Angela Quick on training, balance and what it takes to get to Kona as an age-grouper

We’re constantly inspired by the triathletes who somehow seem to do it all; train, balance family life and manage to hold down their jobs and strive to do better every day in their careers. While training advice from the pros is always coveted, sometimes we think that triathletes get more out of advice from fellow age-groupers, given that they face the same hurdles and challenges in their day-to-day life. We interviewed Angela Quick, one of our age-group ambassadors who has her own practice as a pedorthist by day and manages to compete as an age-group winning triathlete (even racing at Kona in 2018) in whatever time is left over.

Here’s a quick interview with Angela on what she’s up to these days and her advice for age-groupers on getting better in training and reaching those big goals that seem impossible.

STAC: Your last race was the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii which you spent all of 2018 focused on in racing and training. How will 2019 look for you in comparison?

AQ: I haven’t really set a race plan for 2019 yet, but I definitely will be taking a break from the full Ironman and focusing on some shorter stuff. I’m leaning towards taking a bit of a lighter year with racing, doing some other races that I haven’t been able to in the past with less flexibility around Ironman. I’d say right now I’m training more for staying fit as opposed to training for a specific event. I own my own pedothic practice, and I work at 4 clinics throughout the week. Being self employed has its perks and downfalls; I like that it’s not a typical 9–5, but a a big downfall is that if something pops up you have to get it done… workouts sometimes have to get scratched, and you can’t necessarily always put training first. That’s sometimes difficult to balance with Ironman training.

STAC: How did you prioritize your training enough around that busy schedule to still get yourself to qualify for Kona, and complete the race there?

AQ: Ironman training definitely took priority last year, which is part of the reason why it’ll be nice to regain some balance this year. One of the things that I had to do was make sure to get key sessions out of the way early in the day, so that if something came up later I didn’t have to worry about not getting the training done. Another tip I’ve found works well is doubling up on sessions. If I’d swim in the morning, I’d combine it with a gym session after to save time on showering and getting ready again. Same goes for bike and run workouts; I’d often end up doing a lot of brick workouts not necessarily because that was the goal for the day but because it saves time to run right after a bike then making time for yet another workout.

Another big thing is meal planning. I think that saves a lot of time throughout the week, if you can plan what you’re going to have for dinner throughout the week nights, make sure you have the food to make it, and then always have leftovers for lunch the next day. Alex (Vanderlinden) and I do that, and it saves time for sure. We don’t have time to meal prep on Sundays because we like to spend it training, but we can make a list of everything we’ll need for the week.

STAC: Last year you qualified for Kona in the 25–29 age group. That’s an elusive goal for many age-groupers. What was the key to reaching it yourself, and what do you think a lot of age-groupers do wrong in training that could be preventing them from being where they need to be to qualify?

AQ: It sounds cliche, but I truly believe the key is consistency. Making sure you’re consistently running through the three sports every week in training. I never put in massive weeks, but I do always get the training done. As far as training goes, I think the number one problem among most triathletes is spending too much time in Zone 3 – the grey zone. I think a lot of time-crunched athletes work out at a slightly higher level on a regular basis than they should, thinking it will yield better training benefits. But spending too much time there means you’re too tired to really hit your hard sessions hard. My advice is to keep your easy days really easy and in doing so be ready to hammer those hard sessions when they count.