Martin KrnávekThe man from Karlsbad
conducted by Amy White, June 8, 2001
Czech triathlete Martin Krnávek has been spending the last few weeks in San Francisco, staying with fellow triathletes from the Golden Gate Triathlon Club and swimming, biking and running the city's streets, trails and bay. Last month, he dropped in on the South Bay Triathlon at the Uvas Reservoir, near San Jose, "for some fast training" and showed a clean pair of heels to the local elites, including perennial age-group champion Pete Kain, up-and-coming pro Brian Lavelle and elite Tim Sheeper. He'll toe the line this weekend at the Escape from Alcatraz, lining up against Olympic gold medalist Simon Whitfield, Australian short-course-turned-long-course speedsters Chris McCormack and Craig Walton, and long-course aces Peter Reid, Chris Legh and Cameron Widoff, among a host of others in a deep field.
Krnávek , 26, was born in Ostrov, Czechoslovakia, and currently lives in Karlsbad. He's been in triathlon for nine years, turning to it when he added biking and running to his competitive swim training. He's finished fifth twice in the World Championships, in 1999 and '98, and was a member of the Czech team at the Sydney Olympics, where he finished 13th. Teammate Jan Rehula brought home a bronze medal.
On the road to qualifying for Syndey he scored a number of ITU World Cup victories, including first-place finishes in Hungary and Brno, Switzerland last year. In 1999, he was third in the European Championships, and he was Czech national champion in 1999 and 2000.
Already this year, Krnávek was fourth in St. Croix (his first half-Ironman) and first at the ITU race in St. Kitts. At various races in the past two years, he has beaten all those lining up alongside him for the Escape from Alcatraz race with the exception of Ironman world champion Peter Reid.
He's also planning to race at the European Championships in Karlsbad later this month; the ITU World Championships in Edmonton in July; the World Cup race in Corner Brook, Canada; Mrs. T's; the Goodwill Games in Brisbane and the Los Angeles Triathlon in August.
Slowtwitch Editor Amy White thought it'd be fun to hear about how Krnávek 's stay in San Francisco has been.
AMY WHITE: Tell us what the last few weeks have been like for you in California. Are you enjoying the training and racing in the Bay Area?
MARTIN KRNÁVEK: Since arriving in California after the St. Kitts ITU race, I've been staying in Burlingame on the Peninsula, just south of San Francisco. The weather has been wonderful: In Karlsbad at the moment, it's only 8 degrees Celsius (56 F) and raining. California is just great for training. The local high school has a 50-meter open air pool with a masters program where I can train with local pro triathletes, and there are even some swimmers who are faster than me. There is also a track at the school, and I can ride either flat or hilly right from the house where I'm staying. In the Czech Republic, we just don't have things like bike lanes.
I have trained with big groups from the Golden Gate Triathlon Club, too, doing hill repeats with them on the famous sand ladder on the Alcatraz course. It's very good to see so many people training and racing everywhere. I went to the South Bay Triathlon near San Jose to do a race for some fast training and there were 700 people in the middle of the countryside for triathlon. Americans might not be surprised by so many people, but in the Czech Republic a typical race has only 60 or 70 competitors.
AW: Now, if you could contrast that for us with the kind of training and racing you'd be doing if you were home in Czechoslovakia now...
MK: If I had stayed in Europe, then I would be racing the European Cup again. I won it in '97 and '98, and in '99 I was second behind Andrew Johns of the UK, after the rules were changed halfway through the season. In the USA, the racing is more challenging, the weather is better and not so many people look at you as if you are a crazy man when you run or ride a bike.
AW: Please tell us a little bit about the triathlon training and racing scene in Czechoslovakia. You and fellow Olympian Jan Rehula (third in Sydney) are perhaps the best-known Czech triathletes. Is it difficult to train there? What are the big challenges facing the triathlon community there?
MK:There are probably only 2,000 active triathletes in the whole of the Czech Republic. So races have much fewer competitors with only a single wave for all the men and a single wave for all the women. There are no age-group prizes, and triathlon clubs are more like small groups of ten or 15 training partners.
The Czech Triathlon Federation has only the money it raises from advertising and TV rights for the Czech Cup races, a little from the government and a little from the Czech Olympic Committee in the two years preceding each summer Games. Corporate sponsorship is very hard to find. Most people are amazed at how we managed to put two men ahead of the Americans in Sydney.
In winter, the weather can be very bad and there is usually one month each year where all I can do is swim.
AW: Tell us about your experiences at St. Croix in the half-Ironman there. Was that your first attempt at long-course racing, and do you plan to do more of it?
MK: It was my first half-Ironman, although I tried Ironman South Africa this year but DNF'ed during the run because of the terrible winds. Long course is very different from Olympic distance, and I think it's only possible for me to do it successfully right after winter endurance training. In the summer, I do mostly shorter interval training and that doesn't seem to be suitable. Next year, I will probably go to Ironman Malaysia after winter training or possibly back to IMSA. Like every triathlete, one day I would like to go to Kona.
AW: Would you like to continue racing for another four years and have another chance at the Olympics? Please tell us a little bit about your experiences in Sydney, and the road to qualifying for the Games.
MK: Early in the season I had a knee injury and was very slow. Then in the months before the games, I was in my best-ever form. In August, I won the ITU "B" race in Tiszaujvaros, Hungary, beating people like (former world champions) Dmitri Gaag and Chris McCormack. I had to spend four hours in doping control after the race, with only water to drink, so my recovery was very bad. Only one week later, at the ITU "A" race in Lausanne, I was still fourth, beating Rehula, Simon Lessing, Reto Hug, Gaag, and Olivier Marceau, who all were in the top 10 at Sydney.
But just before the race in Sydney, I caught a viral infection like many other members of the Czech team staying in the Olympic Village. Jan Rehula wasn't in the village, and you won't find me there in Athens, for sure. On race day, I had a fever and was very unhappy. I'm lucky because I'll be 30 in Athens, so I have one more chance or maybe two.
AW: Please tell us about your greatest triathlon moment, and your worst.
MK: They were very close together in '99. First, after 20K on the bike at a race in Belgium, I just had to stop, with no energy in my legs at all. But only three weeks later, I was third at the European Championships. Looking back, I was just overtrained in Belgium, but at the time it felt like the end of the world.
AW: Where do you see your triathlon career heading?
MK: I can see it heading to California. I will continue to work on ITU racing and then add some big U.S. races like Escape from Alcatraz, Mrs. T's and the L.A. Triathlon. I would like to move to San Francisco or maybe San Diego. In the U.S., sponsorship is easier, too. Already, I'm working with Aegis. I will be riding one of their carbon-fiber road bikes at Escape from Alcatraz and I'll be wearing some race clothing Emilio de Soto kindly sent me. I hope to be one of the first pros wearing one of the new T-1 wetsuits, which will be ready very soon.
AW: Please describe a typical week of training, and tell us about any training philosophies you follow.
MK: My coach from the Karlova University in Prague e-mails me my workouts every day, modifying my plan according to how I'm feeling. Often I can overtrain, so I must be careful. There are a few workouts I do often which allow me to know my form, like my intervals when I run 25 x 400 meters. Otherwise, I have only a few rules, like resting completely two days before a race.
AW: How did you get started in triathlon? Are there any memories of your early days in the sport that you'd like to share?
MK: In school I was a swimmer, but in Karlsbad the swim team only trained once a day, so I used to run and bike as well. In '93 I decided to do a race and swam and biked so hard my 10K took me 45 minutes.
AW: Finally, please handicap Saturday's Alcatraz race for us. You'll be facing a lot of Aussie speedsters who've done a lot of ITU-style racing, as you have, but who have also moved up in distance. How do you see the race shaping up?
MK: Chris McCormack is a world champion and a defending champion for this race. He has great form this year as everyone knows from Wildflower.
Peter Reid may find this race a little too fast for him. But it will be very interesting to see if long-course racers can do short course with as much success as people like Chris McCormack doing long course.
Simon Whitfield is very fast on the run. But in Sydney, he didn't join the main group on the bike until almost the end and we were going very slowly. I don't know how fast he will be in a non-drafting race.
Marc Lees has good form this year. In St. Kitts he was eighth, but last week in Shreveport he was second, so maybe he is coming into good form.
Craig Walton will be fast on the swim and the bike, but I don't know how good his legs will feel on those hills after doing Ironman only three weeks ago.
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