Last weekend one of Riot Racing Club’s strongest athletes James Ellis ran the fastest any Age Group athlete has ever run in an Ironman with an incredible split of 2: 33:26 at IM Hamburg. It’s an absolutely phenomenal spilt and I’d like to share from a coaches perspective how we got here over the past 5 years working together…

1. He was already really good
He’s been building his engine for 20 years and anyone who knows anything about endurance sport knows It’s all about turning up, week after week, month after month and year after year.

2. Getting strong on the bike
To run a fast marathon off a hard bike you have to be very fit on the bike and James has worked hard on the bike for years now and he’s very strong and fast. Ask anyone who was on the Riot camp in March 2023.

3. He loves Marathon running
Marathon and Ironman carry equal weight for James and together we have done quite a few side by side. 5 weeks out from Hamburg James ran a PB of 2hr22 at London Marathon which we were very happy with given it was a warmer day. Obviously this is a useful weapon to have when racing an Ironman but the challenge was recovering sufficiently and making a plan to turn around 5 weeks later and race well at Hamburg. So the run went into maintenance mode and we picked up the swim and bike.

4. Capping weekly run volume at 100km
Left to his own devices James would love to do more volume but with a young family, work, and risk of injury I managed to convince James to limit himself to this volume each week. This is a lot of running by most peoples standards but for athletes targeting sub 2hr30 it’s actually not a lot of running. However coupled with the training James was getting in on the bike and in the water, it’s starts to become a pretty big week. We are both super happy with how well James ran in London and Hamburg off the back of this plan.

5. Health is Wealth
Lets just say James has had his fair share of injuries. He’s broken his collarbone, fractured his shoulder in a skiing accident, suffered from achilles tendonitis and stress fractures in recent years. We both had to learn the hard way from some of our mistakes. Now we focus hard on doing everything we can to limit picking up injuries/sickness, limiting risk in training while also pushing the limits to optimise performance.

6. Always hold something back
James has the mental and physical capacity to put together some very impressive run sessions but sometimes just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. James had his best ever run session in the build up to Valencia marathon last year but unfortunately it was his last, having to withdraw from Valencia with a sore achilles. When executing a run session: ALWAYS have a couple more reps left in the tank. I know James’ level and over the last year I have managed to convince him to trust his talent, pull back and try a less is more approach.

7. Balancing Life
James was previously working in Tax at a Hedge Fund and has transitioned over to Tax for Williams F1 Team. Both high stress environments but more recently the Williams opportunity has enabled him to live out of the City but also crucially, enabled him to balance work/life/training much better. His ability to train hard and recover is also much improved and he’s happier… Stress really matters when it comes to performance.

8. Enforcing Recovery
Ever since we started working together I knew I would have to fight hard to get James to recover properly. A highly motivated and driven individual who loves to train and someone who uses training as an escape from work. It’s been really important to manage load effectively but also build in proper recovery when appropriate. This is when the adaption happens after all.

9. Get out of his way
It’s shocking how much training James can soak up. More than anyone else I’ve ever coached and quite frankly it’s scary opening up Training Peaks sometimes. This is one of his talents and my job is to work with him on this; observe, and keep out of his way but at the same time keep a very close eye on him and have the courage and conviction to pull him back when it’s needed. Which it often is with many WhatsApp prompts as reminders!

Takeaway

Sometimes you should look to the recoveries to really see how fit someone is… In one of James’s most impressive sessions in the build up to London and Hamburg. James not only smashed the intervals I had set out but his float recoveries we’re also at around 3min40 p/km all while respecting the heart rate targets. I guess it’s no wonder he could run so fast off the bike in Hamburg.

What’s next?

James has qualified for the Ironman World Championships in Nice this year and after some recovery we will turn our attention towards this next major goal. With a busy work and family life, the shoulder injuries and priority going into marathon racing. Swimming has been problematic over recent years but the priority now is getting the swimming up to a point where he can utilise his excellent bike and run pedigree to their full advantage and see how close he can get to some of the Pro run splits in the process in Nice…