Checking in with Lauren Brandon in Park City, Utah

With racing on hold around the world, and no clear timeline on when triathlons will return, we checked in with some of our deboer Team athletes to see how they are staying occupied through this uncertainty.

Lauren Brandon

• 2019 Ironman Boulder Champion and Course Record Holder

Where are you located right now?

Park City, Utah, U.S.A.

What are the current training rules in your area?

I am able to do all of my normal training here. I can swim at the pool, bike outside, and run outside. I can also go see my strength coach as long as we wear masks. There are still only a few people that I train with because we try to keep the group activities small.

How is your training different right now?

My training really isn’t too different than normal right now, except I’m doing less hours each week than usual. I am fortunate to be able to drive to Boulder as well, so that I can see my coach and train a bit with a small group when I want to.

How is the local triathlon community dealing with this?

There is a pretty big triathlon community here in Utah and I think people are lucky to have some small groups around them to train with during this time. I have done quite a few virtual races over the past few months and have had some other challenges as well to keep me motivated.

My coach and some of her athletes did a 1000k of biking in one week, which was definitely a huge challenge and fun to do.

Any races on the horizon that you have some optimism about actually happening?

I think that Challenge Daytona will happen in December in Florida. I have also heard that Ironman 70.3 Cozumel and Ironman Cozumel will happen, so we’ll see what happens there.

How are you managing your fitness and training load with so much uncertainty?

I definitely had to dial training back a bit because I didn’t feel as motivated without races on the horizon and because I didn’t want to get burnt out. We still focused on multiple things that will help me be a better athlete, but just the total training hours were down. Since there is some possibility of races happening in a couple of months, we are getting back to some hard normal training.

Any skills/challenges, triathlon or not, that you've taken on over the past few months?

I’ve been trying to read more books and cooking up some new recipes these past few months.

If you are interested in what a day in the life of Lauren Brandon looks like, Lauren's bike partner, Ventum Racing, put together a video so you can see what her day-to-day training looks like right now.

 Lauren Brandon was also a guest on The Triathlete Hour podcast where she discussed her fear of open water swimming, breaking the tape at 2019 Ironman Boulder, and how she is dealing with these uncertain times.   

To follow Lauren Brandon you can find her on Instagram.