AR god Richard Ussher has just led the winning team at Wulong Quest, China. Along with Elina Ussher, Stu Lynch and Braden Currie they took out the title last weekend. But there isn’t much time for R&R. He’s MARCHing off to Maui next – for the XTERRA World Championship on 28 October! The MARCH will be supporting Richard in the build up and backing him for a good result.

To start, lets continue the interview commenced before Wulong. First, lets recap the MARCH bio of Richard Ussher….

With the strength of 2 men Richard alone can carry a team to victory. He skied in the Olymipcs, is basically unbeatable over the Coast to Coast, is a multiple AR World Champion, has completed an Ironman faster than any NZer who has ever lived, and has won just about every other race on the planet. Oh, and he’s an awesome guy and as modest as he is unbeatable.

As he left for Wulong Quest (which naturally he won last year – err, and we now know this year too!) he still found time to talk to the MARCH. Over the coming days we’re going to post his view on some key questions we put to him:

The MARCH – Tell us about your team for Wulong Quest?

R.U – The team for Wulong is made up of Elina (the wife), Braden Currie (young buck, just married yesterday, 3rd at Coast to Coast this year) and Stu Lynch (UK based Kiwi, former world champ with team Orion) + me (generally just good at finding strong team mates to drag me around courses)

The MARCH – How would you describe the race?

R.U – Wulong is a stage AR race, a prologue and 3 beefier days. 5-7 hours is the usual length for the days and they are really fast compared to the expedition racing. The courses are usually marked (if you’re paying attention) and everyone starts each day together like Tour de France. Wulong is about 4 hours north of Chongqing city which according to certain sources is the largest population base anywhere in the world. Wulong itself is mountainous and we often race over 2000m of vertical in a day.

The MARCH – Sounds like a corker! And as last year’s winner you’ve gotta be in the frame this year, but lets cover some basic stats for us fans. Where do you live and what’s your favourite beer and favourite wine?

R.U – I live in Nelson and I go for Tall Black Beer by Wanaka Beer Works and any good Pinot Noir.

The MARCH – We all slip up – some more than others…what’s your favourite takeaway?

R.U – Subway – it’s a good thing they’re a sponsor aye!

The MARCH – Nice! Now closing off the basic stats, are you happily single or even happier married?

R.U – Happily married to Elina – imported from Finland 7 years ago.

The MARCH – Kids, pets or other obsessions?

R.U  – no, not yet.

The MARCH – How did you go from Olympic Skier to AR God?

R.U –  I guess I possess an unusually stubborn streak, once I start down a path I tend to follow it to the source

The MARCH –  Did you train harder for the Olympics or harder for the Coast to Coast?

R.U – They were very different, skiing was an incredibly intense but amazingly fun and scary sport where each day was about pushing the limits technically, I only skied for 4 years really so it never got to the stage where it felt like anything was a chore. For Coast and other endurance racing the training isn’t often as intense but it takes a lot of dedication to be out there day in day out and to keep on top of all the sports

The MARCH – How many hours a week do you train when you’re in the off season? How many when you are in full race training?

R.U – Off season is usually only 6-8 weeks a year and that’s split into 2, then the training drops to about 10-15 hours a week of non structured fun stuff – I still love the various sports and are usually doing them in different forms in the off season anyway, on season the training in peak weeks is 32-35 hours with average around 27-29 hours

The MARCH – When you are in full race training do you drink any alcohol or do go totally teetotal?

R.U – I usually avoid beer but a small glass of wine once a week or so is usually called for!

The MARCH – What sort of diet do you keep?

R.U – Nothing crazy, I’m a believer in moderation – for races where weight is more important and I have to be at my lightest I have to make sure I cut out all the treats etc but usually there is an allowance for the odd thing. If you know you shouldn’t be eating some thing it’s usually a good sign you shouldn’t be is how I look at it. I also try not to drink any flavored drinks – just water and the essentials – Coffee and Wine!

The MARCH – When you are doing a long race do you let the competition get ahead knowing you’ll pull them back or do you always stay in front?

R.U – Personally I like to keep the front of the race in sight but if a team is going nuts out the front and we think it’s unsustainable we’ll give them a bit more rope

The MARCH – If you fall back in a race and are having a tough time of it, how do you pull yourself together and press on?

R.U – From experience I know the ups and downs are part of long racing, you just have to suck it up and know you’ll come right sooner or later

The MARCH – What is your strongest discipline in AR?

R.U – I’m probably more of an all rounder rather than having a major strength or weakness.

The MARCH – How do you balance the different training required across the different disciplines of AR?

R.U – It is a constant juggle but usually the races we have coming up help dictate where the focus for the training needs to go, tailoring each buildup also helps keep everything fresh and interesting, the biggest juggle is when I have a tri and AR race close together and need to balance 4 sports instead of 3

The MARCH – How do amateurs make the leap from social fun runner or social cyclist to ARing?

R.U – I think that it mainly comes with the setting of a goal to complete one of the events, from there how far they go depends on a lot of factors but there are definitely a lot of teams made up of passionate individuals who just enjoy the challenge of finishing without the prospect of ever winning a major race.

The MARCH – How do you stay injury free? Are you big on stretching?

R.U – A good training plan, knowing when to stop in training and generally taking care of things like diet, warming up well, strength work etc and building up the training in a controlled fashion. I do stretch much more now than when I was young. I think the key is either to stretch regularly or don’t stretch at all, I do a lot of self massage with rollers and massage balls too which I find the most beneficial

The MARCH – Where do you stand on mandatory mixed gender AR teams at the World Champs?

R.U – At the moment I think it is something that defines AR but I don’t know if it has to necessarily be a mandatory part of AR moving forward, For the racing to keep evolving maybe the team dynamics will also – 2 person teams single genes teams would arguably provide faster and better quality racing amongst teams as well as potentially adding more elite level and social teams to the mix just due to easier logistics of putting a team together. What ever happens I’d like to see AR covered more as a sport for the quality of the competition and athletes rather than some sort of survivor style TV show but to do that the racing has to be closer and more interesting to create proper stories around it

The MARCH – If someone was lucky enough to stay with you on a race would you talk to them, or do they just get your race face?

R.U – It would really depend on the race, in long races we’ll often chat with other teams but when it’s time to push hard the talking quickly stops

The MARCH – Thanks very much Rich. Really insightful comments. Much appreciated and all the best for the XTERRA World Championship next weekend!