Oliver Kidman trains with Jonny Amy and the Quenault brothers as they get ready to tackle the Ironman Tours Metropole in under nine hours
THIS week’s Tryout Tuesday is a very special edition indeed, as I joined three of the Island’s finest triathletes – Jonny Amy, and Wayne and Dale Quenault – for a training session in their pursuit of the ambitious Sub-Nine Project.
What is the Sub-Nine Project all about? After many years of competing in many triathlons and Ironman events across the globe, this trio of talented athletes wondered how fast might they be able to go if they focused on a single event.
The target of a sub-nine-hour time came about after the three came together and tried to figure out the equivalent achievement of a three-hour marathon in terms of Ironman – but, the target they’ve set is apparently more like the equivalent of a two-and-a-half-hour marathon as they’re pushing for “the elite level”.
Wayne Quenault shared some background as to how this project came about.
“Jonny (Amy) and I raced Ironman Barcelona two years ago,” he said. “He got 9hrs 15mins and I clocked in at 9hrs 10mins. We went to the opposite end of the speed spectrum last year, however, when Jonny went to Ironman Nice and I competed at Ironman Lanzarote.
“When we competed in slower races, we had to do something quick to get back that feeling of being fast, which led us to that sub-nine-hour target. We wanted to see what would it take for everyday people with full-time jobs, families and all their other commitments to get under nine hours.
“Last week, I did a quick search to grasp the weight of what we were trying to achieve – only 0.01% of the global population does Ironman events, and only 0.01% of that number manages times under nine hours, and 60% of those are professionals. We’re trying to get in that 40% of amateurs, which is a really elite group – it’s a group of only 400 people.”
Let’s find out more
Following years of showing up in triathlons and Ironman events, Amy and the Quenault brothers have made big changes in their pursuit for speed, devoting the past eight months to getting in the best shape possible to take on this mammoth challenge.
“What we’ve learned from this process is, since the idea has come around very quickly, it’s more of a journey we’ve been on,” Wayne Quenault reflected. “We’ve all done Ironman before, but the differences we’ve made in how we improve and manage ourselves has been the fun part.”
“We committed to about eight months of training specifically for this event to get to where we are now after many years of doing triathlon, and we’ve had the opportunity to do all the things we’ve never done before.”
Wayne Quenault then delved deeper into what training has looked like for the star trio, adding: “In general, the number of hours we’ve done has always ranged between 18 and 24 hours, but that can increase to 27-30 hours during training camps.
“What’s been interesting is the amount of people who have supported us along the way. Hawk’s support has enabled us to go on training camps together, and having people such as Sam (Matthews) at Well Kneaded has helped provide frequent sports massages.
“These are all things we love doing, but without that support, it wouldn’t have been possible.
“Obviously, we’ve benefited from knowledge from coaches such as Nick Saunders and Dan Garrido – we’ve had all these people around us who are experts in their field giving advice and we’ve ended up with this massive team, which has been a really cool thing, and the support we’ve received has been great.”
That extra support has helped towards fine marginal gains. Wayne Quenault explained: “We’ve been looking for a 1% marginal gain. On the running side, rotation with carbon shoes is important to make sure your legs feel fresh and to enable you to train at a higher quality. Hapi has been very helpful with advising on rotation, base stations and things like that.
“Cog and Sprocket have been great from a cycle perspective, to build the bike to be as fast as it can be and all of the other stuff that goes with that – we can see those differences.
“This is an elite-level bike most professionals would be very happy with – it’s been designed to be as efficient as possible.”
With the immense support they’ve received, the trio has gone all-out to equip themselves as best they can for their aspirational quest, investing in top-of-the-line, high-tech equipment for all aspects of the Ironman – whether it be graphite race suits, custom bikes that contain technology seen on F1 cars or the limited ON Cloud Shrine LS running shoes, no stone has been left unturned.
As they’ve shaken up their usual routine to focus on one race – this Sunday’s the Ironman Tours Metropole – this large, specific training block has reshaped their ideas of what training looks like.
“It’s changed our approaches to endurance sport and sport in general,” Wayne Quenault said.
“It’s given us a greater understanding of things like how sleep is your biggest recovery tool, or how you can use massages for recovery and time your nutrition better to avoid slumps of energy, as well as the general day-to-day.
“The main thing for us is that it’s about doing as many quality sessions as we can, day in, day out. It’s not always easy and your legs aren’t always fresh, but it shouldn’t feel hard. A main takeaway has been that it’s not all about cramming in the training and overcooking it, but delivering everything exactly how we intend to perform on race day.”
This challenge goes beyond the course at Tours, as the talented trio is dedicated to seeing how what they can “give back” in their quest for speed.
“A really important part when we started the project was about how we could give back to our community – if we could inspire one person to try something different, that would be amazing,” said Wayne Quenault.
This opportunity provides the three with an opportunity to represent Jersey on the international stage – which is an opportunity they’re taking with both hands, proudly representing the Jersey flag on their race suits.
“We love representing wherever we go and it’s always cool to see the Jersey flag on such a scale,” continued the triathlete. “Jersey’s got such a high standing in the sport and we punch above our weight on the world stage, so it’s showing everybody on the Island you can go on to do bigger things, while also showing off Jersey’s high level to the rest of the world.”
With the big day less than a week away, the boys are up for smashing their goal in Tours.
Quenault said: “We’ve been really fortunate to come together as three athletes who operate on similar levels and push each other on and support each other through the highs and the lows.
“Even when we haven’t wanted to train, we’ve shown up for each other and it’s been an amazing experience.
“Do I think we’ll all do it? Yes. Do I think it’ll be easy? No, but that’s the fun part, if it was easy then everyone would do it. Whatever happens next week will be, but we’re as prepared as we’re ever going to be – we’ve never been quicker.”
Time to get involved
Since setting this up through a meeting with Wayne, I’ve been massively excited to see these guys train from such an in-depth perspective – I already have such a huge amount of respect for anyone who even attempts the daunting task, but to do it in such an quick time is taking it to a whole other level.
It wasn’t the best of starts to the session, given my early-morning scramble for some form of cycle helmet – I knew I couldn’t compete with the high-tech, ultra-streamlined pointy helmets they had, but something would have been better than nothing, which was what I had to settle for as I couldn’t find anything.
Getting on my bike – which is very low-tech in comparison – made me feel very out of place compared with the super cycles, but I was up for seeing how I’d stack up. Going into the wind on the start at such a pace made me feel I was in for a rocky ride, but I was ultimately surprised as to how well I fared going up the steep hills of the West.
Going all the way round St Ouen, I was hanging in there – but, seeing the efficient and effortless speed of the bikes was a sight to behold, and the sound – you could hear them before even seeing them, it was an adrenaline-inducing vroom.
Heading into the latter stages, there was no way I was stopping – no matter the sweat or fatigue, I kept pushing, I was here to make an impression.
My chatting throughout perhaps wasn’t the best choice for performance, but it was so hard no to as they were such a great group of guys.
As they sped down through the valley, I managed to keep them in sight and, before I knew it, I was putting on trainers to run a 2.5km loop of the Jersey Tri course – which, to my surprise, I managed to do in sub-four minute splits – I was chuffed to show I had something left in the tank.
Leaving them to carry out the rest of their big training day – they considered it a “rest day”, but it would floor most mere mortals for a week – I was thrilled with the experience and had such a rewarding feeling to have achieved it in such a way – maybe there’s an Ironman in my future.
Thank you so much to the Sub-Nine lads – it couldn’t have been a better experience and we wish you loads of luck for your race – be sure to follow on them on social media.
