A Chantell Widney Primer for the Ill-Informed:
Beginning competitive sport with high school athletics Chantell excelled in middle distance track at 800-1500m. While sidelined with a hamstring injury she found herself swimming and cycling to stay fit….a triathlon seemed intriguing. From her first race in 2005 she quickly progressed to the 2006 World Age group Championships in Lausanne finishing second overall to non other than Chrissie Wellington. Triathlon became a focus for Chantell but she still tried her hand with running, winning bronze at the 2008 National Cross Country Championships and then competing at the 2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. In 2010 she made her ITU World Cup debut placing 10th in Huatulco. The last two seasons she has continued to compete at the WC and WTS level. At the end of last year she began to dabble in some off-road events that lead to instant success in a discipline that seems well suited for her. Getting the work done in Edmonton, Alberta the super-mom is supported by Guri at Pedal Head Road Works, Jack of Fast Trax Run/Ski shop and of course her close family and friends.
Chantell, nice to meet up with you here on Trimes. Congratulations on your bronze medal performance at the ITU World Cross Triathlon World Championships this past weekend! Take us through your World Championship podium day at “The Hague”
I was pretty stressed about tire pressure. The sand was really deep in some places so if you have too much pressure you just sink and don’t move. I rode the course numerous times in the days leading up so just had to trust i had it right.
I wanted to start the race off strong and have a really good swim because I knew there were some strong cyclists in the race. There was a bit of surf but i have swam in worse so i just plowed through it. I rounded the first bouy all alone and was thinking someone would come past me soon. The swells were pretty big and I had a hard time seeing buoys but I felt great. I kept thinking I was off course or something and wondering where everyone was. I came out of the water with a 20 second lead and was pretty happy with that. The bike was so hard. Lots of deep sand that we had to run our bikes through. There were wooden stairs with ramps, stairs with a 20% drop off, long sections on the beach close to the water with a hard head wind, hills in the sand dunes, and tourists and kids building sand castles on the beach. On the first two laps I was passed by four girls. I was getting pretty frustrated because I realize my pressure was way to low for the hard pack sections and I was losing a lot of time there. I had anticipated riding more through the sand as opposed to running through it. It quickly became clear that unless you were a superhero (aka Conrad Stoltz) there is no way you can ride the sand sections crossing the beach. It is so hard and you need so much power but you are so tired from the whole course that you have no choice but to run your bike. On the last two laps the tide was coming in which pushed us more onto the beach and we were forced to ride in the sandcastles (deep sand). This is where my tire pressure was a benefit and I didn’t lose as much time here and actually was able to move up to fourth again. I was so happy to get off the bike and onto the run. I knew I was going to have a strong run but I didn’t know how far back I was. The run goes through the sand dunes and along the beach. Running up hill in deep dry sand is killer. It’s not a lactate feeling, just so hard. You really have to be strong because the sand just absorbs all the energy from your legs.
Half way through the first lap I could see Renata Buchter from Switzerland who was in third. I had a pretty good feeling I was going to catch her but I knew I needed to keep moving fast since I didn’t know who was behind me. In the end I ran 6 minutes f
aster than Renata and finished about 4 minutes ahead of fourth place. Being on the podium was amazing, such a great accomplishment and pay back for all the hard work.
Agreed, we love to see hard work rewarded and that is exactly the case here! Tell us a bit about the rest of your year so far and your recent inclusion of off-road racing such as MTB, CX, and XTerra.
Last year I did a lot of ITU WC, WTS races so my plan for this year was to have fun and try some new things. Last year I wanted to try an Xterra Triathlon so I borrowed a mountain bike from the owner of Pedalhead Road Works and registered for XTerra Canada. I thought « it’s not going to be too hard/technical, it’s Xterra not a mountain bike race ». Boy was I wrong. Canmore has some of the best mountain biking and there are some really hard obstacles there. I think the XTerra Canada/Canmore race included them all. I was like « no one will ride this stuff ». Haha, right. Everyone one rides that stuff. The girls are so good, they just blew past me in the race, I thought if I only lose 20 minutes that would be good. Turns out I only lost 8 minutes lol.
I first started racing cyclocross a few years ago because I wanted to work on my bike handling skills. Turned out I was actually quiet good because cyclo-cross is full gas for 40 minutes. I excel at the really hard/high heart rate for a long time stuff. Last year I raced at cyclo-cross nationals and it was so fun.
Heard that CX nats was a wet one, perfect weather for that crowd eh? What specifically has attracted you to off-road events?
I like the off road because it is so hard and you really have to be thinking and paying attention the whole time. In draft legal triathlon the swim is so important and although you have to be strong on the bike it gets kind of boring when everyone rides in one big pack. Plus there are always the athletes who stay at the back of the pack because they want to « save their legs » for the run. I didn’t really like that.
Another reason I like mountain biking is because I can go out for a 2-3 hour ride from my house and ride some pretty cool trails with lots of short steep climbs, bridges, roots etc. It is so fun and the time flies. Plus there is always the adrenaline I get from riding hard stuff and how good it feels to finally ride something I was scared of.
It is very impressive to see you racing at such a high level while being a mother and balancing work. Can you share some tricks of your trade with our readers as to how you balance things while getting the best out of yourself on a high performance level?
I have to be so organized with all my days and weeks. I have a set work schedule so I plan my workouts around that. I swim early in the morning (530-730am) before my daughter gets up. Then I can do my second workout during the day with her or in the evening when my husband gets home . A lot of the time we can go as a family. I will run and Jim/Maycee will go beside me with the bike/trail-a-bike. Maycee really enjoys it. She actually tries to race me and hates when I get ahead.
Sometimes it can get hard being away for races but I have a great support system with my Mom and Grandma and Maycee loves staying with them so that makes it a bit easier.
We understand you are in Europe for July with XTerra Italy up next this weekend. Any other races planned there and what lies beyond for the remainder of the season? XTerra World Championships?
Next up for me is XTerra Abruzzo in Scanno, Italy, XTerra Canmore, Muskoka 70.3, XTerra Ogden, and possibly XTerra Maui. I might do 1-2 more ITU World Cups in the fall as well.
Having raced ITU for many years, what changes in your training have been made to prepare for off-road yet evidently still keeping some ITU edge (13th 2013 Edmonton World Cup) ?
I still do my bike workouts on my road bike but my recovery rides are usually on my mountain bike riding single track trails. I prefer it like this, it isn’t as boring when I am by myself. In pretty much do the same run training as before and sometimes add in some off-road bricks.
Tell us a bit about your training group in Edmonton, can your husband Jim keep up to you on a training ride/run? Maybe with a Macey-Chariot handicap?
I have numerous training groups in Edmonton that I train with. I swim mostly with Edmonton Keyano swim club but I join in with the Edmonton Triathlon Academy regularly. They have a great coach and a great group of young athletes. I ride with Pedalhead road bike club which is mostly men but I like mixing it up with them. For mountain biking I mostly poach off friends who are riding. I do a lot of running on my own but I sometime drop in with Glen Playfair who coaches Edmonton Thunder track. My strength training is with Linda Blade at the Kinsmen Sports Center. All of this is managed by Patrick Kelly who per-iodizes my program and gives me specific workouts.
You have competed for Canada at perhaps the largest variety of World Championships of any multi-sport athlete…. XC, Sprint, Relay, Cross, Olympic…have I missed any others? It seems you enjoy all distances and formats, which has been your favourite and why?
Cross Country Worlds is definitely close to the top of the list. It is a true team event. We all traveled together, stayed together and I got to run against some of the best runners in the World. Plus the event was in Amman, Jordan. ITU World Relay Champs was pretty fun. It was really exciting cheering for my team and racing with all the teams in such a short/fast race. I think I was 4th fastest on my leg so I had a great race also. ITU Cross Worlds was really cool because all the athletes, coaches and organizers were so nice. It is really a unique environment. Everyone is so supportive and helpful, plus I earned the Bronze Medal.
In parting, can you offer some advice or insight for young girls in our sport that are striving to follow your footsteps?
My advice would be to enjoy the process, enjoy the races, enjoy the traveling, get out and meet people and don’t take yourself too seriously. Laugh at yourself when you make mistakes and realize that to race/train is a gift and not to take it for granted. Don’t be afraid to fail.
Thank you very much for your time Chantell, all the best to you, your family, and to the remainder of your season.