In February 2013, the reigning Ironman 70.3 and Ironman World Champion developed a severe hamstring pain but kept training. The pain became a hamstring tear, which led to a left glute strain, followed by pain in the left quad and then her left knee before she took a break to heal, rehab and recover. She recovered well enough to finish second to Melissa Hauschildt at Boulder 70.3 but had a competitive setback with a 13th place finish defending her Ironman 70.3 crown at Las Vegas and a similar struggle to 12th at Kona. At the end of a frustrating season, Cave decided she needed a fresh start and switched from her coach of four years Siri Lindley to Cliff English. With wins at the 2002 ITU Olympic distance World Championship, the 2007 ITU long course Word title, and the 2012 Ironman 70.3 and Ironman World championships on her resume, Leanda Cave is hunting more gold.

Slowtwitch.com: What are your thoughts on the emotions of moving on from a coach after achieving great success?

Leanda Cave: From my experience, most coaches do become attached to athletes on an emotional level, and unfortunately when an athlete moves on, they take it personally. This is what happened when I left Siri. It is disappointing to be left feeling like I did a terrible thing by leaving Siri. Despite the fact that we were close friends, it was always a professional decision. Athletes in all sports change coaches. I’ve had a long career and in those years I've had several coaches. I don't think an athlete is bound to one coach -- and the coach should know that. When a coach takes on athletes there is likelihood that that athlete will change and move on. Mirinda was an athlete who was with Siri for a very long time; however she left for her own reasons and ultimately came back.

ST: Is leaving an athletic coach different from changing jobs?

Leanda: Not only in triathlon but in many other occupations, people change companies and move on and seek a different direction and change things up in their life. My workplace is defined by my coach and where I train, and I did what I felt I had to do to better myself. But the response to leaving this workplace is very different from other professions. If I was a lawyer for example, and I changed law firms, my boss/company would probably have had a sendoff dinner/party to say thanks for all the great years we’ve had and best of luck in the future. But with triathlon and sport in general, it seems moving on from one coach to another is almost like a slap in the face to the coach. And when that happens, it seems that the mutual bond from all those years of hard work that the athlete and the coach put in together is forgotten.

ST: How close were you?

Leanda: Siri and I had become very good friends over the last 4 years when I was her athlete, but we have not been in touch since I left. At the end of the day, when I am finished being an athlete, I am a person. When I retire and hang up my running shoes, I am going to move on in life and do different things and have a group of friends that I trust, love and stay in touch with. It's a shame because I considered Siri to be one of those people. I love my friends and they love me. We have hard times and good times together. But we are all there for each other. That to me is what a friend is about.

ST: I think that it is not Siri’s intention to cut you off forever.

Leanda: Of course not. Siri is a good person. Her intentions are always true and sincere. She said in her Slowtwitch interview that she hurts. So I guess I will let time heal her wound and maybe we will be laughing about this one day over a bottle of wine (or two)!

ST: Do you think this diminishes what you accomplished together?

Leanda: I am extremely proud of our achievements together and I do not discount them for one second. Everything she did for me as a coach was wonderful and great and was a huge part of my life and success. I also enjoyed all the great times we had together as friends. Life takes us in many directions, and the road I travelled with Siri led me through so many great places.

ST: What made you feel you had run out your time with Siri?

Leanda: As 2013 wore on, I found myself at a very low point. I had been dealing all year with an injury that resulted in poor performances. I needed to press the reset button and find a spark to light my passion for triathlon once again. This was also the reason I decided to sign up with Siri four years ago when I last changed coaches. In November last year I found myself asking some hard questions like: "Do I still want to do this?"; "Can I still push myself to succeed?" "Will I ever be good again?" Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that I needed to find a new coach to find the spark.

ST: Besides your injuries, was there anything that led you to leave Siri’s proven program?

Leanda: I felt like I had reached a certain level on Siri's program and plateaued. I felt I had more to achieve in triathlon and I still believe I can be better. If I went to a coach who did exactly the same as Siri -- then I’d been doing myself and Siri a dishonor. To me I've gone to a coach who has a completely different training philosophy and that will enable me to grow in a different way. I often compare it to baking a cake. If you stick to the same recipe, it will always be the same cake. But if you add a new ingredient, like adding a banana, it becomes a different cake but still a damn good one (that’s if you like bananas!).

ST: During her year away from Siri, Mirinda did go to a very different coach, Joel Filliol, and she also consulted with Matt Steinmetz. She was likely stronger when she went back to Siri.

Leanda: As far as I am aware, Mirinda had only ever been coached in triathlon by Siri prior to her short departure. So I feel she may have lacked confidence in her new coach. I also feel her reasons for leaving may have differed from my own. I have worked with several coaches and I definitely know that I can get different things out of myself with different people. I guess Mirinda did not.

ST: It was not just the workout and the training plan?

Leanda: Every athlete reacts differently to different coaching methods. Mirinda was, I think, an athlete who responded to Siri’s unique psychological approach.
It wasn't just the actual training itself. To some extent I did too respond to Siri’s approach. A training plan will work to a point, but the psychological needs of individual athletes must also be met by the coach. The psychological effect that Siri brought to the table was something I definitely benefited from. But I am very self-motivated and I am alone a lot of the time, so I feel I can actually drive myself pretty well.

ST: Did you feel that Rinny was getting the same coaching you were? Did you feel that made it hard to beat her?

Leanda: Siri defended that question in your interview by saying she gives every athlete different workouts and so forth. I would say that Siri approaches every athlete individually to some extent, but there are many workouts we all did that were the same. I’m not saying this is a bad thing. Those are the workouts that Siri has developed over the years from her experience as a coach and the results speak for themselves. But in my quest to once again be the best in the world, it was hard to train side by side with Mirinda Carfrae who had the same goal. Part of me was feeling that I needed to do something different than Mirinda if I ever wanted to beat her again.

ST: What do you think of the team aspect of Siri’s coaching?

Leanda: Despite the fact that Siri has the team mentality, I think there is a lot of individuality. Outside of the workouts the team does together, there is not a lot transparency. So it is hard to compare yourself to the other team members unless you race them. This is great if you are not injured and can race a lot. But being injured, I had no idea how I stacked up against Mirinda or any of Siri's other athletes until race day. However Siri always made each athlete believe they were the best in every workout, and that helped me get through a very tough year.

ST: Do you believe keeping a firewall between different athletes’ individual programs a bad thing? Isn’t that acting like a lawyer or priest –never reveal secrets about parishioners or clients?

Leanda: Yes and no. The firewall prevents each athlete racing each other at every workout, which is a good thing. But also a bad thing. If I want to realistically beat an athlete on my team, I kind of want to know how much faster I need run or how many more watts I need to push in order to achieve that goal. It’s nice to have something to aim for and knowing those facts enables me to push harder. So I feel that a squad environment should encourage a little transparency here and there. Unfortunately I spent most of the time in Boulder last year training on my own because I was injured, so I could not benefit from workouts we did as a team. However I am now benefiting from the recent training camp with Cliff English. Heather Jackson was kicking my ass on a daily basis and is one of the strongest female triathletes right now. This has given me an idea of where I need to get back to.

ST: That system worked for you in 2011 and 2012?

Leanda: It’s funny because in 2011 and 2012 I was never in the squad environment as I didn’t live in the same city as Siri. I went to the odd training camp, but most of the workouts I did on my own. A mix of training in a squad and solo works best for me. Some athletes prefer to have a coach around all the time, and this is also what Siri finds works for the majority.

ST: When Mirinda came back, you welcomes her and expressed the hope that you could help each other.

Leanda: I was down and out with injury and Mirinda was down and out after a not so good early season. I thought we would be able to motivate each other. But I never really had anything to do with Mirinda once she came back on the team. I saw her at the pool briefly, but not any other time. It was a little bit disappointing, but my injury situation didn't exactly make me an easy person to be around (……..meaning I was a complete bitch!).

ST: Would you feel better if Siri called you?

Leanda: There will come a time when we will see each other and any hard feelings between us will be water under the bridge. There is no need to force it. Siri has many other friends and athletes to focus here energy on. One of Siri’s greatest assets is she is always positive and sooner or later this situation will be positive. I take nothing personally.

ST: Isn’t this just a natural cooling off period?
Leanda: You could say that. Right now it’s a case of out of sight, out of mind. I'm heading to Boulder again in the summer so I’m sure we will re-connect then.

ST: What did you feel about what Siri said about wishing she had the opportunity to coach you to higher levels? -- ‘I just wish Leanda left me not after a year when she was injured. I felt I could do so much more with her. And make her achieve so much more.’

Leanda: When I read that I thought, ‘What? Does she think I am not going to achieve anything now I have left?’ But sometimes there is nothing to read between the lines. Siri had a vision for me and still did I guess until the day I left. There is nothing wrong with that. Cliff knows my goals and has a clear vision on how to get me there. I know I can achieve great results again with Cliff. The timing to leave Siri may have not looked good from her perspective, but it wouldn't have been good if I was 100% either. I have a hard work ethic and I am very headstrong which contributes to my success – but also contributes to my failures. I have to trust Cliff to contain the animal within!

ST: Two sides of the same coin?

Leanda: Yeah. I have to balance on the plane of the sword, not the edge of it. This is probably the hardest thing for a professional athlete as it is all we do. We are creatures of extremes. All we need sometimes is to find that middle ground.

ST: Also you did heroically well at Las Vegas and Kona considering your injuries?

Leanda: I don’t think people realize how much pain I was facing to get through those events. At the end of last year I was pulling my hair out thinking I would never heal. The injury just seemed to nag on and on. It was all that occupied my mind. I just thought, ‘Wow. This could be it. This could be the end of my career right there.’ But once I started getting myself on track and found the right solution, I started making a plan for what I wanted to achieve after my injury. Cliff played into that very nicely. I have seen him bring back athletes from injury. He has done wonderful job with Tim O’Donnell and TJ Tollakson and Hunter Kemper.

ST: What is Cliff’s philosophy?

Leanda: I feel I have gone from one extreme to the other: being in the best shape of my life in 2012 to the worst shape of my life in 2013. Siri did say she wished she had the opportunity to continue with me when I wasn't recovering from the injury. But for me, I thought what a better time than now to start with a new coach. I need to start from scratch. Cliff had the job of building me up from the bottom. He started my training off very conservatively. He didn't want to be too optimistic about setting goals for the first six months of the year, but play it more by ear. A lot of small increments in increasing the pace running and cycling watts. Nothing that I couldn't achieve which has kept training positive.

ST: What are some of the elements of you program starting from scratch?

Leanda: A faster cadence on the bike is one thing I am doing more of. The first time I went out on my bike with Cliff sagging was up Mt. Lemmon. I'm in my big chain ring and Cliff asked me: ‘What are you doing in your big chain ring?’ I have to adjust my mentality. You can produce just as much power with having a faster cadence. You know, a lot of the running is not mega miles. It is not mega miles of anything. But just a lot of it will incorporate a lot of things above race pace. Which for me right now is really good because I am training for Olympic distance races. It enables your body to train and learn better biomechanics and to operate more efficiently. So we are kind of cutting out any of the easy stuff. It is just trying to make sure I am working hard at very specific block of intensity, at certain watts and a certain speed. And my goals are very realistic for each workout. It is nice going to a workout and be able to achieve what is set out to achieve. Better than going home all disappointed because I have not been able to reach certain benchmarks.

ST: Did you consider other coaches?

Leanda: I had two coaches in mind. I needed a coach who patience with me given that I was coming back from injury. It is always hard to rein in an athlete. I really needed a coach to put the brakes on me. At the end of the day that is what led me to choose Cliff.

ST: Cliff can do that. And you have to allow him to do that.

Leanda: When I say I know how Cliff coaches, I was coached by him in the past. I know how he works. Another reason I felt he was the right coach for me as opposed to what I was doing with Siri is that Cliff is more about numbers and figures. That is something I haven’t done for a long time. That adds a little different choice to the mix.

ST: How careful is he with you coming back from an injury that almost ended your career?

Leanda: I am starting again from Ground Zero. That gives me things to peg away at and to see that progression. I have a starting point and a benchmark I can work forward from there.

ST: How has your healing progressed?

Leanda: Right now I am 100 percent pain free. I have no injury to speak of at this time. And I've been seeing a physio therapist in Miami the past few months. He has been working really well with me. The last time I was there I went on and he asked me ‘How are things?’ I said ‘I am fine. Pain free.’ He said, ‘Well what are you doing here? ‘

ST: Who is that really good physical therapist ?

Leanda: His name is Mike Mirando from the University of Miami.

ST: You had so many interconnected injuries. Are they all back on track?

Leanda: The body works in mysterious ways. Everything is connected and one thing can trigger another physical reaction in a completely different place. Last year I had a lot of help from David Dabishire leading into Kona. He recognized that I had to start getting some symmetry in my body and he did wonders to get me to Kona in the best physical shape he could in the time we were working with. He managed to find the imbalances and I have been working a lot with Mike to get on top of them.

ST: Did you feel it was necessary to let go all the limited fitness you fought so hard to achieve before Kona?

Leanda: I chose to start at Ground Zero. You have to rewind and go all the way back because training on imbalances ingrains those injuries and imbalances more and more. You come to the point where you get chronic injury, which is what I did last year. And so I really have to start with pretty minimal mileage, minimal training. I am strengthening those places which were weak and focusing on those little things that really get overlooked, especially in the heat of the race season where you really are mostly looking at dong the mileage and hard training. I think anyone needs to dial the little things in during the off season and make sure they are really back in alignment.

ST: Do you think what went wrong started with some of those small things?

Leanda: It could be something insignificant like that. In 2012 when I was in Kona I fell really badly on my left side. I had a bad bruise on my hip which I raced with.

ST: And won!

Leanda: It didn’t bother me during the race. But looking back, it led to a lot of what I was suffering. Early on last year before I came down with this injury, I never really thought about it until afterward when my doctor asked me, ‘Have you fallen here?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ One little trigger can set off a chain reaction of events which can become career-threatening for a professional athlete.

ST: Whatever you were doing from 2011 through 2012, you did an 8:49 with a 2:58 run at Ironman Arizona. Things were really on track then. During that period you fought off some more injuries, but you also made a leap where you won the world’s two greatest long course races. Can you make a similar advance on your fitness going forward?

Leanda: Yes. As a seasoned athlete (some may call me a veteran!), I take everything that I have learnt, the good and the bad, and I discard what doesn’t work. I keep all the things which have enabled me to achieve great results and I go forward with them. Then I pick up some new things which allow me to work them in and improve to a different level. I would say in 2011 I starting to put the pieces together and in 2012 the puzzle was complete.

ST: What went wrong?

Leanda: In 2013, I guess mentally I was still working with that equation, but things were not going so well. That was probably because I was emphasizing the mental side and not looking so much on the physical side. Now I am looking more at the biomechanics of my body and what I need to adjust. Getting back into alignment has been one of the biggest challenges over the last few months since my injuries are over. I’m definitely trying to take sure that everything is balanced.

ST: Talking to one coach who said some triathletes have great levers. Which meant long legs or arms that can be great tools to go fast. So in that sense, you have excellent levers for speed. But also they take more stress and can make you more vulnerable to physical woes at the same time?

Leanda: You are seeking the perfect balance where you have just the right mix of muscle definition and strength and lengthy limbs – but not too much of either. Chrissie Wellington had perhaps the best combination of muscle definition and strength, and her limbs that served as great leverage. But physiologically she was blessed with a lot more muscle than the rest of us. I could train like a professional body builder – and never put on a pound of muscle.

ST: Are there some drawbacks to our best weapons as well?

Leanda: Yeah I do have long levers and I do have some natural ability. I feel swimming came naturally to me. But running didn’t. I had to work really, really hard on my running. I worked with a lot of running technicians that have helped me find the perfect running technique for someone of my build. And that is an ongoing process. Every year I learn something new….. I never stop learning. I think that is the beauty of what I do. And that is why I feel there is so much I can achieve despite the fact that I just turned 36. I still think I have not reached my maximum potential.

ST: Just look at Natascha Badmann – still dangerous at 47! OK, so who have been some of your best advisers on running?

Leanda: I made some great improvements with Nicholas Romanoff and I think a fast cadence is probably one of the keys. Siri was also instrumental to improving my running, especially over the marathon distance. Also having a very fast cadence improves your economy. Your ground contact decreases muscle fatigue. Another point is low oscillations -- not moving up and down but moving forward. And then finally using your body to lean at the precise angle and using the forward momentum of the weight of your body to gain momentum. Romanoff encouraged forward lean – or falling, he liked to call it.

ST: The good thing about starting with good swim technique is that gift likely helps your ability to fine tune your form in cycling and running as well.

Leanda: I did a lot of running drills with my coach Chris Jones in my early days. They are all about proprioception. And still today I do some of those running drills.

ST: Better to be really fit at the end of the year than the beginning?

Leanda: Good to be fit on both heh heh.

ST: Realistically you cannot peak more than twice in one year.

Leanda: As you get older I’d say you can only peak once a year. And you gotta plan it. You have to pick your poison what time of year you want that to be. I’ve had to take it slow earlier this year. Although I’m ahead of schedule right now, I still have a long way to go.