Jan Frodeno to race IM Frankfurt | Highlights from Facebook Live Q&A session
Frodeno gives insightful answers to fans' questions including the unexpected reason he chose to become a vegetarian this year.
Two-time Ironman World Champion Jan Frodeno answered fans’ questions in his Facebook Live Q&A session today. We’ve transcribed some of his quick answers to top questions below, plus included the link to the live stream in case you want to watch (or re-watch) the full session:
On finishing Kona after stopping mid-race due:
“I’m not too sure, I think that the more you invest the harder it is to give up. Every year I pour my heart and soul into what I do and love what I do. But the body is not a machine. You can not anticipate and program what’s going to happen, but it’s important not to give up. The beauty of Ironman is anything can happen. In Hawaii with those conditions you can only hope for the best and even when there’s no hope of winning left you have to be respectful of the race and remember that being a finisher is important to the race.”
On his back issue during the race:
“It was not a back issue. The trouble was in my race suit, we designed a new race suit and we put the pocket on the inside on the back. That’s where I put my GPS transponder (which I have in every race); this one was twice the size of an iPhone, and because it was such a tight suit it was rubbing on my SI joint for four hours. That caused my muscles to tighten up and eventually they pushed on a nerve and it felt like a slipped disc. We have found the cause and in talking to other pros, it has been seen before.”
On Kona 2018 qualification:
“I did have a bit of a light year in terms of going to the big races… Frankfurt is Germany’s biggest race, it’s always a really strong field… that is where I’ll validate. I’ve done the race twice and hope to have another good race there.”
On getting leaner and turning to a vegetarian diet in 2017:
“I did not actually seek to get leaner. I went vegetarian this year, this reason is because of someone that I believed that tested positive for clenbuterol from tainted meat. If as a professional athlete I believe this, I have to make the choice that I live from this sport and love this sport and the risk of getting a positive test is something I’m not willing to take. I stand for clean sport and want to do everything I can for it. So that’s why I tried it and stuck with it, and I felt good from it but I did notice towards the end of the year I lost some weight.”
