“With the heat and humidity expected in Florida (Oct 13) and Ecuador (Oct 21), I’m building a heat chamber at home . . . nothing flash like the professional ones. It will be like a sauna, with a treadmill inside and a wind trainer (stationary bike).
“I want to give myself the best chance I have of doing well in these next two races.
“Winning gold on the Gold Coast has shown me that I can run.”
Up with the best in swimming and cycling, Reid’s running has been an Achilles heel in the past but it has developed strongly in recent times,
“Stephen (Sheldrake, Reid’s coach) has been telling me for a while now that I am a runner but it’s taken a while for that to sink in.
“Before going to Australia, he set me a lot of training sessions on the bike and running that I didn’t think I could do, but I did them and I started to believe him. There’s still a lot of work to do but we’re on the right track.
“My 32 minutes 21 seconds for the 10-kilometre run in Australia was a minute faster than my previous best run time.”
Reid was first out of the water for the 1500-metre swim — five seconds ahead of Norway’s Jorgen Gunderson. He completed the 40 kilometre bike in just over 53 minutes and was feeling good and confident, thanks to the hard work in training.
“The run came down to me and two others (Britain’s Samuel Dickson, who ended up second and Hungary’s Bence Bicsak, fourth) and the lead kept changing.
“We had a plan to make two attacks, but after the first (2.5km from the finish line) no one came with me and I decided I was going to go for it.
“I was imagining Stephen thinking I had gone too early but knew I just had to keep my form . . . full gas to the end and the chance to be a world champion.
“Looking at a video replay, my form towards the end wasn’t great but it was an unreal feeling to win.”
Now it’s about building towards Florida and Ecuador, and hopefully Tokyo.
Competing at the Olympics has been a goal of Reid’s since he was five.
“I remember writing it down (wanting to compete at the Olympics) when I was at Mangapapa School.
“It would be great to make the 2020 Olympics but realistically my best chance of medalling would be in the mixed team race, and aim to medal individually in 2024.
“That’s a long way off and a lot can happen between now and then. It’s all about not getting too far ahead of myself — staying healthy, which is one of the reasons I’ve been successful this season.
“After breaking my arm last year I kept getting sick but this year has been good health-wise”
Sheldrake said Reid had a great work ethic.
“He’s a work in progress but has come though some hard times and I’m proud of what he’s achieved.”
Reid said he and Sheldrake had not decided if he would defend his u23 title.
“It might be better to concentrate on doing elite races but I would love to compete next year and win the team race.
“We (New Zealand) crossed the line with France on the Gold Coast but we knew that we had been disqualified after Hayden clipped a cone on the way round. He was gutted when he found out, not long after crossing the line.
“What he did had no affect on the race. I felt really bad for the others. I had my gold but it would have been great for them to come home with medals.”
After Ecuador, Reid will not race competitively until February.
“I’ll take a couple of weeks to recharge the body, do some things I don’t get a lot of time to do, spend time with family and maybe start training again in November.
