Winning a gold medal or a trophy doesn't mean much unless you have someone there to share your victory, said Melanie McQuaid, a three-time Xterra World Triathlon champion.

Miss McQuaid, 34, from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, was in Bermuda for the Xterra Duathlon held at Ferry Reach on Sunday.

Miss McQuaid raced for seven years as a pro both on the mountain bike and as a road athlete. In 2001, she decided she needed a change, so she switched to triathlon. She won the Xterra World Triathlon Championships in Maui, Hawaii in 2003, 2005 and 2006. She was the first person to win the event three times, an achievement only recently matched last year by Olympian Conrad Stoltz.

"It was very rewarding to win because I worked for a long time to achieve that," said Miss McQuaid over coffee at the Lemon Tree Cafe in Hamilton.

"But I think anyone who achieves a big goal like that, realises that unless you have everything else in your life balanced, it is not that meaningful. It is exciting and amazing for that day, but it fades."

She said it is important not to have everything riding on one goal.

"Some people get so focused on some big personal achievement, but unless you have a lot of people around you being happy for you, it is not going to be as meaningful," she said.

Miss McQuaid said this often held true for Olympic athletes.

"They spend their whole life working for an Olympic gold, and then they get it - what happened to all of the people along the way?

"That is why I think it is important, whether you have a business or sports goal, to make time for your family, because you need them to be a part of it. You want other people to be a part of your success because it makes it that much more meaningful."

She said balance is also important in case something goes wrong. The careers of many athletes are brought to a screeching halt because of injury.

"I think every athlete should always finish school first," she said. "It is always important that you get your degree behind you so that you have that no matter what happens in your sports career."

Miss McQuaid studied chemistry and biochemistry in college.

"I think it has helped me to learn to train scientifically," she said. "I think managing my training programme and assessing it is almost like a human experiment.

"I have been quite digital about monitoring how much training I do every year. I am a bit of a science geek when it comes to the physiology of training.

"Other than that, being a professional athlete is more about marketing and journalism, and promoting yourself than really being a scientist."

Miss McQuaid started out as a swimmer when she was younger, but took up running in college. When she was injured from running, she took up cycling.

"I have always wanted to be an athlete, but being a pro athlete didn't really present itself until I was in university," she said.

She likes triathlon because of the variety in the training. In triathlon, contestants compete in running, swimming and cycling.

"You are mostly competing against yourself because everyone has a weakness in the three sports," she said. "So there is always room to improve personally, as well as in terms of your results. It is a lifetime of work in progress to be a triathlete, and I really like that challenge."

She said although she started in swimming, it is her weak sport.

"Over the years I have tried to minimise all of them, but of all the sports, swimming is probably not my best," she said.

"It is the hardest one for me to work on because I like it the least."

She said she finds it boring to be swimming up and down in a pool. She prefers to be outdoors.

"The bike and run for me are off road," she said.

"And I really like being outside and on trails and stuff like that."

While in Bermuda, she has kept up with her training although there have been some challenges.

"Most of the events that I race in there is a really long hill," she said. "That is the only challenge here is that there aren't a lot of long hills."

Miss McQuaid uses a computrainer to simulate hills on her bike.

"It is a load generator, so you can dial to whatever power measurement you want," she said. "The biggest challenge in Bermuda has been the wind. Up until today I have been pretty lucky with the weather. One day, I felt that I rode for four hours straight into the wind the entire time, no matter what direction I was going in."

While in Bermuda, Miss McQuaid gave a mountain bike clinic to children and adults, and also gave a talk on nutrition and injury prevention.

"It is a lifetime of sport, even though I don't really ever eat poorly," she said. "I don't get overly focused on food or discipline until it is the important part of the race season."

She said she likes to be as normal as possible without having a detrimental outcome on her racing.

One of her weaknesses is chocolate.

"Given that I exercise a lot, there probably is room for more bad things in my diet, but it is not healthy for you," she said. "If you don't eat well, you don't recover as well. You lose the taste for super junky things. I don't eat a lot of desserts, but I really like chocolate, so I try to keep room in my diet for it."

She said it is better to focus on what you should eat, than deprive yourself.

"Too often with these restriction diets, people feel like they are not eating anything," she said. "You have to eat. It is normal. So try to make eighty percent of everything you are eating the good stuff. There is room for twenty percent that is bad stuff, but sometimes you don't even need that because you are happy with all the good stuff you are eating.

"A good diet is just changing your dietary habits. A lot of eating is habitual."

When Miss McQuaid is not training or competing, she acts as a life coach, mainly to people who are interested in getting into triathlon.

"I really like working with adults, particularly those who have an amazing career as well," she said. "I look at how to incorporate fitness into the time they have left after they have a successful career and a family life. "Working with people like that is really rewarding. I like helping them to achieve some balance and personal time, but also not lose their family and career and all the rest of it."

She said it is important to goal set in all areas of your life.

"My clients have to goal set for their career, for their family life, and for their sport," she said. "A lot of people can be very goal oriented in one of those aspects, but aren't so much in the other three aspects. They have to stay focused on all three and balance them all."

For more information about Miss McQuaid, go to her website at www.racergirl.com.