scheme which cost investors $80 million. J. David sponsored arguably the first professional triathlon team that included Mark Allen and Scott Tinley. Pulaski was charged but the charges were dropped and he has been working as a consultant since 1984].

Pulaski is from California and he encouraged Klaus to do something for his health. Klaus started triathlon because he also loved cycling. He went on biking trips which was what he always loved to do. Then he started swimming and running as well and did a few triathlons. When Klaus’s son came to school age, he said, ‘OK, I'm going to build a school and with the school came the sport facilities. And the sport facilities were so great that his friends said, 'OK, Why don't you do a sport club as well?'

ST: Ten or 15 year ago could you have imagined doing this?

Jürgen: Not really. When I retired, I was really tired of triathlon for a while. I was traveling a lot. I did other things. I was almost not training at all and I spent most of my time with people who were not involved with triathlon. My triathlon activity was just one or two hours of training per week – just when the weather was nice – and that was it. I went from training 30 hours a week to one or two hours a week - but I felt great. I didn’t miss anything. I didn’t gain any weight. I didn’t have any health problems. I didn’t get depressed. I was just enjoying my life.

ST: What brought you back into the world of triathlon?

Jürgen: Seven years ago I decided to do some online coaching. You don’t have to training with athletes every day to do online coaching. But because of the work here in Phuket, I was required to train with the athletes. Then I came back to a decent shape and I did my first triathlon after my retirement just for fun. That was a little Olympic distance race in Thailand. I was 4th. Only the Hong Kong National team was ahead of me. The next race was in Bangkok in the middle of the city along the river and I won that race overall.

ST: What was the next step?

Jürgen: So I thought, ‘OK this is great.’ Then I did the Phuket race. After that I decided I would do a few more competitions. But I don't train for myself. I train for my athletes and with my athletes. The fitness I get from this is more a byproduct. Then I had the foolish idea to do an Ironman in Malaysia to qualify for Kona, and I managed to get a Kona slot. So you will see me in Kona next year as an age grouper.

ST: Not as a pro?

Jürgen: No, as an age grouper. I am 49. Next year I will be 50. I am not sure I will put in the time to win my age group. But I will definitely enjoy being in Kona and meeting old friends. And maybe I will do a stop in San Diego to see some more friends because I haven’t been there since 2005. I am looking forward to this.

ST: You said when you did triathlon as a pro you had more time to yourself. Now you are beholden to many athletes and to your organization, where is the time for yourself?

Jürgen: At the moment it is really crazy. I think I spend every minute somehow with triathlon. It is a full-time non-stop activity.

ST: It pays you a living. Is there joy in it?

Jürgen: Yes I enjoy it. What I really love is the come and go of athletes from all over the world. Athletes come for a few days, a week or a month and you meet people from all over the world, people from different countries, different languages and ages and different skin colors and cultures. This is what is fascinating about this sport. You get the vibes of triathlon from all over the world. And so it did widen my whole horizon immensely.

ST: You were the original Uberbiker. The man singlehandedly responsible for Americans learning what an umlaut is. And then, of course, came all the other nicknames: The Intimidator, the Terminator, the Punisher and many others.

Jürgen: Zäck Attack!

ST: Is the Zäck Attacker still alive?

Jürgen: Well I can still attack on the bike if I want to. But I don't need to that much. As I said before, my training for and with the athletes has priority. So I don’t want to show off too much. But we have lots of training partners here who are extremely fast. So I have a hard time to keep up with them at all. Especially swimming and running, because I am not really in the shape I used to be. Biking is still OK.

ST: You were a much better runner than others gave you credit. In 1997, you ran 2:47:15 to finish second at Roth – by 1:15 to Luc van Lierde, whose world mark of 7:50:27 lasted 15 years. Your 7:51:42 remain the 5th fastest Ironman distance time ever.

Jürgen Back then I was able to run under 31 minutes for 10k. But now I can maybe run 38 minutes. That is it. So I did slow down a little bit. But that is not what is important. What matters is I am enjoying it, and that I can still train with top people.

ST: Have you coached any extraordinary athletes?

Jürgen: Yes of course I've coached several athletes who did 8:10 to 8:30 Ironmans like Markus Fachbach and Jens Kaiser of Germany and Frederik Croneborg of Sweden. But I am more proud of coaching age groupers. Especially when they reach a certain age. because that is not easy. When you have somebody who is 45 or 50 and has a family and a full time job and he can train only let’s say 10 hours a week - and he wants to make it to Kona. This is more challenging for me. And I really now enjoy training age groupers.

ST: So is it fair to say you don't need or crave the limelight? That you have embraced the pure joy of coaching the age grouper?

Jürgen: Of course I enjoy it when I have a talent and somebody who is a professional or has the potential to be a professional. But for me right now it is very rewarding to training age groupers, beginners and also the ambitious age groupers. Right now I have I would say more than 50 percent of the athletes I am coaching want to go to Kona. So besides my work here at Thanyapura, I also do online coaching.

ST: What is Z Coaching?

Jürgen: That is my coaching business I've had for seven years now. We offer also Thanyapura coaching. At the moment I have 27 athletes so this is already a handful. But that is what I really enjoy.

ST: Do you miss the personal touch with online coaching?

Jürgen: With online coaching it is important to meet them in person at least once. That's because when I meet the athletes, I can really sense and screen them in a short time and know exactly where their strength is and their weakness and what they really have to pay attention to.

ST: What format do you use to facilitate long distance communication?

Jürgen: I communicate with athletes all over the world online and we use Training Peaks software to keep track. Online coaching with a laptop is what really makes me happy at the moment. So is the training with the athletes in person – they are both fun at the moment.

ST: What do you think of current überbikers like Sebastian Kienle?

Jürgen: His win at Kona was well deserved. He is a good example for good cyclists who don’t hide in the pack and are willing to push it at the front. Sebastian Kienle keeps the tradition alive for the Germans that Wolfgang Dittrich and I have started. And then it was Thomas Hellriegel and Normann Stadler. Now it is Kienle. And I think Jan Frodeno also has a chance to be an überbiker to go with his great swim and run. I believe in the future Sebastian and Jan they may win Kona more than once.

ST: What do you think of American Andrew Starykowicz, who posted 4:02 and 4:04 record bike splits at Ironman Florida?

Jürgen: Awesome. Now I hope he gets back into good shape because he hasn't been racing so well recently. But he has the potential. I like the guy. I hope he gets back in good shape and smashes the field along with Sebastian Kienle.