The Middaugh family is no stranger to success, but Sullivan has been carrying the torch in stride. Last week, he captured gold in the XTERRA ST World Championships in a thrilling sprint finish. Here is how Sully's race played out!
I competed at the Xterra World Championships this past weekend which consisted of a short track race that takes about 30 minutes two days before the standard race that is the same distances as an olympic distance triathlon.
The short track swim was 400 meters and I came out of the water roughly 25 seconds behind the leaders. I slowly made up ground on the 4 lap bike course until I was able to catch the front of the race about halfway through the third lap. I was able to get off the bike in first position but Felix Frossier passed me quickly on the run setting a very fast pace. I dug deep to be able to stay with him and was able to stay on his heels the entire run. Arthur Serrieres caught up to us 3 quarters into the run and it became a three person race into the last 600 meters. Arthur went to the front and began pushing the pace with 400 left. I wanted to be first into the left hand turn before the final lead up into the finish. So with 200 meters left I started kicking and was able to sprint my way to the win. I was confident in my sprint but I have a lot of respect for Arthur and Felix and they had been in sprints earlier in the season and I knew they would be strong.
What made this race specifically unique? How did the conditions play into things?
This race was unique because of many reasons. This was an off road triathlon which was different to the road triathlons that I was focusing on for the majority of the season. The conditions at the Xterra World Champs were also very different from other races I have done. The weather was very rainy and the temperature highs were only in the 50s. This made the racing very cold and made the warm up difficult but also more important.
Have you had to adapt certain aspects of your swim-bike-run combo to accommodate the level at these events?
Going into Italy I spent more time on my mountain bike and went into the race knowing that the bike was going to be strong. I made sure to do my key bike workouts up climbs leading up to the race. For the run I incorporated more hills leading up to the race because the trail running is usually very difficult. The run courses require speed but also a lot of strength to run a fast time. Something that I was not as prepared for was riding in the mud. I don't have a ton of experience with that type of riding and I think I would have benefited from practicing some mud riding.
What was your fueling strategy for the ST and have you changed it up this season?
My fueling strategy for the short track was kept pretty simple because of how short the race is. I had a large meal 5 hours before the race. Then I had Maurten Bicarb 2 hours before the race with a small snack because the race was going to be fast and punchy. During the race I did not take in any nutrition. Immediately after the race, I consumed the Enervit Recovery Drink and a shot of Ketone IQ to start the recovery process before the next race two days later.
For the full course race (later in the week) I consumed a lot more calories during. I had the Maurten Bicarb again 3 hours before the start. 30 minutes before the race, I had a SIS Go Gel. Then during the bike, I had 1 bottle of Maurten 320, 2 x Maurten 100 Gels (one with 30 minutes left in the bike had 100mg of caffeine), and 1 bottle of EFS high carb drink.
During the run, I had 1 x Maurten 100 Gel. This was around 90 grams of carbs per hour during the race. For both the short track and the standard race I kept my nutrition plan the same as previous races this season – sticking with the Maurten 320 and Maurten Gels because they seem to do well in my stomach and I'm used to them.
Photo: XTERRA/Courtesy photo
