Hayden Wilde joined our call on a cold Belgian morning, with a positive COVID test on his mind and uncertainty over incoming rain. If nothing else, it was a far cry from the intensity of the WTCS Final in Abu Dhabi just one week prior.
His positive test has forced him to actually rest and take a semblance of an off-season. After four days, he’s already bored.
As much as he has the prospect of a European Christmas and skiing to look forward to, sitting still does not really seem to be Wilde’s style and his thoughts have turned to 2023.
2023 Plans
In just 12 weeks, the 2023 World Triathlon Championship Series will kick off with the athletes returning to Abu Dhabi. Although he didn’t initially want to take part in the race, Wilde plans to do so.
“It’s super early,” he said, “and I don’t think a lot of people are happy about it, but it is what it is.”
Without the pressure of chasing Olympic points following a sterling 2022, he considered skipping Abu Dhabi in order to focus on preparing for the races to follow. The racer in him, however, did not want to miss out.
“I want to become world champ,” said Wilde, “so I will have to go so I can have a buffer coming into the end of the year.” Given that most athletes won’t be at 100% in 12 weeks, save for those in the hunt for early-season Olympic points, the race could spring a few surprises.
A few weeks after Abu Dhabi, the New Plymouth World Cup will return in Wilde’s home country, New Zealand. With the chance to race before home crowds, he will make New Plymouth likely his only World Cup of 2023 and so Abu Dhabi will also help him tune up to put on a show.
Thereafter, he has two goals: to medal at the Paris Olympic Test Event in August in order to fulfil New Zealand’s Olympic selection criteria and then to win the world title.
The Road to Abu Dhabi
With such lofty goals, it would be easy to think both the New Zealand Federation and an array of sponsors are lining up to support him. After all, he was one place from taking the world title this year.
In reality, Wilde pays for his own training camps, travel and accommodation. The exception is for Mixed Team Relay events for which New Zealand pays the team’s costs.
Prior to WTCS Abu Dhabi in November, Wilde covered a four week training camp in the area out of his own pocket to prepare for the race, even as the presence of the F1 finale pumped up prices. It was all part of a single-minded pursuit to take the world crown.
Despite his best-laid plans, a fever took him down a couple of weeks before the WTCS Final. However it was “a blessing in disguise to rest as a week after I was hitting some of the best numbers I had hit all year.”
After all his efforts he was in prime shape for the final.
But on the day, it simply did not come together.
The World Title Slips Away
Perhaps a lingering after effect from the fever or an early onset of his current COVID positive influenced the outcome, but Wilde readily acknowledges he did not have it on either the bike or the run. He felt he had adapted to the heat during his training camp but experienced a strange physical emptiness.
A strong swim saw him within touching distance of the lead group out of T1. “If it’s just a normal day in the office I should comfortably bridge that gap to the front group,” he said. Yet once he pushed the pedals, the energy just wasn’t there.
On the first lap of the run “it felt like my heart rate was sky rocketing, I couldn’t cool myself down, and I got a bit flustered and panicky”. Wilde improved over the second and third laps, and began to claw back time. He could see Jelle Geens ahead with Alex Yee so knew he was in with a shot of the world title.
By the time the fourth lap arrived, there was nothing left.
The reasons remain a little puzzling as the camp before Abu Dhabi was “some of the best prep I have ever had into a race.”
Most of that form showed in the water, which may have been the most intriguing element of his performance. Starting on the right hand side of the pontoon, Wilde got out to a good start. He opted to stay wide in the clean water which enabled him to make up time on his rivals.
Being out of the chop helped a lot but it was clear the work before Abu Dhabi was yielding some rewards. He had been swimming for six days a week, averaging 5-6km per session of long course training.
Thus far, the swim has been Wilde’s biggest weakness but now he feels he has honed in on the true vulnerability.
“I don’t have the get-out speed,” he said. As the fields get deeper, positioning is becoming all-important in the water and to be in the best position athletes now need significant front end speed.
It is that get-out speed that will be one of his priorities to work on over the winter.
Stepping up his Game
A lot of athletes talk about improving facets of their skillset in the winter break. Wilde, however, is one that has frequently backed up his words.
In the winters of 2020/21 and 2021/22, he made huge strides in his running, culminating in a 5000m time of 13:29.47 on the track in February 2021. Part of his running improvement came from chasing his training partner, Tokyo Olympian and 1500m runner Sam Tanner.
However the combination of the New Zealand summer and home comforts also paid dividends.
Coming off the 2021 season, Wilde was the only athlete of the WTCS era to have won an Olympic medal to have not also won a WTCS medal. Going into the winter, he “really wanted to become a consistent racer and not just a one-day athlete.”
“I think it’s really hard as an athlete to do well at the Olympics and get a medal and then back it up the year after,” he added. To back up his bronze in Tokyo therefore became a real driving force in his winter training.
In addition, he used the disappointment from the 2021 WTCS Final in Edmonton to kick on.
Now, a year later, he enters the new winter break with two WTCS wins and two WTCS silvers.
As a result, when Wilde says that he will be fixing his swim this winter, it is fair to expect some big results. He didn’t swim as a kid so “I have a lot to develop” and he hasn’t quite got the same feel for the water as athletes with more experience.
Currently, “I have the endurance and that nice threshold speed” but it is the front end that is missing. To remedy that, his focus will be on developing his capabilities from the 50m to the 200m in the pool.
“I’ve never dipped under 60 (seconds) for the 100m. I just don’t have speed. If I want to be in that front group, I need to have good get-out speed.”
While he wants to see some improvement by the time Abu Dhabi rolls around, “Yokohama will be the big test for me in swimming, because I’m really happy with where my running and biking is but there’s that one chink in the armour.”
When the ambition is to become world champion, process goals become that much more important. It’s one thing to say you want to be the best in the world. It’s another to implement the steps to getting there.
What Does Wilde Need to Become World Champ?
Next year Wilde has two big goals. The first is as discussed: bringing his the swim speed up to scratch. The second goal is a little less obvious. He says his target is to develop his kick on the run, although that does not really mean his sprint. To be precise, he is looking to develop his high end speed endurance on the run.
“When we’re sprinting at the end of a race, we’re not really sprinting, we’re dropping down to around 2:30 per kilometre pace,” he said. It will be the ability to dip into the top end of his speed for longer spells than his rivals that will provide the crucial separation in the closing stages of races.
Having already progressed so far, we asked him to recall what has helped him on his road, in particular what one of his hardest training sessions has been.
One that turned him inside out was a cycling session “that either goes extremely well or terribly”.
The session is 8 rounds of 2 minutes at 80% of FTP into a 10 second sprint, without any rest between rounds. It’s more of a gauge for where he’s at, simulating closing the gaps and powering out of corners in draft-legal racing.
With only 12 weeks to go until the new season, the smart money might just be on Hayden Wilde to have another big winter and become a truly formidable prospect on the world stage.
